A Nation at Crossroads - A 2024 Election Game (Gameplay Thread)

[Mycool]

Tammy Duckworth July Campaign Schedule

Flora shares personal story at Congressional reception by Virginia Guard Public Affairs, on Flickr

17-20th: Texas

- Fly to San Antonio
- Joint rally in San Antonio with Julian Castro
- Townhalls in New Braunfels and San Marcos
- Rally in Austin
- Rally in Temple
- Rally in Waco
- Townhalls in College Station and The Woodlands
- Joint rally in Houston with Jessica Cisneros

21-22nd: Nevada

- Fly to Las Vegas
- Joint rally in Las Vegas with Zach Conine

"You know, I do have to admit I like the idea of nuclear energy, especially if it's done safely and up to exacting standards. However, when Republicans talk about expanding nuclear energy, they mean turning natural wonders of great import, like Yucca Mountain, into a literal nuclear waste dump. That's my problem with the Vice President touting this as some great awakening on the issue of energy and climate change. How can Republicans claim to suddenly care so deeply about the impact of climate change while choosing a site that is sacred to Native peoples to be where we dump waste? I propose we take an aggressive approach to transition into a green economy, and that means being mindful of ecological disruption and of our impact on this nation's natural wonders."

- Meet with hotel and casino workers in Las Vegas
- Speak with Culinary Union leaders in Las Vegas

23-25th: Iowa

- Fly to Des Moines
- Joint Rally with Jeff Merkley in Iowa

"I'm so grateful to be introduced by my friend Jeff. He led an important policy discussion this year, and I want all of you to know I've taken his ideas to heart. It's why I'm so glad to pick up the mantle of his infrastructure bill, moving our country into the future with a modern-day Transcontinental Railroad, only this time with high-speed light rail. The truth is, there's no reason why someone in Des Moines should have to fly in order to get to New York when we have the ability to travel with fewer emissions, less hassle, and more room for folks like me in a wheelchair. Not to mention, this will lead to real economic development, with every region in the country getting good-paying jobs alongside the benefits of freer travel. Jeff and I have spent quite a bit of time ironing out the details of this plan, and we found it ties perfectly with my universal broadband plan, expanding fiber to even the most rural communities. Everyone in this country deserves a President committed to expanding our economic growth, not just giving big businesses tax cuts and handouts."

- Rally in Iowa City
- Rally in Cedar Rapids
- Rally in Davenport
- Rally in Dubuque

26-28th: Michigan

- Fly to Detroit
- Rally in Detroit
- Townhalls in Warren and Dearborn
- Joint rally with Gary Peters in Ann Arbor
- Rally in Lansing
- Rally in Grand Rapids

29th: New Hampshire

- Fly to Concord
- Joint rally with Dan Feltes in Concord

30-31st: Maine

- Cross over into Maine
- Townhall in Saco streamed on social media
- Joint rally in Portland with Sara Gideon
- Rally in Augusta
- Joint rally with Troy Jackson in Lewiston

[Huey Long is a Republican]

JOHN JAMES ACCEPTANCE OF BECOMING RUBIO'S VICE PRESIDENT

"Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I am extraordinarily honored to be given this opportunity to potentially become the 50th Vice President in the United States, making me a halfway mark for many. The Vice President is an honored and trusted friend who campaigned for me in 2018 and during the 116th Congress, both me and him worked on various bills before he succeeded Mike Pence as Vice President. He has the knowledge and experience to get the job done and continue the foreign and economic policy success of President Trump and his administration over the last eight years. While I will continue to run to maintain my Senate Seat in the case we are not victorious this year, I will still campaign with Vice President Rubio and give it 110%.

For the last six years that I have been in the Senate, I've garnered the Legislative Experience I and many others believe to be necessary for this election. Many people expect me to attack and be vitriolic, saying that the time to strike at the Democrats and call them out on every little thing is now. However, I am not here to run a negative campaign with the Vice President. I plan to build America up, not down, as its Vice President instead. I know Senator Duckworth and I respect her service, even if I disagree with her views. Every time she attacks Republicans, however, she is contributing to the extreme partisan divisions that is ripping this country apart.

Barack Obama once said something that many in his own party and the country in general are forgetting "There is no Blue States or Red States, there is the United States of America". If my and the Vice President's ticket should win, we'll work to heal any partisan lines and bring America back from the brink of disaster once more. Thank you, because with your support, we will win this!"

[Mycool]

Tammy Duckworth August Schedule

Women and War by U.S. Institute of Peace, on Flickr

1-3: Wisconsin

- Fly to Madison
- Joint rally with Mark Pocan in Madison
- Rally in Waukesha
- Joint rally with Tammy Baldwin in Milwaukee
- Rally in Racine
- Rally in Kenosha

"I pushed for the Democratic platform to include a fair trade provision, one to protect American workers, the environment, and the economy from bad trade deals. The truth is, that's only half the battle. When you have billionaires like Bill Gates pushing for an automation tax to help protect workers, you know that unfettered automation is hurting us. That's why I support an automation tax on businesses with more than 100 employees. It's because we cannot allow big business to let the bottom dollar be an excuse to take your jobs."

4-7th: Ohio

- Fly to Cincinnati
- Rally in Cincinnati with Sherrod Brown
- Rally in Dayton
- Rally in Columbus
- Townhalls en route to Akron
- Rally in Akron
- Joint rally in Cleveland with Jeff Merkley
- Rally in Toledo

8-10th: Michigan

- Cross into Michigan
- Rally in Detroit
- Rally in Ann Arbor

"America has a big choice this November. Our choice is between a party that thinks your boss's boss should get a tax cut and one that thinks you should get a raise, free childcare, and affordable healthcare. I would say that's a pretty easy choice, but let's take a look at the facts. We, Democrats, are committed to working for the middle class, passing paid family leave, universal childcare, and one of the most robust public works bills in history. We want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, to make college debt-free, and repeal anti-worker bills like Taft-Hartley. Republicans, when given the chance, struck down my Protect Working Families Act, oppose raising the minimum wage, and have suddenly seen the light on climate change, all while doing nothing to combat it. We can do better, and together we will."

- Joint rally in Lansing with Gary Peters
-Rally in Grand Rapids
- Rally in Kalamazoo

11-12th: Florida

- Fly to Miami
- Joint rally with Ruben Gallego in Miami
- Rally in West Palm Beach
- Joint rally in Orlando with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

"It's been nice to see the Vice President finally recognize climate change, it's too bad that it took a decade of algae blooms, record-breaking storm intensity, flooding, wildfires, and practically universal scientific agreement for him to see the light. The truth is, Florida is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't do something now, it won't even be our children who pay for it, it'll be us. That's why I have a comprehensive plan that works with state governments and our allies around the globe to commit the United States to carbon neutrality. The other side would love to frame this as the economy vs the environment, but I reject the premise. Green jobs are good-paying jobs, and investing in them helps places like Florida lead the way on solar and wind energy all while creating long term jobs. A Duckworth administration has one clear message on the environment, something you can't say of my opponent."

13-14th: Arizona

- Fly to Phoenix
- Joint rally in Phoenix with Tom O'Halleran

"I'm proud to be here supporting my friend Tom. He has worked tirelessly as an independent voice for Arizonans his whole career. He has fought for better-funded education, LGBTQ rights, and common-sense measures to combat gun violence. He will make a great Senator for the state of Arizona, and together we can fight the extremism of the other side. Tom is someone who I can work with to deliver results as your President. He will help us pass the Protect Working Families Act, fight for fair trade bills, and challenge the out of control domestic surveillance that has been supported by Marco Rubio and congressional Republicans. We need to send a message in November that our rights and values are not for sale!"

- Rally in Scottsdale
- Rally in Mesa

15-16th: North Carolina

- Fly to Raleigh
- Joint rally with Roy Cooper in Raleigh
- Rally in Greensboro
- Joint rally with Cal Cunningham in Charlotte

“I greatly appreciate the Vice President’s brothers service, and I appreciate the families of all service members. It’s a heavy responsibility for not only those in service but also their families. That’s why I take going to war so seriously. It’s why I am reticent to get the United States in yet another conflict that endangers a generation. It’s why I have said time and time again we shouldn’t make these wanton cuts to the state department if we truly want peace. It’s also because of this knowledge that I value expanding our mental health services to veterans, and led an expansion of PTSD services. As your President, I will work to protect a peacetime America where our children can go to college without being saddled with uncontrollable debt, and ensure those who do serve are welcomed back with every tool you need for civilian life.”

[UWS]

Marco Rubio's campaign schedule, Part 3

(Own creation)

August 14, 2024
-Campaign in Jacksonville, Florida with John James and Ron De Santis
-Speech in Jacksonville, FL in response to Tammy Duckworth's attacks :
I find that interesting that Senator Duckworth wants to get rid of oil and fossil energy and talks about facing climate change because the Center for Responsive Politics indicates that Senator Duckworth received more than $30,587 of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry (if we include all the amounts of campaign contributions she has ever got from that industry in all the cycles she ran for political office from 2006 to 2024). First of all, the climate has always been changing. There has never been a time in history in which the climate was not changing. But we have a plan to face those challenges but not by depriving taxpayers of their hard-earned money like Senator Duckworth wants to do by imposing taxes on them and on America's energy industry, which will deprive taxpayers and hardworking Americans and families of their purchasing power and of their jobs and make America a harder place to do business. My plan will get us to energy independence by taking advantage of all of America's sources of energy and instead of doing it with taxpayers' money like my opponent wants to do, we're going to invest oil drilling revenues into the development of renewable energies, which will allow us to develop renewable energies, including solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, hydroelectric, etc. As President, I will approve, notably, the Gemini Solar Project in Nevada (which would have the capacity to produce 690 megawatts of electricity) and the Crimson Solar Project in California (which would have a capacity to produce 350 MW of electricity, or enough to power more than 100,000 homes) and the Walker Ridge Wind Energy Project (which would string together about 42 wind turbines across 2,270 acres of federal lands and have the capacity to power about 145,000 homes). Unlike my opponent's plan, our energy agenda will be done not at the expense of taxpayers and hard working Americans and will encourage job creation while improving our ecological footprint. But instead of taking advantage of all of America's sources of energy, my opponent would rather hand money to anti-American forces, including terrorists and dictators, money coming from revenues from our imports of foreign energy from unstable countries in throes of tyranny or terrorism. So by taking advantage of our own energy sources and by exploiting and producing it, we're going not only to improve our ecological footprint and encourage job creation but also reinforce our national security by depriving terrorists of the revenues that they need to fund their war effort and to organize attacks on us and our allies.

When it comes to her attacks towards my record on environment, Senator Duckworth has failed to mention that I made great contribution in restoring the Everglades. I did much more for the Everglades in one day than Senator Duckworth did during her 12 years in Congress. When I was in the U.S. Senate, I worked hard to convince former Senator Jim Inhofe, former Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman and a leading opponent to the Everglades, to change his mind and to commit, after years of opposition to that project, to authorizing the Central Everglades Planning Project in the water resources bill. Not only did he change his mind but he featured the Everglades as one of the reasons why we needed to pass the water bill. And I helped secure funds and resources for the for Everglades restoration so we make sure that in the years to come our children and grandchildren can have the same wonderful memories of the Everglades than we earned. This is a significant achievement because when your colleagues in the Senate trust you, listen to you and you have influence over them, that's how you get things done and that's why Senator Duckworth doesn't get anything done, including on the PWCFA, her colleagues don't trust her and she's ineffective. With all due respect, we can't afford to elect as President someone who doesn't know how to get things done. Meanwhile, I got passed those tough sanctions on Hezbollah, the Girls Count Act, those sanctions on human rights violators of the Maduro regime, led the legislation to double the child tax credit to pass the TCJA that Senator Duckworth opposed despite those tax cuts' strong contribution to America's economic prosperity and to a reduction of middle-class taxes (as a family of four with annual income of $73,000 saw their federal taxes reduced by 58 % while a single parent with one child earning anually $41 000 saw their taxes reduced by 73 %, 90 % of taxpayers with annual income between $64,000 and $108,000 earned an average federal tax cut of $1400 and the TCJA doubled the standard deduction for an individual from $6,000 to $12,000 and for a family from $12,000 to $24,000) according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan organization that is not running any candidates in the current election campaign and is much more objective than Duckworth, and I got Governor De Santis disbursing Florida Citrus Recovery Block Grant (CRBG) funds to eligible citrus growers to “restore confidence in Florida’s signature crop buoy family farms and small businesses in the state’s struggling rural communities and I successfully co-sponsored the Let Freedom Reign Act that contributed to Venezuela's successful path to democracy, stability and integrity through the provision of arsenal and military training to the Venezuelan insurgents during the 2019 Venezuelan Civil War. And as Vice-President, I helped this President to defeat ISIS and through my 2021 diplomatic trip in Iran, we got Iran to denuclearize and to stop state-sponsoring terrorism. That's what Arsham Parsi, an Iranian President friendly to America, has officially announced during a joint session of Congress that I presided along with the Speaker of the House and that's exactly what they did, thus strengthening security, stability and peace in the Middle East and also got Israel out of danger of being wiped out from the face of the Earth by Iranian nuclear weapons. So I know how to get things done and that's why I'm asking for your vote in order to bring Republicans and Democrats together to get things done in order to keep moving this country forward.

Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

-Economic policy speech in Jacksonville, FL
-Foreign policy speech in Jacksonville, FL
-Campaign in Gainesville, FL
-Space policy speech in Gainesville, FL
-Infrastructure policy speech in Gainesville, FL
-Campaign in Tallahassee, FL
-Veterans policy speech in Tallahassee, FL
-Space policy speech in Tallahassee, FL
-Campaign in Tampa, FL
-Rally with voters in Tampa, FL
-Campaign in Ann Arbor, Michigan
-Meet with college voters at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI :

Own creation

I want to thank the University of Michigan for welcoming me as well as one of your past students who got a Master of Business Administration degree here in that university, your fellow Michigander, my friend, my running mate and the next Vice-President of the United States John James.

I want to thank you for having contributed in John's success in business thanks to his perseverance that awarded him Master of Business Administration degree. While John was bravely serving our country in Iraq, the recession was hitting Michigan hard and Detroit harder. He looked at his hometown area and there were parts of Michigan that looked worse than war-torn Baghdad. So, he came home to serve in a different way, as a job provider. He joined his family business named James Group International, a supply chain business that has the mission to manage and optimize its customer’s supply chain infrastructures and processes by designing and implementing complex supply chain solutions and leveraging information technology. As CEO, John grew the company into a major trading partner with Michigan’s auto industry. He also served on former Governor Rick Snyder’s mobility council and Veterans Trust Committee, and Detroit Mayor Duggan’s Workforce Development Council. John James found ways to serve his community as he continued his education, raised a family, and created jobs in the city where he was born. He provided such experience in the U.S. Senate where both John and I fought each and every day for jobs, jobs, jobs as well as for economic opportunity through our advocacy of tax reform, small government and free enterprise, which are all policies that got America's economy to where we are today : America is the best place in the world to do business, 7 and a half million new jobs created in the last 8 years, lowest unemployment rate in 50-plus years as well as lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment rate at their lowest ever and an American middle-class stronger than ever before.

I also made a huge contribution into it by leading the legislation doubling the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000, which ensured the adoption of the largest tax cuts in history and provided the results I mentioned earlier. And as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I helped pursuing such strong economic progress by working with my colleagues to pass legislation protecting the interests of U.S. small businesses and reducing their fiscal burden in order to reinforce their competitiveness and their ability to innovate, to expand, to produce, to sell and to create good-paying jobs. As Vice-President, I helped President Trump to continue such successful economic policies for the sake of America's prosperity.

While our Democratic opponents are seeking to undo such progress by imposing higher taxes on hard-working Americans and businesses, big government policies that will cost your jobs and your potential for a bright future, we have to understand that we can't afford to move this country backwards. Our ticket will achieve America's prosperity for all Americans by cutting taxes for all Americans, including the middle-class (from 22 % to 15 %) while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, keeping America's status as the best place in the world to do business, promoting school choice, making America energy independent through taking advantage of all of America's sources of energy, championing free trade for the sake of our competitiveness in the world economy, balancing the budget and investing in our country's infrastructures while reducing the federal gasoline tax rate by 80 %; vetoing any gas-tax increase; turning back control of the highways to the states; stopping special interests in Washington from building “Bridges to Nowhere” and engaging in other wasteful spending; freeing states from the strings that come attached to federal funding; removing barriers to public-private partnerships; repealing the Davis-Bacon Act that inflates government costs by billions every year and is a giveaway of taxpayer dollars to labor unions and phasing out the Mass Transit Account, which loots the Highway Trust Fund. We will also use a part of future budget surpluses into the development of infrastructures, which will encourage economic activities across this country favor the implementation of new businesses here in America, thus favoring further job creation, growth, opportunity and prosperity.

Me and John James have formed the best economic team that America has ever known. Thanks to our experience, background, accomplishments and agenda, we will pursue America's economic progress, fight to make sure that all Americans will have good-paying jobs and decent wages, preserve this country's status as the best business-friendly environment in the world and get this country to full-employment and long term prosperity, thus preserving and reinforcing the American Dream and America's status as the land of opportunity. And that's why we need your support and your vote to fight for your future and keep America's status as the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

-Campaign in Farmington Hills, MI
-Manufacturing policy speech in Farmington Hills, MI
-Free enterprise policy speech in Farmington Hills, MI
-Campaign in Warren, MI
-Free trade policy speech in Warren, MI
-National security policy speech in Warren, MI
-Middle-class tax relief policy speech in Warren, MI
-Campaign in Dearborn, MI
-Energy policy speech in Dearborn, MI
-Health care policy speech in Dearborn, MI
-Veterans policy speech in Dearborn, MI

August 15, 2024
-Campaign in Phoenix, Arizona with John James, Martha McSally and Doug Ducey

Source : https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/martha_mcsally/412611
-Campaign for Martha McSally's senate re-election in Phoenix, AZ where the Vice-President and his running mate praised McSally's military service, her effort to combat discrimination against women in the U.S. Army through her 2001 successful lawsuit against the Department of Defense's military policy that required U.S. and U.K. servicewomen stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the body-covering abaya when traveling off base in the country as well as her accomplishments in Congress such as her sponsored Border Jobs for Veterans Act (that directed the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Pentagon to create a program aimed at actively recruiting and pulling separating, retiring veterans over to fill these blue suit positions at our ports of entry), two bills she put forward designed to increase information sharing by the Department of Homeland Security both within the agency and other authorities at a time ISIS multiplied attacks on the U.S. and our allies, the Border Security Technology Accountability Act designed to shore up DHS acquisition procedures, requiring cost overrun reporting and increased spending oversight, her efforts to preserve the military assets in southern Arizona (including Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base) and her advocacy of lower taxes, fiscal discipline and strong national defense. Touting McSally as a woman of accomplishments, Rubio and James called on the people of Arizona to re-elect Senator McSally in order to maintain the Republican majority in the Senate and to keep Arizona red to make sure we're going to win this presidential election to pursue the strong progress of the last 8 years to get America to long-term economic prosperity and full-employment through the promotion of tax reform, small government, energy independence and free enterprise and to long-term global peace through strong national defense, strong diplomacy and strong American leadership.

-Campaign in Saint Paul, Minnesota
-Economic policy speech in Saint Paul, MN
-Foreign policy speech in Saint Paul, MN
-Campaign in Minneapolis, MN
-Free enterprise policy speech in Minneapolis, MN
-Energy policy speech in Minneapolis, MN
-Campaign in Rochester, MN
-National security policy speech in Rochester, MN
-Free trade policy speech in Rochester, MN
-Manufacturing policy speech in Rochester, MN
-Campaign in Duluth, MN
-Agriculture policy speech in Duluth, MN
-Health care policy speech in Duluth, MN
-Veterans policy speech in Duluth, MN

August 16, 2024
-Campaign in State College, Pennsylvania with John James and Joe Manchin
-Meet with college voters at the Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA
-Tax-cut policy speech in State College, PA
-Education policy speech in State College, PA
-Campaign in Harrisburg, PA
-Energy policy speech in Harrisburg, PA
-Rally with voters at Giant Center in Harrisburg, PA
-Phone banking in Harrisburg, PA
-Economic policy speech in Harrisburg, PA
-Counter-terrorism policy speech in Harrisburg, PA
-Campaign in Allentown, PA
-Free trade policy speech in Allentown, PA
-Manufacturing policy speech in Allentown, PA
-Health care policy speech in Allentown, PA
-Campaign in Carlisle, PA
-Veterans policy speech at U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, PA
-National security policy speech in Carlisle, PA
-Campaign in Philadelphia, PA
-Free enterprise policy speech in Philadelphia, PA
-Foreign policy speech in Philadelphia, PA
-Space policy speech in Philadelphia, PA
-Infrastructure policy speech in Philadelphia, PA
-Fundraising event in Philadelphia, PA
-Phone banking in Philadelphia, PA
-Campaign in Atlanta, Georgia ahead of the 2024 Republican National Convention

[UWS]

Marco Rubio's TV Ad

In an effort to introduce his recently selected running mate John James to voters in an effort to maximize Rubio's convention bounce (before, during and after the RNC), the Rubio campaign broadcasts an ad emphasizing on the Republican ticket's backgrounds and experience, accomplishments, agenda and qualifications to lead America.

Title : Qualified Team

Airing : Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin

Qualified Team ad narration :

Marco Rubio : My friends, my fellow Americans, I am proud to introduce to you the next Vice-President of the United States of America, Senator John James of the great state of Michigan!

Own creation
Narrator : There is not any team more qualified to lead America in this time of challenge and turmoil than the Rubio/James ticket.

Own source
At the age of 17, John James made the decision to serve his country. After graduating from West Point in 2004, he became a Ranger-qualified aviation officer for 8 years. He went on to serve with distinction in Operation Iraqi Freedom, defending our country's freedom, democracy, security and values against terrorism and tyranny and where he earned a Combat Action Badge (CAB) and two Air Medals while logging 753.7 flight hours in theater leading two Apache platoons.


Own creation
Then, coming back home, he became a businessman as well as the CEO of his family's business James Group International, a supply chain business that has the mission to manage and optimize its customer’s supply chain infrastructures and processes by designing and implementing complex supply chain solutions and leveraging information technology. As CEO, he grew the company into a major trading partner with Michigan’s auto industry. He also served on former Governor Rick Snyder’s mobility council and Veterans Trust Committee, and Detroit Mayor Duggan’s Workforce Development Council. And as a U.S. Senator, he fought every single day for the promotion of economic opportunity through lower taxes and free enterprise, for the defense of America's constitutional rights and for America's national security through a strong military.


Own source; Own source
Our presidential nominee, Marco Rubio dedicated all his life to protect and expand the American Dream to ensure that our children and grandchildren can earn all the opportunities that previous generations couldn't have earned for themselves. He is the son of Cuban immigrants who came to America in the pre-Castro era, who lived paycheck to paycheck and were not speaking English. But the hard work of a bartender and a housekeeper allowed them to grant their children the opportunities that were closed for themselves.


Source(s) : Own creation; https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?sort=relevance&search=100+Innovative+Ideas+for+Florida%27s+Future&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Speaker-designate_Marco_Rubio_with_a_blank_book_titled_100_Innovative_Ideas_For_Florida's_Future.jpg
And for 26 years of political experience, he made those principles the purpose of his political engagement. After serving as a West Miami Commissioner for 2 years, he's been elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000 and then became Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 2006 when he published a book titled 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future. And 24 of these ideas became law and another 10 were partially enacted. Among the items from the book that became law were multiple-year car registrations, a requirement that high schools provide more vocational courses, and an expanded voucher-like school-choice program.

Then he served in the U.S. Senate for 10 years, a period during which he co-sponsored and passed the AGREE Act, the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act, the 2014 VA reform bill to ensure better social services for our veterans and those tough sanctions on Hezbollah to diminish this terrorist organization's ability to threat the security of America and our allies. He took the lead to pass the Girls Count Act that forced countries receiving U.S. aid to give birth certificated to girls at birth in order to combat human trafficking and led the effort to double the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000 to help pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, thus providing the strong economic growth that America is now living.

Own creation
He brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass the Let Freedom Reign Act that provided military training and arms sales for the Venezuelan insurgency during the Venezuelan Civil War and helped the people of Venezuela to transfer towards democracy, liberty and integrity and to pass his sponsored Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 that required the Department of State to assess whether political developments in Hong Kong justify changing Hong Kong's unique treatment under US law and to condemn China's opression and stand up to the freedom of the people of Hong Kong.

Own creation
He chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, making strong contributions to America's economic prosperity by defending the interests of American small businesses by passing all the policies favorable for businesses in this country and by standing up to China's economic cheating.


Source(s) : https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=250&offset=0&profile=default&search=airstrikes&advancedSearch-current={}&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Airstrikes_in_Syria_140923-F-UL677-651.jpg; https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=trump+kim&title=Special:Search&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Trump_and_Kim_signing_joint_statement.jpg
As Vice-President of the United States, he helped President Trump to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and to get the world to the denuclearization of North Korea and Iran, which has been made possible thanks to a rebuilt of our military, to strong alliances, to strong diplomacy and strong American leadership.


Source : https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/afghanistan-photos; Own creation
And Marco Rubio has been there on the ground when he became the first Vice-President to visit Iran since the Iranian Revolution and he cut great agreements with pro-American Iranian President Arsham Parsi. It was in the aftermath of that visit that Parsi announced, during a Joint Session of Congress presided by Marco Rubio that Iran was going to proceed towards their denuclearization, to stop sponsoring global terrorism and that our relations with Tehran were going to be normalized. And that’s exactly what happened, getting us to stronger nuclear security, stronger stability in the Middle East and to stronger global peace.


Source(s) : Own creation; Own creation
Marco Rubio and John James have the best background, knowledge and experience to keep moving America forward. They will do so by cutting taxes for all Americans, including the middle-class (from 22 % to 15 %) while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, keeping America's status as the best place in the world to do business, promoting school choice, making America energy independent through taking advantage of all of America's sources of energy, championing free trade for the sake of our competitiveness in the world economy, balancing the budget and investing in our country's infrastructures.

Source : https://www.rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/on-the-cusp-of-energy-independence; Own creation


Source(s) : https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?sort=relevance&search=aircraft+carrier+American&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:US_Navy_050420-N-0000X-002_An_aerial_bow_view_of_the_conventionally-powered_aircraft_carrier_USS_America_(CV_66).jpg; Own creation
They will do so by keeping our military strong and modernize it, by standing with our allies and work to expand our alliances, by normalizing our relations with Polonsky’s Russia for the sake of peace, freedom and stability in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East and the respect of human rights on the global stage, by ratifying the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty to eliminate any risk of nuclear war and by keeping American leadership strong.

Own creation


Own creation
Marco Rubio and John James, the team with the proven experience, qualifications, character and leadership that we need in the White House for America's future.

Marco Rubio : I’m Marco Rubio and I approve this message.

[Cabbage]

TURN XVII: August 17 - 20
IRL: May 4-8; extensions until May 10 as needed

President Trump Approval Rating
Disapprove: 51%
Approve: 44%
Undecided: 5%

GE Polls:

Tammy Duckworth: 50%
Marco Rubio: 47%

Rubio taps James as RNC looms

With the RNC in Atlanta about to begin, Vice President Rubio made history when he announced that John James would be his vice presidential nominee, making this the first presidential election in United States history where neither ticket has a white non-Hispanic candidate on the ticket, as Duckworth is Asian-American, Gallego and Rubio are Latino, and James is African-American. Despite concerns over how this would play out among certain Trump supporters from several staffers for Senator Taylor (the Senator categorically denied sharing these concerns), Trump's base seems to be largely behind the move, with one supporter saying, "I don't care if he's white, black, brown, yellow, red, or [expletive] purple, if he cares about America, he's the guy for me." Whether it will be enough to win the White House remains to be seen.

Amash states he will appoint a Republican to MI Senate seat if James wins re-election and vice presidency

Michigan Governor Justin Amash (I) went on record today, stating that, should Senator John James win election to both the Senate and the vice presidency, he will appoint a Republican to fill his seat, stating "It's only fair that, in that case, since at least a plurality of the people of Michigan wanted a Republican Senator, I should give them one." Amash, when asked if he was considering rejoining the Republican Party, denied this strongly, citing his support for Senator Duckworth in the presidential race. When asked if he was considering a 2028 Libertarian presidential bid, Amash simply stated "can we focus on this election before we start talking about '28?" Amash also refused to state which Republican he would fill the seat with, leading to wide speculation. It remains to be seen who, if anyone, is actually under consideration.

Alabama abortion case gets even uglier as Washington police forced to use tear gas to disperse brawling activists

Tensions in Washington over the Alabama abortion bill court case are boiling over in numerous places, as police were forced to use tear gas to stop several brawls from escalating into riots, according to official reports. Said reports state that neither side is particularly more responsible than the other for the fights breaking out, stating "Both sides seem utterly incensed by this prospect, which makes sense when you consider this is about either a woman's right to continue her life unhindered, or the life of the child who would do the 'hindering.' These people aren't going to calm down, even after the whole mess is finally decided." Police Chief Peter Newsham stated his expectation that the capital may have to go on a shelter-in-place order until the protesters can be calmed down. Time will tell whether this will be the case.

Kim Yo-Jong states plans to strengthen ties with Russia, US, and China as Supreme Leader

In a speech given before the Supreme People's Assembly, newly minted Supreme Leader Kim Yo-Jong stated her plans to make numerous new ties to the three main world superpowers, stating "it is in our and their best interest that we enter into a state of cooperation and understanding, one in which the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and the other leading states of the world come together to ensure the world continues on a righteous and upstanding path toward progress, equality, and freedom." Despite this, however, Kim has refused to release the vast majority of political prisoners incarcerated during her brother's regime, although she has taken far fewer prisoners per day since she took office. It remains to be seen if this situation will continue.

United Nations vote in favor of Independent Municipal Republic of Istantinople; Greece, Turkey both enraged

The United Nations voted on the 15th to form the Independent Municipal Republic of Istantinople, a city-state containing the entirety of Constantinople/Istanbul, by a margin of 177-2, with 14 states abstaining. The two votes against, unsurprisingly, were Greece and Turkey, each of which has been pushing for its own sovereign rule of the city for weeks now. As a result, the UN also passed an ultimatum requiring both the removal of Greek troops from the city and both states' recognition of the new nation, or else they would face sanctions. Both countries have reluctantly agreed to these terms, although the leaders of said countries have stated that "this solution is the product of cruel and unnecessary globalist meddling in our affairs." However, it has also allowed for the conclusion of peace negotiations with Turkey, finally ending Operation Ceasefire. Time will tell if the new nation will be peaceful or not.

Chinese citizens given social credit for supporting Putin's claim to Russia

Despite recently having come out against anti-Polonsky conspiracy theorists, the Chinese government appears to still be quietly backing Vladimir Putin's return to power, as noted by several individuals who looked at people's social credit scores (effectively a measure of "model citizenship"/obedience to the government) and noted a spike for those who spoke out in favor of the return of Putin to power in Russia. One man, whose name has not been revealed, supposedly gained thirty points (out of one thousand maximum) for posting a series of memes claiming Polonsky "rigged" the election against Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's party's candidate in the 2024 elections. President Xi Jinping has denied these allegations, and claimed that any evidence to the contrary is "desperate Western propaganda." It remains to be seen what this situation will do for Putin's support in China.

(If there were any follow-ups/additional news stories I missed, please let me know.)

[UWS]

Republican Platform ahead of the RNC

Economy
Taxes : Tax cuts for all Americans and for all businesses, including small businesses, and reduction of the cost to do business in America so our economy can keep growing and creating jobs by making America the best place in the world to do business. Reduction of middle-class taxes from 22 % to 15 % while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle for the sake of a stronger American middle-class and a strong economy (as 70 % of the jobs created in America are created by small businesses).

Energy : Getting America to energy independence by taking advantage of all of our country's sources of energy (including oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, etc.). Encouraging oil drilling and production, using a part of budget surpluses into the development of renewable energies instead of doing it with taxpayers' money to encourage both job creation and a clean environment. Making America the world's leader in terms of nuclear energy production and exportation by building 40 new nuclear power plants in America by 2050, by approving tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and subsidies for the building of new nuclear power plants to further improve the American people's access to heat and job creation. The Republican energy plan to achieve energy independence will also keep America safe by depriving our geopolitical enemies of the revenues they get from our country's energy dependence through our exports of foreign energy from countries in throes of terrorism or tyranny, thus depriving anti-American forces of the capitals they need to fund their war effort and to organize attacks on us and our allies.

Free trade : Promoting free trade to make America the most competitive nation in the world economy through the ratification of free trade agreements with our allies and friends in Europe, Latin America and in the Asia-Pacific region to counter-balance China's trade power and ensuring strong job creation by lowering tariffs, increasing exports and imports, reducing the cost of trading, allowing American businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments. Reduction of the corporate tax rate from 21 % to 15 % and of taxes on American manufacturing businesses in order to convince manufacturing workers that America is the best place for them to do business, thus keeping American manufacturing jobs here in this country while promoting free trade at the same time.

Agriculture : Reduction of taxes and regulations for businesses across this nation, including for agricultural businesses, to help them to innovate and to manufacture more tractors and seeds and other farm products, which will boost job creation, improve agricultural technologies, ensure America's subsistence, reduce the food prices through the reduction of inflation and reduce Americans' dependence on food stamps, which will reinforce their purchasing power and give them more access to food. Approving agricultural subsidies in order to help agricultural communities to recover from the US-China trade war and to strengthen farm businesses’ ability to compete and produce. Championing free trade to increase exports and imports and increase access to our products, including farm and agricultural products, for 95 % of the world market (as we represent just 5 % of the world market).

Government spending : Balance the budget in the next 5 years by encouraging economic growth and job creation and thus that requires lowering taxes because there's nothing better for getting us to a balanced budget than having more people working, earning more money, paying more taxes. Stopping out-of-control spending, passing a balanced budget amendment, vetoing bridge-to-nowhere projects, vetoing earmarks and encouraging fiscal discipline and responsibility in order to reduce government spending, reduce the deficit and bring it under control and balance the budget.

Infrastructure : Investing in America's infrastructures, reducing the federal gasoline tax rate by 80 %; vetoing any gas-tax increase; turning back control of the highways to the states; stopping special interests in Washington from building “Bridges to Nowhere” and engaging in other wasteful spending; freeing states from the strings that come attached to federal funding; removing barriers to public-private partnerships; repealing the Davis-Bacon Act that inflates government costs by billions every year and is a giveaway of taxpayer dollars to labor unions and phasing out the Mass Transit Account, which loots the Highway Trust Fund. Using a part of future budget surpluses into the development of new infrastructures, which will encourage economic activities all across this country favor the implementation of new businesses here in America, thus favoring further job creation, growth, opportunity and prosperity.

Education
Promoting school choice, which will cost families, including these immigrant families living paycheck to paycheck, less and produce higher outcomes compared to public education. It will grant parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere. It will expand opportunities for low-income students—especially minorities—to attend high-quality schools that would otherwise be accessible only to higher-income families, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. Authorizing tax breaks for individuals and companies that donate to school scholarship funds or help parents who home-school their children, which will expand elementary, secondary, and vocational education opportunities for students. It will also provide training for postsecondary students and workers seeking to gain new skills and advance their career through career and technical education, apprenticeships, certifications and other forms of workforce training. States will be able to opt into the program and be responsible for choosing which schools can receive the funding.

Health care
Protection of pre-existing conditions, increasing medical research funding in order to ensure more progress in improving the American people's access to health care and to prevent any new wave of Coronavirus. Allowing small employers to offer flexible coverage options using Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) which typically cost less for employers than group plans and as a result, the addition of HRAs to the health care ecosystem could result in 11 million workers seeking coverage from them. This plan will help millions of hardworking Americans have greater access to affordable health care coverage that best meets their needs. Over the last decade, because of Obamacare, employment at businesses with fewer than 50 employees has fallen 25 percent. The promotion of HRAs will make sure that millions of Americans will once again be able to use employer-funded HRAs to pay for health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses. And that will be done through helping 800,000 small companies in the U.S. build their workforce by offering affordable health care options. Allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, make  the insurance marketplaces and subsidies to help people afford coverage and more competitive and provide tax credits to help people buy insurance among state lines while at the same time providing funding to fix Medicare and Medicaid with no cuts. We are the party that trusts the American people and their doctors, not government, to handle their health care.

Veterans
Holding corrupt bureaucrats in the VA accountable in order to ensure the maintenance of integrity in the VA system. Enforcing the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act so that returning veterans can promptly return to their former jobs. Elimination of the income tax on military retirement income, which will reinforce incomes for our veterans. Investment in the development of new social security and job training programs for our veterans to make sure they will earn the best post-military service they can ever imagine.

Social issues
Gun rights : Protection of the Second Amendment and of the American people's right to bear a gun and to self-defense while allowing the Attorney General to block the transfer of fireweapons to suspected terrorists or suspected criminals.

Abortion : Pro-life vision seeing human life as fragile, valuable and precious. Protection of the life of the unborn. Promotion of adoption as an alternative to abortion.

Supreme Court : Nomination of conservative judges who will defend the Second Amendment, the life of the unborn as well as freedom of religion and respect state powers.

Immigration
Now that our borders are secured and that illegal immigration is brought under control (as the completion of the construction of the Wall stopped illegal immigration by 213 % according to a study published last year), 100 % at most increase for any sort of immigration program like green cards and various visas and emphasize the strictness of background checks and keep borders secured.

Foreign policy and national security
Military : Keeping our military strong and modernizing it to make sure we'll preserve America's status as the world's most powerful military and make sure we'll have all the necessary tools to be ready to face America's national security challanges.

Counter-terrorism : Keeping our security measures strong, providing military training and arsenal to our Western African allies in order to get them ready to combat Boko Haram. Targeting Boko Haram's key targets through airstrike drones, which will deprive Boko Haram of the sources they need to finance their war effort, which will help us to defeat this terrorist organization, which will reduce the need to deploy additional ground troops and will cost our country less as drones are significantly cheaper to purchase, fuel, and maintain than regular airplanes. As a result, we will keep America safe without putting so many lives in harm's way.

Russia : Normalizing our country's relations with Sergei Polonsky's Russia, working hard together for the maintenance of peace, stability, democracy and freedom and the respect of human rights in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East. Development of decent trade relations between the United States and Russia for the sake of our prosperity and peaceful collaboration.

Nuclear security : Pursuing the strong progress made in the last 8 years through the denuclearization of North Korea and Iran and ratifying, along with our allies, the Fissile Material Cut-off to prohibit the use of fissile material for the building of nuclear weapons, thus eliminating any risk of nuclear war and strengthening global peace thanks to strong American leadership and diplomacy.

Space exploration
Prioritizing the Artemis Program’s Lunar Gateway, a project of space station that is planned to be crewed (4 astronauts) and to operate in lunar orbit before establishing a manned base on the Moon’s surface, which will be done by preventing wasteful earmarks from diverting precious resources from critical scientific and aeronautics research, committing to funding the Artemis program to ensure it has the resources it needs for human space exploration and encouraging public-private partnerships to fund that project, thus making sure that the establishment of a manned base on the Moon’s surface will be accomplished by 2028, which will give a springboard to a crewed mission to Mars and guarantee that the accomplishment of America's objective to send astronauts to Mars by 2030 will be fulfilled and that the United States will be the first country to do so.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 1

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Sonny Perdue, former Georgia Governor
-David Clarke, Sheriff from Wisconsin
-David Shafer, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party
-Brian Kemp, Georgia Governor

Own creation
Thank you! Thank you all of you! Thank you my fellow Republicans! Thank you my fellow Americans!

My name is Brian Kemp and as Governor of the great state of Georgia it is a great honor for me to host this Republican National Convention here in Atlanta to speak on behalf of our nominee and the next President of the United States of America, Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This election is about how to keep this how to keep this country moving forward, how to grant opportunity for all Americans, how to protect our freedom and how to keep this country safe.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Under my tenure as Governor of Georgia, we made strong progress in taking care of our brave men and women in uniform during and after their military career, we did that by eliminating the state income tax on military retirement income, by securing funding for Veterans Career Transition Resource Center (VECTR) satellite services at all 22 Technical College System of Georgia campuses and by creating a senior level position within the Governor’s Office to defend our nine military installations and strengthen the communities and local economies they support, thus also making strong contributions in keeping our country safe.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio has the best record of taking care of our veterans : in the U.S. Senate, he cosponsored the AGREE Act, a bill that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital, gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. Marco Rubio successfully co-sponsored the 2014 VA reform law by introducing a measure empowering the VA secretary to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence and corruption and to care more about veterans than bureaucrats. In 2019, he co-sponsored the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act that helped veterans re-entering the workforce get jobs in STEM-related fields by requiring the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate programs to train and transition military veterans for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math. And because President Trump and Vice-President Rubio rebuilt our military and restored American leadership after 8 years of weakness by the previous administration, we managed to defeat ISIS, to make sure that our soldiers’ service, fight and sacrifices for the values cherished by this great country (freedom, justice, democracy, gender equity, etc.) will not be in vain and to bring our troops home in honor and dignity three years ago and it was in the aftermath that the Veterans Care Financial Protection Act of 2022 has been adopted, making the federal Department of Veterans Affairs work with state and federal agencies to stop con men who are diverting federal aid away from veterans. That is the kind of confidence, loyalty and respect our troops deserve from their next Commander-in-Chief, so trust me, they will earn it from Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And as President, he will use will invest a part of budget surpluses in the development of new social security and job training programs for our veterans to make sure they will earn the best post-military service they can ever imagine. That way, their courage, their service and their patriotism will be honored forever.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

You know, the Democrats once believed in cutting taxes and in small government. John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, cut taxes during his presidency, which boomed the economy, thus encouraging job creation and increasing wages for American workers through an expansion of the GDP by an average of 5.5 % from early 1961 to late 1963, through a decline of inflation to 1 %, through a decline of the unemployment rate from 6.6 % to below 4 % from 1961 to 1967, through a rise of industrial production by 15 % and a rise of motor vehicle sales rose by 40 %. One of my predecessors, former Georgia Governor Zell Miller, a Democrat, was a tax-cut Governor. Governor Miller cut the income tax three times and abolished the sales tax on groceries, which represented a $1 billion in tax relief for Georgia families. He cut income taxes by 15 % and he supported the elimination of the marriage penalty and the estate tax and he understood that the best tax cut we could give to our children is to use the budget surplus to pay down the national debt. As a result, Georgia’s economy boomed and the state’s unemployment rate under Zell Miller’s governorship has been reduced from 6.9 % to 3.6 %.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And President Trump provided the largest tax cuts in American history that eliminated the death tax and the marriage penalty tax, reduced the corporate tax rate in half and made America the best place in the world to do business. As a result, more than seven-and-a-half million new jobs have been created in the last 8 years, we reduced our national unemployment rate at the lowest in more than 50 years, and got the Hispanic and African-American unemployment rates at their lowest rate ever.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And thanks to those tax cuts, nine out of ten Georgia households take the standard deduction which provides tax relief and simplifies the tax filing process, 142,930 Georgia households are benefiting from elimination of the Obamacare individual mandate tax as households hit with this tax made less than $50,000 per year. And those tax reductions allowed Georgia businesses of all sizes to hire, expand, raise pay and increase employee benefits.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Those great results have been made possible thanks to Marco Rubio’s leadership and his effort to double the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000, which helped pass those creative tax-reform policies and gave us the strongest economy in modern history.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Yet, despite those positive results, Tammy Duckworth and her colleagues in Congress voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

[Crowd boos]

She even voted against repealing the death tax and against the America's Small Business Tax Relief Act despite the fact that 7 out of 10 jobs in America are created by small businesses, and so she stood in the way of more jobs and higher wages.

[Crowd boos]

What Senator Duckworth doesn’t understand is that government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem. On the other hand, Marco Rubio does get it. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, he has the right experience to keep this economy growing and make sure that all Americans will have good-paying jobs. He will do that by lowering taxes so our economy can grow and so we can preserve and reinforce America’s status as the best business-friendly environment in the world. He’ll reduce taxes for the middle-class so we can give America a stronger middle-class through higher wages, give the middle-class and lower income Americans a fair chance to prosper and help small businesses to increase their competitiveness as well as their ability to produce, to sell, to hire and to create jobs.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will achieve energy independence with conversation and new domestic production of oil and gas, with the investment of a part of oil drilling revenues into the development of renewable energies and with the development of more nuclear energy through tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and subsidies for the building of new nuclear power plants so we can make America number one in nuclear energy production and exportation.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will expand free trade so we can be more competitive by trading with 95 % of the world market, by reducing tariffs, by making U.S. products more accessible to international consumers and by allowing our businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And by choosing Senator John James as his running mate, a successful businessman and job creator who ran the James Group International (a family business that provides supply chain management and logistics services), Marco Rubio further displayed our party’s status as the party of the economy, as a fighter for everyday Americans, everyday taxpayers, everyday hard-working Americans, etc. Together, Marco Rubio and John James will, as the next President and Vice-President of the United States, achieve and expand America’s prosperity thanks to the promotion of free enterprise, tax reform, small government and the preservation and reinforcement of America’s status as the best business-friendly environment in the world.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My friends, we need to get the job done, which is to elect as our next President a leader who has dedicated all his life in protecting and expanding the American Dream, who cares about the fate of the vulnerable and hard-working Americans, who has the right background and experience to keep this economy growing and make it work for all Americans and lead us to long-term and steady economic prosperity and to full-employment and this leader is Marco Rubio.

Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 2

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Johnny Isakson, former Georgia Senator
-Roger Wicker, Mississippi Senator
-Joni Ernst, Iowa Senator and Senate Majority Leader

Own creation
Thank you, Georgia. Thank you, Iowa. Thank you, my fellow Americans.

You know, I never would have imagined that a farm girl like me, from Montgomery County, would have the opportunity to serve as the first woman elected to federal office from Iowa and also to become the first woman to serve as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

However, my parents always said to my brother, sister and me, that if we worked hard, anything was possible just like the hard-work of a bartender and housekeeper who came to this country from Cuba made it possible for Marco Rubio and his siblings to earn all the opportunities they couldn’t have earned for themselves. It has always been his purpose to make sure that the next generation will be better off than the previous. And that is what this campaign is all about.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Ten years ago, we took control of the Senate and reinforced our majority in the House of Representatives with the mandate of standing up to big government, to higher taxes and to insecurity and to stand up for small government, lower taxes, energy independence, Constitution and strong national defense. And we kept our promise to defend these values and because we put America first ahead of partisanship and listened to the American people’s concerns, we earned their trust and defended their interests through an even stronger majority in Congress.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We passed the first major education reform in more than a decade, and ended Common Core and championed school choice. We made the first significant reforms to Social Security in three decades. We passed a crucial cybersecurity bill, we defunded Planned Parenthood for the sake of the life of the unborn, approved the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to advance America’s path to energy independence and to encourage job creation and rebuilt our national defense. We brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass the boldest veteran reforms in history and we passed the largest tax cuts in our nation’s history and helped provide the strong economic growth that America is now living.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And to ensure even more of such strong progress, to face these times of challenges, to defend America’s values and to keep America’s status as the greatest nation in the history of mankind, we need Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

Marco Rubio has never lost faith in a cause which is to preserve America’s status as the promised land of opportunity. And that’s why he believes that we need to stand together for opportunity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And that means keeping taxes low so that families, including middle-class and lower income families, can keep more of their hard-earned money.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That means making America a place open for business and job creation.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That means changing the way we educate our kids by empowering those whose minds are shackled by poor education with real choices in where they get to go to school.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That means reducing our dependency on foreign sources of oil by getting America to energy independence and promote oil and gas production as well as renewable energy production.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Only Marco Rubio believes in that potential and that’s why we need him as President.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I've had the great honor of serving my state and our country while working alongside some of our nation's finest soldiers. For 14 months, I served as a company commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where my unit was tasked with running convoys through Kuwait and southern Iraq. And after more than 23 years of service, I retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard.

In the last 2 years, we suffered two radical Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil by Boko Haram. On September 25th 2022, 6 Boko Haram jihadists committed a suicide car bomb attack on a tramway in San Francisco, killing 42 people and wounding 76 before being killed by the San Francisco Police. And 6 months ago, another Boko Haram terrorist has assassinated Senator John Thune in Virginia. In the aftermath of these attacks, we made it absolutely clear that we will not surrender to terror and tyranny and that we will stand up to radical Islamic terrorism and combat it by any means. And Marco Rubio is the man for that job to keep America safe.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In the U.S. Senate, he passed those tough sanctions on Hezbollah in order to diminish their ability to attack us and our allies by restricting its ability to fundraise and recruit increase pressure on banks that do business with it and crack down on countries that support Hezbollah. In 2019, Marco Rubio co-sponsored the Let Freedom Reign Act that provided the people of Venezuela the necessary support and arsenal to defeat Maduro's tyranny and successfully orchestrate their country's path to freedom, democracy and integrity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Vice-President of the United States, Marco Rubio helped President Trump to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and to get the world to the denuclearization of North Korea, which has been done thanks to a rebuilding and modernization of our military, to strong American leadership and to strong diplomacy.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Three years ago, Marco Rubio led the diplomatic mission that eventually led to the denuclearization of Iran and to a normalization of our relations with Tehran and ended Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism, thus ensuring strong stability and peace in the Middle East.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And, more recently, under the strong leadership of President Trump and Vice-President Rubio, we have, thanks to our efforts to provide military training and arsenal to the Kurds, helped our Middle Eastern allies to win Operation Ceasefire without a single American casualty in Turkey, thus getting to peace talks with Turkish leadership that we concluded through the recognition of Kurdistan as an independent and sovereign nation and will restore freedom and democracy in Turkey, thus restoring stability, freedom in the region.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Throughout her political career, Tammy Duckworth has headed on the wrong side of every major national defense issue facing America. This is not a personal criticism of Tammy Duckworth. I respect her for her service to our nation.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

But it is important to see the contrast in approach between the two candidates for the highest office in the world : Vice-President Rubio, a leader ready to do whatever it takes to protect America’s safety and freedom, and Tammy Duckworth, whose record suggests a politician who doesn’t have the conviction and the judgement to successfully face our national security challenges.

In 2014, even when ISIS was controlling over 70 % of Iraq’s territory, Tammy Duckworth has declared her opposition to airstrikes against ISIS.

[Crowd boos]

Senator Duckworth supported Obama’s nuclear deal with the old Iranian regime that handed billions and billions of dollars to a country that was the world’s largest state-sponsor of global terrorism through the lifting of the sanctions, which gave them the necessary capitals to sponsor terrorist organizations and to develop nuclear weapons.

[Crowd boos]

While freedom is under siege in Russia through the recently failed coup by Putin, while Sergei Polonsky successfully helped strengthening peace and stability in the Middle East through a withdrawal of Russian troops from Turkey (which helped our allies to win Operation Ceasefire), remember what Tammy Duckworth did : last winter, when Polonsky was making strong progress in the recent Russian presidential election at the point of bringing change that will provide better relations between our 2 countries, ensure strong freedom, stability and peace in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Tammy Duckworth and most of her Democratic colleagues in Congress challenged Polonsky’s credibility, accusing him of being President Trump’s puppet in the Russian election while there’s absolutely no evidence of any interference by Washington and, with their obsession to bring down President Trump, they attempted to impeach him.

[Crowd boos]

This attitude shows that Tammy Duckworth is more worried about partisan politics than about our national security, more worried about impeaching President Trump than about an adversary’s use of power against us and our allies (referring to the Putin regime’s escalation with America in terms of military power, its veto power against America’s national security interests and its invasion of countries like Ukraine, Georgia as well as to the 2016 attempted coup by Russian nationalists in Montenegro).

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This is not how leadership works, that is not the way to win friends and allies and you’re never going to have better relations with Moscow with that kind of attitude. Instead, we must bring people together Republicans, Democrats and Independents, to advance policies that will guarantee strong global peace as well as America’s security. Unlike Tammy Duckworth, Marco Rubio will treat our allies with respect, work and collaborate with them and expand our alliances for the sake of peace and security and that’s why he's the most qualified presidential candidate in this race to be Commander-in-Chief.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

As Ronald Reagan once said « if we do not accept the responsibilities of leadership, who will? » So let me ask you the following question tonight : if Tammy Duckworth does not accept the responsibilities of leadership, who will?

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

She is suggesting that we should wait until the next attack before displaying any kind of strong leadership, before forcefully defending America and keeping this country strong and safe. My fellow Americans, we have already been attacked (referring to Boko Haram’s 2022 terrorist attack in San Francisco and its attack murdering John Thune last winter).

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Tough times require strong leadership and this is no time for weakness, this is no time for on-the-job training.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This is a time for strength and experience. Unlike Tammy Duckworth, Marco Rubio does accept the responsibilities of leadership because he understands the duty of the next President to face our national security challenges and to keep America strong, safe and free and that’s exactly what he did as Senator and as Vice-President and that’s what he will do as the 46th President of the United States and as Commander-in-Chief.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio has the experience, the judgment and the character to lead America in a changing world, that’s why we can trust him to make tough decisions which our national security depends on.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Under his leadership, we’re going to keep our military strong and modernize it. We’re going to defeat Boko Haram by providing our Western African allies in military training and in materials to get them to ready to take on the responsibility of their own security. That will also be done through drone airstrikes targeting Boko Haram key targets as well as their controlled oil refineries to deprive them of revenues from their oil drilling activities to fund their war effort and their plans of terrorist attacks. That way, we will defeat our enemies without needing to send additional troops in Africa and through lower cost.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Commander-in-Chief, Marco Rubio will stand up for the maintenance of freedom Kurdistan’s independence and sovereignty in the aftermath of the recently successful peace talks with Turkey. He will normalize our relations with Polonsky’s Russia and they will be strong partners for the protection of human rights, peace and stability on the international stage. And to accomplish our path to permanent nuclear security and eliminate any risk of nuclear war, Marco Rubio will work with our allies to ratify the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty that will prohibit the use of fissile material to build nuclear weapons.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

He selected as his running mate one of the best partners a Republican presidential nominee could have ever found : John James, a man who fought for America against terror and tyranny through his service as Captain in the U.S. Army and participation at Operation Iraqi Freedom as a Apache pilot. This is also a job creator who ran his family's business named James Group International, a supply chain business that has the mission to manage and optimize its customer’s supply chain infrastructures and processes by designing and implementing complex supply chain solutions and leveraging information technology. And as a U.S. Senator, he fought to protect Michigan taxpayers by standing up for tax reform and the promotion of free enterprise.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The Rubio/James ticket is one of the most qualified teams ever to lead this country. Thanks to their experience, qualifications, background and leadership, they will get America to full-employment and permanent economic prosperity through the promotion of tax reform, free enterprise and energy independence and they will get us to long-term global peace thanks to strong American leadership, strong national defense and strong diplomacy.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

So, my fellow Americans, we need to stand together for opportunity. We need all of you to mobilize in order to strengthen our majorities in both houses of Congress and to elect Marco Rubio and John James the next President and Vice-President of the United States to keep moving this country forward.

Thank you! God bless you all and God bless America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 3

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Felix Rodriguez, former CIA operative
-Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Senator, former Louisiana Governor and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016
-George Pataki, former New York Governor and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016

Own creation
Thank you, thank you so very much!

As you know, I was Governor of the state of New York when America has suffered the deadliest attack ever orchestrated against us on 9/11. But as Governor, I helped to establish the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), who was responsible for dispersing federal funding and overseeing construction on the rebuilding of the One World Trade Center, which is a victory of life over death.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I've been up on that tower. That's exactly what we hoped, that we would not just rebuild what was here, but build taller and higher and soar to new heights, and show people that we weren't going to think small or live afraid.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I remember that on September 11th, my daughter had called after the first plane hit the Twin Towers, and I was on the phone with her. And then I saw the second plane hit and knew right away that we were being attacked and I started to take action. I'll just never forget one obviously homeless gentleman coming up and giving me a hug, and me telling him, "We'll get through this," and his saying, "Thank you, I'm sure we will." Despite our political differences, we have always understood, Republicans and Democrats, that we have a common background and a common destiny, and when we stand together, we can accomplish anything. I saw that on the streets of New York in the days and weeks after September 11. We understood that we were all Americans who had been attacked and were going to rise up together, and we did.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And together, along with our allies, we went after the terrorists responsible of the 9/11 attacks in their training camps, in their hiding places, in their spider holes, before they have the chance to attack us again. And we eventually brought Osama Bin Laden to justice.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And after we’ve been attacked by ISIS in Garland, San Bernardino and Orlando, we went after them and defeated ISIS thanks to a strong military, strong alliances and strong American leadership and eliminated Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio is the right candidate in this race to lead us to final victory against radical Islamic terrorism, to keep America safe and make sure that our country will not be hit again by our enemies.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Time and again, Marco Rubio advocated a strong national defense and he passed every test.


[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

He sponsored that bill toughening sanctions on Hezbollah, passed the Girls Count Act to combat human trafficking, passed the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act to provide assistance to our Jordanian allies in the battle against ISIS and in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis. He brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass the Let Freedom Reign Act that provided military training and arms sales for the Venezuelan insurgency during the Venezuelan Civil War and helped the people of Venezuela to transfer towards democracy, liberty and integrity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Vice-President, Marco Rubio helped this President to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and get the world to a denuclearized Iran and a denuclearized North Korea, thus making the world much safer, more stabilized and more peaceful than ever before.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

He is the only one who can keep us on offense against terrorism at home and abroad until final victory over them. He will do so by keeping our military strong, by standing with our allies, providing them all the necessary military training and arsenal they need to combat Boko Haram and by targeting Boko Haram’s controlled oil refineries to deprive them of any source of supply to fund their war effort, which will help us to defeat that evil.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

Unlike his opponent, who has not been willing to take a position on the most recent foreign policy crises in the last few months, Marco Rubio established a very strong, informed position that let the world know how he'll respond as president at exactly the right time. When Operation Ceasefire was triggered, he made it clear that he will bring strong support to our allies through military training and arsenal and that he would keep pressure on Turkey through an embargo on their oil and stand up for Kurdistan’s independence and sovereignty, an objective that has been accomplished very recently.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When Sergei Polonsky got elected President of Russia, he declared that he will normalize our relations for the sake of global peace and stability and made it clear that he will ratify the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty to accomplish our world’s path to permanent nuclear security and eliminate any risk of nuclear escalation and nuclear war.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That is the kind of strength and leadership that we need in our next Commander-in-Chief. And that’s why we need to stand together like we did after 9/11 in order to elect Marco Rubio as our next President and that way, we will get the world to permanent peace through strength, to long-term global stability and preserve America’s status as a shining city on the hill.

Thank you! God bless you and God bless America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 4

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Senator
-Francis Rooney, U.S. Representative from FL-19
-Rob O’Neill, retired US Navy SEAL :

Own creation
Thank you so very much! Thank you Atlanta!

It has always been an honor for me to serve this great country and to defend its values. In the beginning, it was my father Tom who took me hunting and taught me sharpshooting. Then at age 19, a year after graduating from Butte Central High School, I enlisted in the Navy. And as a member of the U.S. Navy SEALs, I’ve been involved in more than 400 missions, including the mission to save Captain Richard Philipps during the Maersk Alabama hijacking and Operation Red Wings in which I helped save Marcus Luttrell, known as the Lone Survivor.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Then in 2011, 10 years after we suffered the worst attack ever orchestrated on America in history, a day on which Bin Laden and Al Qaeda killed 3000 Americans, a day in which many families suffered and cried from the loss of their beloved ones, a day in which we’ve been attacked for what we believe, a day in which the American Dream, democracy, justice and freedom have been under siege, it was with great honor and patriotism that I participated at the Operation Neptune's Spear in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which I killed Osama Bin Laden. Justice is done!

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

Since then, the previous administration committed a serious mistake by withdrawing our troops from Iraq too early and by imposing deep cuts in or thus allowing the rise ISIS who controlled an important part of the Iraqi and Syrian territories and is committing many waves of terrorist attacks against allies and against us, including in Garland, San Bernardino and Orlando. These are all policies supported by Tammy Duckworth who wants to achieve peace through withdrawal instead of achieving peace through strength.

[Crowd boos]

But fortunately, under the strong leadership of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, we have changed all of that, restored American leadership and gave the advantage to America and our allies. We rebuilt and modernized our military, we went defeated ISIS through airstrikes and the provision of military training and arsenal to the Kurds and the Peshmerga and we killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Operation Kayla Muehller.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio has displayed remarkable leadership when it comes to nuclear security through his visit, 3 years ago, to Iran and got pro-American Iranian President Arsham Parsi to stop Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism as well as Tehran’s military nuclear program that represented a great threat to our national security and global peace. And under his leadership as Vice-President, we also got North Korea to denuclearize, thus making our world more stabilized and more peaceful than ever before and put us on the right track to global peace.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Instead of going forward with the kind of successful strategy that is defeating terrorism, our political opponents are suggesting that we should battle terrorists here at home, which will put more American lives in danger. But Marco Rubio believes we need to go after the terrorists in their training camps, in their hiding places, in their spider holes, before they have the chance to attack us again. He’ll do that by providing military training, arsenal and intelligence support to our allies in West Africa so they will have all the preparedness and the support needed to combat Boko Haram. He will also promote the use of drones to destroy key Boko Haram targets such as their oil refineries in order to deprive them of any source of supply for their war effort, thus making them much easier to find, stop and defeat.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My friends, this election represents our greatest opportunity to ensure long-term global peace in a time in which we defeated ISIS in the Middle East, denuclearized Iran and North Korea and are improving our relations with Russia thanks to a pro-American Russian President there. That requires electing a great American, and a leader who has the right experience, background and agenda to keep us safe and to ensure a stabilized and peaceful world. And this man is Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as Vice-President of the United States, he knows what it takes to keep this country safe. By normalizing our relations with Polonsky’s Russia for the sake of better relations and to stand up for the respect of freedom and human rights, by working with our allies to ratify the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and by modernizing our military, he will lead us to long-term global peace and national security as well as the preservation of our freedom so our children and grandchildren will inherit a world in which they will have the chance to experience peace, security and freedom. So let’s come together and elect Marco Rubio and John James so our country will remain safe and free under their leadership.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 5

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Tom Cotton, Secretary of Veteran Affairs
-John Shimkus, U.S. Representative from IL-15
-Christine Butler and Diane Goins, military veterans :

Butler : My name is Christine Butler.

Goins : My name is Denise Goins.

Butler : Denise and I had the honor to serve this great republic called the United States of America and to protect freedom, justice, integrity and democracy against terror and tyranny.

Goins : Christine and I experienced the hell that our fellow veterans have known throughout war. Some of us came back home with honor, sometime with a part of ourselves left behind, and some of us never came back.

Butler : But sadly, too many of us, including myself and Denise, have been victims of corruption inside VA bureaucracy. Too many of us have experienced such kind of hell at the Anna Veterans Home. Too many of us have felt abandoned and their warnings unheard. Too many of us have been ignored by those corrupt bureaucrats.

Goins : And under Tammy Duckworth’s watch as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, many of our courageous military veterans were abused. It is not her patriotism, but her judgment that has been so sorely lacking. A whistleblower had the courage to tell the truth about corruption in VA bureaucracy and confirmed that an unchecked criminal was allowed to care for a veteran.

Butler : Unfortunately, when whistleblowers came forward, Duckworth threatened, bullied and fired them, covering up the abuse.

[Crowd boos]

Goins : She has told me point-blank, right in front of me, and I quote, « Keep your mouth shut and you won’t be fired ».

[Crowd boos]

Goins : Though she’s trying to deny the facts, I’m standing right here because I came here on my own initiative, because I am telling the truth and she knows that.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Goins : And Senator, if you’re watching us right now, I dare you, right into the camera and straight in the eye, to challenge the credibility of our brave men and women in uniform who swore to protect our people, our country and our freedom because doing so is deeply offensive and disgraceful towards the memory and sacrifices that we made in defense of America.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : Because doing so means lying to the American people. You can run, but you can’t hide.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : Anyone denigrating the credibility of our courageous men and women in uniform should not be their commander-in-chief.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : Duckworth was trying to protect disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. She has put her personal aspirations ahead of the veterans’ care. The veterans’ care were not her top priority.

[Crowd boos]

Goins : And because of these abuses, six veterans died trying to gain admission to the Anna Veterans Home. May they rest in peace.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Goins : No wonder that Tammy Duckworth has been called to court 7 years ago. If we can’t trust her to tell us the truth, how can we possibly trust her to lead America?

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : Marco Rubio is everything Tammy Duckworth is not. He is blunt, direct, honest and strong. He has a clear and decent record of accomplishments when it comes to taking care of our veterans. He values the courage and patriotism of our soldiers.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Goins : In the Senate, Marco Rubio cosponsored the AGREE Act, a bill that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital, gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. He passed the 2014 VA Accountability reform law by introducing a measure empowering the VA secretary to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence and corruption and to care more about veterans than bureaucrats.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : In 2019, he co-sponsored the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act that helped veterans re-entering the workforce get jobs in STEM-related fields by requiring the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate programs to train and transition military veterans for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math. And under the leadership of President Trump and Vice-President Rubio, the Veterans Care Financial Protection Act of 2022 has been adopted after the withdrawal of our troops from Syria and Iraq in 2021, making the federal Department of Veterans Affairs work with state and federal agencies to stop con men who are diverting federal aid away from veterans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Goins : As President, Marco Rubio will invest a part of budget surpluses in the development of new social security and job training programs for our veterans to make sure they will earn the best post-military service they can ever imagine.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Butler : So let’s come together to elect Marco Rubio as our Commander-in-Chief so our veterans’ heroism, courage, patriotism, service and sacrifices will be honored forever thanks to decent health care and social services for our them and so we can keep this country safe through strong foreign policy, national defense and American leadership to make sure that our sacrifices and our contributions to the defense of our country’s freedom and democracy will not be in vain and will be honored for years to come.

Goins : Thank you. God bless our soldiers, God bless you and God bless America.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 6

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Marcus Luttrell, retired US Navy SEAL
-Tim Scott, South Carolina Senator
-Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 :

Own creation
Thank you! Thank you so very much! Thank you Atlanta for this wonderful hospitality!

I’m here to speak to you about a serious subject : how to keep America safe. And I know that Marco Rubio is the best qualified and the most experienced presidential candidate to serve as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief and to keep America prosperous and safe and that he has the best agenda for America’s future.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I’m a living proof of that matter of fact. As Mayor of New York City, I turned that great and wonderful city from the crime capital of America to the safest large city in America. What I did for New York City, Marco Rubio will do for America!

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Here is how we managed to drastically reduce crime rate and ensured strong security here during my time as Mayor of New York City : I directed the New York City Police Department to aggressively pursue enterprises linked to organized crime, such as the Fulton Fish Market and the Javits Center on the West Side (Gambino crime family). By breaking mob control of solid waste removal, the city was able to save businesses over $600 million. One of the 2 major factors to this overall decline in crime in my city is because my municipal administration approved federal funding of an additional 7,000 police officers. As a result, the crime rate in New York City fell by 56 % during my 7 years as Mayor, more in the 1990s and 2000s than nationwide and therefore credit is given to a local dynamic: highly focused policing. In this view, as much as half of the reduction in crime in New York in the 1990s, and almost all in the 2000s, is due to policing. And during this time, murders inside the home, which could not be prevented by more police officers, decreased at the same rate as murders outside the home. In the last 8 years, we brought that kind of leadership by securing our borders, deployment of additional police officers and soldiers to the US-Mexico border, the approval of body armors for sheriffs and highly focused policing around the country. As President, Marco Rubio will pursue that progress by keeping our borders secured, cracking down on opioid traffickers to combat the Opioid Crisis and by encouraging highly focused policing.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The second major factor of this impressive strengthening of security and to the remarkable decline of crime rate in New York City under my tenure as Mayor there is an improvement of the national economy, including in New York. We have made that possible because we promoted opportunity. We made that possible because during my 7 years as Mayor, I cut taxes 23 times, and thus we encouraged job creation by making New York City a place open for business, cutting our unemployment rate in half (from 10 % in 1993 to 5 % in 2001) and brought in 450,000 new jobs. When I became Mayor, I inherited a $2.3 billion deficit from my predecessor, David Dinkins. During my first term, we cut taxes, cut spending, and reduced the municipal payroll, thereby closing the budget gap. By my second term, the upward swing of the mid-late 1990s dot-com bubble, which especially benefited New York's financial sector, resulted in greatly increased tax revenues for the city; soon there was a budget surplus of $3 billion.

Marco knows how to keep this economy growing because he made such contributions throughout his career : he cosponsored the AGREE Act, a bill that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital, gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. He introduced the co-sponsored the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act which required the Small Business Administration to conduct an annual study to estimate the total cost of regulations on small businesses, thus avoiding devastating regulations that would have meant a disaster for our economy through free enterprise's decline and job losses. In 2017, he led the effort to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and even broader by increasing the Child Tax Credit from $1000-$2000. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Marco Rubio took strong leadership in protecting the interests of American businesses seeking competition here and abroad by passing legislation that lowered taxes for small businesses, defended the interests of American companies here and abroad, ensuring economic growth and development around this country and made America's prosperity possible and strong. And thanks to the promotion of free enterprise, tax-cuts and small-government policies promoted by President Trump and Vice-President Rubio, we created 7 and a half million new jobs in the last 8 years, brought our national unemployment rate at its  lowest in more than 50 years. As President, Marco Rubio will pursue those tax reform policies, reduce taxes for all Americans, including the middle class, reduce wasteful government spending and promote fiscal discipline, balance the budget in the next 4 years, reduce our corporate tax rate to 15 %, get us to energy independence by taking advantage of America's sources of energy (including oil, gas, coal, solar, nuclear, wind, hydroelectric energies), promote free trade with our allies for the sake of America's competitiveness in the world economy and he will remove barriers to public-private partnerships to fund infrastructure projects and will also ensure further infrastructure development through a part of future budget surpluses thus encouraging economic activities and the implantation of new businesses here in this country. That’s how we will bring America to full-employment, to a balanced budget, to the preservation of America’s status as the best country in the world to do business and to permanent economic prosperity, which will also reinforce security all across the United States and further reduce crime rate through such promotion of opportunity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

On the other hand, Tammy Duckworth does not believe in the effectiveness of free enterprise and wants to undo the strong economic progress that we have accomplished through higher taxes, higher regulations, deeper dependence on foreign energy and bigger government that has the power to take your hard-earned money from you.

[Crowd boos]

What Senator Duckworth has failed to understand is that the tax cuts adopted in the last few years actually benefited the middle-class as it resulted to a family of four with annual income of $73,000 (median family income) seeing a tax cut of more than $2,058 (which represents a 58 percent reduction in federal taxes), to a single parent with one child earning annually $41 000 of $1,304 (a 73 % reduction in federal taxes). And 90 % of taxpayers with annual income between $64,000 and $108,000 earned an average federal tax cut of $1400 in 2018. Nine out of ten taxpayers winning between $40,000 and $64,000 got an average federal tax cut of $810, while 87 percent of taxpayers with annual income between $108,000 and $232,000 saw an average federal tax cut of $2,710. The TCJA also doubled the standard deduction for an individual from $6,000 to $12,000 and for a family from $12,000 to $24,000. Yet, Senator Dunckworth and Governor Gallego are trying to tell us that they care about the middle-class. Give me a break! They both voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that reduced middle-class taxes, which means they voted in favor of higher taxes for the middle-class.

[Crowd boos]

But Marco Rubio will preserve America’s status as the best place in the world to do business and will reduce middle-class taxes from 22 % to 15 % while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, which will reduce the fiscal burden of the middle-class and give them a fair chance to prosper. Because Marco Rubio understands that a strong economy requires a strong middle-class and that’s exactly he will provide as our next President.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And by choosing John James, a successful businessman, as his running mate, he has further reinforced our ticket’s reputation, our party’s reputation, as a fighter for the hard-working American. Marco Rubio and John James spent their entire lives protecting the interests of hard-working families and they will keep doing so as our next President and Vice-President, through tax reform, small government, free enterprise and fiscal responsibility.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Under my tenure as Mayor of New York City, this wonderful city suffered one of the most terrible tragedies in history : on September 11th 2001, Al Qaeda committed the deadliest attack on our country when 2 planes controlled by radical Islamic terrorists hit the World Trade Center, killing 3000 people. In the aftermath of 9/11, I ordered authorities to close tunnels as a precautionary measure and as we organized the support of state and federal authorities for the World Trade Center site, for citywide anti-terrorist measures, and for restoration of destroyed infrastructure. Since then, we rebuilt the World Trade Center on the same site, which so many, including me, consider as a victory of life over death. Since then, strong progress has been made to combat terrorism as we declared war on terror and used military force against radical Islamic terrorism, we defeated Al Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, etc. and we eliminated Osama Bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

A year-and-a-half ago, Boko Haram orchestrated a terrorist attack against our people in San Francisco through a suicide car bomb attack on a tramway and a shooting, killing 42 people and wounding 76 before being shot by local police officers. And more recently, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been assassinated by a Boko Haram jihadist who infiltrated this country as a sleeper agent with the mission of targeting a major US political figure. That’s why we and our allies took military action against Boko Haram in West Africa where we are leading airstrikes against them and training regional armed forces to help them defeat this threat. And what strikes me as beyond the pale is that even shortly after Senator Thune’s assassination, the Democrats, including Tammy Duckworth, did not address that issue, not even once. They did not put forward any plan to defeat the terrorist threat. And in their fear to be politically incorrect, they are still afraid to use the words « radical Islamic terrorism » to define our enemy.

[Crowd boos]

At a time ISIS was controlling a major part of Iraq and Syria, Senator Duckworth opposed airstrikes against ISIS.

[Crowd boos]

Senator Duckworth even voted against prohibiting the transfer of Guantanamo terrorists to any foreign country even though such transfers could have allowed them to escape, to be on the run once again, to return to terrorism and to orchestrate even more attacks on us and our allies like it happened with Said Ali al-Shiri.

[Crowd boos]

Tammy Duckworth, along with Ruben Gallego, supported Obama’s nuclear deal with the old Iranian regime that was the world’s largest state-sponsor of global terrorism, which handed them, through a lifting of sanctions, billions of dollars that they used to sponsor terrorist organizations and to get nuclear weapons in order to kill us and our allies.

[Crowd boos]

Senator Duckworth is seeking to impose deep cuts in our military, which will deprive America of the tools needed to keep this country safe and to defeat terrorism and will make America an easier target for terrorists.

[Crowd boos]

With Marco Rubio as President, we will not surrender to terrorism and he will keep us on offense against Boko Haram. As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as Vice-President of the United States, he knows what it takes to defeat terrorism and keep America safe. He will do so by keeping our military strong and modernizing it and standing with our allies. He will provide our Western African allies in military training and in materials to prepare them to face Boko Haram. And he will also promote drone airstrikes on key Boko Haram targets in order to combat them without needing to send additional troops there. And finally, he will take on Boko Haram’s oil refineries to deprive them of any means to fund their war effort through the exploitation of those refineries. That way, we will finally win the War on Terror and ensure that the United States of America will not get attacked again by jihadists, which is key to strong global peace and security.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio helped President Trump to get to the world to the denuclearization of North Korea and Iran and to an end to Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism, which is putting us on track to accomplish permanent nuclear security.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

John James served for 8 years in the United States Army, participating in multiple tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom where he was an Apache pilot, protecting America and its freedom against terror and tyranny and he will keep doing it as America’s next Vice-President.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio and John James believe in a great and strong America that leads by leading, not by following. Unlike our opponents, they believe in peace through strength. Under a Rubio/James Administration, America will stand with our allies. They will accomplish our path to a nuclear-free world through the ratification of the proposed Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. And they will finally normalize our relations with Polonsky’s Russia in order to stand up for the preservation of freedom and democracy and for the respect and maintenance of freedom, human rights, security and stability in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. That’s how we’re going to defeat the evil represented by tyranny and terror, defend our country and our freedom and make sure that our children and grandchildren will earn the opportunity to grow up in a world of freedom, justice, safety and peace. Why? Because we are the United States of America.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

So my friends, my fellow Americans, we need to mobilize and support and elect Marco Rubio. He will be an great President and he will have with him a great partner who has already proven that he can get things done. President Rubio and Vice-President James will preserve and strengthen America’s promise and status as a shining city on the hill and a beacon of freedom that inspires and will keep inspiring the world.

Thank you all! God bless you and God bless the United States of America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 7

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Karen Vaughn, mother of a Navy SEAL who was killed in Afghanistan
-Chuck Norris, Actor
-Eric Cantor, Virginia Governor and former House Majority Leader :

Own creation
Thank you! Thank you so very, very much!

You know, this election will determine what kind of future America will earn. It will determine whether our children will be the most prosperous generation of Americans that ever lived or will be the first generation of Americans inheriting a country in decline. And that’s why 2024 is the most important election in our lifetime and we better get it right.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

While our people are worried about their jobs, about their homes, about their businesses, about their health insurance and about the threats from our enemies abroad, the Democrats spent the last few weeks, including 4 days in Alexandria, in their obsession to undo the progress of the last 8 years, trying to villainize Marco Rubio, to malign his character and to discredit the honor, service and accountability of this great man.

[Crowd boos]

Let me tell you this, I have known Marco Rubio for 15 years. He has made great and excellent accomplishments for this country throughout his political career. This is a man with a big heart. This is a man who dedicated all his life to protect the American Dream and America's status as the land of opportunity, caring about the fate of the vulnerable as well as of hard working families.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When he and his family lived paycheck to paycheck, the hard working of a bartender and a housekeeper who came to this country from Cuba, he managed to earn all the opportunities that previous generations could not have earned for themselves. That’s why it has always been his purpose to make sure that the next generation will be better off than previous ones.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When the middle-class got crushed by big government and tax-hike policies, when our veterans were left behind by corrupt VA bureaucracy, when people suffered a natural disaster, when people suffered a terrorist attack, when ethnic minorities suffered injustices, when young girls have been exploited by the shameful evil represented by human trafficking, Marco Rubio came forward and was there to help. Because this is a man with a big heart who loves people, all people, from the bottom to the top and from the middle to the side.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I am telling you this because I am sick and tired of the defamation of Marco Rubio by the media, by the radical extreme left and by the Duckworth campaign. I am sick and tired of it. This is a good man.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And America should be sick and tired of their vicious nasty campaign. You deserve to know this about your next President. He is a great father, father-in-law and husband and a great friend to me for 15 years. I know him personally, this is a very good and decent man and he will be a great President.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

While Tammy Duckworth and Ruben Gallego keep claiming that we are defenders of the top 1 %, I know as a member of the House Financial Services Committee that Marco Rubio has a clear and consistent record and commitment in protecting and advancing the needs of hard-working Americans and families, including the middle-class. Thanks to the tax-cut and free enterprise policies of the last 8 years, we created almost 8 million new jobs, brought our unemployment rate at the lowest level in more than 50 years and brought the Hispanic and African-American unemployment rate at its lowest rate ever in American history.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In the Senate, Marco Rubio co-sponsored the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act, which required the Small Business Administration to conduct an annual study to estimate the total cost of regulations on small businesses. And thanks to Marco’s efforts to double the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000, we passed the largest tax cuts in American history, thus providing strong economic growth that benefits all the American people, including the middle-class as a family of four with annual income of $73,000 (median family income) saw a tax cut of more than $2,058, a 58 percent reduction in federal taxes. A single parent with one child earning $41 000 a year saw a tax cut of $1,304, a 73 percent reduction in federal taxes. Nine out of ten taxpayers with annual income between $64,000 and $108,000 earned an average federal tax cut of $1400 in 2018. These are not my words, these are the words of the left of center Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Similarly, 90 % of taxpayers winning between $40,000 and $64,000 got an average federal tax cut of $810, while 87 percent of taxpayers with annual income between $108,000 and $232,000 saw an average federal tax cut of $2,710. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction for an individual from $6,000 to $12,000 and for a family from $12,000 to $24,000. 105 million Americans took the standard deduction in 2015 according to the IRS statistics of income (SOI) database. We have no lectures to receive from a Democratic ticket who voted against these tax reform policies that reduced the middle-class’ fiscal burden.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will do even more for the middle-class by reducing middle-class taxes to 15 %, indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, which will reduce the fiscal burden of the middle-class and give them a fair chance to prosper, to find a job, to earn higher wages and to enjoy the American Dream and make America the best friendly country for small businesses, thus encouraging strong job creation as 70 % of the jobs in America are created by small business.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When Tammy Duckworth and her running mate are accusing us of not supporting our veterans and of not understanding what it looks like to send troops to war, they are demeaning Marco Rubio’s record on veteran affairs. Their questioning of his support to our soldiers and veterans is simply a total bunch of malarkey, it’s not true. Our nominee does understand what it’s like to send our troops to war and that’s why he will promote the use of drones to combat Boko Haram by taking on their key targets, including their oil refineries and their infrastructure, which will help us and our allies to defeat our enemies without needing to send additional troops in harm’s way.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio has a large and clear commitment towards our veterans and he respects their courage and their patriotism. That’s why he passed the AGREE Act that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital, gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. Over the objections of Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio passed the 2014 VA Accountability reform law that gave the VA secretary the power to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence and corruption and to care more about veterans than bureaucrats. He co-sponsored the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act that helped veterans re-entering the workforce get jobs in STEM-related fields by requiring the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate programs to train and transition military veterans for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math. It was under the leadership of President Trump and Vice-President Rubio that we managed to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and so we managed to bring our troops and in the aftermath we adopted the Veterans Care Financial Protection Act of 2022 that made the federal Department of Veterans Affairs work with state and federal agencies to stop con men who are diverting federal aid away from veterans. And we have no lectures to receive from a Democratic ticket led by a Democratic nominee who has threatened, bullied and fired veteran whistleblowers who came forward to call out corruption in VA bureaucracy and ordered them to keep quiet about abuse on veterans within the system.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The moreover that during his time in the House of Representatives, Ruben Gallego voted against the VA Accountability Act of 2015.

[Crowd boos]

But our veterans have a great champion and advocate in Marco Rubio and John James.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In an effort to combat human trafficking, Marco Rubio passed the Girls Count Act that forced countries receiving U.S. aid to give birth certificated to girls at birth, thus freeing young girls around the world from brutality, slavery and terror.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

While our political opponents talk about taking on Wall Street, it is important to note that Marco Rubio is the one presidential candidate in this race who actually did it. In the U.S. Senate, he cosponsored the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 which sought a full audit of the Federal Reserve. And for years, Wall Street has been getting rich helping Chinese companies raise money on U.S. stock exchanges, without those firms being required to meet basic U.S. standards for transparency. Millions of Americans have unknowingly invested hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese companies whose audits have never been verified by U.S. regulators because the Chinese government did not permit its companies to submit to basic scrutiny and oversight in the United States. Hundreds of Chinese companies are listed on U.S. stock exchanges through a variety of creative investment mechanisms. Their financial audits, according to Chinese law, couldn't ever be checked. Even worse, when a Chinese firm is revealed to be involved in fraudulent activity, as happened all the time, U.S. investors had zero recourse in China. As a result, Chinese companies were bilking U.S. investors and U.S. markets were carrying huge and incalculable added risk. Something had to be done about it and that’s why Marco Rubio worked to introduce a bill that would give any foreign firm three years to make their audits available to U.S. regulators or face increased disclosure requirements if they don’t comply, which would delist them from U.S. exchanges.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

On the other hand, Tammy Duckworth is a tool of Wall Street. In effect, the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, that has no candidates in the current election campaign, indicated that Duckworth received $162 372 from Wall Street to fund her senate campaign and that she also received more money from the securities and investment industry than all but 22 other House members in the 2016 cycle, more than all but 5 other House Democrats and more than any Democratic House member from Illinois.

[Crowd boos]

While Tammy Duckworth and her running mate accused us of being « gung-ho » about wanting to intervene all over the world, they are failing to mention that as Vice-President, Marco Rubio helped this President to defeat ISIS and to bring our troops home and that even without orchestrating any ground military operations or any airstrikes in Turkey in the context of Operation Ceasefire, we helped our Middle-Eastern allies to defeat Erdogan’s Turkey thanks to the provision of military training and arsenal to the Kurds, which led to the recognition of Kurdistan as an independent state and finally restored peace, freedom and stability in the Middle East. And after Iran elected a pro-American President like Arsham Parsi after years of escalation concerning Iran’s past nuclear program, Marco Rubio has been there on the ground leading the diplomatic mission that got Iran to denuclearize, to stop state-sponsoring global terrorism and to normalize our relations between the United States and Iran, thus putting Israel and any of our allies out of danger of being wiped out by Iranian nuclear weapons and further reinforcing peace. All of that has only been made possible thanks to a strong military, strong diplomacy and strong American leadership.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Meanwhile, Tammy Duckworth has indicated that she has no interest in global peace as she and most of her colleagues in Congress called Sergei Polonsky a puppet of Washington in the recent Russian election without any evidence of it and unsuccessfully attempted to impeach President Trump despite the fact that Sergei Polonsky’s ascension at the presidency of Russia brought better relations between our 2 countries, ended decades of escalation with Russia and of Putin’s tyranny and oppression and restored peace, freedom and stability in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East and will further reduce the need to send additional American troops in harm’s way.

[Crowd boos]

But as President of the United States, Marco Rubio will, in the first 100 days of his presidency, normalize our relations with Polonsky’s Russia in order to stand up for the preservation of freedom there, for the respect, maintenance and expansion of human rights. They will work to ratify the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty in order to prohibit the use of fissile material for the purpose of building nuclear weapon. They will be strong partners for the maintenance of peace, including in the Middle East, in Europe and in the Pacific and we will work together to ensure the respect of human rights around the world. They will be strong partners for the development of decent trade relations between our two countries for the sake of our prosperity and peaceful collaboration. My friends, we have a great opportunity for long-term global peace and thanks to Marco Rubio’s foreign policy leadership and experience and to the promotion of American leadership, we’re going to get our world there.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My fellow Americans, time has come forward to put our country first by electing someone who spent all his life protecting the American Dream and fighting for the hard-working American, who will put the concerns and needs of the American people before partisanship, who fights for what’s right, who knows how to get things done for the sake of America’s future and who will preserve America’s status as the greatest nation in the history of mankind by getting us to full-employment through the promotion of free enterprise and energy independence and by getting us to long-term national security through strong American leadership. And this leader is Marco Antonio Rubio.

Thank you! God bless you, God bless America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 8

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Barry Loudermilk, U.S. Representative from Georgia’s 11th Congressional District
-Pam Bondi, Florida Senator
-Mario Rubio, combat veteran and Marco Rubio’s brother :

Own creation
Thank you! Thank you!

I'm so glad and proud to be here at the Republican National Convention to talk about my brother Marco Rubio's gratitude, patriotism and faith for our country as well as his admiration, respect and commitment to our brave veterans who sacrificed so much for the protection of this great Republic and of the values that our people cherish.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I proudly served my country as a Green beret and in the U.S. military when I fought the Vietnam War. Marco and I know the hell that our fellow veterans suffered in Vietnam whether it was in jungle warfare, in the enemy’s detention camps where they suffered torture (like John McCain did) and anything else.

Yet, Marco’s political opponents, especially Ruben Gallego, the Democratic VP nominee, have falsely accused my brother of not knowing what it looks like to send troops into war and are questioning his support to our soldiers. Let me say very clearly : I am incredibly proud to be Marco Rubio’s brother and I’m incredibly proud of his and service and commitment to our country and to our veterans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This is a good man who deeply respects our men and women in uniform as well as their service and sacrifices in defense of our country and our values and who cares about their fate. And I will not let anyone try to villainize him.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In the U.S. Senate, Marco cosponsored the AGREE Act, a bill that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital, gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. Ten years ago, he passed the 2014 VA Accountability reform law by introducing a measure empowering the VA secretary to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence and corruption and to care more about veterans than bureaucrats. He passed the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act that helped veterans re-entering the workforce get jobs in STEM-related fields by requiring the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate programs to train and transition military veterans for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math. And it was under his tenure as Vice-President that Marco helped President Trump to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and thus we brought our troops home in honor and dignity in 2021. And it was in the aftermath of that success that our country adopted the Veterans Care Financial Protection Act of 2022 that made the Veterans Care Financial Protection Act of 2022 has been adopted, making the federal Department of Veterans Affairs work with state and federal agencies to stop con men who are diverting federal aid away from veterans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My point is that you can absolutely and clearly understand that Marco does understand what it looks like to send our troops to war and that our brave men and women in uniform have his full support and will continue to have it when he’ll become President of the United States. So, Governor Gallego, I hope you will give my brother the respect that he gives you.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Because, my friends, I’ll be damned if I will stand and let anyone with a smirk and a sneer discredit the honor, service, accountability and competence of Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

His running mate, John James, who served our country as a Apache pilot in Iraq supported the pro-veteran policies that I mentioned earlier. Marco Rubio and John James understand that serving their country and fighting tyranny and terrorism, our men and women in uniform need something in return. That’s why they will always thank them for their courage and service not only through medals of honour but also through social services and health care services by using the same leadership they adopted in the Senate when it comes to take care of our veterans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio and John James are the most qualified ticket to lead this great and beautiful nation and defend it against terrorists who offended our people in Orlando, in our home state of Florida as well as in San Francisco. As President of the United States, Marco will keep our military strong and modernize it, make our alliances stronger and make America's security even stronger. That's the steps we need to follow to destroy terrorism and save innocent lives.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Like my brother said, if our fellow Americans' American Dreams succeed the 21st Century will be a new American century. This will be the purpose of his presidency. The final verdict on young generations will be written by Americans not yet born. Let us make sure they record that we made the right choice. That in the early years of this century, faced with a rapidly changing and uncertain world, our youth rose to face the great challenges of our time. And because we did, there was still one place in the world where who you come from does not determine how far you can go. Because we did, we kept American miracle alive. And because we did, our children and theirs lived in a new American Century.

Thank you, God bless our troops, God bless you all and God bless the United States of America.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 9

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Debbie Lesko, U.S. Representative from Arizona’s 8th Congressional District
-Tania Burgess, U.S. Representative from Texas’ 32nd Congressional District
-Will Hurd, Texas Senator :
 
Own creation
Thank you! Thank you for your warm welcome!

Just like our next President Marco Rubio, I’ve been at the center of the action in the service of this great and wonderful country called the United States of America for all my adult life.

I was born to a family of working-class African-Americans from San Antonio, Texas. And Marco Rubio was born to a family of Cuban immigrants who, when they came to this country in 1956, did not speak a single word of English and were living paycheck to paycheck. But the hard-working of a bartender and housekeeper, they managed to hand their kids, including Marco, all the opportunities that they could not have accomplished themselves and to go so far in life, including becoming the first Hispanic Vice-President in our nation’s history and being about to become the first Hispanic President of the history of the United States of America where todo es posible.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That’s why he followed the purpose to fight to make certain that the next generation will be better off than previous and will inherit a rising shining America of prosperity, security, freedom and justice.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That is a purpose that I’ve been sharing for all my career. In 2000, I became a CIA officer and made great contributions in preserving America’s values, freedom and national security against our enemies. On his way to Washington, D.C. from San Antonio the USS Cole is attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in the Gulf of Aden. The attack kills 17 crew members and injures 39. This has become my first assignment in the CIA. On the morning of September 11th 2001, I was training in Washington D.C. when Al-Qaeda terrorists crash passenger airplanes into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This day has changed my life and career forever. The next morning, I began the mission of what would be the War on Terror and I’ve been on the front lines of this fight in D.C., India, Pakistan, New York and Afghanistan. And eventually, we found the responsible of the attacks and we killed them.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Meanwhile, in 2014, at a time ISIS was occupying a large territory in both Iraq and Syria, including 70 % of Iraq’s territory, Tammy Duckworth has opposed any combat operations against ISIS, including even airstrikes, which is the very strategy that helped us defeat ISIS.

[Crowd boos]

She even supported a nuclear deal that handed billions of dollars to the old Iranian regime that was the world’s largest sponsor of global terror.

[Crowd boos]

In this presidential campaign, there’s no candidate more qualified, more tested, more experienced and more ready to lead than Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as Vice-President, he knows what needs to be done to keep our country safe and make sure we won’t be attacked again by our enemies. That’s why he passed those sanctions on Hezbollah, passed the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act to provide assistance to our Jordanian allies in the battle against ISIS and in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis. As Vice-President, he led the diplomatic visit that eventually got Arsham Parsi’s Iran to denuclearize, to stop sponsoring terrorism and to normalize our relations between our two countries. And thanks to the advocacy of a strong military and strong American leadership, he helped President Trump to defeat ISIS in the Middle East.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

After my service in the CIA, I worked as a partner with Crumpton Group LLC, a company consulting firm that help businesses around the U.S. break into emerging markets around the globe. And that requires lower taxes and making America the best place to do business. Marco Rubio understands that and that’s why he co-sponsored the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act which required the Small Business Administration to conduct an annual study to estimate the total cost of regulations on small businesses. In an effort to help our country to pass the largest tax cuts in American history, he led the effort to double the Child Tax Credit and thus we reduced taxes for all Americans, including the middle-class, which brought strong and flourishing economic growth that created 7 million new jobs in the last 8 years and brought our national unemployment at its lowest rate ever recorded in the last 50 plus years.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

His leadership as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship made huge contribution into the economic growth of the last few years. He passed legislation that lowered small businesses’ fiscal burden and increased their competitiveness as well as their ability to compete, to produce and to create jobs. And when Coronavirus was threatening to shatter the world economy, it was under his tenure as Chairman of that Committee that he has, along with Senator Cardin, worked with states to approve the Economic Injury Disaster Loans for businesses affected by COVID-19, which helped those businesses to remain competitive and to earn the necessary tools to pursue their economic activities, thus helping to avoid an economic slowdown and to allow America to pursue the economic growth of the last 8 years. So you can trust him to handle our country’s economic challenges and pursue and even reinforce this economic growth for the benefit of all Americans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Throughout my career in the U.S. Congress, I have displayed ability to bring parties together, to put partisanship aside in order to get things done for the good of America. My first bill was a bipartisan legislation which stabilized paychecks for Border Patrol Agents. I have worked with Senator Cornyn to enact the American Law Enforcement Heroes Act, which provided incentivizes to local law enforcement agencies to hire military veterans.

It has always been the purpose of Marco Rubio to put the concerns, interests and needs of America first before partisanship. That’s why he brought Democrats and Republicans to pass his sponsored VA reform law that empowered the VA secretary to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence and corruption and to care more about veterans than bureaucrats. Along with Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, he co-sponsored the Let Freedom Reign Act of 2019 that provided military training and material support to the Venezuelan insurgency during the Venezuelan Civil War and helped them defeating tyranny and restoring democracy, freedom, justice, stability and integrity in Venezuela. While my Democratic colleagues suggested stricter gun control laws that would have been ineffective, Marco Rubio co-sponsored, after the 2016 shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, he introduced and passed the Terror Intelligence Improvement Act that allowed the U.S. attorney general to delay a firearms' purchase for up to three days and filed an emergency court petition if someone previously investigated for terrorism tried to buy a gun. Omar Mateen has been able to buy a gun because he was no longer under active investigation and so that bill ensured that if any gun purchaser has been suspected for terror in the last decade, the FBI would be notifying that he or she has gone in to buy a gun and would have the chance to stop that sale and to investigate what you’re up to. In 2016, he was the first Republican Senator to broke with his party majority in his support to the approval of a $2 billion emergency funding to combat the Zika virus at a time when his home state of Florida accounted for roughly 20% of the recorded cases of Zika in the U.S. and, shortly after, 21 other Senate Republicans followed him in that process. This is a man you can trust to put America first and to work with both parties together for the sake of America’s progress.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Now, our Democratic opponents, in their attempt to undo the progress of the last 8 years and move this country backwards, are trying to re-frame the debate.  They want you to believe that this election is about change vs more of the same. But that’s really a false choice. The choice of this election is between good change and bad change.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Because change is not a destination just like hope is not a strategy.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Senator Duckworth claims to be running as the candidate of change but the only thing she changes is her positions. In effect, has herself embraced positions adopted by President Trump before she changes her positions depending on what the year is and based on political pressure for political gains. When she ran for Congress in 2012, she said she supported lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth but then voted time and time again against every tax-cut legislation and advocated higher taxes.

[Crowd boos]

In June 2014, Duckworth voted against prohibiting combat operations in Iraq to fight ISIS and then shortly after that on the very same day she declared her opposition to Operation Inherent Resolve that was aimed at defeating ISIS.

[Crowd boos]

She attacks Marco Rubio for promoting oil production but in 2019 she supported Dan Brouillette's nomination as Secretary of Energy even though Brouillette is an advocate of oil, coal and fossil energy production. Senator Duckworth claims she wants to change Washington, but it’s rather Washington that changed Tammy Duckworth.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

If our political opponents think this campaign is about change, let them think long and hard about what they got the last time they voted for change with Democrats without experience. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again. But as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as Vice-President, Marco Rubio has the required experience to bring the change that America needs.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will bring the change that will create jobs and prosperity. He’ll lower taxes, including a middle-class tax cut from 22 % to 15 % while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle so our economy can grow through a stronger middle-class and so our country preserves and reinforces its status as the best business-friendly environment in the world. He’ll expand free trade with our allies around the world so we can make America the most competitive nation in the world economy, counter-balance China's trade power, allow American businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments and make America number one in auto production again. He will finally lead our country to energy independence so we can become free from foreign oil and he will do so by taking advantage of all of America’s sources of energy, encouraging oil drilling and production, invest a part of the revenues from oil drilling into the development of renewable energies so we can produce more solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric energies which will also be done through tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and subsidies for building new nuclear power plants. His energy plan will make us number one in nuclear energy production and export by building 40 new nuclear power plants by 2050.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will bring the change that will increasingly require less ground troops to combat terrorism. To face the threat represented by Boko Haram, he will provide military training and material support to our allies in Western Africa so they will have the necessary tools to defeat terrorism and under his leadership our country will lead drone airstrikes against Boko Haram key targets, including their controlled oil refineries in order to deprive them of any means to boost their war effort and their plans for terrorist attacks. As a result, it will reduce the need for additional ground troops there and it will cost our country less as drones are significantly cheaper to purchase, fuel, and maintain than regular airplanes.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And as President of the United States, Marco Rubio will bring the change that will give us long term global peace : he will normalize our relations with Sergei Polonsky’s Russia so we can finally restore stability, peace and territorial integrity in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and eliminate any risk of nuclear war and ensure the expansion of human rights, freedom and peace in the globe.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That is the kind of change that will provide growth, jobs, prosperity as well as long-term global peace and security, not what the other party wants to do, which is to tax us more, increase the size of government, make us more dependent on foreign energy, increase tariffs, send jobs overseas, retreat from our duty to keep America safe. We need Marco Rubio to save our economy and make sure it grows and to save our national security and he has the best experience to do so. We need all of you, my fellow Americans, to follow him so we can get America to full-employment, permanent prosperity, long-term and strong security and steady global peace and that’s how our country will keep moving forward and strengthen America’s status as the greatest nation in the history of mankind, to make sure that our children and grandchildren will earn all the opportunities that the previous generations could not have accomplished and make it certain that juntos, la gente común puede lograr cosas extraordinarias.

Gracias! Que Dios los bendiga! Que Dios bendiga los Estados Unidos de America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 1, Part 10

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Saturday, August 17–Together for Security
-Josh Hawley, Missouri Senator
-Nic Lott, U.S. Representative from Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District
-William Timmons, U.S. Representative from South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District
-Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former Governor of South Carolina (Keynote Speaker) :
 
Own creation
Thank you! Thank you Atlanta! Thank you so very much!

Welcome to Atlanta, the birth city of another great American who dedicated his entire life fighting for a fairer and more inclusive America and fighting for to advance African-Americans’ civil rights : Martin Luther King.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This summer, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. And it is also this legislation that overruled the Jim Crow laws. This accomplishment has been made possible thanks to Dr. King’s fight that delivered a more than perfect union, a major element of America’s freedom and greatness and to America’s status as the promised land of opportunity where everything is possible.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Throughout its history, the Republican Party has gained a reputation as a party of freedom. We abolished slavery during the Civil War and fought to abolish Jim Crow laws and by reinforcing our military we went on to win the Cold War. After 9/11, we took offense against terrorism, we restored freedom and democracy in Iraq as well as in Venezuela, we defeated ISIS, we restored freedom, security and stability in Eastern Europe against Vladimir Putin's aggression and oppression by supporting our local allies. we are defenders of free enterprise and of the Constitution of the United States and right now, here in Atlanta, we are nominating a man that we’re going to elect as America’s first Hispanic President : Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

Just like Marco Rubio, I am also a child of immigrants. My parents emigrated here in America from Amritsar District, Punjab, India. My family moved to Canada after my father received a scholarship offer from the University of British Columbia. When he received his PhD degree in 1969, he moved his family to South Carolina, where he accepted a position as a professor at historically black Voorhees College. My mother earned a master's degree in education and taught for seven years in the Bamberg public schools before starting a clothing business, Exotica International. One of my brothers, Mitti, proudly served our country in the United States Army Chemical Corps, serving in the Operation Desert Storm and defending our country against terror and tyranny. My parents believed in the promise of America and fought for it throughout their entire life to make sure their children can do everything previous generations couldn't have done, including becoming the first woman and first Indian-American to become Governor of the great State of South Carolina.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio's parents came here from Cuba in 1956 during Batista's dictatorship in quest of better economic opportunities and living conditions. They were living paycheck to paycheck but they were successful thanks to the hard work of a bartender and a maid, thus making their children better off than they were.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

He’s blessed by the values and opportunities that America offers and that's why he spent his entire life and career to defend the American Dream and to do whatever it takes  to keep America strong and to make sure future generations will be the most prosperous generations of America and that’s why we celebrate opportunity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As you know, it was under my watch as Governor of South Carolina that 9 African-Americans were shot and killed by a white supremacist named Dylann Roof at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Then, I successfully campaigned to remove the to remove the Confederate flag from the local State Capitol and it's grounds in order to show the world that we are an inclusive country and a place of equal freedom regardless of your color, of your religious beliefs, of your political beliefs and of your origins.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

During his time as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Marco Rubio led the he supported the state legislature's Black Caucus' request that the legislature apologize for slavery.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Unlike our political opponents, we understand that government is not the solution to the problem facing this country in terms of economic challenges. Government is the problem itself. We are the party that unapologetically believes in America's success through the promotion of free enterprise, tax reform and small government for the sake of more jobs, higher wages and increased access to the American Dream.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

At the age of 12, I began helping with the bookkeeping in Exotica International, my mother's ladies' clothing shop. Then I joined Exotica International ten years later grew to become a multimillion-dollar company. I was named to the board of directors of directors of the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce before being named to the board of directors of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce and becoming president of the South Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. As Governor of South Carolina, I reduced the cost of doing business in the Palmetto State, reduced corporate income tax rate to 5 %, abolished state property tax, local income tax, inventory tax, sales tax on manufacturing equipment, wholesale tax and unitary tax on worldwide profits, which helped my state to have industrial power or materials for finished products and boosted job creation and innovation. These policies made sure that Boeing keeps doing business in America. Boeing started a new line for their 787 Dreamliner, creating 1,000 new jobs in South Carolina, giving our state a shot in the arm when we truly needed it. All these pro-growth policies made South Carolina the best place to open a new business and reduced the local unemployment rate from 12 % to 5 % during my governorship.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I know what it takes to create jobs and grow the economy and so does Marco Rubio and that's why he passed the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act which required the Small Business Administration to conduct an annual study to estimate the total cost of regulations on small businesses, thus avoiding devastating regulations that would have meant a disaster for our economy through free enterprise's decline and job losses. He successfully led the effort to pass the legislation to double the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000, which helped our country to pass the largest tax cuts in American history, policies that made America the best place in the world to do business, created 7 and a half millions new jobs and brought our unemployment rate at its lowest rate in 50 years and our African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates at their lowest rate ever. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Marco Rubio fought to protect the interests of American businesses seeking competition here and abroad by passing legislation that lowered taxes for small businesses, defended the interests of American companies here and abroad, ensuring economic growth and development around this country and made America's prosperity possible and strong. And as Vice-President, he helped President Trump to pursue this strong economic growth.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

John James has been the CEO of his family's business James Group International, a supply chain business that has the mission to manage and optimize its customer’s supply chain infrastructures and processes by designing and implementing complex supply chain solutions and leveraging information technology. As President, John James grew the company into a major trading partner with Michigan’s auto industry.

Marco Rubio and John James have formed the best economic team that America has ever known in its history and that's why we need them at the White House to pursue America's economic progress, to accomplish America's path to full-employment and permanent prosperity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Meanwhile, Tammy Duckworth opposed the tax reform policies of the last few years and she's running on the wrong ideas, on the same failed big government policies that gave us the slowest economy under the previous administration.

Duckworth believes that we can achieve prosperity through higher taxes and regulations that punish success, will make America a harder place to do business, deprive hard-working families of their purchasing power and ship jobs overseas. She believes that we can achieve prosperity without trading with our allies. She believes that we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power.

[Crowd boos]

But Americans know better than that. Marco Rubio and John James will lower taxes, including for the middle class, to make sure our economy can grow. They will get us to energy independence by taking advantage of all of our sources of energy, including oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energies through more oil drilling and through an investment of a part of oil drilling revenues in the development of renewable energies. They will make us number one in nuclear energy production and exportation through the building of 40 new nuclear power plants by 2050 and through tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and subsidies for building new nuclear power plants and that way, our nation's industrial and manufacturing base will be rejuvenated and we will encourage both economic growth and job creation as well as an improvement of our ecological footprint. They will promote free trade with our allies in Latin America, Europe and Asia so we can be competitive in the world economy and encourage job creation here in America by lowering tariffs, increasing exports and imports, reducing the cost of trading, allowing American businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments. That's the right way to create jobs, growth and prosperity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Under my tenure as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, we made strong progress when it comes to America's national security. Thanks to strong diplomacy and to the restoration of American leadership, President Trump and Vice-President Rubio got North Korea to denuclearize. It is also under my tenure that we recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved our embassy there. It was under that tenure that we cancelled Obama's nuclear deal with the old Iranian regime that handed billions of dollars to a country that was the biggest supporter of global terrorism, a deal that Tammy Duckworth supported. But we accomplished Iran's denuclearization thanks to the election of Arsham Parsi in Iran and to the diplomatic mission led by Vice-President Rubio in Iran that resulted to the denuclearization of Tehran and to them stopping state-sponsored terrorism.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as Vice-President, Marco Rubio has the right foreign policy experience to keep America safe against our enemies. John James served our country for 8 years in the U.S. Army in Iraq, defending our values against terrorism and opression. There isn't any team better skilled and qualified to keep America safe and than the Rubio/James ticket.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In the Senate, Marco Rubio passed those tough sanctions on Hezbollah to keep them from harming us and our allies, he took the lead to pass the Girls Count Act that forced countries receiving U.S. aid to give birth certificated to girls at birth in order to combat human trafficking. He co-sponsored the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act to provide assistance to our Jordanian allies in the battle against ISIS and in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis. He brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass the Let Freedom Reign Act that provided military training and arms sales for the Venezuelan insurgency during the Venezuelan Civil War and helped the people of Venezuela to transfer towards democracy, liberty and integrity and to pass his sponsored Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 that required the Department of State to assess whether political developments in Hong Kong justify changing Hong Kong's unique treatment under US law and to condemn China's oppression and stand up to the freedom of the people of Hong Kong. And as Vice-President of the United States, he helped President Trump to defeat ISIS and we eliminated Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

No one can look at Marco Rubio and say that he's not ready to be Commander-in-Chief. He is. He's ready. And we can trust him to deal with the national security challenges facing America. This man has been tested over and over again, and we will be safe in his hands, our children will be safe in his hands and our country will be safe in the hands of Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Unlike Tammy Duckworth who opposed airstrikes on ISIS and whose foreign policy will weaken our military, retreat America from its responsibility to lead and to stand with our allies and to protect our national security, Marco Rubio will, as President, keep us on offense against radical Islamic terrorism by providing military training and arsenal to our Western African allies to help them defeat Boko Haram. He will normalize our relations with Polonsky's Russia so we can be strong partners for the protection of human rights, peace and stability on the international stage. He will work with our allies to ratify the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty that will prohibit the use of fissile material to build nuclear weapons, thus preventing any nuclear war and strengthening global peace.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My friends, just like Martin Luther King famously declared, « I have a dream! ».

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We all have a dream. We have a dream to preserve, reinforce and expand America's status as a land of freedom, justice and equal rights for all Americans, no matter your ethnicity, your gender, your religious belief or your origin.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to ensure permanent protection of the Constitution and of the American people's constitutional rights.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to get this country to long-term and permanent economic prosperity through the promotion of tax reform, free enterprise, strong middle-class and energy independence.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to make health care affordable for all Americans through the protection of pre-existing conditions, lower Medicare premiums and allowing small employers to offer flexible coverage options using Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangements.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to get us to steady and long-term global peace thanks to a strong military, strong alliances, strong diplomacy and strong American leadership so our children will earn the opportunity to inherit a world in which they will enjoy freedom, security and peace.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to affirm America’s status as the leader in space exploration through the establishment of Lunar Gateway on the Moon as a springboard to a crewed mission to Mars by 2030 and them bring those people safe at home.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have a dream to make sure we keep America’s status as the greatest nation in the history of mankind and that America’s greatness has no limits.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

So, my friends, my fellow Americans, if we want to accomplish that dream, let’s stand together for opportunity, let’s elect Marco Rubio as the next President of the United States and John James as the next Vice-President of the United States to move this country forward.

Thank you! God bless you! God bless the United States of America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 2, Part 1

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Sunday, August 18–Together for Prosperity
-Ann Wagner, U.S. Representative from Missouri’s 2nd House District
-Mark Burns, South Carolina Senator
-Mitt Romney, Utah Senator, former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee :
 
Own creation
Thank you. Thank you so very much.

This is one of the greatest honors to be here tonight to speak about what it takes to keep this economy growing, which requires standing together for prosperity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The Democrats once believed in tax cuts and small government, we saw it with President Kennedy whose tax cuts boomed the economy. But everything has changed within the Democratic Party on the economic issue. When I was our party’s nominee, they said, quote, « If you got a business, you didn't build that. » Then, Hillary Clinton has declared, quote « Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. » And now, in this time of strong economic prosperity, everything the Democrats got is mudslinging, claiming that the economy was somehow not doing good. Tammy Duckworth’s answer to everything is higher taxes, big government, big spending and punishment of success.

[Crowd boos]

Do we really want to go back like Senator Duckworth suggests to the days of spend and spend, tax and tax - a government in Washington with its head in the clouds and its hand in your pocket? Do we really want to go back, to all the Democrat economic misery from 2009 to 2017 with the slowest economy in history, with the loss of 300 000 manufacturing jobs (including 45 000 in Pennsylvania and 37 000 in Ohio) and an unemployment rate hitting 10 %, a youth unemployment rate hitting almost 20 %?

[Crowd boos]

Democrats’ call for higher taxes and big government taking away what you’ve worked so hard for is an offense against success, against opportunity, against free enterprise, against free market and against the American Dream, an ethos that our nominee Marco Rubio represents as a son of immigrants and is and will whole-heartedly defend for the sake of America's great prosperity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We Republicans stand for more, not less, individual freedom. Fewer bureaucrats bungling up the works. More freedom to keep what we’ve worked for. And because we did in the last 8 years, we turned the economy around and it is now heading in the right direction.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In 2017, this administration put forward the largest tax cuts in our nation’s history : the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While the Democrats in Congress attempted to vote it down, Marco Rubio helped President Trump to pass that legislation by leading the legislation effort to double the Child Tax Credit from $1000 to $2000 and that is serious money. And because we adopted those constructive tax reform policies that cut taxes, we made America the best place in the world to do business, helped creating 7 and a half million new jobs in the last 8 years, including 500 000 jobs in the manufacturing industry, brought our unemployment rate at the lowest rate in more than 50 years and brought the Hispanic and African-American unemployment rates at their lowest rates ever in the history of America.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

And that’s why we need to elect Marco Rubio as our President to make sure we’re going to pursue that strong economic progress, to create good-paying jobs for all Americans and to get this country to full-employment.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Because unlike Senator Duckworth, Marco Rubio knows as we all do that we don't apologize for being successful. Here in a free country like America, we celebrate success. We did build that. Businesses, especially small businesses, create most of the jobs in America. I know this because I spent 25 years in the private sector and I know why jobs come and why they go away. I founded a great company named Bain Capital. I built the old-fashioned way, by earning it, by working hard. And I was proud of the fact that we helped create businesses that grew, that employed people. And these are not just high-end financial jobs. We helped start Staples, for instance. It employs 90,000 people. These are middle- income people. There are entry-level jobs, too. I`m proud of the fact that we helped people around the country, Bright Horizons children centers, the Sports Authority, Steel Dynamics, a new steel company. These employ people, middle-income people.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Unlike Tammy Duckworth, Marco Rubio understands how our economy works and he knows what it takes to create new good-paying jobs. He knows that our prosperity does not come from government but from the hard-working, entrepreneurship and ingenuity of our people. Tammy Duckworth trusts the government. Marco Rubio trusts the American people.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

He chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He understands that 70 % of the jobs are created by small businesses and that’s why, under his Chairmanship, he fought to pass legislation lowering taxes on U.S. small businesses, protecting their interests and increasing their competition, which made huge contribution to the economic prosperity that America is now living.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Thanks to his experience as Chairman of that committee and as a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, he will grow our economy and make America’s prosperity permanent. That is the way to stand together for prosperity that will be permanent and fair for all Americans of all incomes, of all races, of all groups and all origins.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio will ensure such prosperity by reducing the size of government, cutting taxes and regulations for all Americans and for business owners, by reducing middle-class taxes from 22 % to 15 % while indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, which will reinforce purchasing power and consumption in America as well as our businesses' ability to grow, to expand, to produce, to innovate and to hire more people. Marco Rubio will make us energy independent by securing every source of energy whether its renewables, oil, coal, gas, nuclear, solar, hydroelectricity or geothermal. He will pursue our quest to new open markets through promoting free trade and lower tariffs and costs for our products so we can more easily get international consumers through stronger American competition in the world economy.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When I became Governor of Massachusetts, 85 % of the state legislators were Democrats. I did not demonize them and I didn't demagogue them. Time and time again, I brought Republicans and Democrats together in order to put partisanship aside and to get things done for the good of Massachusetts. Thanks to this leadership, I found common ground and balanced the budget four times without raising taxes and we provided health insurance for Massachusetts. Now we have a chance to elect a President who will bring Republicans and Democrats together in order to get things done and ensure a bright future for America, but this time in Washington. Marco Rubio will get us to energy independence without hurting the environment by increasing oil drilling, using a part of oil revenues to invest into the development of renewable energies and by making us the world’s leader in nuclear energy production and exportation through the building of 40 new nuclear power plants and through tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and subsidies for the building of new nuclear power plants.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We all know, no matter our party affiliation, that everyone should have access to education, which means reducing the cost of getting education. Marco Rubio knows this and that's why he will promote school choice which will cost families, including these immigrant families living paycheck to paycheck, less and produce higher outcomes compared to public education. It will grant parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere. It will expand opportunities for low-income students—especially minorities—to attend high-quality schools that would otherwise be accessible only to higher-income families, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. By using a part of future budget surpluses to invest into the development of infrastructures as well as by lowering the federal gasoline tax rate by 80 %; vetoing any gas-tax increase; giving back the control of the highways to the states; preventing Washington special interests  from building “Bridges to Nowhere” and engaging in other wasteful spending; freeing states from the strings that come attached to federal funding; removing barriers to public-private partnerships; and abolishing the Davis-Bacon Act that inflates government costs by billions annually and is a giveaway of taxpayer dollars to labor unions and phasing out the Mass Transit Account, which loots the Highway Trust Fund, a Rubio Administration will encourage further job creation through innovation and stronger economic activities due to developed and expanded infrastructures here in America.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio’s running mate John James is also a trusted leader in terms of job creation. He ran businesses and created jobs, especially as president of his family business named James Group International, a supply chain business that has the mission to manage and optimize its customer’s supply chain infrastructures and processes by designing and implementing complex supply chain solutions and leveraging information technology. As CEO, he grew the company into a major trading partner with my native state of Michigan’s auto industry, an industry in which my father George Romney became chief executive of American Motors Corporation and assumed executive assignment for the development of the Rambler and increased the company’s competitiveness by manufacturing compact cars and by increasing sales, moved from thirteenth to seventh place among worldwide auto manufacturers. Ramblers were frequent winners in the coast-to-coast Mobil Economy Run, an annual event on U.S. highways. Sales remained strong during 1960 and 1961 and the Rambler was America's third most popular car both years.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio and John James both represent a new generation of leaders who will move America forward and straight to the brightest future we could ever imagine.

[Crowd cheers, applauds and chants USA! USA! USA!]

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Twelve years ago, I warned about Vladimir Putin’s Russia's insanity and called Vladimir Putin by what it was : a geopolitical foe. I warned that our troops' early withdrawal from Iraq would create a power vacuum leading to something much worse. But the Democrats ignored it and here’s what we got in the aftermath, Putin invaded Ukraine and engaged into a territorial dispute with Japan over sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, ISIS occupied a large territory in Iraq and Syria and launched several terrorist attacks against us and our allies. But because we stood up with our allies through the provision of arsenal and military training and through sanctions on Russia’s economy, we stopped Putin’s expansionist ambitions and recently the people of Russia has chosen change over fear, tyranny, oppression and terror by electing Sergei Polonsky as their new President, clearing the way to better relations between our 2 countries and to stronger global peace. And because we rebuilt our military and modernized it, we made strong progress in keeping our country safe. Marco Rubio passed a bill toughening sanctions on Hezbollah as well as the Girls Count Act combating human trafficking. He passed the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act to provide assistance to our Jordanian allies in the battle against ISIS and in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis. Through his 2021 diplomatic trip in Iran, we got Iran denuclearized and normalized our relations with Arsham Parsi’s Iran that also ceased state-sponsored terrorism. And Marco Rubio helped President Trump to defeat ISIS and to denuclearize North Korea.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

John James served our country as an Apache pilot in Iraq, making a great contribution, like all our brave men and women in uniform, to the defense of America’s values which are freedom, democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and gender equity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In this election, there’s only one ticket that believes in strong American leadership to keep this country safe and to defeat any challenge threatening our values and this ticket is the one formed by Marco Rubio and John James.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

They will defeat Boko Haram by providing our Western African allies in military training and arsenal so they can be fully ready to handle their countries’ security and by promoting the use of drone airstrikes on Boko Haram’s key targets, including their oil refineries to deprive them of the revenues they get from oil exploitation to fund their war effort. It will reduce the need for additional ground troops there and it will cost our country less as drones are significantly cheaper to purchase, fuel, and maintain than regular airplanes.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

To achieve strong and long-term global peace, Marco Rubio will normalize our relations with Polonsky’s Russia and they will work together for the development of decent trade ties and stand up for the expansion, preservation and respect of human rights, freedom and peace on the global stage. And to achieve our path to a nuclear-free world and to eliminate any risk of nuclear war, Marco Rubio will ratify the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

President Rubio and Vice-President James will defend the values that make America a great and special nation and they will reinforce our country's status as the hope of the Earth.

Thank you. God bless the United States of America.

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 2, Part 2

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Sunday, August 18–Together for Prosperity
-John Donahoe, CEO of Nike
-Vernon Jones, Chairman of the Republican National Committee
-Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi and eBay :
 
Own creation
Thank you and good evening.

I am here to speak of what makes America's greatness and what it takes to establish achieve prosperity for all Americans, regardless of your income, your gender, your ethnicity or your origins.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

When I was young, opportunities for women were slim. I started my business career while female executives were a novelty. Thanks to inspiration from my mother, I succeeded in business. Now, we are living in a time of strong economic growth thanks to the largest tax cuts ever adopted in our nation’s history, tax reform that Marco Rubio helped pass through his effort to double the child tax credit, thus reducing taxes for all Americans, including the middle-class, created 7 million jobs, gave us the lowest unemployment rate ever.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And thanks to those tax-cut policies that promoted free enterprise, we made America the best place in the world to do business and here’s a proof of this matter of fact : in 2020, we launched Quibi, a short-form mobile video platform company that created jobs thanks to competitiveness and hard-working.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This would not have been possible if Tammy Duckworth had it her way with her tax-hike, job-killing and big government agenda. While Tammy Duckworth talks about being the first woman President, it is important to note that every single policy she espouses has been demonstrably bad for women. Approximately 90 % of the jobs lost during Barack Obama's first term belonged to women. Three million women have fallen into poverty under this administration. The number of women living in extreme poverty was the highest level on record at the time. And those same failed policies are embraced by Tammy Duckworth, including higher taxes and regulations and big government taking your hard-earned money.

[Crowd boos]

I'm proud to be a conservative because I know our values, our principles and our policies, which are free market, free enterprise, small government, lower taxes and regulations and economic freedom work better to lift everyone up, men and women.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have to create more opportunities for all of our people. We have the opportunity to reinforce and expand the American Dream and make it more accessible to all Americans. And Marco Rubio is the best candidate to do that job. I am proud to be a Republican and I am proud to support Marco Rubio because he leads the party that understands that America's success comes from the character of its people, the strength of its communities and the nobility of its ideals.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The Democrats want to increase the influence of government, taxes and fiscal waste as the measure of their so-called compassion and fairness, but here's the right path to prosperity : energy independence by encouraging offshore drilling, by building more nuclear reactors and by promoting conservation and alternative forms of energy, which will reduce the gas prices at home, boost our automobile industry, make our cars less expensive than Asian cars and give us the upper hand in free trade agreements in addition of reducing the harm to our planet's climate and stopping massive amounts of money from going to our enemies abroad.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We have to reduce business taxes, so that entrepreneurs and especially small business have the money they need to expand, innovate and create jobs. And we need to pursue our quest of open markets to make our economy competitive around the world. Free trade will boost free enterprise which is the strength of our economy. It will also give international consumers a greater access to American products, which will be good for our economy. America's ability to compete and innovate derives from its open markets and from the continual search for new markets through the expansion of free trade. Silicon Valley, a valley that is bordering the Pacific Ocean, has a social and business ethos that supports innovation and entrepreneurship and where I founded Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, represents a great example of desire for innovation. Goods and services crossing borders favor new ideas and models and allow our producers to learn about the market through the failure and success of traded products. While learning more, they will be able to innovate to remain competitive.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And by the way, the reason of Mexico's advantage over us in terms of auto manufacturing was because Mexico had free trade agreements with 45 countries while the U.S. had free trade deals with only 20 countries. So if we expand free trade with our allies, friends and partners across the globe, we will reinforce auto manufacturing and make America number one again in auto production.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Only Marco Rubio believes in the effectiveness of such pro-growth agenda, success that has been proven over the last 8 years, and that’s why we need him to save our economy and keep it growing and to get America to full-employment and long term economic prosperity for all Americans.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio and John James understand that we don't grow our economy by making rich people poorer but by making poor people richer. Economic growth requires increasing our national wealth.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

With a Rubio/James Administration, there will be no blame and taxes on success and accomplishment. There will always be promotion of success and accomplishment, both elements of prosperity and a new American century.

Thank you very much! God bless America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 2, Part 3

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Sunday, August 18–Together for Prosperity
-Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Senator
-Jose Pepe Fanjul, CEO of Fanjul Corporation and Chairman of Hispanics for Rubio
-Doug Ducey, former Arizona Governor :
 
Own creation
Thank you! Thank you Arizona! Thank you, my fellow Republicans! Thank you, my fellow Americans!

I’m a living proof that America’s prosperity requires making this country the best place in the world to do business because I lived it.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

After graduating from Arizona State University, I joined Protector & Gamble and began a career in sales and marketing in addition of serving as president of the Arizona chapter of Young Entrepreneurs' Organization and the Greater Phoenix Economic Club. Then I became CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, a prosperous ice cream company that created jobs and under my leadership as CEO, this company started taking expansion here in this country and abroad and became the sixth best-selling brand of ice cream in the US thanks to our ingenuity, entrepreneurship and hard work.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

After graduating from Arizona State University, I joined Protector & Gamble and began a career in sales and marketing in addition of serving as president of the Arizona chapter of Young Entrepreneurs' Organization and the Greater Phoenix Economic Club. Then I became CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, a prosperous ice cream company that created jobs and under my leadership as CEO, this company started taking expansion here in this country and abroad and became the sixth best-selling brand of ice cream in the US thanks to our ingenuity, entrepreneurship and hard work.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Arizona Secretary of Treasury, I helped Governor Brewer to promote fiscal discipline and tax reform, which helped growing Arizona’s economy, which I continued as Governor of Arizona, a period during which I made this state a place open for business. No wonder that I signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Governor, I signed legislations to prohibit local ordinances on disposable containers and to prohibit local governments from taxing disposable bags. And with the election of Donald Trump at the presidency of the United States, we have been able to do more : under his leadership, we passed the largest tax cuts in American history and Marco Rubio helped him passing this tax reform legislation by leading the effort to double the Child Tax Credit.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As Governor, I signed legislations to prohibit local ordinances on disposable containers and to prohibit local governments from taxing disposable bags. And with the election of Donald Trump at the presidency of the United States, we have been able to do more : under his leadership, we passed the largest tax cuts in American history and Marco Rubio helped him passing this tax reform legislation by leading the effort to double the Child Tax Credit.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As a result, our country got the strongest economic growth in modern history through the creation of more than 7 million jobs and a reduction of the unemployment rate below 4 %, bringing us at our lowest unemployment rate in 5 decades. Thanks to these policies along with the tax-cut and small government policies adopted by Governor Brewer and myself, over 500 000 new jobs have been created in Arizona in the last 10 years, this state is now 4th in the nation in terms of GDP growth (3.57 %) and even outpaced California, Florida and Texas on that level, is ranked 3rd in the U.S. for economic momentum and Arizona's median household incomes have reached a record high of $61,125.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Now my successor at the governorship of Arizona Ruben Gallego has attempted time and again to spoil that progress as he raised Arizonans’ taxes as well as their fiscal burden.

[Crowd boos]

Even during his time at the House of Representatives and despite the positive effects of the TCJA on Arizona’s economy, Governor Gallego, along with Tammy Duckworth voted against that tax-cut legislation.

[Crowd boos]

On energy, Arizona has the 6th highest gas prices in the nation, which is $13.69/thousand cu ft while states like Florida have the 2nd highest gas prices, New Hampshire the 5th, and right here in Georgia, the Peach State has the 9th highest gas prices. And yet Tammy Duckworth and Ruben Gallego are not willing to take advantage of all of America’s sources of energy and want, instead, higher taxes and regulations on our country's energy industry, which only make that problem even worse.

[Crowd boos]

They simply don’t understand the economy and they will bring our country backwards. There is only one candidate in this race who can be trusted to grow the economy and spent his entire life defending the American Dream and this candidate is Marco Rubio.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

In the U.S. Senate, he cosponsored the AGREE Act that increased tax credits and exemptions for companies investing in R & D, equipment and other capital and gave tax credits for veterans opening a business franchise. He cosponsored the Regulation Costs to Small Businesses Act, which required the Small Business Administration to conduct an annual study to estimate the total cost of regulations on small businesses. He successfully fought to double the child tax credit and he served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and defended the interests of small businesses by passing legislation creating a favorable environment to small businesses because small businesses create 70 % of the jobs in America. And as Vice-President, he helped President Trump to pursue the economic growth that our country is living and with his election at the presidency of the United States, the best is yet to come.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio knows that America's prosperity requires lower taxes, the promotion of free enterprise, making our country the best place in the world to do business and that's exactly what he will do as President by reducing taxes for all the people, including the middle class (from 22 % to 15 %), lowering our corporate tax rate from 20 % to 15 %, promoting free trade, by championing school choice, by getting our country to energy independence and by balancing the budget. That's the best way to get our country to full-employment and to long-term economic prosperity.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

John James will be a great Vice-President. In addition of serving our country in the U.S. Army, he ran companies that created jobs thanks to the promotion of free enterprise and competitiveness and his selection as VP by Marco Rubio further reinforced our party’s status as a fighter for the taxpayer and the hard-working American.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to grow our economy and make our country independent from foreign energy. That's why President Trump abolished the War on Coal, championned the development of clean coal technologies and that's why we lifted the ban on crude oil exportation, approved the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL pipeline as well as the opening of ANWR to oil drilling, thus allowing our country to make strong progress towards energy independence. Under Marco Rubio, we're going to accomplish that goal by promoting offshore oil drilling, approving the construction of new pipelines to facilitate oil production and transportation, building 40 new nuclear power plants by 2050 in order to reach to a total number of 100 nuclear power plants on the U.S. soil with the ultimate goal of building 100 new nuclear power plants and investing a part of the revenues from oil drilling into the development of renewable energies, including wind, solar, nuclear, hydroelectricy, geothermal and tidal energies. We'll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles. This is an ambitious and responsible plan that will create millions of new jobs and make sure that we will, at the same time, improve our ecological footprint and provide a clean environment.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

This plan will also make America number one in the world in terms of nuclear energy production and export, improve American families’ quality of life through even stronger access to electricity and heat and reinforce Arizona's status as a leader in energy production as Arizona is ranked as the third best state in the nation for solar energy production (since the state added 416.6 megawatts of new capacity statewide in 2017, making it the 7th fastest growing solar market in the U.S. for a total of 3,399.5 megawatts). It will also deprive anti-American forces of revenues from our dependence from foreign energy through our imports of energy from countries either opressed by anti-American regimes or in throes of terrorism, revenues that would have otherwise financed their plans of terrorist attacks on us and our allies. So this plan will also keep this country safe against anyone seeking to harm our people.
 
[Crowd cheers and applauds]

That’s why we need all of you, my friends to mobilize and elect Marco Rubio and John James. That’s why I will use all my energy to keep Arizona red and carry it for the Rubio/James ticket and we're going to win this election and we will pursue the progress that is heading America in the right direction and to bright days and that will create jobs and prosperity, defend your constitutional rights, keep America safe and ensure long-term global peace. Only together, we will keep moving this country forward and that's why we need to come together to make Marco Rubio the next President of the United States of America.

Thank you! God bless you! God bless Arizona and God bless the United States of America!

[UWS]

2024 Republican National Convention
Day 2, Part 4

Location : Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Date : August 17 2024-August 20 2024


Own creation

Own creation
Sunday, August 18–Together for Prosperity
-Jaime Herrera Beutler, U.S. Representative from Washington’s 3rd congressional district
-Gini Rometty, CEO of IBM
-Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce :
 
Own creation
Thank you. Gracias.

We are living times of prosperity. And I spent all my life handling issues related to the economy. I was born in Cuba in 1953, during the Batista era. Such a coincidence that I was living in the pre-Castro Cuba at the same time as Marco Rubio's parents.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

My father was a pineapple plantation owner and became successful thanks to his hardworking and created jobs for his workers. As a successful businessman, he was deemed an enemy of the state by Fidel Castro's communist regime. Faced with the expropriation of our property following the Cuban Revolution, my family fled for the United States in 1960, when I was six, settling in Miami. When it became apparent we could not be returning to Cuba, my father accepted a position with the H. J. Heinz Company in Mexico and later started his own business. Then, I joined Kelogg's, a prosperous company where I was appointed president and CEO, becoming the only Latino CEO of a Fortune 500 company. America es la tierra donde lo imposible se hace posible.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

At that time, Kellogg faced a global decline or stagnation in cereal sales. But we didn't need the government to rescue us. Under my leadership as CEO of Kellogg, we adopted a free market strategy known as « Volume to Value » and aimed at increasing sales by focusing resources on higher-margin products. Higher-margin products targeted specific markets and included products such as Special K, Kashi, and Nutri-Grain bars. Extra income funded advertising, promotions, and R&D, which encouraged further high-margin sales growth. As a result, we increased our productivity, encouraged innovation and encouraged job creation. And so, Fortune Magazine dubbed me as "The Man Who Fixed Kellogg", and attributed my success to taking the slick salesmanship, financial discipline, and marketing savvy that I learned in my youth. This is a wonderful story of the American Dream that once again demonstrates America's status as the land of opportunity just like the story of Marco Rubio, also a son of Cuban immigrants, of becoming a U.S. citizen does.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Marco Rubio's parents came here in America from Cuba for better living conditions and better economic opportunities. They were living paycheck to paycheck and they were not speaking a single word of English. But thanks to the hard working of a bartender and a housekeeper, they were successful and they made their children better off than they were and they gave them the opportunities they couldn't had themselves. Marco Rubio understands what it means to live paycheck to paycheck and what it takes to make America prosperous and that requires encouraging free enterprise and free market. And that's exactly what he did in these four years. America es la tierra de opprtunidad y tenemos el obligación de defender este estatuto en beneficio de toda nuestra sociedad, de nuestra prosperidad economico y de el futuro de nuestros niños y generaciones futuras.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Meanwhile, Tammy Duckworth does not believe in any of these values. She claims to understand what it is to work hard. But she doesn't. She seeks to put in place the largest tax increase and regulation increase in history on hardworking families and businesses, restrict free trade, regulate our energy industry, which will kill millions and millions of jobs. According to Duckworth’s agenda, the harder you work, the more you earn and the more the government takes from you.

[Crowd boos]

No wonder that she did not create a single job in her entire life except her own job. As a former CEO, I know that our prosperity requires cutting taxes for businesses in order to increase their competitiveness, their productivity as well as their ability to innovate, to hire people and to create jobs. Approximately seventy percent of jobs are created in small businesses. That’s why Marco Rubio helped President Trump to pass the largest tax cuts in history for all the American people, including the middle class, and for all businesses, including small businesses, thus reinforcing our people's purchasing power and making America the best place in the world to do business.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

As a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, I know that America's prosperity requires making America competitive in the world economy, lowering tariffs in order to increase international consumers' access to American products and promoting tax reform. When tariffs are applied, as the Democratic ticket wants to do, the American people lose because it is another form of taxes. It decreases America's competitiveness in the world economy and it is an obstacle to our country's prosperity. Tariffs gave us the Great Depression (referring to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) and helped lead to World War II (as the devastating effects of the Great Depression on the international economy helped Hitler in his rise to power in Germany) and brought about 60 million people losing their lives as a result of it. Under my watch as Secretary of Commerce, we ratified free trade deals such as CAFTA and the U.S.–Colombia Free Trade Agreement. That is part of the reason why we decreased the unemployment rate from 6 % to 4.3 % within a four-year period. And with the ratification of the USMCA, boosted auto manufacturing by requiring 75% of a vehicle's parts to be made in one of the 3 signatory countries in order to remain free from tariffs when moving between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, by strengthening labor laws, by keeping tariffs at zero while further opening up the Canadian market to US dairy, poultry and eggs and allowing more Canadian dairy, peanuts and peanut products to cross the border, which added 76 000 auto jobs in the last 5 years, increased exports and imports and strengthened our competitiveness in the world economy, contributing to the strong economic prosperity America is now living through the creation of 7 and a half million jobs, including 500 000 in the manufacturing sector, and brought our unemployment rate in the lowest rate in 50 years.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

By expanding free trade with Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe while cutting taxes and regulations for our manufacturing industry, Marco Rubio will reinforce our competitiveness in the global economy and counter-balance China's trade power so we can be the number one trade power in the world and allow our businesses to invest into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And thanks to free trade with Latin America, we will give our businesses, including Hispanic small businesses in the United States thanks to language opportunities and their fluency in Spanish and English, new opportunities to innovate, to increase their competitiveness, to get new consumers by giving them access to American products, to create jobs in our country and ensure their business' expansion. Thanks to their bilingualism, Hispanics will raise to a dominant position among the importers, exporters, translators and executives who ensure such a cultural and commercial exchange.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

And as a former member of the Board of Directors of Occidental Petroleum, I know that America's prosperity requires taking advantage of all of our sources of energy. That is exactly what this administration accomplished by ending the War on Coal, doubling permits on federal lands and approving the construction of pipelines like Keystone XL pipeline, Dakota Access pipeline, thus making strong progress towards energy independence, and providing strong job creation. And as President, Marco Rubio will do more in that process by encouraging oil drilling, investing a part of the revenues from oil drilling into the development of renewable energies and by making America the world’s leader in terms of nuclear energy production by building more nuclear power plants, by encouraging tax credits for advanced nuclear projects and by expanding early stage cooperation with countries interested in adopting nuclear energy.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

Eight years ago, we were living America’s slowest economic growth in history. But thanks to the tax cuts passed in the last few years, we created 7 and  a half million jobs and we also now have the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. Under his presidency, Marco Rubio will reduce taxes, including for the middle-class, keep America’s status as the best place in the world to do business, get us to energy independence, champion free trade, promote school choice and invest in our country’s infrastructures so we can finally get America to full-employment and make our prosperity permanent.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

So, for the sake of the future of our children, grandchildren as well as of future generations, for the sake of the promotion of prosperity and opportunity for all and to make sure we'll finally balance the budget and get to full-employment, I call on you to mobilize and elect Marco Rubio and John James in order to keep America working and to keep America strong.

Thank you. God bless you all and God bless the United States of America!

[Mycool]

Tammy Duckworth Makes Ad Buy in AZ, MN, MI, WI, TX, IA, ME, NC, GA, and FL

*Clip from RNC*

“He is blunt, direct, honest and strong.”

"Really? Let's take a look at Marco's 'direct, honest, and strong' record."

Source

"The government can’t change the weather."
"The climate is always changing."

"The science? 97% of scientists agree that humans are causing climate change."

Source

"The RNC platform? 'Encouraging oil drilling and production'"

"About 195 million gallons of gas are lost into our oceans yearly from oil extraction, transportation, and consumption. The Vice President knows this, as the former Governor and Senate colleague Rick Scott opposed offshore drilling in Florida when Trump announced his plan to expand it."

"But, it doesn't end with climate change, let's take a look at some of Marco's other supposed clear, direct positions."

Rubio: "China doesn’t pay the tariff, the buyer pays the tariff. If you send a tie or a shirt made in China into the United States and an American goes to buy it at the store and there’s a tariff on it, it gets passed on in the price to price to the consumer."

"Did anyone tell the top of the ticket this? Donald Trump said, 'you’re not paying for those tariffs. China’s paying for those tariffs.'"

"Rubio seemed to take Trump's side here, tweeting in 2019 while auditioning for Vice President,
'600 U.S. companies ask Trump to surrender to #China

Basically they ask him to allow China to continue to cheat on trade & steal intellectual property,even if doing so would damage America long term,because Chinese retaliation is hurting their business.'"

"Now the RNC platform is back to saying tariffs hurt Americans, so which is it Marco?"

"Americans deserve to know, which Marco Rubio will they be getting? Candidate Marco Rubio, or Vice President Marco Rubio?"

[Mycool]

Tammy Duckworth Schedule August 17-20

Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth Visits College of DuPage 15 by COD Newsroom, on Flickr

August 17-18th: Pennsylvania

- Fly to Pittsburgh
- Joint rally with Senator Conor Lamb in Pittsburgh

"The truth is, we have a real choice to make. One party wants your boss to get a tax cut, the other wants to give you a raise. To be honest, I find that to be an easy choice. I want every American to make a living wage. I want us to have universal childcare and paid family leave. I want American families to take more home, rather than carving out more loopholes for the wealthy and corporations. We need a more equitable society where the American Dream doesn't require you to be born into wealth and allows for upward mobility of every American."

- Virtual townhalls en route to Philadelphia
- Joint rally with Governor Josh Shapiro

August 19-20th: North Carolina

- Fly to Charlotte
- Rally in Charlotte
- Visit veteran home in Fayetteville
- Joint rally with Governor Roy Cooper in Raleigh

"I'm really proud of having an all veteran ticket this year, and I'm grateful for all of the work Ruben Gallego has done for fellow veterans. The GOP has made some wild accusations about Ruben and I because they know a straightforward look at our records makes for a tough comparison against their candidate. I was able in my time at the Illinois VA to make a program to help veterans dealing with PTSD, I have called for greater oversight in the VA's handling of sexual assault allegations, and have worked to protect veterans deported by Donald Trump after serving the country they love. When I say I want to talk about issues facing Americans, this is what I mean. I want to talk about how my life was saved due to the care I received at the VA, and someone shouldn't have to lose both of her legs for this country just to afford healthcare. I want to talk about how I made the choice, like so many parents in this country, to put off having children until later in life because I didn't have guaranteed paid leave or childcare waiting for me. I want to talk about how wages are stagnating, and I hear from people every day telling me that they haven't seen this so-called economic boom the GOP is trying to sell. I want us to forge a path forward that addresses these fundamental problems we are facing together."

[UWS]

Marco Rubio's response to Duckworth in Atlanta, Georgia

All of what Senator Duckworth got in the last few days are inacuracies. First of all, on the environment, I sided with Rick Scott on banning offshore oil drilling off Florida coast and I blocked the Senate confirmation of Katharine MacGregor to be deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior until I get assurances regarding my desire for a ban of offshore oil drilling near Florida. And I find that strange that Senator Duckworth attacks me on oil because in the Senate she supported the nomination of Dan Brouillette as the Secretary of Energy while he is a proponent of oil drilling and coal.

And on wages, I need to remind the Senator that the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan institute organization that is not running any candidates in the current election campaign and is much more objective than you, reported that thanks to the tax cuts policies that you opposed actually benefited to the middle-class : a family of four with annual income of $73,000 (median family income) saw a tax cut of more than $2,058, a 58 percent reduction in federal taxes. A single parent with one child earning $41 000 a year saw a tax cut of $1,304, a 73 percent reduction in federal taxes. Nine out of ten taxpayers with annual income between $64,000 and $108,000 earned an average federal tax cut of $1400 in 2018. These are not my words, these are the words of the left of center Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Similarly, 90 % of taxpayers winning between $40,000 and $64,000 got an average federal tax cut of $810, while 87 percent of taxpayers with annual income between $108,000 and $232,000 saw an average federal tax cut of $2,710. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the standard deduction for an individual from $6,000 to $12,000 and for a family from $12,000 to $24,000. 105 million Americans took the standard deduction in 2015 according to the IRS statistics of income (SOI) database. Yet Senator Duckworth voted against these tax cuts and so voted for higher middle-class taxes. So she's the one who is out of step with the middle-class. But when I'm President, we'll reduce middle-class taxes from 22 % to 15 % indexing capital gains for inflation and creating a tax-preferred savings vehicle, which will reinforce purchasing power and consumption in America and make sure that our country's prosperity will reach all Americans.

When it comes to tariffs, I have to remind Senator Duckworth that in 2019, in the context of the U.S.-China Trade War, President Trump went on to cut a deal with Xi Jinping, during a joint summit, on that issue as both nations agreed to lift tariffs with China halting to steal IPs and the United States stopping to use Chinese citizens for cheap labor abroad, thus ending the trade war, which helped farmers and workers across this country to recover and to further reinforce their competition. Meanwhile, Senator Duckworth, in her opposition to free trade (which is something she actually has in common with President Trump) and in her belief that we can achieve prosperity by selling to just 5 % of the world economy, is in favor of higher tarrifs, which will hurt the economy, kill opportunities for businesses to expand and to create jobs through stronger competition in the world economy. She opposed TPP, which would give China greater authority to dictate the terms of international trade. But my plan, on the other hand, champion free trade with our allies in Europe, Latin America and in Asia-Pacific in order to make America the most competitive nation in the world economy and so it will reduce tarrifs, increase exports and imports, reduce the cost of trading, allow American businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments. That is the right way to achieve and expand prosperity and that's why I ask for your vote.

[Cabbage]

NBC Interview with Senator Tammy Duckworth

August 18, 2024

(All images are from Wikimedia Commons)

Holt: Good evening. I'm Lester Holt, and, after a long, exciting day at the RNC,* we're here with Vice President Rubio's Democratic opponent, Senator Tammy Duckworth. Senator, how are you tonight?

Duckworth: I'm good, Lester. We had a great day here in Pennsylvania, so I'm pretty pleased right now.

Holt: Good to hear, Senator. Now then, the Vice President has been slamming you repeatedly in both ads and speeches over the scandal regarding your treatment of veterans during your time at the VA. How do you respond to these attacks?

Duckworth: They’re absolutely baseless and an attempt to engage in Trump-style personal attacks when you know you’re losing the policy debate. The case filed against the Illinois VA was dismissed twice, and the audits of my time at the VA described the findings as “typical.” What Marco Rubio doesn’t want you to know is that there isn’t much to this story, and it’s already been thoroughly litigated. In fact, the remarkable part of my tenure is that we were able to get a program to help veterans with PTSD. The fact is that the Vice President is attempting to use a thoroughly investigated and disproven claim to muddy the waters so he can claim to be the bigger champion of veterans. Personally, as someone who served for her country, I find it incredibly offensive and in poor taste that the Vice President of the United States has resorted to digging up something that was resolved a decade ago. I’m more interested in talking about my plans to expand mental healthcare to veterans, in a job placement program after service, and working to improve the economy for working families.

Holt: Always good to remember policy over mudslinging, seeing as that's what's going to get done once the election is over. Now, the newly formed Independent Municipal Republic of Istantinople has already seen violence as both Turkish and Greek nationalists attempt to coerce it into their own respective folds. How would you engage this issue as President?

Duckworth: It’s time for a Camp David meeting with the leaders of Turkey, Greece, and Instantinople. We can’t create lasting peace without a commitment to diplomacy and making sure everyone’s at the table. What we need to do is prevent this from becoming an international crisis, and we need a President that can actually work with our friends and allies, rather than antagonize them. The United States needs to commit to peaceful solutions to this problem, rather than letting it snowball back into a full scale conflict.

Holt: Certainly a popular idea, given the results of less diplomatic resolutions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, the Supreme Court will hear a case next month that could overturn Roe v. Wade, and with a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court. What would you do as President to protect a woman’s right to choose if this case ends as many on the left fear it will?

Duckworth: As your President, I will protect reproductive freedom. It starts by codifying Roe, as we’ve seen partisan courts all too comfortable with overturning precedent when it comes to the right to choose. The next commitment I make will be to appoint judges at all levels that will protect Roe as settled law. What’s happening right now around this Supreme Court should scare every American. We have a court that has been packed with extremists that believe your rights are worth less if you’re out of a certain tax bracket. You had Republicans rush to jam through an appointment in the middle of an election year when they denied President Obama and the American people the appointment of Merrick Garland. You had the GOP promise they wouldn’t overturn Roe, and now look at where we’re at. What’s at stake in this election is every bit of progress we’ve achieved in the past two decades. It means that in November, rights to privacy, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights are all on the ballot.

Holt: A strong support for Roe from the first sitting Senator to choose to have a child. Finally, Senator, if you could say one thing to the American people tonight, what would it be?

Duckworth: I would say I’m ready to fight on behalf of you and your family. Unlike my opponent, I have a clear record that speaks to not only my values, but the values of Americans. I’m ready to fight for the rights of Americans to marry who they love, to attend school, church, or a concert without fear of the type of gun violence that we see in war zones, and the right to privacy against government surveillance. This election is so clearly about values, and I will not back down to special interests who care more about shareholders than the everyday American.

Holt: Senator Duckworth, great to have you on here with us.

Duckworth: My pleasure, Lester.

Holt: And that will be all for tonight. Join us tomorrow as we dive into Day 3* of the RNC in Atlanta.

*: No, this does not mean I assume RNC Day 2 is complete; this is just when such an interview would be held on August 18.