Random Thoughts On Current Events

By John J. Duncan Jr.

duncanj@knoxfocus.com

Since all the Democrats in the Tennessee Legislature voted against a bill to prohibit children from attending sexually suggestive drag queen shows, I hope some of them saw the video of the recent drag march in New York City.

This was a march by hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people obviously trying to be as weird as possible.

News stories about the march said it "provoked outrage" all over the country because the marchers repeatedly shouted, "We're here, we're queer, and we're coming for your children."

It is unfortunate that the national mainstream media always tries to cover up or give very limited coverage to anything that is harmful to the Democratic Party, and the LBGTQ crowd is a very important part of the Democrat's base.

Writing of the Democrat's base reminds me of how eager the Biden Administration was to get Brittney Griner, the African-American WNBA player, released while leaving U.S. Marine Paul Whelan behind.

Blacks make up as much as 60 percent of the Democrat base in some states. Marines are overwhelmingly Republican.

Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years on drug charges. Paul Whelan was sentenced to 18 years on charges of espionage against Russia. Both were convicted in sham trials.

Russia desperately wanted the international arms merchant known as "Dr. Death" back from U.S. custody. If our negotiators had held tough, they could have gotten both released.

If just one was to be released, it should have been Whelan (who has been in a Russian prison since 2018) instead of Griner, who had been held for just under ten months.

To this administration, apparently, a basketball star is more important than a U.S. Marine.

And did you see where Natasha Cloud, another WNBA star, who has made $375,000 over the past two seasons, said the U.S. "is trash in so many ways?"

On June 30, the State Department released a report which blasted the bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Washington Post summarized it this way: "Critical missteps identified in the report present fresh evidence of the mayhem that left Afghanistan's future in the hands of the oppressive Taliban regime, cost the lives of scores of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, and sent Biden's approval rating tumbling."

The story said the release was timed just before a long holiday weekend and that Biden's Administration "has tried to downplay scrutiny of its actions."

The rushed withdrawal left behind a huge multi-billion dollar airbase and $85 billion in military equipment that could have been and should have been brought home in an orderly, phased withdrawal.

For 22 of my 30 years in Congress, I served on the Natural Resources Committee in addition to other committees. We heard many experts say if we did not allow more logging we were going to have many more forest fires. This is because when not enough trees are being cut, there is a fuel buildup on the floor of the forest from dead and dying trees and brush. Environmental radicals say lightning striking this buildup causes fires that are nature's way of thinning the forest.

Canada's government is controlled by environmental extremists who oppose almost all logging. Thus, these left-wing environmentalists should be thanked for all the pollution from Canadian wildfires.

Almost every place I go, someone says something nice about my columns, and I really appreciate that.

A few days ago, I received a very kind note from Ada Julian, whose husband, Harold Julian, had passed away in May.

Mrs. Julian said Harold read and really enjoyed all my columns. This meant a little extra to me because Harold Julian was a very well-respected, longtime newspaper editor and columnist.

I want to express my condolences to Mrs. Julian, a very nice person in her own right.

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