Month: March 2022

Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union

By Joe Guzzardi

After forcefully chastising Russia and its aggression against the Ukraine, claiming credit for ending the COVID-19 pandemic and creating jobs, promising to combat inflation and taking a bow for his Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination, President Biden finally in his State of the Union spoke about the Southwest border.

Biden’s mention of the border surprised many because his immigration policies are an unmitigated disaster and cannot truthfully be described otherwise. Many wondered what border Biden might have been referring to. From Biden’s speech: “We need to secure the border, and fix the immigration system.” Promising to “fix the immigration system” is widely recognized code for amnesty.

Predictably, Biden then segued into providing “a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.” He continued to: “revise our laws so businesses have the workers they need and families don’t wait decades to reunite.” Decoding, Biden meant amnesty for deferred action for childhood arrivals and temporary protected status holders, agriculture workers and “essential workers” whose skills have never been identified. More employment-based visas are included in Biden’s immigration vision. The total number of amnesty recipients would be millions.

Biden defended his largess when he claimed that amnesty is “the right thing to do,” and he cited as fellow advocates for increased immigration the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest, deepest pocketed cheap labor lobby. In 2021, the Chamber spent $95 million lobbying the federal government, $23 million more than the second most powerful lobby, the National Association of Realtors.

So reality-detached were Biden’s immigration comments that viewers wondered what he was talking about. As the president, Biden has willfully allowed 2 million illegal aliens, and several hundred thousand “got-aways” from more than 100 nations, to cross into sovereign America where his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has delivered them, either by air or land, into the interior of the United States.

Many different words are used to describe what Biden has sanctioned at the border – disaster, crisis, ruinous, calamity, tragedy and catastrophe. But inarguably the most accurate, most descriptive, most troubling word is invasion. With the full encouragement of DHS Secretary Mayorkas, Biden has overseen and given his blessing to the invasion which is still ongoing at this very moment. Border patrol agents have been stripped of their responsibilities to defend the homeland and are instead processing illegal immigrants, many whose true identities cannot be vouched for with cast-iron certainty.

On the other hand, what can be reported with 100 percent confidence is that Biden’s open borders have led to a financial windfall for Mexican cartels, the most ruthless and vicious criminals conceivable. The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that drug and human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business. Drug trafficking also has resulted in needless fentanyl deaths, especially among young Americans. In 2020, fentanyl deaths topped COVID, car crashes and suicide as the leading cause of deaths.

The extent of the invasion is, in large part, hidden from an unsuspecting America, and persists. Only individuals who make it a point to learn what’s happening will understand the reality. Here for example is data that Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for providing care for children under age 18 without lawful immigration status, provided to Arizona U.S. Representative Andy Biggs. Of the 146,248 unaccompanied children resettled since January 20, 2021, only 55,125 were placed with parents. Others were placed with siblings or distant relatives, and an alarming 19,726 sponsors could not be reached for a wellness check on the minor. The alien children’s physical and emotional conditions are unknown. While some are technically minors, some also claim MS-13 gang membership.

As Biden spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi looked on, applauding and nodding in agreement. Harris, the so-called border czar, is a spectacular failure. The closest Harris has been to the border’s hot spot, the Del Rio Valley, is 450 miles away in El Paso. In the meantime, illegal immigration from Quito, Ecuador, 2,500 miles from the Del Rio Valley, has increased seven-fold since 2020. Because illegal immigration has spiked to record highs, aliens are adrift, struggling to find employment, even day labor jobs.

During the run-up to 9 pm EST, Biden practiced his speech, got input from his staff and his ghost writer, and yet went with an immigration narrative that he knew was deceptive, perhaps intended as a cruel, unfunny joke on his political opponents. Final takeaways from the president’s SOU: Biden has no plans to change course and has deliberately taken a path that, left unchecked, will destroy sovereign America.

Joe Guzzardi is a PFIR analyst who writes about immigration and its consequences. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org and joe.guzzardi@substack.com.

Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union

Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner

By Joe Guzzardi

When Washington Nationals’ 23-year-old Juan Soto rejected a 13-year, $350 million contract, he unwittingly exposed why MLB fans have had enough. By today’s ludicrous payroll standards, $350 million isn’t enough money for a kid who grew up in the Dominican Republic where the per capital income is less than $8,000.

But Fernando Tatis signed with the San Diego Padres for $340 million over 14 years. Hence, on the advice of Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, the young star should sit tight, and wait for an even larger offer when, at the 2024 season’s end, he hits the free agent market. A half a billion dollars could await Soto, perhaps from the bottomless money pit known as the New York Yankees, team value $5.2 billion. For Soto and Boras, the old axiom, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is – wise though it may be – passé.

Salary squabbles of the multimillion-dollar magnitude, Soto/Boras versus multi-billionaire Nats owners the Lerner family, are a big turnoff to baseball fans. At least the 1977 New York Mets during its very public haggle with its superstar pitcher Tom Seaver gave its rabid followers drama aplenty that played out for months.

During the summer of 1977, Mets’ ownership staggered the baseball world when, after a long simmering salary dispute between Seaver and owner M. Donald Grant, it traded its future first ballot Hall of Famer to the Cincinnati Reds for four then-considered low-level prospects: pitcher Pat Zachry, second baseman Doug Flynn and outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman. At the time, Seaver earned $1.2 million($5.6 million in 2022 adjusted-for-inflation dollars).

The ”Midnight Massacre,” as the trades became known, plunged the Mets into their darkest era. The team finished last in 1977 and lost 95 or more games in each of the next three seasons under manager Joe Torre, who would be fired after a 41-62 record in the strike-shortened 1981 season.

During the 1970s, I lived in Manhattan. I wasn’t a Mets fan, but like all New Yorkers, I followed every movement, allegation and counter-allegation made by Seaver, Grant and Grant’s pro-management tout, New York Daily News columnist Dick Young who spent 45 years on the baseball beat, the last one of them demeaning the Mets’ ace as a greedy ingrate. Seaver had been pleading with the penurious Grant to fork out the necessary money on available free agents to help lift the Mets into contention. Young and Grant may have been the only two baseball bugs in New York’s five boroughs who thought that Seaver didn’t deserve a salary bump.

Further infuriating Mets fans, Grant, besides dumping Seaver and his salary off to the Reds, made two other horrible deadline trades involving key players. Grant ordered general manager Joe McDonald to deal the Mets’ top home run slugger, Dave Kingman, who had also been involved in rancorous contract negotiations, to the San Diego Padres for Bobby Valentine. In a third trade, McDonald sent utility man Mike Phillips to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Joel Youngblood.

Fun fact sidebar: In 1982, Youngblood made baseball history by getting a hit in two different cities, for two different teams, against two Hall of Fame pitchers the same day. As a Mets in Chicago, he singled off Ferguson Jenkins. Then, traded by the Mets to the Montreal Expos, Youngblood hopped a plane to Philadelphia in time to pinch hit a single off Steve Carlton.

To Grant’s dismay, Seaver flourished in his new Cincinnati environment. Over the balance of the 1977 season, he went 14-3 to finish his year at 21-6. Included among Seaver’s wins was what writers dubbed the “Shootout at Shea” that pitted “Atomic Tom” against his former teammate and friend, Jerry Koosman. On Sunday, August 21, a capacity crowd of 46,265 greeted Seaver with chants of “SEA-VER, SEA-VER!” while the stadium organ played “Hello Dolly, we’re so glad to see you back where you belong.”Seaver, who limited the Mets to six hits while striking out 11 in a 5-1 victory, pitched his best; Koosman (8-16), who volunteered for the thankless pitching assignment, struggled and gave up the game’s five runs before being knocked out in the eighth.

After the game, Seaver said, “I’m glad it’s over, very glad. I’m exhausted physically and mentally. It was no fun out there at all.” Koosman added: “It’s tough to pitch against a superstar. You know you’ve got to be at your best. I was kind of disappointed when it got out of hand. But let’s face it. Tom Seaver is the best pitcher in baseball.”

For the Mets, the post-trade era was a disaster. Attendance at Shea plummeted, and the Mets would not have another winning season until 1984. Seaver returned to the Mets in 1983 for one season and pitched effectively. Seaver then had a three-year stint with the Chicago White Sox, and a final year with the Boston Red Sox, but his best years were behind him. His combined four-year American League record was an unSeaver-like 38-35, ERA 3.69.

Seaver again returned to the New York scene when he broadcast Yankees’ games with the irrepressible Phil Rizzuto. The Rizzuto-Seaver tandem was baseball’s odd, but delightful couple. The University of Southern California golden boy and Rizzuto, who often called his booth partner a “huckleberry” while spontaneously extoling the pleasures of the cannolis fans brought him, worked together from 1989 to 1993. Then, after a six-year baseball hiatus, Seaver joined the Mets broadcast team from 1999-2005 before he returned to California to start Seaver Vineyards.

Seaver retired with a 311-205 record with an ERA of 2.86 and 3,640 strikeouts. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992 with the highest-ever percentage of first place votes for a starting pitcher, 99 percent.

In 1988, the Mets retired Seaver’s number 41. Twenty years later, the Mets invited Seaver to Shea Stadium to throw out the final pitch before the team moved to Citi Field where he also threw out the 2009 Opening Day first pitch.

An ESPN poll that included HOF pitchers Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Don Sutton and Carlton voted Seaver their generation’s best pitcher. Hank Aaron added that in his 12,364 at-bats, Seaver was the toughest he ever faced.

In 2020, at age 75, Seaver passed away in his native California. See the Mets video tribute here to George Thomas Seaver, the player fans called “Tom Terrific.”

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner