Category: Guest Authors

The What If Question In The Presidential Race

The What If Question In The Presidential Race

By Bob Small

The question of what would happen if either of the two leading Presidential Contenders left the race keeps coming up.  This is due to Biden’s age and the continuing court dramas regarding Donald Trump.

My personal prediction is that neither of those candidates will be there in November. Of course, my prediction was that the Eagles would win the 2023 Super Bowl.  This is an article covering the various possibilities:   What if Biden or Trump suddenly leaves the 2024 race?

In the “another one bites the dust” section of the Political News, Marianne Williamson has left the Democratic race.

The 71- year old philosophized “I read a quote the other day that said sunsets are proof that endings can be beautiful, too,” the 71-year-old said. She had earlier said that the US “needed a season of repair”, but was unable to convince more than 4 percent of the Democratic voters that she was the person for the job.

In another report, she said  “As of today, we are suspending our campaign. While the level of our failure is obvious to all, a level of success is real nonetheless.”

Not sure what that means either. 

This lack of clarity may have been the story of her campaign or non-campaign.

Even as she was ending her campaign, she had a running battle with clarity

“As with every other aspect of my career over the last 40 years, I know how ideas float through the air forming ever new designs,” she said.

She finished with only 2 percent of the vote,

The only well-known Democratic candidate remaining is Dean Phillips, a Minnesota congressman, whose star may begin rising now, as it becomes clearer and clearer to the Democratic party that Jospeh Biden should not be running in 2024.  This may also help RFK, Jr, notwithstanding whether he runs as a Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, etc.  

Maybe the Dems need to review their options from among the Politics1.com Democratic Candidate list.   

The What If Question In The Presidential Race

The What If Question In The Presidential Race

Ambidextrous Harry Truman Threw Out First Post-War Pitch

Ambidextrous Harry Truman Threw Out First Post-War Pitch

By Joe Guzzardi

On September 8, 1945, six days after Japan surrendered and World War II officially ended, President Harry S. Truman went to Griffith Stadium to throw out the first pitch in a game between the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Browns. No president had attended a baseball game since Franklin Delano Roosevelt tossed the traditional first pitch at the April 14, 1941, opener, eight months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The savvy Truman knew his presence at Griffith Stadium would convey the message to America that peace had returned, and that World War II had indeed ended.

Truman saw the Senators beat the Browns 4-1 during a crucial game in a four-way race for the American League pennant eventually captured by the Detroit Tigers. The Browns, Senators and New York Yankees came up short.

On April 16, 1946, Truman assumed the presidential responsibilities of throwing out the first Opening Day pitch against the visiting Boston Red Sox. Accompanied by his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, Truman became the first lefty to toss out the inaugural pitch. In his seven and one-half years in the White House, Truman attended sixteen games at Griffith Stadium, more than any other president. Ambidextrous, Truman hurled some pitches lefty and others, righty. Truman’s Opening Day record was 4-3, and, overall, 8-8.

Over the years, Truman formed a close friendship with Senators’ owner Clark Griffith. Both hailed from Missouri, both represented up from the bootstrap’s successes, and were straight shooters. Griffith called Truman “Harry,” and the president was fine with his informal salutation. A contributor to Truman’s 1948 re-election bid, Griffith predicted, against all odds, that the incumbent would beat the Republican nominee, Thomas Dewey. The October 11 issue of Newsweek stated, “Fifty political experts unanimously predict a Dewey victory.”  Truman was nonplused. “Oh, those damned fellows. They’re always wrong anyway,” he countered. As Griffith summed up Truman’s unexpected win at a post-election victory party,” “Everyone is against Harry except the people.” Truman’s surprise re-election gave him four more opportunities to throw out the Opening Day first pitch.

In his youth, Truman was a slightly-built, bespectacled boy who never played baseball. His wife Meg, however, was the quintessential tomboy. Meg had grown up with three younger brothers who she strived to beat at mumblety-peg, baseball and whistling through her teeth. She had excelled at most sports — even in throwing the shot put — and she remained an avid baseball fan all her life.

Bess watched, listened to, and scored as many games as possible. “The boss is the real fan,” Truman said about his Sunday school crush. Truman had carried Bess’ books to school and watched her play a crackerjack third base as the only girl on an all-boys team. As First Lady, Bess attended games by herself or with her daughter, but always with her scorebook which she kept religiously.

When Truman left the White House in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower assumed the Opening Day tasks. That year, however, Eisenhower asked his Vice President Richard Nixon to stand in for him. Truman hated Nixon and sent his friend Griffith a telegram wishing him well but warned, “Don’t let him throw you a curve!”

Bess and Harry, now private citizens, returned to Independence, MO., and eventually adopted the Kansas City Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals as their new favorites. “May the sun never set on American baseball,” Truman said at a Cardinals game.

The Trumans lived long lives. In 1972, Harry died at age 88; Bess followed in 1982 at age 97. The couple are buried next to each other at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence.

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

Ambidextrous Harry Truman Threw Out First Post-War Pitch

Ambidextrous Harry Truman Threw Out First Post-War Pitch

Rollan Roberts Has Left The Race

Rollan Roberts Has Left The Race

By Bob Small

Rollan Roberts has left the race.

The West Virginia businessman had been seeking the Republican nomination for president. A seventh-place finish in the Iowa Caucus along with an unfortunate viral video showing him not immediately rushing to his pregnant wife’s assistance meant that it was time to turn off the lights.

His wife, Rebecca Lea, when she collapsed while he was making an announcement.

She turned out to be fine and Rollan really didn’t seem to get what was happening.

It looked bad, though, and this, unlike his policy proposals, is what went all over the internet.

The 14 pages of “Policies of the Roberts Presidency”, include some rather striking ideas.

“No one will pay tax on the first $40-60,000 they earn depending on how they file,” Roberts says. “The Flat Tax Rate Table is paid only on monies earned in that range. “

“All existing student loan debt will be settled at a reduced rate and paid by the public endowments of institutions that used public money to enrich themselves,” Roberts says.

Hypocritical Harvard’s $50.9 billion endowment being used to make good on the poor suckers trapped in life-long debt after spending fortunes on worthless degrees?

We like that.

Roberts also wants to extend the school day until 5 p.m. for high school students. The high school stuff would be from 8 a.m. until noon and the college or trade school stuff the remainder.

Roberts “grew up in the holler of Beaver, West Virginia” and received his MBA from Liberty University, and DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) from California Intercontinental University.

He is the head of the U.S. Center for Diplomacy .

Roberts noted that Donald Trump is “the predominate front runner”.

Possibly some of his ideas will outlive his candidacy.

Rollan Roberts Has Left The Race

Senate Passes Ukraine Funding Bill Without Border Protection

Senate Passes Ukraine Funding Bill Without Border Protection

By Joe Guzzardi

On Super Bowl Sunday, shortly before kickoff, the Senate voted 67-27 to advance a $95.3 billion funding bill, a step toward its passage. Two days later, after an all-night session, the bill passed 70-27 but without the border security measures that the House had originally demanded.

The funding package includes $60 billion for Ukraine; $14 billion in security assistance for Israel; $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine; and $4.8 billion to support allies in the Indo-Pacific.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke passionately about the urgent need for the bill’s approval. Schumer described Eastern Europe’s war-torn regions as dire as last seen during World War II. McConnell warned that failing to support Ukraine would put America’s allies at risk by giving China a “green light” to project power in Asia and the Indo-Pacific.

Highlighting the tension among Republicans that could culminate in the Senate minority leader’s removal, fellow Kentuckian GOP Senator Rand Paul called McConnell’s support for the bill “outrageous” and accused him, Schumer and President Joe Biden of “criminal neglect” by working to “send $100 billion overseas to fix someone else’s border before addressing our [own] border.” Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) charged Schumer with dictating which amendments he would be permit—“essentially all of them are not.”

To Paul’s point, days before the Senate voted to proceed on the Ukraine-Israel funding bill, it rejected a very bad immigration bill that, instead of including HR-2’s border protections, established an emergency authority to shut down the border when a 5,000 daily average alien encounters over a consecutive seven-day period is reached or 8,500 encounters occur in a single day. By law, a single alien’s entry violates immigration statutes. Worse, the Senate’s proposed bill allows Biden to suspend this authority at his discretion, which could allow for thousands more illegal immigrants to cross.

Schumer and McConnell’s urgency to help Ukraine protect its border with Russia is reflected in its unprecedented Super Bowl Sunday vote during a period when the Senate was scheduled to be on holiday. Neither Schumer nor McConnell cares about the southwest border invasion. McConnell, worried that China might interpret nixing Ukraine funding as a “green light” for aggression, is indifferent to the thousands of Chinese nationals pouring aggressively across the Southwest border.

Among the millions of migrants flooding the southern border, Chinese illegal immigrants made up the fastest-growing faction last year. In FY 2023, CBP apprehended 24,000 Chinese nationals, about 12 times the 1,970 arrests in the previous fiscal year. Since October 1 when fiscal year 2024 began, a staggering 20,000 Chinese nationals have crossed. If the 20,000 per fiscal year quarter influx continues, a projected 80,000 Chinese nationals will enter.

The annual 2023 U.S. Threat Assessment report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) warned that China’s Communist Party (CCP) will continue efforts to achieve President Xi Jinping’s vision to make China East Asia’s preeminent power, a major global threat that will undercut U.S. influence, and “drive wedges between Washington and its partners.” In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, former DNI  director John Ratcliff wrote that “Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically.” Resisting Beijing’s attempt to reshape and dominate the world is, Ratcliff concluded, the challenge of our generation. China, national security experts agree, is the U.S.’s biggest geopolitical enemy.

Assuming Ratcliff is right, the Biden administration is failing spectacularly to meet the challenge. In December, a large group of well-dressed, military-age Chinese crossed into San Diego and surrendered to immigration agents. The El Paso sector’s Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Good told the Homeland Security Committee during a private September hearing last year that his agents suspect that the Chinese aliens are active CCP operatives, and confirmed by committee chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.)  as a “massive” concern.

Despite the potential threat that Chinese nationals represent to America, the DHS makes no attempt to detain them or no effort to locate them after border officers release them into the interior. Schumer, McConnell and Biden continue to turn a blind eye to the risks China poses, and instead are determined to pour more good money after bad into the forever Ukrainian war.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Senate Passes Ukraine Funding Bill Without Border Protection

Our Right To Refuse

Our Right To Refuse

By Bob Small

There were numerous groups that I discovered in my dealings with Children’s Health Defense (CHD). 

Right to refuse is one of the more active.

Its mission statement is “Right to Refuse is a national campaign to help state organizations and grassroots advocates connect for the purpose of passing state laws that would protect the rights of individuals to make their own health decisions.”

According to their website,  as of Dec 31, “74 Right to Refuse Bills have passed into laws in 29 States.” 

In Pennsylvania, we have Pennsylvania Coalition for Informed Consent  

To quote from the above website  “The Pennsylvania Coalition for Informed Consent works to preserve the vital personal freedom and human right to informed consent, privacy, and choice for medical procedures in Pennsylvania. “  There is a listing of House and Senate Bills listed to either support or reject.

Related websites are Health Freedom Pennsylvania: Home which lists allied groups. The active ones are https://www.pavotersguide.com/  which should be updated soon for 2024 and https://rightforliberty.com/ . See also the listed 8 organizations listed under Resource Center.

According to their charts, there were three vaccines in 1960.

As of 2019, there were 56. (

In my youth, we were shown photos of children in iron lungs to encourage us to receive our polio shots which was a shot we all willingly received –after seeing the photos.

Right about here we should say that vaccines are an individual choice.  Having had shingles, a shingles shot seemed appropriate.  A few weeks after two Covid shots, I got Covid.  That’s when this person started to rethink his choices.

Some other related websites on this topic are:

Home | National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)PPPC.me  “Pennsylvania Parents Protecting Children believes that parents and legal guardians have the right to safeguard their children’s health. “

FREE PA – Home

We should all remember that we , as citizens,  have both a right and a responsibility to contact our State and Local elected officials on these issues along with any others.

Our Right To Refuse

US Workers Lose Ground To Foreign-Born In January

US Workers Lose Ground To Foreign-Born In January

By Joe Guzzardi

The monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report should be called the original “fake news.” Such is the case with the January 2024 report which announced that the economy added 353,000 jobs. Each month, District of Columbia’s anonymous civil servants grind out much-anticipated jobs data that Wall Street and financial journalists latch onto as the nation’s financial health indicators. Market analysts tout the monthly data to reaffirm their existing economic beliefs, be they good or bad. The first BLS Commissioner, Carroll D. Wright, described the Bureau’s mandate as “the fearless publication of the facts.” The BLS website claims that “Just the Facts” is a core value. When asked, “Is the glass half empty or half full?” BLS responds elusively that it sees an 8-ounce glass containing 4 ounces.

A few years ago, a critic called the BLS report “the big lie” because among its other flaws the original monthly data was subject to revisions, often significant. These late changes concern Federal Reserve officials. We must make decisions in real time,” Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Christopher Waller said late last year. “Whatever data is released, that’s the data I have to use. The problem with data is it gets revised.”

Revisions, which can come more than months after initial reports are published, wouldn’t necessarily be so much of an issue if they were relatively small. However, many revisions over the past few years have been game-changers.

The January BLS report could trigger history’s biggest game-changing revision. Zero Hedge (ZH), which lists as one of its manifestos, “to skeptically examine and, where necessary, attack the flaccid institution that financial journalism has become” mocked the January release as a “clown show,” and as the election season heats up, fulfilling its mandate from the White House “to make the economy look double super good-good.” And, speaking of revisions, ZH noted that in January BLS conducted its “annual re-benchmarking and update of seasonal adjustment factors.” The bottom line—what was until December a decline in jobs, the BLS has now been miraculously transformed declines into gains. 

The glowing report ignored the following lay-offs as a total percentage of their workforce: Twitch, 35%; Hasbro, 20%; Spotify, 17%; Levi’s, 15%; Xerox, 15%; Qualtrics, 14%; Wayfair: 13%; Duolingo, 10%; Washington Post, 10%; eBay, 9%; Business Insider, 8%; PayPal, 7% Charles Schwab, 6%; UPS, 2%; Blackrock, 3%; iRobot, 31%; Citigroup: 20,000 employees and Pixar, 1,300 employees. This month, nearly all Sports Illustrated staffers received layoff notices from the Arena Group, devastating the 70-year-old magazine that once set the standard for sports journalism. Most staff received 90-day notices, but many were immediately laid off. 

More inconvenient truths ZH exposed: BLS reported that in January 2024, the U.S. had 133.1 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. The totals may sound good but look back one year to find that in February 2023, the U.S. had 133.2 million full-time jobs, slightly more than the economy did one year later. Predictably, the job growth is in low-paying, part-time jobs, which have increased by 870,000 since February 2023 from 27.020 million to 27.890 million.

The mainstream media, which had 20,000 job losses in 2023 across broadcast, digital and print industries with more recent media layoffs that include CBC, Vice Media and others, mostly ignored the most important fact buried in the January BLS report. In January, the number of native-born workers tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560, 000 to just 129.8 million. Add to this the December data, and a near-record 1.9 million plunge in native-born workers has occurred in the past two months. Not only has all job creation in the past four years gone exclusively to foreign-born workers, but since July 2018 there has been zero job-creation for native-born workers. 

With the illegal alien invasion poised to continue throughout the remainder of Biden’s first term—eleven months—and legal permanent residents added at one million-plus annually, the labor market will expand by about two million foreign-born workers each year. The Biden administration has unlawfully given about one million aliens parole, an immigration status that includes work permission. 

Foreign-born workers displacing Americans is an ongoing and accelerating tragedy that President Biden willfully imposed on citizens. Biden’s malfeasance should provide talking points for the White House and congressional candidates that seek to remove office holders who support the status quo.

 Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

US Workers Lose Ground To Foreign-Born In January

US Workers Lose Ground To Foreign-Born In January

Free And Equal Debate Series Has Begun

Free And Equal Debate Series Has Begun

By Bob Small

The Free and Equal Debate Series, founded by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, has been presenting presidential debates since 2008.  The major party candidates have never participated but those of the three largest alternative parties — Constitution, Green, and Libertarian — have. The 2024 debate season began Jan. 18.

This debate was moderated by F&E founder Christina Tobin and Kwame Jackson.

The four candidates were Gabriel Cornejo, Frankie Lozada, Stephen Lyons, and Jason Palmer.

These were selected by the Free and Equal voting procedure, explained on their website. Hopefully, the Feb. 29 debate will have more diversity. It can be watched on Rumble and information about it can be found here: https://freeandequal.org/debate/2024-free-equal-presidential-debate/

Concerning the first debate, Gabriel Cornejo of Nevada says he’s running because “our ship is sinking” and he’d “rather stop the people drilling the holes causing the leak than enjoy the music on the way down.”

He describes how, in support of a classmate undergoing chemotherapy, he and 13 other classmates and teachers shaved their heads “to let our friend know he wasn’t alone.”

His Freedom Dividend includes a “$1,000 a month  for every person over 18 to spend”, as a way of operating the country like a business.

Steve P. Lyons of Maryland is the only candidate to admit failing second grade, though probably not the only one.  He has a list of 19 issues. He says if he becomes president he will prepare for the worst.

“I will have a meeting with all governors, and we will put a 5,000 person task force in place per state,” he says. 

He also says he will buy back farmland.

“We will buy every farmland that is up for sale and put legal immigrant farmers and croppers on the lands to allow those lands to flourish with all different types of crops, fruit, and meat. “

He has been a master plumber and gas fitter for over 46 years.

For my post on Frankie Lozado see  : https://billlawrenceonline.com/frankie-lozada-wants-to-be-first-hispanic-president/ 

For the one on Jason Palmer, see  : https://billlawrenceonline.com/jason-palmer-and-conscious-capitalism/ 

Free And Equal Debate Series Has Begun

Uniparty Has An Interest To Steal

Uniparty Has An Interest To Steal

By Greg Stenstrom

Our Appellant Brief to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania for Chester County, PA election ballot recounts and release of public election records for November 2023 is attached here. This is one filing of many in multiple counties in PA.

The bottom line is corrupt county officials, which include specific judges, will not, and cannot allow honest recounts, or give up election records, because they know the elections are fraudulent, and we are working lawfully and diligently to correct that.

Let’s stop being coy and naive about this subject. Everyone with more than a few neurons firing in their brains knows election fraud is a major problem in our Republic.

And, the core reason is simple – money. Corrupt government officials and private interests at the top of the food chain have been stealing so much, for so long, and it is now so ingrained in our government culture, that it’s no longer a matter of “won’t” stop. They “can’t” stop.

The underlying reason for election fraud at a County and State level is that it enables horse trading between uniparty DNC and GOP officials to carve out row offices, schools, prison, utilities, where they enrich themselves.

They do this by simple pay to play graft; directing contracts to private interests; extracting monies from taxpayers; outright theft of citizen’s properties, estates, trusts; and even involuntarily directing children into programs that corrupt officials and other bad actors profit from.

The recent election “reforms” that allowed them to consolidate elections into centralized counting centers gave them complete control and removed any remaining transparency.

The biggest problem the citizenry now faces is that there is nothing left for corrupt government officials and symbiotic private interests to steal. The coffers are not just empty, they are filled with “IOU’s” that can never be collected on unless we remove the bad actors and gluttons.

Delaware County went from a surplus and balanced budget to over $60M in debt in just a few years and increased taxes 5% just last month with an anticipated 25% next year – which still won’t come close to staunching the blood loss. Fayette County is 10’s of millions of dollars in debt, drowning, and sinking even faster.

This story is endemic across Pennsylvania. Pensions are upside down and not being funded. New bonds that cannot be repaid are being floated week to week to meet payroll obligations. It’s a mutual death spiral between government and banks, with the banks having so much invested and debt at risk (depositors money), that they have no choice but to float more debt.

It’s a game of hopium and musical chairs, and the music has stopped at all levels of government – federal, state, and local.

It’s not too late for the citizenry to put a headlock on the recalcitrant, sick patient that our government has become, and give it an enema to flush out the most fetid bad actors, and start restoring honest government and sanity.

Court filings like the one below are written in plain language and chronological story format to encourage people to read them, learn what is going on, and move them to action.

We are going to need a LOT of volunteers for the upcoming elections as poll workers, canvassers, poll watchers, and authorized representatives – hundreds per county and thousands state-wide.

Please share and talk about elections with your friends and families. Your lives and the future of your families and children depend on it.

Uniparty Has An Interest To Steal

Uniparty Has An Interest To Steal

‘Bipartisan’ Senate Bill Would Keep Border Open

‘Bipartisan’ Senate Bill Would Keep Border Open

By Joe Guzzardi

Oklahoma Senator James Langford has not officially announced his long-term political goals. But deep-red Oklahoma’s senior senator has done a superb job of shooting himself in the foot by joining up with three open borders advocates in what they laughingly refer to as a bipartisan border agreement. Under Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer’s watchful eyes, Langford’s negotiating colleagues are Arizona Senator Kristen Sinema, a faux Independent who caucuses with Democrats, and blue Connecticut’s Chris Murphy. Sinema and Murphy have consistently voted against border and interior enforcement while favoring amnesty enticements. Neither Sinema nor Murphy, however, have served close to Schumer’s three decades-plus in Congress during which time he has unbendingly fought for higher immigration levels and less enforcement. Up against Schumer and company, Langford is out of his element.

Even the most cursory review of the Senate’s proposed deal shows that the details would not only keep the border open but also encourage more illegal immigration. Leaked details include a disastrous provision that once border crossings reached a seven-day 5,000 rolling daily average, the Department of Homeland Security would have the authority to shut down migration. Daily encounters between 4,000 and 5,000 would allow for discretionary expulsions, and any single day where there were over 8,000 encounters, expulsions would be mandatory even if the 7-day average were lower. Those expulsions would also be exempt from judicial review. Not only would such levels be inconsistent with border security, but President Biden has complete authority to shut the border down tight without more congressional legislation. The legislation would also, say advocates close to the talks, tighten asylum standards, speed up the hearing process, double deportation flights, and expedite work permits. Only expedited work permits are likely to become a reality, a harmful feature that expands the labor force with unskilled workers and takes away jobs from U.S. workers.

Andrew Arthur, a Center for Immigration Studies Resident Fellow in Law and Policy, and a former immigration judge, wrote in his New York Post op-ed that Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the president authority to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens.” Moreover, in 2018, the Supreme Court rejected immigration advocates’ challenges to travel restrictions that President Donald Trump implemented on certain nationals of terrorist hotspots and countries hostile to the United States and wrote that Section 212(f) “exudes deference to the President in every clause.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, reflecting most Americans’ sentiments and promising that if the Senate bill should ever reach the House it would be DOA, said that the “goal should be zero illegal crossings a day, not 5,000.” Unlike the Senate trio, Johnson knows that in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, immigration ranked with the economy as the two issues that most troubled voters.

Langford,  an ordained Southern Baptist minister, has pushed back against criticism and claims that election year politics and not the bill’s details hamper the Senate process. Voters are increasingly aware that Biden’s lack of political will to enforce existing laws is the main reason the border remains open. Deep skepticism with the White House’s immigration agenda has intensified, and a bad Senate bill will not soothe voters’ immigration anxiety. 

Langford got a sample of how getting cozy with Schumer could derail his career. The Oklahoma Republican Party (OKGOP) voted to censure Lankford for his close work with Democrats on border legislation. However, since not all OKGOP members were present, the censure was not official. Still, the vote could be a signal of trouble ahead for Langford. 

History’s lesson: Florida Senator Marco Rubio got a rude awakening to the long-term consequences of a Schumer connection. In 2013, only his second full year in office, Rubio was one of four GOP Senators who teamed up with four Democrats including Schumer to pass the disastrous immigration “Gang of Eight” bill, never taken up by the House. Rubio’s betrayal shocked Florida’s Republicans. In 2015, Rubio was one of 17 GOP announced presidential candidates. When the crucial Florida primary time rolled around in March 2016, Rubio needed a win over Donald Trump to remain viable. But Florida’s voters didn’t forget Rubio’s duplicity and overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Trump, 46% to 27%. Once considered a frontrunner, Rubio’s presidential aspirations ended that night.

Langford’s next re-election cycle, should he choose to run, is 2028. Myriad border outcomes could occur in the next six years. But Oklahoma Republicans are unlikely to forget, much less forgive, Langford’s eagerness to join the Democrats to keep the border open and subvert U.S. sovereignty. 

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

‘Bipartisan’ Senate Bill Would Keep Border Open

‘Bipartisan’ Senate Bill Would Keep Border Open

Saint Matrona And Stalin

Saint Matrona And Stalin

By Bob Small

Joseph Stalin, known as Joseph Vissarrionovich Stalin born as Joseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili, has a mixed evaluation from a historical perspective.  Many of his actions were monstrous but the Allies might have lost World War 2, if he hadn’t had Russia switch sides.  In 2024, he’s still a source of controversy in his native Georgia.

There is an icon showing Stalin being blessed by Saint Matrona of Moscow the Holy Trinity (Saemba) Cathedral.

A youthful Stalin attended the Russian Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis, Georgia with the intent of becoming a priest. 

Activist, Nata Peradze threw blue paint on the icon on Jan. 9. 

This action generated a reaction in which members of the far-right “Alt Info” party to surround Ms. Peradze’s house but luckily local Police quickly arrived.

Ms. Peradze is not alone in her opinion regarding the icon. Gocha Barnov, a theologian, told TV channel Mtavari Arkhi that the icon’s presence in the cathedral was ‘blasphemous’ and that it should be removed immediately.    Davit Tarkan-Mouravi, the leader of the far-right, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia announced that he had donated the icon to the Church.

Stalin became an avowed atheist and that the meeting memorialized in the Icon — which is mean to honor Saint Matrona — is apocryphal at best.

However, let truth not stand in the way of a good story.

Saint Matrona was a contemporary of the dictator, though, being born a few years after and dying one year before in 1952. Like Stalin, she lived in Moscow but as a Christian and many miracles are attributed her.

One reason that Ms. Peradze threw the paint on the icon  is her family’s history which she blames on Stalin.

“It’s my pain,” Ms. Peradze told Al Jazeera. “We have no [discussions] about what happened and no memorials for the people who went through hell because of this guy. There were priests on my father’s side and on my mother’s there were dissidents. Some were deported to Siberia and some were lost and we never knew what happened to them.” 

There has been a resurgence in Stalin’s popularity in Georgia, with at least 11 new statues of him appearing since the governing Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012.

Perhaps we should remember Stalin as a complicated individual who…how should we finish this sentence?

Saint Matrona And Stalin
The Saint And Stalin