GOOD NEWS
Some good news for the New Year - good news about good people, an antidote to the revelations about the lechery of our political parasites and others in positions of power.
From many good people, here are seven for whom to be thankful. All have come to the fore in President Trump's election.
They differ on issues. Some have made mistakes but owned up to them. They have varied backgrounds as to ethnicity, religion, economic status, geographic region and experience. Many of them supported other candidates in the 2016 campaign and/or were otherwise critical of Donald Trump. [It is a tribute to the President that he selected and/or relied upon people based on their merits not their regard of him.]
However, what is most important, they all have integrity. They are principled conservatives and hate injustice; they are bluntly outspoken; they are courageous because all of them are reviled by the Left and some actually threatened with violence.
Each of them was well known before the election of 2016. But it was that election that gave them the opportunity to shine. Why "Coming Attractions?" Some or all of these folks will make an even greater contribution to America going forward. Indeed, any one of them may be a future President of the United States.
Do you recall the anecdote at the close of the Constitutional Convention? A woman is said to have asked Benjamin Franklin: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic ... if you can keep it.”
Had Franklin returned to America in the Obama years, he rightly would have concluded that we had lost the Republic the Founding Fathers had given us.
Each of the people mentioned here fervently believe in, and are dedicated to, returning the Republic to us. Read their words and judge for yourself.
The seven profiles below stress their actual words. Information about their careers is included. Each profile ends with 'personal' notes.
Here is our 'Magnificent Seven.'
In alphabetical order:
Tom Cotton, Betsy DeVos, Nikki Haley, James Mattis, Stephen Miller, Rand Paul, & Mike Pence.
PROFILES
TOM COTTON
United States Senator for Arkansas, elected 2014; formerly one term Congressman.
Senator Tom Cotton confronted Schumer about breaking a promise to confirm a nomination. Schumer attempted to head him off by implying that Cotton was ignorant in not knowing that Obama faced the same delays eight years ago. Cotton had this blistering reply:
"Eight years ago, I was getting my ass shot at in Afghanistan,so don't talk to me about where I was 8 years ago." [Emphasis added.]
Schumer's implication, that delays in confirmations occurred in Obama's first term, was, of course, a lie. Obama was inaugurated on January 20...The very next day the Senate confirmed six of his Cabinet secretaries.
OTHER ISSUES
Social issues
I believe Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were wrongly decided....I oppose the destruction of human embryos to conduct stem-cell research and all forms of human cloning...Strong families also depend on strong marriages, and I support the traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I also support the Defense of Marriage Act.
Obamacare
The first step is to repeal that law [Obamacare], which is offensive to a free society and a free people.
Immigration
We cannot afford to grant illegal aliens amnesty or a so-called earned path to citizenship... would cost billions of dollars that our government cannot afford...would attract millions of new illegal aliens...by advertising to the world that America lacks the political will to enforce its borders... amnesty is unjust and immoral because it favors those who broke our laws over those standing in line at embassies hoping to immigrate legally. [Emphasis added.]
On travel bans: It’s simply wrong to call the president’s executive order concerning immigration and refugees ‘a religious test’ of any kind. I doubt many Arkansans or Americans more broadly object to taking a harder look at foreigners coming into our country from war-torn nations with known terror networks; I think they’re wondering why we don’t do that already.
Obama's Iran deal:
There are nothing but hardliners in Iran. They've been killing Americans for 35 years. They kill hundreds of troops in Iraq. Now they control five capitals in the Middle East. There are nothing but hardliners in Tehran and if they do all those things without a nuclear weapon, imagine what they'll do with a nuclear weapon.
War
...the best way to avoid war is to be willing and prepared to fight a war in the first place. That's the alternative: military strength and moral confidence in the defense of America's national security. Our enemies and allies alike must know that aggressors will pay an unspeakable price for challenging the United States.
I think that Americans - and this is not true just now, but over the years - are not fundamentally opposed to war. They're fundamentally opposed to losing wars.
Our warriors and their families don't ask for much. But there are a few things we'd like. A commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully but enforces them ruthlessly. [Emphasis added.]
Personal notes
- Father, Thomas Leonard, cattle farmer
- Mother, Avis [nee'Bryant] school teacher and principal
- Wife, Anna
- Children, Gabriel, Daniel
- Under graduate degree from Harvard University, J.D. from Harvard Law School, Publius Fellowship Program at Claremont Institute
- Military service, enlisted, volunteered for the infantry; graduated Army Airborne, Ranger and Air Assault Schools; served in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, awarded Bronze Star;
- private sector work: law firm, working family ranch, McKinsey management firm
- Cotton is 6'5''
- training drill sergeant, Master Sergeant Gordon Norton, remained good friend and years later was hired to assist help Cotton
President Obama likes to say Guantanamo Bay is a terrorist recruiting tool, and while that may be an easy excuse, it's simply not true. The reality is the motivations of radical Islamic jihadism existed before Guantanamo Bay. The ideology is premised on a narrative of conquest, in the spiritual as well as the earthly world....Our warriors and their families don't ask for much. But there are a few things we'd like. A commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully but enforces them ruthlessly
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cotton http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/7-noteworthy-quotes-from-tom-cottons-senate-speech-on-the-iran-letter/article/2561604 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/tom_cotton_792463
BETSY DeVOS
In January , 2017 President Trump appointed Elisabeth Dee DeVos [ne'e Prince] DeVos U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos is a business woman and philanthropist.
We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues…We expect a return on our investment; we expect a good and honest government. Furthermore, we expect the Republican Party to use the money to promote these policies and, yes, to win elections. [Emphasis added.]
I am very excited to get to work…on making American education great again. The status quo is not acceptable. I am committed to transforming our education system into the best in the world.
I got involved [in education] by starting a foundation that gave scholarships to low-income families so that parents could decide where their kids would go to school...it was never going to fundamentally address the real problem. Most parents were not going to get the scholarship they wanted, and that meant most kids would not have the opportunities they deserved.
I am not a supporter [of the Common Core] -period. I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control. …along the way, it got turned into a federalized boondoggle.…the only way that real education choice is going to be successfully implemented is by making it a bipartisan or a non-partisan issue. …that hasn’t been the case. Most of the Democrats have been supported by the teachers’ unions ...
[Emphasis added.]
.....traditional public schools …in many cases, ... are failing. That’s helped people become more open to what were once considered really radical reforms—reforms like vouchers, tax credits, and education savings … educational choice …involving many parts: vouchers and tax credits, certainly, but also virtual schools, magnet schools, homeschooling, and charter schools. ...
[Emphasis added.]
Hostility to Secretary Devos Worth Noting
After taking office, Secretary DeVos criticized the Obama administration's additional funding of $7 billion for the U.S.'s worst performing schools. DeVos undid several Obama administration policy memos in order to "create a student loan servicing environment that provides the highest quality customer service and increases accountability and transparency for all borrowers, while also limiting the cost to taxpayers".
She undertook visits to public schools. When she attempted to visit a public middle school located in Washington, D.C., dozens of protesters physically blocked her from entering. She persisted and found a way in through a side entrance. On making her first visit to a public university, she was confronted by around 30 protestors. When she gave a commencement speech at Bethune–Cookman University, a historically black college, a majority of the students booed DeVos, many standing up and turning their backs to her.
At one point, the U.S. Marshals Service, after a threat evaluation was conducted, determined DeVos needed additional security, [projecting a cost of $7.8 million between February and September.]
None of these events slowed her down.
Personal notes:
- Father, Edgar Prince, founder of the Prince Corporation
- Mother, Elsa
- Husband, Richard [Dick], former CEO of Amway
- Children, Andrea, Elizabeth, Richard, Ryan
- Undergraduate degree in Business Economics from Calvin College
- Private sector: Windquest Group, a privately held operating group that invests in technology, manufacturing, and clean energy; Neurocore, brain performance centers offering biofeedback therapy for disorders such as depression, attention deficit disorder, autism, and anxiety
- Brother, Erik Prince, a former SEAL, is the founder of Blackwater USA.
Teaching is hard. It takes a lot of skill. Not everyone who tries can do it well. We need to admit that and act accordingly. We should reward and respect great teachers by paying them more, and we should stop rewarding seniority over effectiveness.
NIKKI HALEY
In January, 2017 President Trump appointed Nimrata [Nikki] Haley, Ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley was former governor of South Carolina.
... the days of Israel-bashing are over, ...you’re not going to take our No. 1 democratic friend in the Middle East and beat up on them. .... leading is saying and doing things when it’s not comfortable. ...[Emphasis added.]
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/446205/nikki-haley-un-israel-bashing-declines-when-america-leads
Our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone. We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter the country.
[Emphasis added.]
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/12/04/trump-pulls-us-out-of-un-migration-pact
"Just 5 months into our time here, we've cut over half a billion $$$ from the UN peacekeeping budget & we're only getting started." [Emphasis added.]
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/29/politics/haley-on-un-cuts/index.html
The United Nations General Asssembly voted 191 to 2 condemning the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
[This]... annual debate is 'political theater' and a waste of time meant 'to deflect attention from the regime that is actually responsible for the suffering of the Cuban people. Let’s be honest about what we really see going on here,...This assembly does not have the power to end the US embargo. It is based in US law, which only the United States Congress can change.' Noting that Washington under then-President Barack Obama abstained on last year’s vote, she explained, 'To those who are confused as to where the United States stands, let me be clear: As is their right under our Constitution, the American people have spoken.That is, they have chosen a new president, and he has chosen a new ambassador to the United Nations. [Emphasis added.]
https://nypost.com/2017/11/02/nikki-haley-puts-the-un-on-notice/
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/12/04/dear-united-nations-bailing-migration-plan-love-u-s/?
Just this week, after another outrageous UN vote with 128 countries condemning the US for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the President and the Ambassador quickly cut 235 million from UN funding.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-apos-decision-jerusalem-160516904.html
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/12/25/its-official-nikki-haley-announces-cuts-to-the-un-budget-
More and greater reductions should be made.
https://www.ireallymissreagan.com/single-post/2017/01/10/UNITED-STATES-SUPPORT-OF-THE-UNITED-NATIONS---AN-EXERCISE-IN-MASOCHISM
The Iran Nuclear Agreement. Ambassador Haley made the difference in the decertification of compliance. Other cabinet members urged the President not to do so ....Haley... asked the president to let her make the case for decertification. ...Haley flew to the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Association, where she pressed officials about Iranian compliance with the deal...[Afterwards she spoke] airing her 'doubts and concerns' about the agreement.
...Without inspections, the Iran deal is an empty promise.
[Emphasis added.]
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/13/nikki-haley-trump-iran-whisperer-243772
OTHER ISSUES
Haley, as a daughter of immigrants, believes the immigration laws should be enforced ... immigrants to carry documentation to show they are legally in the United States. Haley supports laws requiring photo identification at the polls.
She wants abortion restricted
I’m pro-life because all of us have had experiences of what it means to have one of these special little ones in our life
In recruiting more than 85,000 new jobs and $21.5 billion in capital investment:
If you come to South Carolina, the cost of doing business is going to be low here. We are going to make sure that you have a loyal, willing workforce and we are going to be one of the lowest union-participation states in the country
Haley credits helping as youth with the bookkeeping for her mother's business giving her "an extreme watchfulness about overheads and a sharp aversion to government intrusion". [Emphasis added.] Personal notes:
- Father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, professor
- Mother, Raj Kaur , lawyer
- parents emigrants from India
- Husband, Michael
- Children, daughter Rena, son Nalim
- private sector: waste management/recycling company; clothing business
- husband Michael, an officer in the South Carolina national Guard, was deployed for year in Afghanistan
- brothers, Mitti served in Desert Storm, Charan a web designer, sister Simran, a radio host
- published an autobiography, Can’t is Not an Option: My American Story
We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally. And in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined. ...Our forefathers paved the way for us. Let's take their values and their strengths and rededicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes to keep America the greatest country in the history of man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Hale
JIM MATTIS
In January , 2017, President Trump appointed James Norman Mattis Secretary of Defense.
Mattis is a retired Marine Corps General formerly responsible for military operations in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, and Central Asia; served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.
No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it’s going to be bad.
You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.
I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.
...whenever you show anger or disgust toward civilians, it's a victory for al-Qaeda and other insurgents…every time you wave at an Iraqi civilian, al-Qaeda rolls over in its grave. [encouraged his Marines to grow mustaches to look more like the people they were working with.]
We go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people
If we are to keep this great big experiment called America alive—and that’s all it is, an experiment—we need cocky, macho, unselfish, and morally very straight young men and women to lead our forces against the enemy. Your job, my fine young men and women, is to find the enemy that wants to end this experiment and kill every one of them until they are so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.
Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit
ENEMIES
Iran - the principal threat to the stability of the Middle East. Mattis criticized President Obama for being "naive" about Iranian intentions and for a defense that gave "the perception we're pulling back" from US allies.
Syria - Mattis warned the Syrian government it would pay a "very, very stiff price" for further use of chemical weapons. See attack on Syria:
https://www.ireallymissreagan.com/single-post/2017/12/10/HE-SAVED-US-FROM-HILLARY-TRUMPING-THE-LEFT
ALLIES
Mattis cited the importance of the United Arab Emirates and Jordan as countries that wanted to help and stressed the need for the US to bolster its ties with allied intelligence agencies, particularly the intelligence agencies of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Mattis affirmed the United States' commitment to Japan and South Korea.
DEFENSE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL
Awarded "for exceptionally distinguished performance contributing to the national security or defense..."
Comment from his troops: “… there he was, in the middle of a freezing night, out on the lines with his Marines."
He was noted for a willingness to remove senior leaders under his command at a time when the U.S. military seemed unable or unwilling to relieve under-performing or incompetent officers
Personal notes:
- Father, John, worked at a plant supplying the Manhattan Project
- Mother, Lucille, worked in Army Intelligence
- never been married and has no children, nicknamed "The Warrior Monk" because of his bachelor life and lifelong devotion to the study of war
- carried a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius throughout his deployments
- popularized Marine motto "no better friend, no worse enemy", a paraphrase of Roman general Sulla’s self-made epitaph
- personal library included over 7,000 volumes
I need to make the military more lethal. Some people think I’m supposed to be an equal opportunity employer....Take us on and it will be your worst day and your longest day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis
freebeacon.com/national-security/the-best-from-mad-dog-mattis/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/29/james-mattis-a-warrior-in-washington
STEPHEN MILLER
in late 2016, President Trump chose Stephen Miller to be Senior Adviser to the President for Policy.
Miller formerly was was communications director for Senator Sessions.
...worshipping at the altar of multiculturalism ... [ignores the fact] we have shared with the world the cultural value of individualism and liberty, a value rooted in our unique and glorious history ...
... we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.
The idea that you’re going to have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before,
Regarding the false charges against Duke students:
For many at Duke, the last year offered a horrifying tutorial in the moral bankruptcy of the left’s politically correct orthodoxy and the corruption of our culture at its hands...Three of our peers faced a devastating year-long persecution because they were white and their accuser black. ..The one takeaway I have from it is that in a difficult moment, I took a stand on principle — and I was correct…
{Emphasis added.] http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8778142/stephen-miller-trump-senior-policy-advisor-facts/
The truth is, even in modern-day America, there is a place for gender roles, I simply wouldn't feel comfortable hiring a full-time male babysitter or driving down the street and seeing a group of women carrying heavy steel pillars to a construction site. I can't stomach the idea of, say, having a wife who worked as a prison guard getting abused and threatened all day long. Feminists would say this outlook makes me a chauvinist. But they'd be wrong. It's not chauvinism. It's chivalry.
BACKGROUND
Miller began fighting political correctness and asserting conservative values in a liberal California high school where he wrote in the school newspaper that an announcement in Spanish "demeans the immigrant population as incompetent, and makes a mockery of the American ideal of personal accomplishment”, and decried the school offering condoms to underage students, permitting a club for gay students and failing to ask students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He was successful in reinstating the Pledge of Allegiance.
At Duke, majored in political science and wrote for the school newspaper. He was an early and articulate defender of the students wrongfully accused of rape
He started a project to help educate students about "Islamofascism." When he attempted to run an ad about it, it was rejected. "You've got this insane stuff happening on our campuses, but you can't run a simple fact-based ad that talks about the threat of radical Islam.”
Upon graduation, he worked for representatives Bachman and Shadegg and became communications director for Senator Sessions where he played a major role in defeating the so-called Gang of Eight's proposed immigration reform bill.
OTHER ISSUES
Miller was the primary writer behind Trump’s speech to the Republican National Convention: Americanism, not globalism, would be our credo…We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel. [Emphasis added.]
Miller is Jewish, but criticizes the “war on Christmas” by America’s media and political 'elite' as ignoring the nation’s origins.
Personal notes:
- at 31, still single
- Father Michael is real estate investor
- Mother Miriam, her family immigrated to US from Belarus
- 2 siblings
- Undergraduate degree in Political Science from Duke University
- viciously reviled by the Left [google his name and see]
...right now, it's a requirement to be naturalized you have to speak English, so the notion that speaking English wouldn't be a part of the immigration system would actually be very ahistorical. Secondly, I don't want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is [not] a symbol of liberty enlightening the world, it's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. [The line from the Lazarus poem] was added later,[and] is not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller_(political_advisor) http://washingtonjewishweek.com/36849/stephen-miller-the-man-behind-the-ban/featured-slider-post/ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/12/13/stephen-miller-appointed-to-trump-administration-job-senior-advisor-to-president-for-policy/
http://www.jpost.com/Us-Elections/Donald-Trump/Trump-picks-another-firebrand-in-Jewish-top-advisor-Stephen-Miller-475397
RAND PAUL
Randall Howard Paul, Senator from Kentucky, elected 2010; former three term Congressman
If congress refuses to obey its own rules. If congress refuses to pass a balanced budget. If congress refuses to read the Bills. Then I say, sweep the place clean, limit their terms, and send them HOME!
The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible.
President Obama said, 'oh, we want to make insurance perfect for people,' but he added all these regulatory mandates, made it too expensive. Young, healthy people didn't buy it, and the people remaining in the insurance pool were sicker and sicker. That's the adverse selection and the death spiral of Obamacare. And so really we do need to discuss the intricacies of what worked and what didn't work in Obamacare. And I think the better way to do this is to let individuals have the freedom to choose what kind of insurance is best for them. The government doesn't always know best.
The Constitution was not written to restrain the citizen's behavior, it was written to restrain the government's behavior.
We don't need bigger government. We need to shrink the size of government.
The West is in for a long, irregular confrontation - not with terrorism, which is simply a tactic, but with radical Islam.
It isn't hard to find injustice around us, but we must not let injustice smear the good deeds that do occur everyday.
Each one of my budgets has taken a meat axe to foreign aid, because I think we ought to quit sending it to countries that hate us.
The Life at Conception Act legislatively declares what most Americans believe and what science has long known - that human life begins at the moment of conception and, therefore, is entitled to legal protection from that point forward.
[Emphasis added.]
OTHER ISSUES
Detroit's declaration of bankruptcy. Paul stated he would not allow the government to attempt to bail out Detroit. I basically say he [Obama] is bailing them out over my dead body, because we don't have any money in Washington. Paul said he thought a federal bailout would send the wrong message to other cities with financial problems.
The Republican budget. Paul stated he would not vote for the Republican budget in the Senate unless billions in spending were removed from the plan: If leadership is unwilling to compromise with somebody who is concerned about the debt, then they deserve to lose.
The bill was pulled by Republican leaders from a vote, Paul released a statement thanking House conservatives for rebelling "against ObamaCare Lite."
He supports term limits, a balanced budget amendment, and the Read the Bills Act, in addition to the widespread reduction of federal spending and taxation, he favors a flat tax rate of 14.5% for individuals and business, while eliminating the FICA payroll taxes, as well as taxes on inheritance, gifts, capital gains, dividends, and interest.
Russia. Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of that nation's sovereignty and an affront to the international community .... Paul called for the United States to take steps as a counterweight to Russia's strategic influence on Europe's oil and gas supply, such as lifting restrictions on new exploration and drilling for fossil fuels in the United States along with immediate approval of the controversial Keystone Pipeline, which he said would allow the United States to ship more oil and gas to Europe if Russia attempts to cut off its own supply to Europe.
Social issues. He is "100% pro life", believing that legal personhood begins at fertilization. Same-sex marriage "offends [him] and a lot of people", and it "allows people to think there would be some other sorts of marriage." However, he believes the issue should be left to the states to decide, and would not support a federal ban.
[Emphasis added]
DEFENSE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
The Center for the National Interest gave Paul the honor for his public policy work.
Personal notes:
- Father, Ron, medical doctor, former thirteen term Congressman representing Texas
- Mother, Carol (née Wells)
- Siblings, Ronald [Ronnie] Paul Jr., Lori Paul Pyeatt, Robert Paul, and Joy Paul-LeBlanc
- Wife, Kelley Paul (née Ashby), is free lance writer
- Children, Duncan, Robert, William
- Undergraduate, attended Baylor University in Honors Program, left early to enter Medical school;, M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine
- Private sector: is physician practicing opthamology
- authored several books including Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds (September 2012)
The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed; socialism doesn't work….We could try freedom for a while. We had it for a long time. That's where you sell something and I agree to buy it because I like it. That is how we operate in most of rest of the marketplace other than health care. Now the president [Obama] has said you can only buy certain types of health care that I approve of, and anything I don't approve of, you are not allowed to purchase. We could try freedom. I think it might work. It works everywhere else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Paul https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/rand_paul http://www.azquotes.com/author/11416-Rand_Paul
[Emphasis added.]
MIKE PENCE
In November, 2016 , Michael [Mike] Richard Pence was elected Vice President of the United States.
Pence was formerly Governor of Indiana and six term Congressman.
The American economy has been built and sustained by risk-taking entrepreneurs whose pioneering ideas and hard work gave birth to flourishing businesses.
All we're getting from the Democratic majority in Congress and from this White House is more bailouts, more spending, more planned stimulus, more deficits and debt, and the American people have had it. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mike_pence_412338
More than anything else, let me be clear - we need to be willing to fight for freedom, and free markets, and traditional moral values. That's what the American people want to see this movement and this party return to.
Americans are at war with radical Islamic terrorism. We are at war with the ISIS caliphate, and what we need is a commander-in-chief who knows that, who understands that, who will give our military the resources they need to make that fight, pull our allies together - including moderate Arab nations - and hunt down and destroy ISIS and other terrorist organizations at their source.
The truth is that this culture of political correctness has tied the hands of law enforcement around the USA.
[Emphasis added.]
OTHER ISSUES
Economy.
As Governor, Pence pressed for a balanced budget amendment to the state's constitution. Indiana had AAA credit ratings during Pence's tenure.
Energy and Environment.
As governor, and as Vice President, supported the coal industry and"all-of-the-above energy strategy,...we must continue to oppose the overreaching schemes of the EPA until we bring their war on coal to an end."
Pence referenced a "growing skepticism in the scientific community about global warming". He voted “to eliminate funding for climate education programs and to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions" and "for several bills that supported fossil fuel development, including legislation promoting offshore drilling".
Foreign policy.
Pence has stated his support of Israel and its right to attack facilities in Iran to prevent the Iranians from developing nuclear weapons, has defended the actions of Israel in its use of deadly force in enforcing the blockade of Gaza, and has referred to Israel as "America's most cherished ally."
He opposes a Palestinian state.
Pence toured the Asia-Pacific region. South Korea: met acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn and condemned North Korea's latest missile launch; Japan: met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and pledged to work with Japan, South Korea, and China "to achieve a peaceable resolution and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,…The era of strategic patience is over and ... all options are on the table"; Indonesia: met president Joko Widodo, praised moderate Islam; Australia: met prime minister Turnbull and afirmed U.S. "intends to honor" a U.S.-Australia refugee resettlement agreement..
Pence has opposed closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and trying the suspected terrorists in the United States. He has said that the "enemy combatants" should be tried in a military tribunal.
The Military.
Speaking to the troops at Bagram Airbase, on a surprise Christmas visit to Afghanistan:
Before I left the Oval Office yesterday, I asked the president if he had a message for our troops here in Afghanistan… he looked at me without hesitation from behind the resolute desk, and said 'Tell them I love them.' Pence told the crowd: Give yourselves a round of applause. We couldn't be more proud of every one of you."
http://cnn.it/2kzEWld
Pence opposed the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," saying allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military would "have an impact on unit cohesion".
Social issues.
Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a 'discrete and insular minority' entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities. and called for an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus …
Pence voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Pence opposed the 2009 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, saying that Barack Obama wanted to "advance a radical social agenda" and said that pastors could be charged or be subject to intimidation for simply expressing a Biblical worldview on the issue of homosexual behavior.
Pence opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions...societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.
Pence is an opponent of abortion, seeking to defund Planned Parenthood. He introduced legislation to block organizations that provide abortion services from receiving any Title X funding.
He criticized a speech by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, advocating use of condoms.
Pence called Powell's comments a "sad day" and expressed his support for abstinence education. He asserted that condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases … Powell was maybe inadvertently misleading millions of young people and endangering lives.
Pence opposed President Obama's executive order eliminating restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research:
I believe it is morally wrong to create human life to destroy it for research ... I believe it is morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans. [for that purpose] ...scientific breakthroughs have rendered embryonic stem-cell research obsolete.
This week, Planned Parenthood sent a vile message suggesting Pence be sent condoms.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/laurettabrown/2017/12/25/planned-parenthood-tweets-gift-ideas-for-mike-pence-including-condoms-and-hamilton-tickets-n2426567?
Here is the Vice President's response:
No matter your belief, may you find renewed strength this season. For all who in the coming days will look to a manger & claim the promise announced on a Holy Night of peace on Earth & good will toward men- from the First Family, my family & families across America: Merry Christmas.
Evolution. I believe with all my heart that God created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them. How he did that, I'll ask him about some day... I also believe that someday scientists will come to see that only the theory of intelligent design provides even a remotely rational explanation for the known universe.
Personal notes:
- Father, Edward Joseph Pence Jr., served in Korea, awarded Bronze Star; ran group of gas stations
- Mother, Nancy Jane (née Cawley)
- Family were Irish Catholic Democrats, 2 grandparents immigrants from Ireland
- Siblings, five, his oldest brother, Greg, has worked in Indiana Republican politics
- Wife, wife, Karen Sue Pence, educator, teacher, and painter; earned undergraduate Degree and Masters Degree in Elementary Education from Butler University
- Children, Audrey, Charlotte, Michael
- Undergraduate Degree in History from Hanover College, and earned J.D. from Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law - Private sector: private law practice; radio talk show host
- Met his wife when she was playing guitar at a Catholic Mass in Indianapolis
- Was Marine officer and his son Michael is a Marine officer - Pence has cast six tie-breaking votes
Police officers are the best of us. Men and women, white, African-American, Asian, Latino, Hispanic – they put their lives on the line every single day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence
http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1525407
http://www.azquotes.com/author/11416-Rand_Paul
[Emphasis added.]
CONCLUSION
It is GOOD NEWS that we have people like these seven. There is hope that President Trump with allies like these, with Judges who honor the Constitution and apply the law rather than inventing it, and with our active support, may succeed - restore our Republic and Make America Great Again.
A HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind…This is the issue … whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves... regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course… 'full power of centralized government’ this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize…. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. …when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. …. You and I have a rendezvous with destiny…We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. Ronald Reagan