Despots, crooks and loser top Forbes list of power women

FPI / December 13, 2019

Analysis by Leesa K. Donner, LibertyNation.com

A motley crew of female movers and shakers top Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women.” However, Angela Merkel, Nancy Pelosi, Christine Lagarde, Ursula von der Leyen, and Mary Barra do have one thing in common: their political ideology. Leftists, progressives, socialists – whatever label you prefer – all these women of power and influence represent the best the political left has to offer.

That should scare the bejesus out of you.

“We look at hard things such as money, power, constituents you oversee,” Forbes said. “But also, are you driving transformational change, impact?” So, what have these celebrated double x chromosomes done with all this power? Let’s strip away the make-up and look at their accomplishments.

Number 1: Merkel Madness

When she rides off into the sunset in her Mercedes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be remembered for her naïveté over immigration, which has led to a crisis in Europe. Merkel’s “no limit” policy has had disastrous cultural and criminal consequences. As Scott McConnell of The American Conservative put it, “Angela Merkel altered not only Germany but the entire European continent, in irreversible ways, for decades to come.”

Number 2: Christine Lagarde

We won’t even bother with the criminal aspects of Lagarde’s professional life when she was hanging out at the IMF. Today Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde serves as the president of the European Central Bank. Liberty Nation Economic Correspondent Andrew Moran points out that Lagarde is a “classic Keynesian interventionist.” In an article for LN, Moran quoted economic experts from Money Maven: “It’s rare to find someone who is consistently wrong on everything. Christine Lagarde … comes close.”

Number 3: Nancy Pelosi

Ahh, so much to say and such little time. While taking hits from the far-left wing of her party, Pelosi masterfully engineered the greatest show on Earth. With nothing in terms of hard evidence and without first-hand witness testimony, Pelosi managed to marshal her troops and draw up articles of impeachment against a sitting president.

Liberty Nation Chief Political Correspondent Graham Noble points out that the positions of House Speaker and House Minority Leader are two of the toughest jobs in politics, and that “Pelosi has held one of those two jobs for the past 16 years, so credit where credit’s due.” Noble goes on to say, “She got away with a lot of nonsense during the Obama years, but the effort to impeach Trump has been her biggest test and she hasn’t handled it well. Maybe she just lost control of her party’s worst excesses or maybe she wants to be remembered as the Democrat who delivered Trump’s impeachment. Without a conviction in the Senate, though, Pelosi’s reign is over, whether Trump is re-elected or not.”

Number 4: Ursula Von Der Leyen

Most Americans might shrug and wonder, “who?” Serving as the new president of the European Commission, Leyen is now poised to throw her weight around the E.U. As the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet, Leyen is a mini-Merkel of sorts and carries a suitcase of scandal with her to Belgium. As one critic of van der Leyen put it, “She arrives in Brussels with a record of negligence in her country of origin.” Did she or didn’t she let her network of personal connections profit in the millions from contracts she awarded while serving as the German defense minister?  Ms. von der Leyen may, in fact, rival Vice President Joe Biden, for cronyism. Marginal ethics, potentially criminal behavior, and a tainted political record apparently hold little sway with the Forbes panel of judges.

Number 5: Mary Barra

There’s only one thing you need to know about the chairman and CEO of General Motors. She was on Hillary Clinton’s list of possible vice-presidential candidates. In fact, Mary Barra is listed first among the top tier possible running mates who hailed from the private sector. This is the same list where Michael Bloomberg can be found.

Under Barra’s fine tutelage, GM cut 14,000 jobs “10 years to the day after the U.S. Treasury gave the company a $1 billion bailout,” The Daily Caller reported. And that was in 2018. In 2019 Barra issued pink slips to another four thousand GM workers. The Democrats may call themselves friends of the working class, but Barra most assuredly is not.

Hello? Any Conservatives Out There?

Conservative women are largely absent from Forbes’ illustrious list. To be fair, Ivanka Trump does make the top 100, but even she’s slipping. In 2018 she made it to number 26, but, this year, Ivanka dropped to number 42. Kellyanne Conway, who serves as a counselor to the president of the United States, doesn’t make the grade at all. Nor does the first lady. It doesn’t appear that these two smart, savvy women who certainly hold positions of power and influence have enough of worth even to make Forbes top 100.

In 1865 William Ross Wallace wrote a poem titled “What Rules the World.” Within this literary work lies the often-quoted phrase, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is the Hand That Rules the World.” One must wonder where all the Maggie Thatchers have gone – or does the hand that rocks the cradle only swing left these days?

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