Illegal Immigration

Open Thread

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Trump’s peace plan for Gaza is pretty much a diktat – there is very much a subtext of “or else” in it. But it is also a very fair deal. In fact, it is far more merciful to the Gazans than they deserve. The nutshell: war is over, Hamas is out, they get totally rebuilt under Trump’s watchful eye and Tony Blair as the Governor-General (in all but name) essentially until such time as we’re confident that 10/7 out of Gaza isn’t going to happen again. Peace, freedom and prosperity are offered to them – all they have to do, ultimately, is reject Hamas and the ideological commitment to murdering Jews.

Not a big ask.

Most of the major Muslim powers immediately signaled their overall approval (with reservations, of course) with the only notable hold out being Iran…but the Mullahs also know they are quite defenseless against Israeli and American power so we’ll see how that plays out…they’ll never officially drop their “kill the Jews” platform but if they’ve got the sense God gave little, white mice they’ll cut off the funds for Hamas and call it a day. The rest of the Muslim world is telling the Palestinians that it is past time to pack it in on that whole “Palestinian Liberation Movement”. It is over. They won’t march on Tel Aviv. Israel is a permanent fixture…and perhaps if they are very nice and behave themselves for a while they might get sovereignty over the Dome of the Rock and maybe a small section of the Old City as the symbolic capital of Palestine. It is time for this stupid war to end – and if the Palestinians prove intractable, then I can only see this ending with their total and permanent exile from the entirety of the Holy Land.

Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma posted on X the picture of a New York State CDL – it was all fine and dandy but the name said “No Name Given”. Yes, the holder of it was an illegal. In fact, Oklahoma found a very large number of illegals driving on their highways. And now I’m finding out that multiple Blue States are issuing “temporary” CDL’s with “No Name Given”…which totally defeats the purpose of having a driver’s license…but is exactly what drug and human trafficking criminal cartels need for moving their product around.

And that is what this actually shows: the governments of the Blue States are in bed with the cartels. There is simply no other explanation for allowing an un-named person to carry a CDL. You only do that if you want to assist organized crime.

Democrats are threatening a government shut down and Trump is proceeding on the assumption that this is threatening him with a good time. Reminder: if the money isn’t appropriated for a position, then that position legally ceases to exist. That is the Power of the Purse, guys. Now, in the past when there was a government shut down, the President has placed those unfunded on furlough and made sure their back pay was placed in the final budget deal…but the President doesn’t have to furlough them. They’re gone the moment the money is gone…and they only get to come back if the President wants them back (that is, makes sure its in the final budget deal). Trump might be able to fire a vast number of bureaucrats.

Which the Democrats know is the case and they hold absolutely zero cards here – because what pain there is won’t be inflicted on MAGA. Trump will make sure of that. Obama made sure regular Americans suffered under shutdown…because he hates Americans and wants us to suffer if he doesn’t get his way. Trump loves Americans…and so all the pain will be inflicted upon the Ruling Class. But Schumer and Co are also looking over their shoulders…Far Left primary challengers are already trying to get started. They’ve called Trump Hitler for 10 years and their base believes it…and you can’t cut a budget deal with Hitler. The Democrat Base wants this fight…and might turn with fury on any Democrat who tries to avoid it. So, Schumer might have to drive over the cliff here – and that’s funny.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

I think we’re all a bit amazed – and outraged – at Democrat’s going to bat for “Maryland Man”…you know, the guy who seems increasingly likely to be an MS-13 gangster and human trafficker. The whole concept of it is rather insane: he’s an El Salvadoran who was deported to El Salvador. I get that an order from 2019 – before the gangs were cleaned up in El Salvador – prohibited deportation to El Salvador but the bottom line is the man is back home. Nothing bad was done to him by us. And if he really didn’t want to go back to his home, he could have left the USA voluntarily over the six year period since the final deportation order was issued. In other words, there’s just nothing to be too upset about. So, why all the fuss?

We can’t ignore the possibility of sheer stupidity. As I’ve been saying for a while now, the Left is really stupid. They only manage to hold power by ruthless suppression of dissent in the institutions they have captured and taxpayer subsidy. They are dumb enough to drive over this cliff just because Trump pointed to it. But we must also consider the possibility that it isn’t sheer stupidity – always assume your enemy is smarter than he appears, right? And once I started rolling it around, I came up with an answer: 2026 and 2028.

So far a bit quietly, there is a far Left revolt brewing on the Democrat side. The people who are certain that Trump is Hitler II are in deadly – if rather stupid – earnest about it. They really do believe that unless Trump is stopped, all good things will come to an end. This is why we still see sotto voce appeals for lunatics to take another shot at Trump…but another area of battle is the threat of primary fights. The far Left is saying that anyone who doesn’t go flat out to stop Trump is a traitor and will be primaried. We’ll see if they can actually get this rolling…but part of what van Hollen is doing could be to lock down far Left support. “See? I’m out here Resisting! Love me! Don’t primary me!”. And, of course, if he’s got ambitions for 2028, he’d also want to lock down far Left support for the early Democrat primaries…you gotta figure that a straight, white male is going to be at a huge disadvantage in any Democrat Presidential primary…so, be More Commie Than Thou. And this will go for all of them who get that Presidential bug. Keep in mind that Democrats always figure they can tack Right after the primary…they’re foolish to believe this because (a) their base is infuriated by any tack to the Right and (b) they don’t have total domination of information any longer…with X and other platforms out there, you can’t successfully pretend all that Commie stuff didn’t happen. Harris learned this the hard way last November.

But my goodness does this look bad for them – Democrats who wouldn’t dream of meeting with the families of illegal immigrant victims flying all the way down to El Salvador for a chat over coffee. Not a good look. Horrendous look, in fact. The attack ads are already written: “Democrats are for illegal immigrants, we Republicans are for you, the American people.” Do keep in mind that in 1934 things were absolutely horrible in the United States and it was FDR’s first mid-term. This confluence of events should have walloped the Democrats pretty hard – Democrats gained 9 House and 9 Senate seats. This was because in spite of how horrible it all still was in the depths of the Great Depression, the GOP was so toxic that the people remained with the Democrats. And right now the Democrats are making themselves toxic. Fighting Trump on cutting waste, illegal immigration and protecting girls sports isn’t going to play well. Democrats are certainly hoping that the economy is bad come next year…but if they keep playing this game then even if it is bad, I still give the GOP a 50/50 shot at winning…and if the economy is in good shape (and I expect it will be) then, look out! Nobody can really assess how things might turn out.

Varad Mehta over on X (@varadmehta – a definite must-follow) has been talking up MAGA’s disdain for and lack of patience with the Judicial Resistance to Trump II:

It isn’t so much that we don’t want Courts. It isn’t that we don’t want Judicial Review. But we’re not going to endure a system where after great efforts – and our Candidate being shot – we find that a few judges get to stop us. It simply wouldn’t be fair – and it is also not remotely Constitutional. Reminder: the primary purpose of our independent Judiciary is to ensure that the Executive can’t jail us on a whim. The Founders didn’t want a system where a judge is beholden to the King. Nor a system like that in France where the King could use lettres de cachet to imprison anyone who offended him without trial or appeal. The Founders did NOT create a Judiciary to second-guess every issue under the Sun. A republican system of government presupposes that the elected representatives of the people decide what shall be…with the Courts only intervening when one or both of the other branches does something egregiously in violation of the written Constitution. Deporting a guy to El Salvador, firing redundant bureaucrats and cutting off USAID funding are not Constitutional issues. There is no reason to have the Judiciary speak to these matters. Anyone who doesn’t like what the current government is doing here is free to argue against it and try to get to a different election result next time…but only a different government can decide differently, not some district court judge appointed via political favoritism.

And if the Judiciary does not curb itself, then it will be curbed. As Varad has pointed out repeatedly, the Courts have already lost the respect of the Democrats – there is already a movement to simply pack the Courts with sufficient Democrat operatives to ensure all Judicial decisions line up with current Democrat policy. As of this moment, only Republicans still want to preserve an independent Judiciary. But patience is wearing thin. If Roberts and the rest of the Supreme Court want to retain any authority, at all, they’d better quickly smack down the district court judges.

Obeying Immigration Laws: Not a Big Ask

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Last night on X I did something I very rarely do: got into an argument with a priest. I’m always wary of such out of respect. But this was a bridge too far and I felt I had to speak. The issue was illegal immigration and the Catholic Church’s efforts to instruct illegals on how to avoid deportation. I objected to such efforts on grounds that it amounts to helping people evade the law. The rejoinder was that we have a moral obligation to follow the laws and so illegals must know their rights, especially as regards to ICE needing a warrant to enter a house. It went back and forth a bit from there but it ended (that is, no further response), with me pointing out that this was the assertion being made:

Congrats, illegal! You’ve jumped the fence! Jackpot! You broke the law but now the Americans must scrupulously follow every possible law and pay for you to stay while they go through a lengthy and expensive process to get you to leave!

How is this just? It simply isn’t. And here’s the real crux of the matter: obeying our laws is not a big ask. It is not an onerous burden to demand that everyone trying to enter the USA do so at a legal point of entry. In fact, crossing illegally is vastly more dangerous and expensive for the migrants than crossing legally. Our asylum laws are very generous. It isn’t difficult for anyone who is under any real threat back home to obtain refugee status. There is a fully developed legal process to determine if a person is a refugee and the dice are loaded in favor of the foreigner. To not avail yourself of this and to instead try the highly dangerous and expensive illegal crossing can only mean one thing: you have no case to make.

And do keep something in mind here: the advocates for these people illegally in the country are not asking for us to provide for an even more generous asylum law combined with strict border security. They’d probably get that out of Trump who is not opposed to immigration: he has said again and again – to some dismay of the hard core MAGA voters – that he’s ok with H1B visas and legal immigration as such. His whole thing is merely that we stop the illegal invasion. That we secure our border and find out who is coming in. That our most law-abiding President since at least Coolidge just wants us to obey the laws.

Entering legally is not a big ask. Neither is getting your visa renewed (advocates for the illegals always claim that half or more illegals are visa overstays…as if that somehow makes it ok). I get the Church on migration: the Church is supranational and has always advocated for the free movement of people. I also understand that one of our charges against the old USSR was their denial of the right to move. But here’s the thing: an insistence that the laws be followed is not anti-immigrant. It is, in fact, the most pro-immigrant stance one can take. It protects the rights of the migrants – whereas the illegal immigration system is routinely and grossly abusive.

This is another thing we don’t pay nearly enough attention to. The real breaking point for me was a couple years ago when this 17 year old boy was found wandering the desert in Arizona (I believe). He had been abandoned by his traffickers because he couldn’t keep up. He was left to die. He would have died if he hadn’t been very fortunately found. When found he was literally crying for his mother…it ripped at my heart to read the story. And then I thought further about it.

The story said that the boy was traveling north to join his father – an illegal immigrant working in (as I recall) Minnesota. In other words, he was being sent to work alongside his illegal father doing work neither of them were legally permitted to do. Then you consider: who lets their child take a difficult, dangerous, several thousand mile journey with strangers? No parent does that – unless the alternative was very much worse. What alternative could be worse? After all, dad was already in the USA – sure, being paid substandard wages by ruthlessly exploitive rat bastards…but still making far more than he could make in Mexico. In other words, was there a crying need so desperate that you’d essentially bet your son’s life on it?

Nope. Can’t be. Then it dawned on me – the kid was from an area of Mexico where the Cartels are all-powerful. The Cartels that transport the illegals. He wasn’t sent north by his mother…he was sent north by the Cartels who provide the slave labor for the USA. And you just know take a cut of the wages (after all, the Cartels don’t transport you for free; its actually a pretty stiff price and most of the migrants don’t have that much cash…but you know the Cartels are getting paid). You can easily see the Cartels telling mom that the boy is going north…and what can she do? She just a woman against ruthless men armed with machine guns…they own the police. And she’s got her other kids to think of. Off the boy goes…almost to his death.

In my reading of the relevant US statutes, ICE almost never needs a judicial warrant. It is a bit debatable whether they need one to enter a private home or whether probable cause is sufficient to enter – but even if they do need a judicial warrant to enter a private home such entry can only be objected to by the home’s owner or agent…and, guys, illegals living ten to a room do not have a valid rental agreement and the owner isn’t going to object because doing so just proves the violation of multiple immigration and zoning laws. But in addition to this, it is absurd to demand that we Americans adhere to the highest jot and tittle of the law while the illegals are free to break our laws at will. It can’t work like that – the law isn’t a suicide pact. Sure, everyone has inalienable rights and I’ll die to defend such rights…but this doesn’t mean I’m going to let someone screw me via the law.

The illegals didn’t forget that its illegal to enter. They didn’t forget that there are legal points of entry. They didn’t forget their visa was going to expire. They didn’t forget that illegals cannot be legally employed in the USA. They knew all up and down the line and again and again that they were breaking laws – and that they were giving a gigantic middle finger to the United States of America…showing utter contempt for this nation and her people. Its a stranger walking into your house, taking a sandwich out of your fridge, settling on the couch and then demanding you go through a legal eviction process to remove him. Even if the law says you must, justice says you can grab him by the hair and toss him out.

And before anyone out there goes on about the multiple Biblical injunctions to welcome the stranger in both Old and New Testaments: I am the most welcoming guy you can imagine. I’m also helpful to those in distress. If I did find the man beaten by robbers I would do everything I could to take care of him. Anyone coming into my country is going to get a hearty “hello”. If you are a foreigner and your life depends on escape from your homeland, not only will I accept you into the USA, I’ll even agree to our government helping you to escape the clutches of the tyrants trying to kill you. For instance, I’m totally ok right now with every Druze, Alawite and Christian in Syria getting the heck out of Dodge – I know what is happening to them and what is likely to keep happening to them.

Knock on the door. That’s all I’m asking. Let me know who you are as you come in. Cross at a legal point of entry. Once again: not a big ask.

And nobody can have any rational, moral objection to this stance. Just as nobody would let a stranger come in through the window unannounced, so nobody can rationally object to a nation hanging a sign at the legal point of entry and saying that everyone has to come through that door. It is the only possible way to do it morally…because having a legal point of entry where people present themselves for legal entry cuts out all of the criminals – in and outside the USA – harming these poor people. You’re safe. Come here. I’ll look after you as if you’re one of my own. If you can’t ever go home again I’ll place you on a path to citizenship. I’m not cruel. The traffickers and their enablers are.

And I’m terribly sorry but being poor is not being oppressed. Almost everyone is poorer than Americans. Heck, the UK’s income is on par with Alabama, America’s poorest State. If being poor is a valid reason to enter the USA then we’re going to have to take 9 out of 10 people in the world and that is obviously not physically possible. I understand that if you are a poor foreigner you might want to come to America and live the American dream – I favor that. But not everyone all at once. Maybe we can increase the annual numbers but we also can’t just take in millions willy nilly. We’re 37 trillion dollars in debt. We have massive homeless and drug addict problems. Our infrastructure needs lots of work. Our mining, manufacturing and farming sectors have to be revived. We can’t do everything for everyone all at once and that means we have to prioritize our resources…and, sure, people wanting to come in are in the mix, but they aren’t everything. Some people will just have to wait a bit.

In the end, I refuse to be insane on this issue. Or any other, for that matter. It isn’t a big ask, you know, to demand that people be clean and respectful in public spaces, either. I could go on quite a long list of things the Left has tolerated which are actually intolerable. But that’s for another time: today I talk immigration and I refuse to be insane. I refuse to be suckered into essentially providing back up for traffickers. I won’t be guilt tripped into the ruthless exploitation of foreigners. I will insist upon the easiest possible way: just obey the law. It isn’t difficult. If everyone does that regarding immigration, then the issue is solved. Forever. At little long term cost.

Time for everyone to get on board with this. Not a big ask.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

It isn’t important so much as a thing, but it is showing how things are done via the MSM in the modern era:

Justin Timberlake – who I didn’t realize until just now was part of the boy band NSYNC and who’s songs I couldn’t for the life of me identify, but who has been a pop icon for 20 years – was arrested for DWI in Sag Harbor. This is one of those Long Island communities where rich people soak up the local atmosphere…meaning, the actual purpose of the place is long gone and the whole thing is like a Disney-park, in this case the community pretends it still has some connection to its nautical, whaling past. So, you know: a place where the rich are privileged. Timberlake is, of course, rich. And the rich people of Sag Harbor and such places are not about to put up with impertinence from the cops.

There is this article in the MSM and many others attacking the cop. He has, as the story says, been “unmasked” as a rookie cop who didn’t recognize Timberlake. The horror! There are also stories circulating claiming that other locals don’t like this particular cop. This is all intimidation: not just of this particular officer, but the entire police force and law enforcement apparatus of the area. It is a PR blitz to let everyone know that you damned well better recognize Timberlake – and any other rich/famous people – and do what you have to do to make sure the rich/famous don’t face significant consequences for actions. And the MSM is playing along with it – just as they do with the overall Ruling Class, which includes Democrats and kept Republicans. The particulars of the cop are, of course, irrelevant unless there is a charge that the officer violated the law – that he’s a rookie or didn’t recognize Timberlake is unimportant. The only thing we, the people, need to know is if the arrest was legit – that’s all we ever need to know about the cops: did they act within the law? Whether or not Timberlake is guilty is a matter for the courts. But if you want to put a shot across the legal system’s bow, you do it like this – letting everyone know that big wheels are not pleased and so maybe make this all go away.

In the UK the Tories are going to get wiped out in the July 4th election. Some polling indicates the Tories may drop from their current 344 seats down into the low 50s. The Tories have completely earned this destruction. My actual hope is that the party dissolves shortly afterwards. They have been the worst of the worst “RINO” type of party. You think Romney is bad? He’s a conservative stalwart compared to PM Sunak and his cronies. There is nothing that Labour wants that the Tories don’t go along with – from open borders to pronoun policies, the Tory government has been Labour for all intents and purposes. Don’t get me wrong – an actual Labour government (which the UK will get, and with an unassailable majority) is going to be worse. You know how Leftists are – once they do get power, they kick in the afterburners and go for it. And like always, this new Labour government will rest secure in the knowledge that once they screw everything up and get the boot, a new Tory government will just tap the brakes and keep on with Labour policies. But, will it?

Nigel Farage, famed leader of the Brexit movement, has come out of retirement to lead Reform UK into the election. Reform will not win. In fact, best polling has them winning less than 10 seats; this is because of the way things are done in British elections. Reform is polling just a little below Tory but it is first past the post in the UK (as it is in our Congressional elections) and with the Right vote split between Tory and Reform, it’ll be Labour (barely polling above 40%) that takes as many at 470 out of 650 seats (that is 40% getting 72% of the seats – and 100% of the power because there is no actual check on the power of the House of Commons). But while Reform will enter the next Parliament as a tiny party – and with perhaps the absurd Liberal-Democrats as the official Opposition to His Majesty’s Government – they are, perhaps, a harbinger. All across the world, the Ruling Class is threatened by a rising tide of discontent. This discontent is going to result in a Labour government in the UK (which is monumentally stupid, but change does take time) but everywhere the Establishment is besieged by a populace running out of patience. Labour will ruin Britain. It is what Leftists do. And at the next election, Reform might come into its own.

In addition to the “you want expensive tomatoes?” arguments in favor of illegal immigration, the Ruling Class is trotting out the, “you think only illegals commit crimes?” excuse. I’m not sure this one will work any better than the other given that the crime rate for illegals should be zero as there should be no illegals in country to commit crimes. In addition to this, I don’t put any stock in the Libertarian and Left studies claiming that illegals commit less crimes than Americans. That is just a stupid assertion given that illegals are people and are prone to crime as any other random group of people. Of course they commit, on average, at least as much crime per 100,000 as anyone else. And that is the baseline – now add in this:

“Hey, you’re an illegal…transport this meth to Arizona or we’ll tip off immigration.”

It is almost an existential certainty that illegals commit more crimes than citizens.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan42 Comments

The sentenced the guy the FBI set up to be Whitmer’s kidnapper to 19 years today. Word to the wise, guys: anyone – and I mean anyone – who advocates anti-government violence is a Fed. They have whole teams of agents looking for any loudmouth they can sucker into playing along. They have their Narrative – that violent White Supremacists are the Real Terrorists – and they will make up crimes to support this. Don’t be drawn into it.

Our task is not the violent overthrow of the US Government – it is to work where we can to expand our power. While the Constitution is in shreds, it is still there. The States are still sovereign. Counties are well-nigh independent of all higher authority. School boards answer to nearly nobody. In the States where we can win: win big. Enact laws defending liberty. And also start pressing our States to cease accepting federal money: huge amounts of the laws on your State and local books are there simply because the federal money doesn’t come unless it is. Stop it and break free. Take over County commissions, sheriff’s offices, school boards. Bottom up has to be our plan – still complete on the national level and take what wins we can…but the future is a kid starting first grade next year after we took over the school board. Twelve short years from now that kid is a literate, numerate, sane and physically healthy patriot. Get the sheriffs who will simply refuse to enforce federal laws which infringe on rights. Pass restrictions on the actions of federal agents in the States. Things like that – while also pushing into the Blue areas and winning whatever we can, no matter how small, because even the smallest victories today become big wins tomorrow: I remember when in the 1980’s the Liberals started their plans to take over San Diego and Orange counties in California – and it has largely succeeded. Took them ages. Started with a couple school boards, a city council here and there…

Voting grows. More people do it. The various laws and programs the Democrats have enacted are bringing ever more people to the polls. We’re still very much playing catch up. But as the crisis in our civilization grows more acute, look for this trend to continue and intensify. And don’t think it will forever favor the Democrats. Remember that Trump scored 11 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. People are angry, confused and want answers and solutions – they will surge to the polls in ever greater numbers trying to find them. Our task is to ride that lightning. If we can provide a real alternative – no more Democrat-lite – and shed our connections to Big Corporation (almost done) and the Military-Industrial Complex (about half way there) then we can really start to talk to people.

Governor Abbott is still sending illegals to DC – to the fury of Democrats who would never, of course, lend a hand to any of those poor people. It is effective propaganda but I think we need to next-step it. My suggestion to Abbott is that he get together with other border State governors and work up a plan to send 10,000 illegals to DC all at once. Force the MSM to cover it. Make it a crisis; show the Ruling Class that we’re serious and this has to stop. Side note; Abbott is my third choice for 2024 behind Trump and DeSantis. He’s doing solid work. Made a few policy errors here and there, but when the chips are down he fights for us.

Musk is thinking – so the rumor goes – of buying Substack and essentially getting into the MSM business. I think he was genuinely surprised at how little notice the MSM has taken of the Twitter Files, and that what little is said about them is invariably a pack of lies. Musk is a liberal – I doubt he’ll ever stop being a liberal – but he’s been mugged by reality and I think it is dawning on him that if he wants to remain free, he’s got to attack the system. It is either that or just roll over for them.

One thing Musk did point out today – which I didn’t know and apparently a lot of other people didn’t know – is that the person tasked with keeping Fauci ethical in his professional service is…his wife. Which really isn’t a surprise except that it shows you that not only are they corrupt, but they don’t really care if we find out how corrupt they are.

Congressman-elect Santos apparently told a bunch of whoppers in his successful House campaign. The Democrats are demanding he resign because of his lies. Most of us are just laughing at that and pointing out Warren and Biden just for starters. GOPe types are wetting themselves over it, as usual. But I don’t think the bedwetters will rule the day here – I think that even someone like McCarthy realizes there is no upside to throwing one of our own to the wolves. If Santos is a real problem, them primary him in 2024.

Hooters is thinking of rebranding itself on the conclusion that Millennial men just don’t care that much for boobs. I really don’t know what to make of that.

CNN broadcast a story of a 9 year old girl being sold by her father to an old man – apparently because the girl’s family is impoverished. Most people are naturally horrified by it: but I’d like to point out that this is what they do there. It is what they’ve always done there. You won’t talk these people out of it. To them, a nine year old will now be with a rich man who will ensure she is fed and her position will also ensure her larger family survives tough times. In their mind, while this might not be ideal, it is better than the girl going hungry, her family going hungry or the women of the family forced to engage in dishonorable practices to keep body and soul together. Have you ever been really hungry? In the sense of having nothing to eat and no prospect of getting another meal? That is what the family faced and this is how they decided to get out of it.

Now, you can still stop this: but it will require killing. Lots of killing. Including women and children. These people will view you as alien outsiders and no matter how much they might hate their own rulers, they’re going to hate you even more for trying to force change on them. Nothing is quite as cut and dried as a news report tries to make out. For the record, I’d like that practice to be stropped. But I’d also like to hear a Mass at Hagia Sophia. There’s lots of things I’d like but I’m never going to get. And before I do anything which will result in our young me killing their young men I’m going to think carefully before I even speak, let along act.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Never forget:

Impeach this, Democrats:

The jobs market turned in a stellar performance in November, with nonfarm payrolls surging by 266,000 and the unemployment rate falling to 3.5%, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday.

Those totals easily beat the Wall Street consensus. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for solid job growth of 187,000 and saw the unemployment rate holding steady from October’s 3.6%.

I’ve read stories that the Trump Administration has been turning the screws on those who hire illegal immigrants – in other words, taking away the incentive for the illegals to come across. But the follow-on of that would be that these companies have to hire someone…and if an American is all you got, I guess you gotta take him. And pay him an American wage; wage growth has also been red hot.

I had mentioned a little while back that President McKinley’s trade policy was “trade reciprocity”; boiled down, we’re only going to buy from countries which buy from us, unless a country really has something we absolutely can’t procure in the United States. Trump’s trade policies are in line with this concept; it is unfair for a country to get easy access to our markets when we have no real access or highly limited access to theirs. And for all the Tru-Cons out there, it seems to me that adhering to the tried and true practices of the Republican Party – rather than the so-called “free trade” nostrums of Progressives – is the more Conservative thing to do. The more we force people to play fair and the more we protect ourselves from foreign predators, the better we’re going to do. In my view, if we keep it up long enough, we won’t even have to worry about the supposed cheapness of foreign imports…American ingenuity will simply figure out ways to make it just as cheap at home, because there’s one thing that business wants to do: sell product. And if selling product requires making it faster and cheaper, they’ll eventually figure out how to do it.

The latest shooting in Florida was, without a doubt, and act of Islamist terrorism…so, everyone is doing what they can to pretend it wasn’t. Mark Steyn is trenchant as usual:

We know it’s a Saudi national gunning down Americans, but it’s “too early to know” if it’s terrorism. Could be just “mental health issues” or “workplace violence” or “pre-traumatic stress disorder” or “involuntary self-radicalization” or whatever. Nothing to worry about and always remember (to reprise another old line of mine) that “Allahu Akbar” is Arabic for “Nothing to see here”.

On “the day that everything changed” nothing changed – except the rate of Muslim immigration to the west, which doubled. A US immigration bureaucracy both cruel and stupid enough to ban a World War Two RAF pilot for life for staying with his wife until her death when she was stricken ill in the US and taken to a New Jersey hospital cannot stop itself admitting Saudi trainee pilots to kill Americans.

The only thing wrong with President Trump’s Muslim ban is that it was nothing of the kind. What we needed was strict controls on foreign nationals who hail from places where terrorists commonly come from. If you are coming to the USA from, say Saudi Arabia, then lets to a pretty intense background check on you and get you bonded and insured and so forth before you come in. Who in hell thought it would be a good idea to give Saudis flight training? Someone, somewhere…who probably got a pay raise and promotion for encouraging diversity…because we have a shortage of lunatic murderers in the United States. The real problem is money, as usual: the Saudis and other Muslim money bags have been flashing the cash at our Ruling Class for decades and really poured it on after 9/11…so many people are bought that we aren’t even allowed to have a real discussion of the issue…a discussion which would help the Muslim world as much as it would help us.

In a sign that Trump is changing the courts, the 9th Circuit – yes, that 9th circuit – just gave Trump a win on whether an immigrant can be a public charge (that means be on welfare, for you liberals out there).

How is impeachment going? Well, CNN which is mostly about impeachment (and complaining about how Fox is covering impeachment) has seen its ratings tank…very, very badly. The jig is really up for it, folks: I’m still not convinced they’ll actually hold a vote on articles of impeachment, but we’ll see. Main thing is, it is dead as a door nail. Only real question if they impeach is, does McConnell move to have it summarily dismissed, or does he drag out a trial through the early Democrat primaries?

Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

So, the Democrats called up John Dean – of Watergate infame – to try to make the case that Trump is worse than Nixon. It didn’t work out too well:

There was a memorable exchange between Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Mr. Dean during the hearing. When Gaetz spoke, he entered into the record a December 2005 essay by John Dean, titled “George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon: Both Wiretapped Illegally, and Impeachably.” Gaetz then asked Mr. Dean, “How many American presidents have you accused of being Richard Nixon?” It was a humorous moment, and Dean responded that he had actually written a book called Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.

Personally, I think this was Pelosi’s attempt to feed something to the base in lieu of impeachment. But I’m not sure she can ride that tiger – remember, a very large portion of Democrats, per polls, believe that Trump was elected because Putin switched Hillary votes to Trump. The constituency of those who believe that Trump is the personification of evil is large in the Democrat party – and will have a huge say in whom the Democrats nominate in 2020. These people might not be satisfied with anything less than Articles of Impeachment.

Leftist fascists are suing Masterpiece Cakes, again. They know they can’t win – they are doing it to make sure that no one else will show such courage. The process is the punishment – which is why we need a Civil Rights Act which explicitly allows anyone to refuse service on any grounds they choose.

California is going to provide full health benefits to illegal immigrants under 26. Trump should withhold all federal health care funds for California. If they’ve got enough money to do that, they don’t need taxpayers in the other 49 States helping out.

Poll says that a majority want abortion legal, but with restrictions. Which is probably correct. I doubt that there is even 25% support for an outright ban on all abortions (this is my position, by the way). But I bet there’s not even 10% who are in favor of the Democrats demand for federally funded abortion on demand up to the last minute (and a few minutes later if the kid makes it past the abortion). My view is that if Roe were disposed of (and it should be, simply on the fact that the ruling was grossly unconstitutional), I’ll bet that most States would ban third trimester abortion, nearly as many would also ban second trimester…and only a couple three would keep it fully legal throughout the pregnancy. That still wouldn’t be good enough for me, but it isn’t for me to impose, but to convince…and that is just what the pro-abortion people don’t want to do. They want their views rammed through, what the people want be damned.

Report is that Barr’s investigation into the investigators is rather broad. We can hope. I know none of us really believe that any of the major players will see the inside of a jail cell…but I also know that each of us, in the back of his or her mind, hopes it will be so. It isn’t vindictiveness. In fact, after a short stint, most of us would probably be ok with Trump pardoning them…but we want justice. We want to know that the Rule of Law really applies to everyone.