The Undocumented

For John, BLUF:  We have an immigration system, given us by Congress but the Biden Administrationo decided to bypass Federal Rules, and it has been a disaster.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Boston whistleblower warns of migrant crime spillover as Trump’s crackdown looms

Here is the sub-headline:

“The Healey hotels were well known for having sex trafficking, domestic violence,' said Fetherston, 'Now, you've opened it up to all of the cities and towns'

From Fox News, by Reporter Peter Pinedo, 30 August 2025, 9:00 am EDT

Here is the lede plus two:

As Democratic leaders in Massachusetts triple down on resistance against federal intervention to clamp down on crime, a migrant shelter whistleblower is sounding the alarm about an increase in crime in neighborhoods across the state and especially in Boston.

Jon Fetherston, who ran one of the state-funded migrant shelters in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and blew the whistle about rampant crime and sex abuse taking place in the hotel shelter system. He now says that since Democratic Gov. Maura Healey closed down the shelter system, there has been an uptick in domestic violence, sex trafficking, shoplifting and even auto accidents.

"The Healey hotels were well known for having sex trafficking, domestic violence. We've reported cases of rape, unfortunately, in there," Fetherston said. "Now, you've opened it up to all of the cities and towns in Massachusetts."

Mr Fetherston further elaborates:

"Governor Healey wants you to think she just snaps her fingers and closes all of the hotels and then disperses people into the communities that the thousand incidents that were reported back in 2024, and the state has refused to release the data for 2025, she just thinks that those serious instances aren't going to happen in the communities that now she's forced people into."

Yes, in the past, we have had immigrants who have formed criminal gangs.  However, the vast majority have come to peacefully build lives based on freedom and family.  This recent wave of undocumented immigrnts, thank you President Biden, seem to be more on the criminal side than the peaceful side.  This makes it harder for them to be accepted by the rest of us.

In the mean time, Democrts seem to want us to just accept these undocumented immigrants as though they had put in the hard work legal immigrants have.  Thanks to the US Congress, legal immigrants have to follow an ardous path to become legal residents and then citizens.  What lesson do the undocumented draw, aside from the partisan disaster on Capitol Hill?

Hat tip to my Friend Randy Gweleman, who recommends i move down South, "while you still have a chance!!"

Regards  —  Cliff

v

When Does the Economy Rebound

For John, BLUF:  Senator Warren is correct, the econoomy didn't recover on dayy one, but the steps are beingh taken to move it ahead.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/03/02/bessent-calls-out-media-for-hiding-economic-crisis-until-trump-took-office-n4937486

Bessent Calls Out Media for Hiding Economic Crisis Until Trump Took Office

From PJ Media, by Columnist Catherine Salgado, 2 March 2025, 1:45 PM.

Here is the lede plus two:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent started off his CBS News interview Sunday by ripping leftist media — including CBS — for pretending Joe Biden’s horrible economy was great until he left office.

As We the People picked up extra jobs or lost jobs, as we struggled to pay bills and saw inflation eat up our savings, mainstream media swore we were fools who didn’t appreciate a booming economy. But as soon as Donald Trump took office and inherited Biden-Harris’s economic morass, the media began screeching hysterically about egg prices and insurance costs. As Bessent said, these stooges are total hypocrites.

Addressing the ever insidious “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, who expressed concern about prices and economic backsliding, Bessent said, “You know, Margaret, what I find interesting is, for the past year and a half, and during the campaign, most of the media said, Oh, the economy is great. It's just a vibe session. Now that President Trump's in office, there's an economic problem. And I'll tell you what the problem was–”

Why, yes, it is Moderator Margaret Brennan, of CBS Face the Nation, one more time.  She comes across as an apologist for the AutoPen Administration.  In this case she is covering for that Administrations sad economic policies.

President Trump may have thought that he was going to turn the economy around on day one, just by his personality and promise to Make America Great Again.  It didn't happen.  The economic drag of the previous Administration has held us back.

But, I am optomistic that the economy is sound and with the efforts of the current Adminiistration to provide more energy and to reduce regulations thihngs will free up and the economy will forge ahead. Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Disruptive Eight Years

For John, BLUF:  Columnist Kimberly Strassel lays out how the Democrats perverted our system of Government in order to keep President Trump out of office.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

The Left’s Mangled Guardrails

Here is the sub-headline:

They’ve spent eight years trying to kill democracy in the name of saving it.

From The Wall Street Journal, by Columnist Kimberley A. Strassel, 16 January 2025, 5:17 pm ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

The modern Democratic Party specializes in projection, and Joe Biden offered a model of the method in his Wednesday night farewell address.  His warnings that a “dangerous” “abuse of power” is coming can only be read as the left’s latest excuse and argument for its own misbehavior.

That model proved gold for Democrats during Donald Trump’s first term as president.  The constant refrain that the “tyrant” was unraveling democracy provided their justification for tearing through standards and norms.  In the name of saving the country from Trump excesses, we were told, holdover acting Attorney General Sally Yates had to defy presidential orders, the Federal Bureau of Investigation needed to lie to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a special counsel was required to dog a sitting president, the bureaucracy had a duty to “resist” Trump policy, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had to undergo a circus inquisition, and Congress had no choice but to hold Trump officials in contempt, issue unprecedented subpoenas and impeach the president.

None of this was good for norms, though it did serve Democratic partisan interests.  The proof is that these accusations didn’t end with Mr. Trump’s exit.  Mr. Biden was elected on a vow to respect norms, yet of all the many promises he has broken, his and the left’s continued ramming of guardrails may prove the most damaging in the long term.  They deserve a roll call, especially as Mr. Biden continues to bathe in the illusion that his party spent four years “respecting the institutions that govern a free society: the presidency, the Congress, the courts . . . the separation of powers, checks and balances.”

In the name of justice, Mr. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, became the first in history to train his department on a former president—who also happened to be the biggest political threat to his boss.  This provoked any number of “unprecedented” moments in our country—the first-ever FBI raid on a former president, novel legal theories spun into new definitions of “conspiracy,” legal briefs filed to influence an election.

The left’s broader lawfare campaign—waged in the name of stopping a return of the “criminal” Trump—opened a Pandora’s box of complex cases, forcing courts to break new ground on issues that would have been better left unplumbed:  the contours of a post-Civil War insurrection law, the edges of executive privilege, the boundaries of presidential immunity.  Mr. Biden in his farewell lambasted yet again the high court’s immunity decision in Trump v. U.S. as dangerous.  But which side dragged us into this uncharted territory in the first place?

And on she goes, listing steps that were out of synch with our accepted political practices.  And as to President Biden whinging over the US Supreme Court's decision regarding Presiddential Immunity, I am not sure it should be any other way.  Without that Immunity the President would be handicapped in the execution of his office.

Ms Strassel is correct in her Column and the Democrats and the Biden Team Administration was out of order.

The good news is that it didn't work.

Hat tip to my Friend, Steve Broussard.

Regards  —  Cliff

His Last chance to Make Everyone Happy

For John, BLUF:  As the Biden Administratino winds down there is a question some minds as to how it will end.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?

Here is the song:

Dan Hicks Sings It

President Joseph Robinette Biden has been in politics since 1970, and in Federal Office since 1973.  He did have a four year hiatus while Donald J Trump served his first term.

Some wondered if Cabndidate Biden running his 2020 Campaign out of his Basement was a sign that he was being hidden away.  That was viguriously denied by one and all, including by Presidential Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, including, recently, with her classic line regarding "'Cheap Fake' Videos".

REPORTER:  There seems to be a sort of a rash of videos that have been exited to make the president appear officially frail or mentally confused. I'm wondering if the White House is especially worried about the fact that this appears to be a pattern.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah, and I think you all have called this the cheap fakes video and that's exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video, they are done in bad faith and, and some of your news organizations have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing, the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because of the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation.

And so we see this and this is something coming from your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation. And I'll quote the Washington Post where they wrote, they wrote about this and they said how "Republican used misleading videos to attack Biden in a 24 hour period" and to their credit, we have a conservative Washington Examiner did call them out as well, calling out the New York Post.

Ironically several recent cheap fakes actually attack the president for thanking troops -- for thanking troops. That is what they're attacking the president for, both in Normandy this happened and again in Italy, and I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how, how desperate, how desperate Republicans are here. And instead of talking about the president's performance in office, and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he's been able to do for the American people across the country, we're seeing these deep fakes, these manipulated videos. And it is again done in bad faith.

This all came up for review two days ago in an article in The Wall Street Journal.  .

I believe some are asking themselves if President Biden will make it to 20 January.  His deteriorization has been slow.  Is it to a point when it could pick up speed and he could find himself undeniably incapable of czrrying on as President.  None of us should wish that on him, but it is possible.  It could happen to any of us who have reached the 82 age mark.

There is, however, another possible branch for this story.  It is possible that President Biden could step aside and allow his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to become President for the last month of this Administration.♠  I, for one, think this is a distinct possibility.  I would give it a one in three chance.  If President Biden ressigned, it would make Vice President Kamala Harris the first female President, even if it were just for a month.  It might also set a precedent as to the idea of Presidents stepping down when they find that physically or mentally they can't keep up.  A previous example could have been President Woodrow Wilson, who sufferred a stroke in October 1919, with his Wife, Edith Wilson, basically assuming the office.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  While President Biden appears to be angry with the leadership of the Democratic Party, and thus is unlikely to take actions to help out the party, his Wife, Dr Jill Biden, may well be thinking that such a move would enhance his place in history, and thus be an good thing.

Disinformation Again?

For John, BLUF:  It is That City, so who knows what to trust coming out beyond the Beltway?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Pardon Me

Here is the sub-headline:

There are two sides to Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter ... and lots of shades of gray

From Truth and Consequences, by Political Analyst Michael A Cohen, 2 D3cember 2024.

Here is the lede plus two:

So this is a tricky one.

It’s tough to defend Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter on the merits. Biden has used his absolute pardon power to grant a reprieve to his son, who earlier this year was convicted of lying on a gun application and pleaded guilty to a series of tax evasion charges. Even if the president believes, as he claims, that the criminal justice system mistreated his son, the fact is Hunter Biden committed multiple felonies — and a jury of his peers found him guilty.

And Biden’s pardon went beyond these two cases — he issued a sweeping pardon that covers any criminal behavior by Hunter Biden dating back to 2014.

I am not believing this "Biden pardons Hunter" story.  President Biden has assured us he would not pardon his Son, Hunter Biden.   He gave his word as a Biden.  His Press Secretary, Ms Karine Jean-Pierre, assured us President Biden would not pardon his Son.

Might not this be another case of Disinformation, like The New York Post article on the alleged Hunter Biden Laptop?  Fifty-one Intel Leaders assured us the laptop srory actually had all the earmarks of Russian disinformation.

Wold Presidet Biden betray us that way?  Remember, he promised to bring us together

Hat tip to Speech Boy.

Regards  —  Cliff

China's Economy

For John, BLUF:  The economy in China is being kept moving by stimulations.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Did Democrats Take Control of China?

From VodkaPundit, by Blogger Stephen Green, 8:45 AM on 8 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus four:

Obamanomics — borrowed from FDR and since resurrected as Bidenomics — was the fine art of taking an economy that had been knocked on its back, firmly stepping on its throat with the jackboot of regulation, and bashing it repeatedly on the head with a giant sackful of money while shouting, "WHY WON'T YOU DO ANYTHING?"

While we're just four weeks out from learning whether Obamanomics will be rebranded once more as Kamalanomics, our friends in Communist China are learning the hard way what it's like to be ruled by truly ambitious Democrats. Or Communists. It's all so confusing sometimes.

The point is that China's massive economy has been flat on its back for a while now, thanks in no small part to strongman Xi Jinping's determination to restore Communist control. His severe COVID lockdowns only made things worse, convincing consumers that they'd better stuff all their money under the proverbial mattress.

This is where classic New Deal/Obamanomics comes in.

The New York Times breathlessly reported Monday that "China’s Policy Reversal Sparks ‘Mind Boggling’ Stock Rally." The report opened with, "Just a few weeks ago, many investors in China’s stock markets were ready to give up and eager to sell. Then late last month, traders rushed in to make bullish bets after the government’s leaders announced a series of steps to stimulate China’s faltering economy."

Then it fell and more stimulation is needed.

Is it possible that the economy in China is like the economy under Bidenomics?  At many levels no, but at some yes.  China is caught in an effort to be a capitalist society with Communist characteristics.  Perhaps the question is, how much freedom do people need to make a capitalist systaem work?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Who is Our President?

For John, BLUF:  Sadly, our President is dishonest, not in the exagerated way President Donald Trump is, but in the very marrow of his bones, from early in his life.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

A Not-So-Fond Farewell to Joe Biden

Here is the sub-headline:

The old boy’s winking Irish charm never worked on me.

From The Wall Street Journal, by Opinion Writer Joseph Epstein, 24 July 2024 at 3:27 pm ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

I’m pleased that Joe Biden has left the 2024 presidential race.  I’ll be even more delighted when his term ends.  Even though the old boy has limited his interviews and public appearances more than any other president in the modern era, I long ago had more than my fill of him.

After more than 50 years in government, Mr. Biden has become the emblematic politician, which is no compliment.  He came into office promising to heal the rifts dividing the country, and instead widened them by his own leftward political turn.  He continues to call himself Catholic yet is blithely pro-choice on abortion.  Everything about him—his ideas, his language, his very smile—seems fake.

Mr. Biden doesn’t lie as often as Donald Trump, but his lies are grander.  He claims to have inherited high inflation and worked sedulously to lower it.  He claims to have enlarged and held the North Atlantic Treaty Organization together.  He claims to have created millions of new jobs.  None of these claims hold up under even cursory investigation.

He frequently recounts uninteresting advice his working-class father gave him.  He never misses a chance to tell you that he lost his son Beau, who served in Iraq but didn’t die there.  No Irishman is ever taken in by Irish charm.  If I am any measure, it doesn’t work so well on Jews either.

So many of Mr. Biden’s sentences begin with the word “look.”  A great many others never find their ending.  During speeches he is imprisoned by the teleprompter; interviews often find him clutching his notes.  When he leans in to whisper what he takes to be crucial sentiments, as if speaking in italics, he doesn’t deliver.  He has managed to seem, somehow, fragile yet unsympathetic.

President Biden can not seem to let the truth be the truth.  He must embelish it, not by polishing it, but by blowing it all out of proportion.  His exageration of the truth is so bad that people are able to easily see through it.  It is blatant and even the best efforts of his Press Secretary, Ms Karine Jean-Pierre, can not sustain his fabrications.♠

What disappoints me is that my friends tend to trust President Biden as a truth teller and to believe what he dishes out to us.  Otherwise, how do we explain his election in 2020?  In a previous bid for the White House he stumbled when he took Welsh MP Neil Kinnock's life story and made it his own and the trick became public.  But, it wasn't his first act of plagerism.  He seems not to have learned from his time in Law School.  Isn't this something he should have learned in High School?

Hat tip to the Howie Carr Show.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I do not envy the Press Secretary her job.  She must keep straight President Biden's fantasy life and continually provide support to his tall tales.  She is doing a hard job very well.

Crashing the System

For John, BLUF:  We face continuing problems with illegal immigration, which is not being fixed by small moves from the Biden Administration.  It will soon become overwhelming.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

In a recent post (3 July 2024) (Stop Asking For Uncle Sam to Pay Your Bills) I talked about the costs of illegal immigration to the individual States♠  and how even the Federal Government can not fund this problem.

This is not a good situation.  It is only adding to the inflation problem we are alredy facing.  The TV Network CNBC said, in March of this year, "The U.S. national debt is rising by $1 trillion about every 100 days".  In February of this year Forbes reported that the Congressional Budget Office now says tht the interest on the US Federeal debt now exceeds the Defense Budget.

This growing debt will eat our budget.  Not just Defense, but also things like Social Security and Medicare.  It will damage, and then destroy the US Dollar as the world reserve currency.  As US News and World Report told us in February of this year, "For the U.S., it would likely mean less access to capital, higher borrowing costs and lower stock market values."  That is bad news for all families as they try to live from paycheck to paycheck.  It also means, in the end, less support for those who need Government support.

We need to wake up and realize that we can not do everything.  We need to prioritize and look for cheaper solutions.  We need to start paying down our national debt before it eats the budget.

And, perhaps we should turn off the flow of illegal immigrants, who are costing us a lot of money, and interest payments.

As I thought about this problem I was reminded of a course in American History I took at UMass Lowell Continuing Education.  The authors of the textbook we used were Profesors Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven, of Columbia Univerity.

The Cloward–Piven strategy is a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.  The strategy aims to utilize "militant anti poverty groups" to facilitate a "political crisis" by overloading the welfare system via an increase in welfare claims, forcing the creation of a system of guaranteed minimum income and "redistributing income through the federal government".

Do you think it is possible that someone on that behind the scenes team running the Biden Administraion has hit on the idea of fundamentally changing our welfare system by crashing it with illegal immigrants?  Fixing such a crash could involve reallocating resources within the Federal Budget or it could involve changing tax types and rates, or both.  As we mix poverty, unemployment, homelessness illegal immigration and medical coverage we could see radical shifts not seen since the 1930s.

This is one of those things which will appear all of a sudden and overwhelm the Administration and Congress.  If someone is prepared with a solution, no matter how foreign to our culture, they will have an edge in presenting that solution and getting it approved.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  According to Brilliant Maps, as of 4 June 2024, only 7 states have 5,000 or fewer illegal immigrants:  Alaska, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming.  Two more had 5,000 to 15,000 illegal immmigrants, New Hampshire, South Dakota.  The rest had more, some up over a million.  Is the Federal Government trying to break the Republican Government of Texas?

To Keep Mr Biden on the Ticket

For John, BLUF:  While my view of the situation in DC is different from Mr Cohen's in some respects, I think he does a good job of laying out why the Democrats should stick with Mr Joseph Biden.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Ridin' With Biden

Here is the sub-headline:

I look at both sides of the Biden vs. Harris argument and conclude that we're not living in an Aaron Sorkin and Democrats have one choice -- stay the course

From Truth and Consequences, by Opinionator Michael A Cohen (Speech Boy), 1 July 2024.

Here is the lede plus six:

Not Good Bob, Not Good

Over the last few days, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and talking to smart political observers about the dilemma facing the Democratic Party since the Apocalypse in Atlanta (trademark pending). I’ve tried to approach this issue in the most analytical and empirical manner possible. But I want to make one point at the outset.

I have no particular affection for Joe Biden.

He’s a politician and a means to an end. In an era of deep partisan polarization— and as the Republican Party has been taken over by a raving lunatic and has no attachment to basic democratic norms — no Democratic president or politician is sacred. They are all replaceable. The only question is a political one: who is best positioned to keep Trump and the GOP out of the White House?

Don’t get me wrong—Joe Biden has been an excellent president. He pulled the United States out of Afghanistan, handled the wars in Ukraine and Gaza with deftness and effective diplomacy, and his legislative agenda is one of the most impressive since LBJ. I’m not overly concerned about this ability to carry out his duties as president in a second term.

But, if I thought he was likely to lose in November and there was a better option in the wings to take his place, I’d be the first person to push him under the bus. This is not the time for sentimentality.

The problem is I don’t.

I think Michael Cohen makes a good case for retaining Prewident Joe Biden on the Democratic Party Ticket.  You may be a supporter of Candidate Trump, but it is good to undertand the terrain from other points of view.  This is such a chance..

And, you can subacribe to this substack at no cost for the basic output.  For the duration of the Election.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fire the DNC

For John, BLUF:  The author sees the current problems of the Democratic Party as a collective problem of the Democratic Natinoal Committee, reflecting on the broad leadership of the party, which seems to have adopted "go along to get along".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Memo to the DNC:  You share the blame for Biden’s bait-and-switch

Here is the sub-headline:

The loyalty of millions of voters is being sorely tested by the failure of the Democratic National Committee to hold the president to his implicit campaign pledge to serve one term

From The Boston Globe, by Columnist Larry Edelman, 1 July 2024.

Here is the lede plus four:

If the Democratic Party were a publicly traded company, the mishandling of the presidential nomination process by its board of directors — the Democratic National Committee — would likely have sparked a revolt by investors. Here’s how an activist investor might respond.

To: Jaime Harrison, chair, Democratic National Committee
Re: Thanks for nothing

A lifelong Democrat, I’ve voted for each and every one of our party’s presidential nominees since 1980 — sometimes enthusiastically, other times not. I think I’ve pulled the lever for exactly one Republican in an election at any level: Bill Weld, for governor of Massachusetts. And he might as well have been one of us. (Even the Globe endorsed him in 1990.)

But my loyalty — and the loyalty of millions of Democrats like me — is being sorely tested by the failure of you and the rest of the DNC leadership to hold President Biden to his implicit campaign pledge to serve one term.

This is a view, and one worth considering.

I am a Registered Republican, but even I see the present problems within the Democrstic Party as not being good for our Democracy.  We do not need for the Democratic Party to implode, and then perhaps fragment,  While I don't expect the Democratic Party to emerge as the Party of my youth, I do hope it emerges as a party capable of winning elections, not as the representative of some angry minority that fails to reflect the values of the average American.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Fabulist

For John, BLUF:  President Joesph Biden seems to be a congentital pathological liar.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Biden says he doesn't debate as well as he used to but knows "how to tell the truth"

From CBS News, by Reporters Kathryn Watson and Aaron Navarro, 28 June 2024, 2:32 PM EDT.

Here is the lede plus five:

President Biden bluntly addressed his lackluster debate performance during an campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday, speaking with notably more energy and vigor than he had hours before.

Some Democrats expressed concern after the president, in a raspy voice, struggled to correct former president Donald Trump's falsehoods as he faced a national audience on prime-time television Thursday night. The president's at times gaping facial expressions and rambling answers to key questions didn't help either, at a time when many Americans believe Mr. Biden, now 81, may be too old for the job and too old to relate to them.

"I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious," the president said. "Well, I know." He addressed a supportive Democratic crowd Friday, one that welcomed him with chants of "Four more years!"

"Folks, I don't walk as easy as I used to," he continued. "I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth ... I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up."

The president also sought to assure his audience that he wouldn't be running again if he didn't think he was up to the job.

"Folks, I give you my word as a Biden — I would not be running again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul, I can do this job," he said. "The stakes are too high. The stakes are too high."

His word as a Biden?  Really?  There is a phrase I haven't trusted since I first heard it.  Are the Bidens some form of nobility?  I am doubtful.

President Biden is a story teller.  He takes a piece of information and elaborates on it.  His Uncle was shot down during World War II and it becomes his Uncle having been eaten by cannibals.  He hears Neil Kinnock's speech about Kinnock's own past in Wales and takes it as his own as an elaboration of his familty story out of Scranton, Pennsylvania.  He is aided in this by fellow Democrats.

My favorite came up again duirng the debate, in which President Biden talks about Republicans rejecting a bi-partisan Southern Border Bill.  The idea is thst President Trump has ordered Republicans in Congress to not support a bill to solve the border crisis.  The problem is there is more to the story.

This accusation by President Biden ignores the fact that the Republican House had already forwarded a Border Bill to the Senate, which has been sitting on Senate Majority Leader Schumer's desk for months.  In fact, the House, for a long time, held up legislation on aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in an effort to force a vote on their bill.  Ignored by the President and Senate Maajority Leader Schumer, nothing happened.

Then there is the so-called bi-partisaan border bill in the Senate.  It is bi-partisan to the extent that one Republican Senator had signed on to it.  And, what does it do for border security?  Restrictions are triggered only after the flow of illegal immigrants exceeds 1.8+ million illegal immigrants a year.  That seems like almost no action at all.  In essence, the story is a lie.

Perhaps worse, President Biden has maintained, after cancelling the border rules of President Trump, that he lacks the authority to fix the border by Executive Orders.  Then he does just that.  But only enough to provide him with some cover.  Not enough to actually fix the problem.  In essence, he is lying to us about the Southern Border, so gather votes, without making a major change in Administration illegal immigration policy.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Debate

For John, BLUF:  Who pushed this early Presidential Debate, and what was their motive?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

They Knew

Here is the sub-headline:

Biden is no longer fit to be president. Last night’s debate exposed the lies we’ve been told.

From The Free Press, by Editor Bari Weiss, 28 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

Rarely are so many lies dispelled in a single moment.  Rarely are so many people exposed as liars and sycophants.  Last night’s debate was a watershed on both counts.

The debate was not just a catastrophe for President Biden.  And boy—oy—was it ever.

But it was more than that.  It was a catastrophe for an entire class of experts, journalists, and pundits, who have, since 2020, insisted that Biden was sharp as a tack, on top of his game, basically doing handstands while peppering his staff with tough questions about care for migrant children and aid to Ukraine.

Anyone who committed the sin of using their own eyes on the 46th president was accused, variously, of being Trumpers; MAGA cult members who don’t want American democracy to survive; ageists; or just dummies easily duped by “disinformation,” “misinformation,” “fake news,” and, most recently, “cheapfakes.”

Were we shocked by the outcome?  I anticipted the outcome and wanted to skip the show, since I don't like watching people embarrass themselves in public.  However, my Wife said we should watch.  So we watched.  My response was not that of New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman, but I understand:

"I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep," writes Thomas L. Friedman.  "I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime."

But, back to Ms Weiss, I think she is correct in saying that people have been covering for President Biden and his decline.  For those of us who live long enough, decline will come.  My Mother passed from Cancer in her late 60s.  I visited her days before she died and she was sharp.  My Father lived to be 89, but it was agreed, at the end, by the three Sons, to take away the car keys.  Families have a role to play in how we deal with older people who have lost a step.

The question is the path forward.  There is time for the Democrats to replace President Biden on the 2024 ticket.  However, there is a stumbling blocks in the way.  One might think it should fall naturally to the Vice President, Kamala Harris.  However, she is not popular with the public, although more popular than some of the alternatives.  My Wife and I are thinking the Democrats will, after clearing away Ms Harris, settle on former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been popping up in the news recently, after having gone to ground since he stepped down from the Governorship in August 2021.♠

As a note, I was pleased with the professional job done by the two CNN moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  It is ironic that President Biden was one of those who called for Governor Cuomo to step down after the release of a report on his personal conduct by New York AG Letitia James.

The Price of Oil and Votes

For John, BLUF:  The Current Administration is holding back ono foreign policy goals to lure voters in November.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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You'll Never Believe Who Biden Is Using Now to Buy Votes in November

Here is the referenced article from The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Talks Tough on Russia and Iran—So Long as It Doesn’t Raise Gas Prices

From PJ Media, by Blogger Stephen Green, 26 June 2024, 2:30 PM.

Here is the lede plus five:

There's tension inside the Biden Cabal between White House officials who want to soft-pedal oil sanctions on nasty foreign producers like Putinist Russia and Islamist Iran and Treasury Department staffers who have a soul.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Biden "wants to keep gas prices stable ahead of the election by encouraging oil to flow into global markets," and if that means imposing "softer-than-expected sanctions on major oil producers" like two to nasties mentioned above, then so be it.

Oh, and also Venezuela. What's the big deal in appeasing a socialist basket case like Nicolás Maduro when you're already servicing Vladimir Putin and whoever is in charge of Iran since President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash last month.

(Two cheers for gravity!)

An unnamed senior administration official told the WSJ, "The president has wanted to do everything that he could to make sure that American consumers have the lowest price possible at the pump, as it affects families’ daily lives."

Every dollar of oil revenue that goes into Caracas, Moscow, and Tehran's coffers is another dollar that can be spent propping up the socialist Maduro regime, prolonging the Russo-Ukraine War, or providing the missiles, guns, and ammo that Hamas uses to murder Jews.

So, we are allowing the opponents of peace and democracy to flourish so that the price of gas at the service station can be low in early November, for the election.  I am with Mr Green:

I don't mind paying a little extra for each gallon when it supports producers in this country, or producers in countries that aren't endstage socialist hellholes, warmongering neoimperialists, or Islamic terror states. I do mind paying a little extra when it's American producers getting shut down by overregulation.

There is more to be read.

Regards  —  Cliff

Biden the Healer

For John, BLUF:  President Joeseph R Biden, a cranky old man, was not in a position to bind up our wounds following the election of 2020 and the demonstrations and riots that ensued.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The saddest, loneliest Althouse blog tag: "Biden the healer."

From Althouse Blog, by Professor Ann Althouse, 4 May 2024, 11:06 AM.

Here is the lede plus one:

I created this tag on November 8, 2020, and I don't create a new tag unless I think there will be a good number of other posts that will support that tag. I imagined Biden stepping up to the role of healer.  I went back today, looking for "Biden the healer" in my archive, because I've been thinking how much better Biden might be doing — and, more importantly, how much better this country might be doing — if Biden had followed the path of healing — of bringing us together.  But Biden was and is a divider.  Maybe January 6th was too much of a temptation, such great raw material for tearing us apart.  He could have said — like Lincoln — "with malice toward none, with charity for all" and forgiven everyone involved and called upon all of us — on his side and the other side — to "bind up the nation's wounds."  But he didn't do it.  And now it's too late.

Here's my November 8, 2020 post.  Read it and weep.

And weep I do.

I take the point about binding up the wounds.  However, having decided that 6 January was an insurrection, the Democrats faced a choice.  They could continue to pursue the miscreants or they could work to bind up the wounds.  After all, they won the election and were thus in charge.

Binding up the wouonds of 2020 would require forgiving those who were still crying that the election was stolen.  And, maintaining pressure would be useful in the elections of 2022 and 2024.  The die was cast.

But, even if the Democrsts had, collectively, decided to go for binding up the wounds, was President Joseph Biden the leader to do it>  It would seem to me that his temperment is such that he would find that difficult,  He does not seem to handle disagreement well.  And hasn't gotten better with age.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Not So Fast

For John, BLUF:  The Democrats have a problem in the 2024 Election.  It is the pair of President Joe Biden and VEEP Kamala Harris.  Here is a way out.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Don't Laugh: Here's How Joe Could Pull Off a 'Heroic' Escape from the Brutal 2024 Campaign

From , by VICTORIA TAFT | 4:06 PM ON MAY 24, 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

It's almost time for presidential candidates to sprint to the finish line in the 2024 race for the White House. Runners-up will walk away with a t-shirt and a sippy cup. Joe Biden's already wearing the right shoes. He won't be able to sprint in his Naturalizers, but there's one way he could walk away — albeit stiffly — with a remnant of dignity and a great, though apocryphal, story for the family history books.

Now there are many ways that Joe could be tossed from the 2024 race. He could be unceremoniously blown out at his own Antifa convention in Chicago and replaced. His doctors could run out of that go-juice cocktail they fill him with before big events and he could implode more than usual in front of a huge crowd. Or he could leave like a family hero with some semblance of his dignity intact.

Yes, president Biden could retire and pardon his Son, Hunter, on the way out.  Howevewr, for Democrsats that still leaves the problem of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Fortunately, the Senate Democrats may have a way of helping.  From CBS News we have Senate Democrats seek meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts after Alito flag controversy (Reporter Melissa Quinn, 24 May 2024 / 3:15 PM EDT).♠

So, some Senate Democrsts, who can't keep their own house in order, are going to go across the street and harangue and belittle the Chief Justice for a non-issue.  I csm see the Chief Justice taking umbridge at a couple Democratic Party Grifters coming to his office to meddle, improperly, in the affairs of an independent Branch of Government.  He might well resign in protest.

There is the window of opportunity.  President Biden nominates Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Chief Justice and the Democratic Senate consents.

But, the $64 Question is, who replaces her.  Being Democrats, it has to be either a racial or ethnic minority or someone who identifies as a woman.  That precludes Califrnia Governor Gavin Newsom.  But others await.

As this evolves it would be timely for Candidate Donald J Trump to announce that lawfare is a pernicious blight upon our election process and something he wishes to stamp out.  As one of his first acts as President, in Jamuary, he will issue blanket pardons to Ms Hillary, President Joe Biden and his Son Hunder and Brother James.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The lede:  "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and subcommittee head Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse are seeking a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts to discuss ethics issues at the Supreme Court after reports of flags flown outside Justice Samuel Alito's homes sparked outrage."

Welcoming Immigrants

For John, BLUF:  The photo cut:  Lowell City Councilor Paul Ratha Yem chose items for his family’s Sunday dinner in the New Pailin Market, home to a thriving Cambodian community. The state recently announced that it is moving about 70 migrant and homeless families into the Lowell Inn and Conference Center..  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lowell is getting dozens of migrant families. Their struggles resonate with Cambodian community.

From Boston Globe, by Correspondent Daniel Kool, 26 April 2024, 5:50 a.m..

Here is the lede plus four:

Vanna Howard watched as Khmer Rouge militants captured her father in the late 1970s during the group’s reign of terror in Cambodia.  She watched as three of her younger siblings and her grandparents were lost to sickness and starvation in a genocide that killed more than 1.7 million people.

Now Howard, a state representative, and other Cambodians in Lowell are watching with empathetic eyes as dozens of new migrant families trickle into Lowell — the latest stop on a harrowing journey that took some through multiple countries in search of opportunity.  She said she sees reflections of her experience in the newest wave of migrants arriving in Massachusetts.

When Howard fled Cambodia, making her way to a refugee camp in Thailand, she walked for “weeks and weeks, similar to the folks who have been coming to our border” in the United States.

“We need to treat this matter with empathy, with compassion,” Howard said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Nobody wants to leave their home country.  The decision to leave their home country — it has to be so bad that you are willing to risk your life to flee."

The state announced last week that it would move nearly 70 migrant and homeless families from Bedford to the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center.  Many of those being relocated are Haitian migrants who fled a country consumed by gang violence.

The lead photo shows Lowell City Councillor Paul Ratha Yem, who was on City Life Show this last Friday.  Lowell is a City of immigrants.  I came here 30 years ago. I say to Councilor Yem that while he was born in Cambodia, like me he came here from the Southland (Southern California), where he lived in San Bernidino, and did work in Long Beach, where I did High School.

I am opposed to President Biden's Open borders policy.  For one thing, I don't understand his underlying objective.  He has not been able to articulate the value.  Further, he cannot explain what historians and social scientists know about the ability of this nation to absorb new immigrants and make them successful and proud Americans.

That said, those who are here are here and we, as Lowellians and as Citizens of our Commonwealth need to make these people feel welcome and we need to provide them shelter and food and work.  Even if they eventually return to the nation from which they came, while they are here, they are fellow human beings and we need to help them to do and live their best.  Lowell is a good place for that to happen, and for immigrants to learn, from us, the importancve of human rights and respect for those rights.

Regards  —  Cliff

Massaging the Numbers

For John, BLUF:  This is a takeoff of Lord Wellington's quip to a reporter on statistics.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Playing With Numbers

From The Instatpundit, by Editor Mark Tapscott.

Here is the lede plus two:

THREE KINDS OF LIES:  There are lies, damned lies and Biden’s statistics.  Exhibit A from his recent State of the Onion, according to Issues & Insights (I&I), is his claim that the richest Americans pay on average a net tax of 8.2 percent.  What???  Biden should have asked his IRS:

“It calculates the actual tax rate that various income groups pay, including the ultra-rich.  Its data show that the 400 people with the biggest incomes in America were paying an average tax rate of more than 23 percent.  Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation figures that the tax rate on the top 0.4 percent of families is 26 percent,” I&I explains.

“So where does Biden come up with an 8.2 percent tax rate?  He changes the definition of taxable income to include all unrealized gains from investments.  If you have money in the stock market, any gains in the value of those stocks would count as income to Biden, even if you don’t sell the stock.  Presumably so would any gains in the value of your home.  Or the value of any other assets you possess.”

Posted 11 March, at 10:41 am, by Editor Mark Tapscott

This should put us on alert for any time we hear a statistic coming from President Biden or the White House.♠  I saw several exsamples of questionable statistics in President Biden's most recent State of the Union speech.  Then, of course, there is his amorphous "everyone pay their fair share".  But, what is a fair share?  Is it related to a percentsge of your income, or your wealth, or related to the value you are able to withdraw from the economy?  Or is it that since everyone has the benefit of being an American, should everyone pay the same?

The worst part of this Presidential performance is it is causing young people and people in their middle age to think that all of us near the age of President Biden are stumble bums and mentally deficient.  This is the worst sort of ageism.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Or is it all Democrafts or is it all Politicians?

The End Game for Mr Hur

For John, BLUF:  DOJ Special Prosecuter Robert K Hur concluded that the Federal Government should not prosecute President Joe Biden for the mishandling of classified information.  He did it in a way to protect Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's case againt Donald J Trump for a similar activity.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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‘No, No, No, No, No’:  Rep. Byron Donalds, NBC Host Kristen Welker Clash Over Hur Report’s Conclusion

From The Daily Caller, by Reporter Hailey Gomez, 25 February 2024, 2:42 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and NBC host Kristen Welker clashed Sunday over the conclusion from special counsel Robert Hur’s report which investigated President Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Donalds appeared on “Meet the Press” to discuss his support of former President Donald Trump for the upcoming general election.  During the interview, Welker questioned the congressman on a claim from Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond calling a recent comment from Trump over his criminal charges “plain racist.”

My interest is further down, where Host Kristen Welker tried to say that Special Council Robert K Hur didn't have enough evidence:

“Hold on, I have to hit the pause button for one minute, Congressman, because the Hur report was very clear that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against President Biden and that ultimately there was not —,” Welker stated before Donalds cut in.

It would seem Ms Welker missed this sentence in Mr Hur's report:

Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.

That seems pretty straight forward.  As someone who has handled classified information I would take that as saying Mr Biden broke the rules.  If that sentence had been written about one of my Brothers i would recommend they hire a lawyer immnediately.  Handling classified information is serious business.

Perhaps Ms Welker was mislead by the first paragraph of Mr Hur's Report Executive Summary:

We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter.  We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.

Yes, and the Report goes on:

However, for the reasons summarized below, we conclude that the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecution of Mr. Biden is also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in the Department of Justice's Principles of Federal Prosecution. For these reasons, we decline prosecution of Mr. Biden.

This is where the "diminished faculties and faulty memory" came in:

Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.

The more expanded version is:

We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,  Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.  It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.

I would suggesst that in order to prevent long term libility for the President, Mr Hur had to fuzz up the ability to obtain a guilty verdict.  If he did not, then his efforts to exonerate President Biden would then be turned against DoJ in terms of its efforts to prosecute President Trump.

I suggest that a conclusion was drawn that the easiest way to protect President Biden from prosecution, while not getting in the way of the prosecution of Mr Trump for similiar activites, was to suggest a jury would view Mr Biden sympathetically, due to his age and faulty memory.  He would remind them of a beloved Grandparent.

At the same time the President would need to be able to show his strength, so as to avoid removal from office under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.  Or be removed from the Democratic Party 2024 ticket.

Meanwhile, the prosecution of Mr Trump could proceed.

It worked.  The report came out.  Mr Biden held a Press Conference where he did pretty well, showing himself fit to be President.  And, Mr Trump is still under indictment.

The down side is that this will increase the cynicism of a portion of our Citizens and lead to even more distrust of the Department of Justice.  If this group is merely from the Basket of Deplorables, then it may be an acceptable outcome for Democrats.

Regards  —  Cliff

President Cranky is Wrong

For John, BLUF:  President Joseph Biden, a forgetful, cranky old man, is failing to lead the nation to fix the border wall and also help friends currently engaged in war.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden urges House to take up Ukraine and Israel aid package:  "Pass this bill immediately"

From CBS News, by Reporter Kaia Hubbard, Updated on 13 February 2024, 2:52 PM EST.

Here is the lede plus one:

Washington — President Biden urged House Republicans to "immediately" take up a $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes assistance to Ukraine and Israel after the Senate passed the measure early Tuesday, saying that "there's no question" that it would pass if brought to the House floor.

"I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind and not allow a minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on," the president said in remarks at the White House, which came hours after the Senate's 70-29 vote to approve the measure.  "This is a critical act for the House to move."

Later in his talk the President said:

"History is watching.  Failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten."

As is his wont, the President repreated himself with regard to that sentence, for emphasis.

I fully support our efforts to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.  I believe the United States must support the Budapest Memorandum.  I am even willing to talk about restoring nuclear weapons to Ukraine, in light of Russia's violation of the Budapest Memorandum.

President Biden, in his talk, seems to be ignoring two considerations.

1. A large portion of the American Public thinks illegal immigration should be our first priority.  A prioity ahead of Ukraine.  The Republican (thin) majority in the House of Reprsentatives thinks it should use its political power to fix the US Southern Border.  In this belief it believes it is reflecting the will of the American People.
2. Given the way the US Government works, a party that commands only one House of Congress may use that power to force a President of another party to move in their direction, thus forcing a compromise.  The President is deeming this normal, contitutional, interaction as unpatriotic,  It is not and he is wrong.
3. As an aside, today, on his WRKO Afternoon Program, Reporter Howie Carr suggested that a bill such as the Ukraine funding bill should originate in the House of Representatives, per the Constitution.

The President is not only wrong on this issue, he is also being irascible.  And, he is further failing to keep his campaign promise to bring us all together.

Fix the border and then aid, Ukraine, Israil, Taiwan, and other allies and friends in trouble.

Regards  —  Cliff

Reading the Room

For John, BLUF:  If you didn't think this Bill was DOA, you didn't realize President Biden wants his cake and to eat it too.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here’s Why the Senate Border Security Bill Was ‘Dead on Arrival’

Here is the sub-headline:

Illegal immigrants by the millions are entering the United States, as Congress is unable to fix loopholes, and President Joe Biden refuses to do so.

From The Epoch Times, by Investigative Reporter Mark Tapscott, 8 February 2024, Updated 9 February 2024.

Here is the lede plus four:

On Feb. 6, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that a border security bill created by a bipartisan group of senators was “dead on arrival.”

When Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced on Feb. 4 that he and two colleagues had agreed on a comprehensive border security bill, he lauded it as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to stop the flood of illegal immigrants entering the United States that began in 2021 at the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term.

Mr. Lankford said he thought that he, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.)—after four months of arduous closed-door negotiations—had done something that recalled the great compromises that once defined the Senate, pleasing conservatives and liberals alike.

But two days later, Mr. Johnson said the bill was even “worse than expected.”

Going by their comments, it was as if the Sooner State’s senior senator and Mr. Johnson were reading two entirely different bills.

The US Southern Border is like a seive, and has been since January 2020.  In Fiscal Year 2023♠ we had 2.8 million illegal immigrants.  In December of 2023 it was 302,392 illegal immigrants (or 3,628704 over a year, not counting the "got aways").

The reform bill has issues.  Here is a list, from Senator Mike Lee of Utah.  Taking an example, the proposed bill would provide emergency action if we logged 5,000 illegal immigrants for seven days in a row.  One person short of 5,000 would provide 1,824,635 illegal immigrants a year.  That is almost 2 million that we don't have a plan to house, education, and assimilate.  We can tell there is pain by listening to the Mayors and Citizens of major Cities in the Northern part of the nation.

Regarding the building of a wall, this proposed bill would put that building off until 2028.  Why?  We need a wall now, not in four years.

President Biden and the Democrats on Capitol Hill do not want to fix the illegal immigrant problem.  They want a cloak to hide their goal of free and open immigration for all.  It is a sad commentary that they think this cloak will hide their abandonment of our national borders.

Some, like our Senior Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, claim opposition to the Bill is just President Trump playing politics.  She must not be reading the polls.  The American Voters are not happy with the nation's immigration policies.  President Trump is just doing a better job of reading the room.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  A Fiscal Year runs from 1 October to 30 September.