Weekly Reflections by Diane Scherff
President Pelosi
I wrote last week about the decision made by Nevada Gov. Sisolak and the Supreme Court to refuse Religious entities, specifically Calvary Chapel, a 50% capacity ruling instead of just 50 worshippers given to other venues. Chief Roberts’ rationale in their 5-4 decision to allow this was to let the governor enforce the requirements over religious freedom.
Religion is not the only thing on the chopping block in Nevada and the country…Nevada is intentionally interfering with the voting process by passing a bill in the state legislature which allows a mass ballot mailing to ALL voters in the state, gives the Governor power to adjust election procedures and expands who can turn in the ballots potentially leading to ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting means absentee/mail-in ballots are collected and turned in by third-party individuals (volunteers or workers), rather than by the voters themselves thus creating the potential for fraud.
President Trump threatened legal action over this bill which was pushed through in the middle of the night despite objections from the only Republican, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske.
From Robert Blau
Pompeo the Great
By Robert Blau
Although you would never know it from reading media reports, Mike Pompeo is doing a fabulous job as Secretary of State. Most recently he has taken a strong stand for international religious freedom, and has led the charge to hold China accountable for its criminal negligence related to the spread of COVID-19. His speech entitled “Communist China and the Free World’s Future,” at the Richard Nixon Memorial Library in Yorba Linda, CA on July 23 spells out eloquently and forcefully America’s and the rest of the world’s grievances against the current Chicom regime. Highlights are:
· China’s trade and investment policies are predatory;
· The PRC bombards our culture with propaganda, especially universities;
· Chinese spying is pervasive;
· China continues to steal intellectual property;
· The Chicom regime is oppressive, and anti-freedom.
These are all undeniably true statements, and yet Secretary Pompeo was taken to task in a Washington Post editorial claiming that he doesn’t understand China or the history of U.S. Chinese relations. A few months before, another Washington Post editorial ranked Pompeo as one of the worst secretaries of state for his response to COVID-19, namely to blame China and to maintain a hardline policy vis-à-vis Iran during the pandemic.
The subtext to these criticisms from the traditional foreign policy establishment is that Secretary Pompeo has a lot of nerve being Secretary of State and loyal to President Trump simultaneously. Yes, it is nothing more than Trump Derangement Syndrome, which makes anyone loyal to the President, no matter how well they perform, a target of wrath and baseless insults.
I remember when I was on the Trump Transition Team supporting the confirmation process for Secretary Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson. After Mr. Tillerson’s Senate confirmation hearing, he was barraged with upwards of 1,000 follow up “questions for the record (QFR),” which was the most anyone ever remembered in QFR history. As we prepared draft replies on Mr. Tillerson’s behalf, it was obvious that many of the questions had little to do with foreign policy, but were just vehicles for sending insults to the then-new President of the United States. During Secretary Pompeo’s own confirmation hearing in the Spring of 2018, he was subject to the same kind of nasty attacks, as well as the bizarre questioning by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker who said that Mr. Pompeo’s views on gay sex disqualified him from the job of Secretary of State. Thankfully, the Senate had (and still has) a Republican majority and Mike Pompeo was confirmed as our 70th Secretary of State on April 26, 2018.
Somehow, the Democrats and the media want the Secretary of State to be the leader of the opposition to President Trump within the Trump Administration. Never mind that the Trump Administration’s “America First” approach to foreign policy has achieved favorable and measurable results: The USMCA trade agreement that replaced the outdated NAFTA; greater commitments on the part of NATO allies to providing budgetary outlays to defense; taking out ISIS and Iranian terrorist leaders; improving US terms of trade with China; making the U.S. a net energy exporter, and in the process weakening Russia and OPEC; and withdrawing from international agreements that were of no benefit to the U.S., such as the Iran nuclear deal.
Secretary Pompeo is rightly proud of these accomplishments, and says so whenever given the chance. It should be obvious that the Secretary of State is SUPPOSED to see eye to eye with the President on foreign policy, otherwise we would be sending mixed or confused messages to both allies and adversaries abroad. At a certain point, President Trump and Secretary Tillerson were no longer on the same wavelength, so Mr. Tillerson had to go. The same thing happened in the Nixon Administration until the President settled on Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State; ditto for the Reagan Administration prior to George Shultz taking over the State Department. Bottom line: Pompeo’s loyalty to President Trump is part of what makes him so successful; for that reason he can be expected to continue on in that key cabinet post in the second Trump Administration.
From the White House
‘Only a Safe, Effective Vaccine Will Get Our Approval’
“The framework in the United States to support a covid-19 vaccine is now in place. Testing is underway and manufacturing capacity is rapidly expanding. But let’s be clear: The development effort must adhere to standards that will ensure any covid-19 vaccine’s safety and effectiveness,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn writes in The Washington Post.
“Large-scale clinical trials already have begun for several promising vaccine candidates.”
According to independent journalist Michael Tracey, “mainstream media outlets have failed the public by declining to spotlight the devastation left behind by rioters in cities across America,” Yael Halon reports. Tracey said the damage he witnessed is “beyond anything I understand to have happened in the United States since at least the 1960s, and perhaps earlier.” Read more in Fox News.
“Gov. Doug Ducey drew praise for Arizona’s coronavirus response during a visit to the White House on Wednesday . . . Many key metrics about the severity of Arizona’s pandemic, including coronavirus-related hospitalizations, are the lowest they’ve been in weeks following a surge in June and July,” Danny Shapiro reports for KTAR News.
“A recent study of Washington, D.C., journalists’ Twitter usage found that those who cover the federal government have locked themselves away in ‘microbubbles’ where they primarily talk only to each other. The study suggests that reporters in the nation’s capital ‘may be even more insular than previously thought.’” Read more from Becket Adams in the Washington Examiner.
OPINION From a Trump Club Member: Charles Stevens
Schools and COVID
If schools do not reopen due to COVID, schools systems should provide laptops, on a loan basis, to low income families, and provide training to the students and parents. Prior to the students even doing any school work they should receive instruction on use of the computers.
If need be the students and parents could come to workshops during the day or in the evening, where the size of the workshop would be limited and there would be social distancing
Or school personnel would visit the home to get the student set up.
The schools should provide free daycare to low income families, if parents are able to go back to work. At the day care support for learning with laptops would be provided and or there would be computers there for students to work with,
Teachers would provide the day care at the schools, but it would be limited to the number of students.
The Federal Government could provide funds to support this, but as a loan.
Charles “Dick” Stevens
