Category: Politics

Over at American Thinker, Matt Fitzgibbons has written a bit of American history which contains a quote that ol’ Poe had not heard before and thinks quite appropriate for this forum of commonly cynical, cantankerous and curmudgeonly commenters.

“At George Washington’s inauguration in April of 1789, New York was our new Republic’s capital.  Less than a year later, a deal was struck by Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton to move the capital to the mouth of the Potomac.  The North would benefit by having Congress assume the States’ debts, and the South would have a capital closer to home.

The only problem was, this new capital would be built on a parasite-infested swamp.  It still is.  Five years earlier in a letter, George Washington had applauded the region for farming as it ‘contains an inexhaustible supply of manure.’ It still does.”

While Democrat leadership seems hell-bent on unleashing the frothing-mouthed dogs of social war, it appears there is another movement afoot within liberal ranks to unleash some poodles of sanity. A video appearing on YouTube by a young, gay New York City hairdresser explaining why he has decided to “Walk Away” from the liberal left and the Democrat party has caught fire on social media, prompting a movement of like-minded leftists who have decided the party has gone too far left for them. In spite of efforts by the mighty gods of the social ether to suppress this trending disaffection, it could take on the momentum of a full-fledged mass desertion, fulfilling the hope of bewildered conservatives that, “They can’t all be that crazy, can they?”

The star of this cinematic declaration of independence, Brandon Straka, makes a heartfelt and compelling case for his rejection of present-day Democrat fascism masquerading as liberalism, albeit his message contains nothing new for conservatives and Republicans who have been making the very same points for years now in their criticisms of the growing lunacy of the liberal left. But do go watch the video, which has now been viewed by more than five million people on Facebook and YouTube, because it is so refreshing to hear our conservative complaints being voiced by someone in the heart of the liberal camp and such a Democrat stronghold as New York City. If the Democrats’ iron grip on Gotham is slipping, they’re in big trouble.

If the #Walk Away movement could spark to life in Manhattan’s gay community, imagine how it could catch fire among the disaffected, ordinary, working class Democrats out there in flyover country who managed to cling to their guns and religion even while voting for Obama twice and then Hillary. If sophisticated members of the New York gay community, with their greater tolerance of bizarre behaviors, are fed up with the Democrats, the flyover folks could turn this so-far small straying from the herd into a political stampede that runs right over the blue wave this November.

We should not, however, smugly conclude that these Democrat defectors will automatically vote Republican. Many may vote Libertarian or simply not vote of all. We should openly welcome them and calmly reassure them we are not the racist, homophobe, Nazi Neanderthals the Democrats have been depicting for the past decade. Many of us have long maintained that the Democrats could not possibly continue to hold together such a disparate coalition of minorities, all with their own, frequently clashing, agendas. It is now coming to pass and as each finds its own leaders and spokesmen we should welcome them to our conservative forums and help them meld their beliefs into our broader conservative views. Notice I do not say we should change our conservative agenda to accommodate them rather we must show them how they can fit into our view of what is needed to continue building a great nation that sets an example for the world.

Here is another #Walk Away video that comes at the issue from a very distinctive perspective.

NOTE: When I wrote my piece a few weeks ago announcing my return to TAH, I made an egregious error in reporting the nature of my illness. I stated that I had a 14×14.3 centimeter tumor in my throat. That was a gross error as the correct size was 4×4.3 centimeters. Nothing to sneeze at but still not the monster I described. Hell, they’d have had to behead me. I assure all of you there was no intent to mislead or over-dramatize. As I said at the time, the chemo and radiation have left the old brain (77 years as of this past Saturday) often confused and fuzzy. Please don’t cut me slack purely out of sympathy. As most of you know, I will fight stubbornly when I believe I’m right but can also admit I’m wrong as well.

Poetrooper

The liberal media were recently barking in concert that entering the United States illegally is not a criminal offense, but merely a civil violation punishable only with a fine. As usual with that pack of jackals, they were passing off a half-truth as the whole – more fake news.

Here’s what the law says:

8 U.S. Code § 1325 – Improper entry by alien

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts

Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties

Any alien who (1) is apprehended while entering (or attempting to enter) the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil penalty of at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or attempted entry); or

(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under this subsection. Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be imposed.

As you can readily see, the liberal media’s selective reading of the law ignores the criminal penalties available. Paragraph (a) does indeed provide for imprisonment as well as fines.

Now that we’ve disposed of that fake news, may I recommend the following be enacted by federal authorities? Federal detention facilities should be erected in our western deserts – perhaps one in West Texas near the ghost town of Shafter; another in the Bootheel of New Mexico near the anti-terror training center in Playas; a third on the northern edge of the federal bombing range south of Gila Bend, Ariz.; and one perhaps adjacent to the California State Prison west of El Centro. All are close to the border in harsh, inhospitable terrain.

Operations should be modeled on the Maricopa County Jail tent concept created by former sheriff Joe Arpaio: no air-conditioning, perhaps circulating fans only, with other amenities nonexistent. The menu should also follow Sheriff Joe’s: bologna sandwiches and Kool-Aid. English classes should be required, and their sole TV-radio should be closed-circuit bilingual educational programs.

And who would the detainees be? Why, those males and females apprehended as violators of Paragraph (a) above after being adjudicated by a federal magistrate (whose ranks need to be expanded) as being in violation of that law. We are, by and large, not a vengeful people, so we could cut first-time violators some slack, giving them 90 days rather than six months. On completion of their sentences, detainees could be transported to the border, given bus tickets to their homes of record, and warned that if they are apprehended again, ever, they will draw a full two-year sentence under the same conditions, no exceptions. The bus ticket home is the carrot after at least 90 days of the stick.

Traffickers and coyotes are currently eligible for much longer sentences under federal law, not included here for the sake of brevity. However, they should be sentenced to the same harsh facilities with no bus ticket carrot at the end of sentence – just dumped across the border with the stern warning that any future violation will be double their just served sentence. Five years or so of bologna and Kool Aid might dissuade some from future smuggling activities.

One reason I specify tent city impermanence to the centers is that such a program should be self-limiting. After thousands of these detainees spent three to six months enduring such harsh conditions and returned to their home towns and villages describing where they’d been and why, there should be far more soul-searching before others, having heard such tales of punitive Yankee retribution, would set out seeking the big payoff in El Norte. And those skeptics who doubted our will and tested it again might find their second, longer stay more convincing, discouraging further attempts by them and others.

What about women with children? This is a tough one, as we’ve all seen in the past few weeks. However, we still need to demonstrate the will to enforce our borders. They should first have the law explained to them about misrepresenting facts concerning claims of political persecution and warned that they can turn back now or be detained with their children until their claims are verified by American embassy and consular employees in their native countries. Staffs of those entities should be beefed up to allow for teams to be recruited and formed for this purpose. Congress should change the law to make this possible. All detained illegal Mexican females with children should be returned to Mexico immediately with stern warnings of harsh incarceration should they return. Mexican males and females without children should be handled as previously described to set the example for the rest.

Tough? Harsh? Hard? You bet, but look where all these years of trying to be reasonable have gotten us. With such a program in place, even if their corrupt governments want to dump their poor on the overburdened American welfare system, the poor won’t want to risk it. What are those governments going to do: march them to the yanqui border at gunpoint?

Look at North Korea: years of polite negotiations gained us nothing but contempt; yet after little more than a year of hard-nose reality, the Norks came begging. We can do the same with illegal immigration.

Crossposted at American Thinker

Update:
Financial goals achieved! Thanks, everyone, for your generosity in supporting TAH. Without your help this place coundn’t continue, and that would be unthinkable. So thanks again, and expect me to rattle the cup again next year as a gentle reminder.

Nothing coming out of Washington annoys me more than conservative Republicans in the Trump administration, in Congress, and in conservative media punditry falling all over themselves to show their own sense of fair play by attributing an unrealistic sense of that same fairness to people who are anything but. Go back to 2016 and try to count how many times you heard all those conservative folks reassure us that we had nothing to worry about with James Comey leading the investigation into Hillary Clinton, that he was a stand-up guy, a straight shooter, a man with impeccable credentials, whose ethics were beyond reproach, a cop’s cop who could be counted on to conduct a thorough and impartial inquiry, devoid of Washington politics. Well, so much for that stand-up guy and his sense of fair play, hmm?

And what about this deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein? Yes, he may have been appointed by Trump, but who’s to say the president didn’t get fed the same load of straight shooter bilge that we got from the usual sources about how we could count on this guy, who seems to sit at the center of all these messes, to handle all these controversial investigations in a fair and impartial manner? So far, all he has appeared to do is stonewall and obfuscate, fighting Republican congressional investigators tooth and nail, even threatening the congressional staffers sent to the DOJ to get information, that he would sic the full investigative powers of the federal government on them and their families, scaring some to tears. Truly a nice guy, hmm?

Then there is Michael Horowitz, who, we were told endlessly by those conservatives who claimed to know, bears credentials even more sanctified than the now politically excommunicated FBI chief. Horowitz, we were assured month after month, could be relied on to conduct a fair and balanced investigation of that same FBI chief and his henchmen, who supposedly conducted their own fair and unbiased inquiry into another pillar of left-wing virtue, Hillary Clinton. Yeah, well, here we are with a 500-page summation of that seemingly never-ending investigation that concludes, despite the plentiful evidence to the contrary found within, that Comey and his criminal crew conducted their own fair and unbiased investigation of Madam Clinton and her corrupt and criminal cronies. The guy may be fair, but he’s bending over backwards so far to do it that he’s talking to Congress from between his legs.

Now, in spite of all the evidence pointing to the contrary, we still have conservative Republican politicians and pundits telling us we can trust Robert Mueller to conduct his political witch hunt into this so-called Russian collusion farce. We are reassured by those in the know that hey, the guy’s a former Marine, ya know, as if that installs a lifelong halo over his saintly head. Wasn’t former Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha a Marine? Yes, he was, and he was as crooked and corrupt as they come. He was despised in the military community. Service in the Corps does not in itself bestow sanctity on anyone, including Mueller. If this guy is so politically impartial, then why did he staff up with nothing but Clinton suck-ups, who, we can be confident, are about as unbiased as the FBI clowns who have now been exposed as actual criminals?

So how about laying off all the blithe reassurances to the huddled masses, all you conservative insiders supposedly in the know? As we’ve come to learn, our intuitive skills are obviously more finely honed than yours, perhaps because they are based in a common man’s common sense that seems to evaporate from your own hallowed beings in the exalted atmosphere of the power towers of the political and journalistic elite.

Crossposted at American Thinker