In Congress, an inverse relationship exists between the numbers of border crossers and a discussion about how millions of new migrants will be cared for. The greater the numbers, the less is said about open borders and the resultant negative long-term population consequences.
A report from the border indicates that immigration agents stopped about 7,100 worldwide migrants each day during a recent week. Department of Homeland Security officials predict that fiscal 2022 migration totals will surpass last year’s 2 million, plus an estimated 1,000-a-day “gotaways.” Once Title 42 is eliminated, the illegal alien surge will intensify because agents won’t be allowed to return migrants to Mexico based on COVID-19 grounds.
President Biden and those who advise him have privately agreed – they wouldn’t dare make a public announcement – that open borders are okay with them. In this era of shortages in oil and affordable housing and of supply chain disruptions causing product shortages everywhere, what will happen next to the migrants and to the U.S. environment after they settle? Limits to population growth exist, but are a taboo subject in Congress. Remember also that immigrants have multiplier factors like chain migration and increasing family size or starting new family unitsthat must eventually be provided for.
Consider the most fundamental natural resource need that everyone requires: water, and the nationwide dire shortage of it. The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has created the U.S. Drought Monitor that maps nationwide drought conditions and maintains historical drought records. Ranked according to drought severity, the top seven states include four that are primary migrant destinations: Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas.
As of March, 90 percent of Texas is experiencing drought conditions with High Plains residents suffering from extreme drought. Forecasters warn that drought conditions could worsen, and some predict the possibility of unprecedented 10-year megadroughts that will bring hotter, drier and more extreme weather than normally seen. The University of Texas and its Environmental Institute analyzed the state’s water crisis and the probability of it expanding. Identified as one of the major contributors to water shortage was population growth. Texas’ population is expected to increase from today’s 29.5 million people to 51 million by 2070, with the majority residing in urban areas. Inarguably, the more people added to Texas’ population, the more difficult it becomes to overcome water shortage challenges.
The expected Texas population increase of 21 million people in less than 50 years is part of the U.S. total population growth of 70 million, to 404 million, during the same half decade. All will be daily consumers of water in multiple ways.
Those calling for increased immigration forget that growth is finite. Sir David Attenborough, the natural history filmmaker and biologist who advocated halving immigration into the United Kingdom to preserve as much of the landscape as possible once said, “I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.” Attenborough could have mentioned that water supply is an impossible-to-solve problem for any area when there are no limits to population growth.
It is desirable to convey a sense of what happens during the weekly A.V.A. Zoom-calls by providing a “patter” of the (alphabetized) initiatives of each state (embellished by cites from the Internet); they have been grouped but, otherwise, the titles are self-explanatory.
A few weeks ago, I provided the Opening Prayer for an A.V.A. call in which I concluded Mastriano’s lawn-sign theme [advocating action by a community exercising freedom, quoting John 8:36] was captured in a book published in 1956 by Abba Hillel Silver [Where Judaism Differed]. Another quote therefrom channels how the following hyperlinks were chosen, to wit, that they all encompass action-items based upon pondering facts:
In Judaism, the life of contemplation or of study was of significance only insofar as it led to action. {Multiple quotes from sages reinforce this view.} Judah Halevi warns men not to be beguiled by a species of Greek wisdom “that produces flowers but no fruit.” {Silver condemns Greeks for failing to apply their views of the ethical human into seeking social progress.}
Not surprisingly, doings in three states (Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin) dominate, but their activities are often apparent in what’s being pursued elsewhere (even in “red states” that would, at first blush, seem not to be priorities). I suppress my reactions to some of these observations because, often, the media haven’t extracted defensive quotations from Republicans who are blocking progress. Thus, “don’t kill the messenger” when an article is irksome, for it will often serve as a placeholder for what may soon transpire. Tireless heroes (Fincham, Favorito, Gableman in the three states supra, for example) are helping those working in multiple states (to be summarized soon, such as True the Vote); knowing of their works yields ANGER at those who would acquiesce to “let’s move on” postures of too many politicians (particularly statewide Pennsylvania candidates).
ALABAMAGovernor Kay Ivey’s Campaign Ad focuses on protect the election process from being stolen like Trump’s election was stolen in 2020. {This is a popular position.}
Sarah Palin took the lead in a crowded field of 50 other Congressional candidates in ALASKA’s special primary election on June 11; the top four candidates will advance to another special election slated for August 16. Ranked choice voting will be used to decide the winner, in line with a 2020 voter-approved new elections system. {The A.V.A. consensus was that this is only desirable for primaries, recalling Lani Guinier’s book.}
Events in ARIZONA are national trendsetters and, here, lengthy citations are intended to illustrate granular detail that other states may wish to emulate (legislative and judicial).}
Attorney General Mark Brnovich will be making arrests based on his Maricopa County 2020 Election Interim Report, for he already referred Criminal Action Against AZ Secretary of State Katie Hobbs For Election Crimes and floated possible future prosecutions because “There are problematic system-wide issues that relate to early ballot handling and verification.” Recalling the months-long time-delay after the audit and the Senate made referrals to the AG’s office, Tim Griffin opined, “It seems like he is hedging for his U.S. Senate Run. He talks tough, but there isn’t any action at this time.” [Appended are Brnovich’s cover-letter to Senate President Karen Fann (confirming total inaction) plus a 30-page “best practice” report c/o the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission detailing guidelines on establishing proper chain-of-custody that he cited; the latter carries import that should ripple nationally, even in the absence of dropboxes and their inherent faults.]
A.G. Report
Recommendations: Minimize mail-in ballots which are prone to fraud in line with the Carter-Baker Commission; early ballot signature verification should be strengthened, he cites a sample of 100 signature matches from a 2020 election challenged. Experts believed between 6% and 11% of the ballot signatures were inconclusive for matching. He found that the matching was rushed by poorly trained workers.
Signature Verification. Maricopa signature verification is insufficient to guard against abuse.
Chain of Custody. In the 2020 election, localities were supposed to deal with dropbox ballots in the following manner:
o Have two transporters present — one from each party;
o They were to document the location, date/time of arrival, time of departure, number of ballots, and to secure the container of ballots.
o 901,976 ballots were collected from drop boxes. 729k+ were collected during early voting, 172k+ were collected from drop boxes at polling locations.
o Early Voting Ballot Transportation Statements. Out of 1,895 Early Voting Ballot Transportation Statements — 381 forms or 20% were missing required info — signatures, missing receiver signatures, missing security seal numbers, missing documentation of courier signatures. “In other words, it is possible that between 100,000 and 200,000 ballots were transported without a proper chain of custody.”
Maricopa County battled the AG’s office and blocked the investigation.
Nonprofits. He suggests a law that criminalizes members of a nonprofit organization allowing members to engage in ballot harvesting. He also references the just released auditor general’s report on private money; he indicates that the investigation is ongoing but that Arizona law may have been broken in the acceptance and expenditure of this money.
Tim Griffin noted the legislature may stay in session until April 23 and could pass HB 2780; “this bill is sponsored by Rep. John Kavanaugh and co-sponsors include our friend Rep. Mark Finchem.” It passed the full state House and the Senate Elections Committee, but it may be awaiting a vote in the Senate Rules Committee; it’s alive, per AZ Central.
This a simple and relatively uncontroversial bill stating that the recorder (election’s clerk) must publish: [1]—before every election, the names of all registered active & inactive voters; [2]—after every election but before the canvass/certification, the names of those who voted (and their method of voting) with ballot images, and a cast-vote record (confirming batch totals). [https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/HB2780/id/2507582]
[text] Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 16, chapter 4, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 16-407.04, to read:
1. THE COUNTY RECORDER SHALL PUBLISH TEN DAYS BEFORE THE PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION A LIST OF ALL VOTERS WHO ARE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN THE ELECTION, INCLUDING PERSONS WHO ARE ON THE INACTIVE VOTER LIST. THE COUNTY RECORDER
2. SHALL POST THIS INFORMATION ON THE COUNTY RECORDER’S WEBSITE AND SHALL REDACT THE VOTER’S DATE OF BIRTH, DRIVER LICENSE NUMBER, NONOPERATING IDENTIFICATION LICENSE NUMBER AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR PORTION OF THAT NUMBER, AS APPLICABLE, BEFORE PUBLISHING OR POSTING THE LIST.
2. AFTER THE PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION AND FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE COUNTY CANVASS, THE COUNTY RECORDER OR OTHER OFFICER IN CHARGE OF ELECTIONS SHALL PUBLISH AND POST IN DIGITAL FORMAT ON THE COUNTY’S WEBSITE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:
(a) A LIST OF ALL PERSONS WHO VOTED AND THEIR METHOD OF VOTING.
(b) ALL BALLOT IMAGES WITH THE UNIQUE IDENTIFYING NUMBER FROM THE BALLOT.
(c) THE CAST VOTE RECORD IN A SORTABLE FORMAT.
3. EARLY AND PROVISIONAL BALLOT TABULATORS SHALL IMPRINT A UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER ON EACH EARLY BALLOT TABULATED SO AS TO ALLOW THE BALLOT IMAGE TO BE LINKED TO THE PHYSICAL BALLOT. EARLY AND PROVISIONAL BALLOTS SHALL BE SEPARATED BY PRECINCT, TABULATED AND STORED BY PRECINCT.� ELECTION DAY BALLOTS ALSO SHALL BE STORED BY PRECINCT AFTER TABULATION.
4. THE OFFICER IN CHARGE OF ELECTIONS SHALL ENSURE THAT PAPER BALLOTS ARE SORTED AND STORED IN A MANNER THAT ALLOWS FOR CONVENIENT RETRIEVAL.
Republican Governor Kemp and Lt. Governor Duncan killed a key Election Integrity Bill to Unseal Ballots [HB1464], which would have made ballots public records and improved chain of custody procedures; also, it included a controversial limit on poll watchers, per VoterGA, that Republican Gunter refused to allow Favorito to discuss. It became the last bill to pass in the House and it moved through the Senate Ethics Committee before reaching the floor for a last-ditch effort to pass much needed election reforms. In the future, the Wolf Alert System c/o the Constitution Party of Georgia will provide updates.
The departingFulton County (Georgia’s largest jurisdiction) election director (Richard Barron) blasted lawmakers for playing “Old South” politics, getting out-of-town after a Georgia judge ordered Fulton County to “Provide an additional layer of security” for 2020 election records in the Senator Perdue case; he found the scrutiny from running the nation’s sloppiest local election since Broward County Florida’s hanging chads in 2000 to have become too stressful, for he said that the $160,000 salary + benefits wasn’t worth the hassle anymore. [Barron also complained that his staffer, Ruby Freeman, was “visited at home multiple times” because she pulled a suitcase of ballots from under a counting table and counted ballots multiple times.] Under Georgia’s 2021 Elections Law, the state now has increased oversight over such rogue localities and, at the recommendation of the state legislature, the State Election Board appointed a bipartisan performance review panel to investigate whether Baron’s office broke the law in 2020; Barron believes this competence oversight law is adversarial between the state and localities.
In TEXAS, there was an election failure in Dallas, when the locality ran into problems with Republican mail-in ballots; on the other hand, the new Texas law allowed for increased poll watcher access, with few reported problems. Incidence of rejection of mail-in ballots was 2-8% before 2020, under 1% in 2020, and 10% in 2022. Thus, election bureaucrats there and across the country cite such problems to argue their offices are underfunded and need distribution of new federal funds that they can spend indiscriminately.
In SOUTH DAKOTA, rejection of dropboxes was forced by invoking “Bonds For the Win”; All elected public officials are required to be bonded and they must sign an oath to uphold the Constitution of their State as well as the Constitution of the United States for America. Companies, contractors, and even unions are also required to have a surety bond. We the People – The community for whom the bondholder is OBLIGATED to serve. This info was provided by Patricia Tatem [ptatem416@hotmail.com].
Overview Of Election Fraud FindingsOverview Of Election Fraud FindingsOverview Of Election Fraud FindingsOverview Of Election Fraud FindingsOverview Of Election Fraud FindingsOverview Of Election Fraud Findings
Brian Sims, the only openly gay candidate for lieutenant governor was involved in a recent kerfuffle. His campaign posted an ad that ended with the phrase “ENDORSED JOSH SHAPIRO”, which meant to say that Josh Shapiro, the only Democrat running for governor, had endorsed him. The only problem was that, that earlier this year, the state representative that Josh Shapiro had endorsed was Austin Davis of Allegheny County, who hopes to become the first African American elected to the Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor’s office.
In March, Brian Sims lost the support of both the state Democratic leaders and some parts of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transexual) Community.
One possible reason for the state Democrats to endorse a Shapiro-Davis ticket is geographical balance. Shapiro is from Montgomery County and Davis is from Allegheny County. Another possible reason is that David might help with the African American vote, which the Dems heavily depend on.
Of course, it should be noted that neither major party would endorse a candidate who exhibits too much independent thinking.
In a March 3 press conference, more than 40 LGBTQ leaders threw their lot in with Austin Davis.
Among the charges against Brian Sims is his failure to have any legislation passed after a decade in office. He is also alleged to have an abrasive personality –along with many, if not most, of his fellow legislators. Those are the only charges filed against him that could be found.
It should be noted that by necessity there is a great deal pragmatism at work in the LGBTQ Community, as there is in any marginalized community. “The LGBTQ community is not a monolith,” said LGBTQ Victory Fund spokesperson Elliott Imse. The LGBTQ community decided to endorse Davis over Sims.
Why is Josh Shapiro the only Dem Candidate, while the GOP has 10? That’s for another column.
The hour is late to save America from the White House-sanctioned, sovereignty-busting illegal immigrant invasion. To draw a baseball parallel, patriotic citizens are in the bottom of the eighth inning, getting a 6-0 shellacking from the America-last Biden administration. Still, citizens have two at bats – six outs – remaining, time enough to battle back and overcome, assuming their rally starts immediately.
Some observers wonder how things at the border went so wrong, so fast. The explanation is simple: Cheating and lying from Biden, Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Vice President Kamala Harris and the administration’s inner circle of unelected cronies – U.S. Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, Obama Foundation interim president Valerie Jarrett and Michelle and Barack Obama, who have managed to amass $70 million in wealth since their days in the White House. They threw spit balls and stole signs, and no one holds them accountable.
Biden’s cheating at a criminal, unconstitutional level is indisputable. For his presidency’s entirety, Biden has knowingly, willingly and flagrantly broken numerous immigration laws. The president has defied the entire Immigration and Nationality Act, legislation that defines who can immigrate to the U.S., spells out the procedure for applying for a visa and from where the applications must be submitted, and specifies the rules that new immigrants are legally obligated to follow. These have been dismissed without conferring with Congress. King Biden rules by decree. Shamelessly, even when the courts rule against him, Biden’s brazen rejection of immigration law enforcement proceeds unabated.
In early March, the U.S. District Court of North Texas enjoined the Biden administration’s policy of excepting unaccompanied alien minors from Title 42, and it largely denied the administration’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit that Texas and Attorney General Ken Paxton filed. The court’s final order found that the Biden administration’s actions are: “arbitrary, capricious … or otherwise not in accordance with law.” Biden ignored the court’s injunction. Instead, the administration continued to resettle significant numbers of UACs into the U.S. – 122,000 unaccompanied migrant children were put in shelters in 2021 – which has led to the largest wave of criminal child smuggling in human history. The flood of resettled illegal alien teens and minors will drain public school resources, overcrowd hospitals and provide a pipeline for Northern Triangle gangs like MS-13.
In another announcement that will, like increased public education and health care costs, add to taxpayers’ burdens, Biden’s DHS Secretary Mayorkas proposed a new rule that would allow migrants to use public welfare benefits like SNAP, CHIP and Medicaid while their Green Card applications are under review. Mayorkas’ proposal violates the public charge principal which states that newly arrived immigrants must be self-sufficient and not dependent on taxpayer subsidies.
Biden isn’t the least bit hesitant to publicly lie about his immigration agenda. In his State of the Union address, with 38 million television viewerstuned in, Biden said: “We need to secure our border, and fix the immigration system” – the chaotic “system” he and Mayorkas created. Since Biden’s January SOU speech, the border crisis has intensified, and will get worse in late May once Title 42 ends.
A healthy part of the blame for the border mess lies with voters who always get the government they vote for. Biden’s campaign commitmentsincluded halting illegal immigrant deportations for 100 days, ending the border wall construction and granting amnesty to unlawfully present aliens. Biden chose as his running mate Calif. Sen. Kamala Harris, whose Senate voting record was among the most liberal.
Before elected to the Senate, and speaking as California’s Attorney General, Harris said “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” Since her appointment as faux border czar, Harris has shown that she, like her boss, can lie, too. Said Harris: “While we are clear that people should not come to the border now, we also understand that we will enforce the law and that we also – because we can chew gum and walk at the same time – must address root causes…” Identifying migration’s root causes, Harris concluded, will end illegal immigration. But migration’s root causes turned out to be the unprecedented, uninterrupted immigration lawbreaking of Biden and Harris.
What happens between now and the November 2022 mid-term election, a date that might mark a turning point for enforcement, depends once again on voters. Democrats have at least four vulnerable open borders incumbents on the ballot in Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and New Mexico, more than enough seats to flip the 50-50 deadlocked Upper Chamber, an important step in stabilizing the border invasion. At this historic low point in border enforcement, stabilization would represent a triumph.
More Alternatives For Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor
By Bob Small
Returning to Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor’s race, there are two very distinct GOP female candidates, as per Politics1.com: Carrie Lewis Delrosso and Clarice Schillinger (see previous post)
State Rep. Carrie Lewis DelRosso (R-Oakmont) defeated long-time House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, who had served as a state representative for almost three decades. She is a self-described pro-lifer and second-amendment advocate. She also supports affordable health care, fewer regulations, and time limits for the Pennsylvania legislature, and opposes higher state taxes.
Ms. DelRosso sees expected Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, as “an extension of the disastrous Wolf administration, pandering to liberal interest groups and further wrecking an already wounded state economy.” She runs Carrie Lewis Delrosso LLC, a company that does business consulting, marketing, and public relations. She describes herself as “a working mother of three”.
Meanwhile, Brian Sims, the first openly gay state representative (182nd) is running to become the first openly gay lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. He is a civil-rights lawyer who has served as the president of the Board of Directors of Equality Pennsylvania and as chairman of Gallop (Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia).
As a college football player and team captain, he helped lead Bloomsberg University to the 2000 Division 2 National Championship Game. He later came out as gay to the team.
This would provide at least one person in the State House who would be affected by pending legislation on the issue of gay rights.
Russ Diamond is one of the few state-wide candidates that I have actually met, which occurred when I was advocating for the The Political Party Equality Act in the 2000s.
Diamond not only met with us but also spoke at one of our rallies.
He received a Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause of Pennsylvania, among many awards. He is an author, musician and private pilot. He and his wife Beth, live in his family home in Annville., built by his great-grandparents.
Though his positions and mine don’t always align, I think he deserves respect for his experience and accomplishments. How about an openly conservative lieutenant governor?
More Alternatives For Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor
In 1866, Lipman Pike became the first great professional Jewish baseball player when he signed a $20-a-week contract to hold down the hot corner for the Philadelphia Athletics. Lip, as Pike was known, was a dominant power hitter who, in his 425 National Association and National League games between 1871 and 1881, hit .322 with a slugging average of .468. Accounts of those early games noted that Pike hit numerous home runs that soared beyond outfielders’ reach. When the popular Pike passed away prematurely at age 48, The Sporting News, baseball’s Bible, published a tribute that include these glowing comments: “Pike…was one of the few sons of Israel who ever drifted to the business of ball playing. He was a handsome fellow when he was here, and the way he used to hit that ball was responsible for many a scene of enthusiasm at the old avenue grounds.”
Since Pike, many more Jewish superstars have excelled on the diamond. Most famous among them is Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers’ Hall of Fame lefty who was the first pitcher to win three Cy Young Awards, and the only pitcher to capture the award when it was given to just one major leaguer. Koufax won pitching’s Triple Crown – wins, strike outs and ERA, in 1963, 1965 and 1966, and hurled four no-hitters, one of them a perfect game.
Hank Greenberg is another Jewish baseball standout, and a World War II hero. Greenberg’s power statistics are on a par with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx. After enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Greenberg rose to First Lieutenant, and was active in the China-Burma-India Theater. Al Rosen, a four-year World War II Navy vet and Cleveland Indians third baseman, is the only player to win both the Most Valuable Player, and the MLB Executive of the Year awards. Rosen, a successful amateur boxer with a vicious right upper cut who described himself as “one tough Jew,” unanimously won his MVP in 1953, and for his front office efforts that guided the San Francisco Giants’ from first to last place in 1987, he was elected Executive of the Year.
In baseball circles, Koufax, Greenberg and Rosen are well-known. But the compelling 1923 tale about Mose Solomon, the “Rabbi of Swat,” blends the long-gone Class C low minor Southwestern League’s Hutchinson Wheat Shockers with early 1900s Jewish immigration to New York, the World Champion Giants, its manager John J. McGraw and his desperate but ultimately futile search for a slugger who could match Babe Ruth’s home run power, thereby siphoning off Ruth-crazed bugs from the hated Yankees.
In his book, “The League of Outsider Baseball,” Gary Cieradkowski wrote that when word reached McGraw that by September 1923 Solomon had blasted a then-professional record 49 homers, was hitting .421, leading the league in doubles, hits and runs scored, the Giants manager was convinced that the “Jewish Babe Ruth” would spearhead the Jints to financial success. Within the blink of an eye, the Giants paid the Wheat Shockers $4,500 for Solomon’s contract, and soon thereafter “The Rabbi of Swat” was riding the rail toward New York. But McGraw soon realized he had no place in the lineup for Kansas’ home run phenom. The Giants’ first base position and its outfield were populated by future HOFers George “High Pockets” Kelly, Casey Stengel, Ross Youngs and Hack Wilson. While Solomon rode the pine, the very vocal cranks demanded that the Jewish Babe Ruth be put into a game.
McGraw gave in, and on the season’s last home tilt Solomon hit a game-winning double against the Philadelphia Phillies. Solomon got into one more game in 1923, and ended his season – and his major league career – with three hits in eight at bats, a .375 batting average. The Rabbi’s problem was, as scouts said, “He could poke’em, but he couldn’t pick’em,” a reference to Solomon’s 31 errors in 108 games in Kansas. Solomon was promptly dispatched back to the minors where he resumed his lusty batting prowess – seven seasons of .300 or higher.
When Mose realized his baseball days were behind him, he took up semi-pro football, and played effectively until injuries sidelined him for good – a lucky break for the Rabbi as things turned out. Solomon and his wife moved to Miami where he started a long, lucrative real estate business until his peaceful 1965 death.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and an Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
When the subject is California and the state’s extreme politics, nothing ever surprises. But even long-time California skeptics admit that Senate Bill 960 (SB 960) raises eyebrows for its audacity and disregard for public safety.
Introduced by State Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat who represents District 9 and its radical cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond, the bill proposes to allow non-U.S. citizens to become California law enforcement officers. Skinner’s bill removes the condition that an individual must be a citizen or a lawful United States permanent resident to become a police officer, a step too far in many Californians’ opinion. Since Skinner’s legislation doesn’t specifically ban illegal immigrants from the non-U.S. citizen category, the conclusion that many have reached is that SB 960 would allow illegally present aliens to wear the badge. The bill originally passed committee 4-1, has been read twice, and will soon get a third and final reading before it can proceed to the floor for debate.
SB 960 has sparked controversy, and the first to speak out is Skinner herself. At a March 22 Senate Public Safety Committee hearing, Skinner insisted that her bill “only allows those who are living here legally and have the legal ability to work here – through a visa, a Green Card – to become peace officers.” She added, “I just want to be clear on that.” Despite Skinner’s insistence, SB 960 is at best murky on the permissibility of illegal immigrants becoming law enforcement officers.
To give Skinner the possible benefit of doubt, SB 960 may be the consequence of her district’s inability to retain police officers. The Mercury News reported that Oakland is the state’s “most watched police department with both a federal monitor and strong civilian oversight.” As a result of the intense oversight, officers are leaving the Oakland PD in unprecedented numbers, from an average of about four per month late last year to 10 or 15 a month since then.
Despite federal and municipal oversight, in 2021 OPD investigated 134 homicides, the most since 2012, and the city endured a 21 percent increase in shootings. Crime rates in Berkeley and Richmond are equally terrible. In Berkeley, a crime occurs on average once every 70 minutes; in Richmond, once every 158 minutes. Berkeley isn’t the only challenged city in the state. The Los Angeles Police Department has 296 vacant officer positions and almost 500 fewer on-duty officers than it did this time last year, according to LAPD reports.
Whatever the solution is to the Bay Area and sanctuary state California’s rising crime rates and its dwindling number of police officers on the payroll, rewarding illegal aliens with the vital job of enforcing the law isn’t the answer. One of the existing provisions to qualify as a California police officer is that the candidate complete a background check that confirms his or her good moral character. Since little information can be confirmed about an illegal immigrant’s life prior to voluntarily and illegally coming to the U.S., no meaningful background check can be performed. Known for certain, however, is that entering the U.S. without inspection violates U.S. immigration law which furthermore means that the prospective police candidate’s first action was criminal.
Blue states like New York, Illinois, Oregon, Washington and California have pushed to promote illegal immigrants to the same level as legal immigrants, a grave injustice to the foreign-born who followed the proper procedures to attain lawful permanent resident status. Opening up good, albeit dangerous, jobs like police officer to illegal aliens is a disservice all the way around – to citizens who want protection provided by the most qualified and best trained, to citizens seeking high-paying jobs with affirmative benefits, and to the U.S. homeland which is always imperiled.
Specifically, border agents have encountered 838,685 illegal aliens since October 1, fiscal year 2022’s beginning, to February; Biden has released 37.9 percent, or 318,700. Add to 838,685, hundreds of thousands more migrant gotaways not included in the official total.
Assuming the pace at which agents apprehend or encounter illegals keeps up – 167,737 per month pre-Title 42 removal – the alien encounter total by fiscal year end September 30 will exceed 2 million. And if Biden releases aliens at the same rate, another unsupervised 760,000 illegals will be at large. Skinner’s ill-conceived idea to give law enforcement jobs to noncitizens, a category that may include illegal aliens, is foolish and dangerous.
The Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus, a cheap labor lobby with a fancy-sounding name, has set as its goal more immigration under the guise of helping employers find the workers they claim are in short supply.
The alliance’s letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell starts with the dramatic statement that “at no other point in recent history has the need for immigration reform been greater than it is today. Simply put, the system is broken.”
The GWB Institute has an aggressive pro-immigration agenda that includes, reminiscent of 43’s White House days, promoting amnesty, accepting more refugees and asylees, and citizenship for deferred action for childhood arrivals, aka DREAMers.
For the Bush boys, George and Jeb!, the apple doesn’t fall far from their father’s tree. Bush #43 pushed for amnesty throughout his eight White House years. The dismal 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb! centered on expanded immigration – a Wall Street Journal story quoted Bush’s critics and called him “an apostle for amnesty.” Father of GWB and Jeb, George H.W. Bush, #41, signed the Immigration Act of 1990, disastrous legislation that paved the way over three-plus decades for millions of imported workers that displaced American workers. George and his wife Laura are, even during this unprecedented period of an ongoing border invasion, unbending immigration promoters who, along with the powerful, deep-pocketed Chamber of Commerce, ceaselessly demand more.
In March, Laura and GWB invited four deferred action for childhood arrival recipients, an immigration lawyer and the American Nursery & Landscape Association legislative chair to the George W. Bush Presidential Center where the former president doubled down on the broken immigration system meme. To be sure, the immigration system is broken, but for reasons never mentioned by Bush or other supporters of higher immigration levels. For decades, congressionally approved, presidentially signed immigration laws have been blatantly trampled on while Congress ignores and often rewards the violators.
When Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas lift Title 42 at the end of May, officials expect 18,000 daily illegal immigrant encounters, an approximate 500,000 monthly total that should, but doesn’t, satisfy the most ardent immigration advocates. Not surprisingly, the half a million per month illegal immigrants that take up U.S. residency will represent the largest contributor to the nation’s future population growth. They will compete with Americans for jobs, medical care and classroom seats, and will help exacerbate the affordable housing shortage, an issue of grave concern in border states like California, Arizona and New Mexico. California’s median home price is projected to rise 5.5 percent in 2022 to hit $834,000. Exorbitant housing costs represent an insurmountable problem for newly arrived aliens who need shelter.
The Journal of Housing Economics researched immigration’s effect on housing costs, and concluded that an increase in the number of immigrants equal to 1 percent of a metropolitan statistical area’s total population was linked with a 0.8 percent increase in rents and a 0.8 percent increase in home prices. The same immigrant increase created a 1.6 percent rise in rents and a 9.6 percent rise in home prices in surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines a metropolitan statistical area as an urbanized area with a minimum 50,000 population.
Indisputable evidence – eliminating Title 42 as an illegal immigration deterrent – proves positively that more immigration is coming, although the final number, whatever that total may end up being, will never satisfy the Bushes, the Chamber of Commerce or the Biden administration. The donor class and elitists will score a big win. To Biden and his inner circle’s obvious satisfaction, unprecedented mass immigration devastates mainstream America.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Since his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden has embarked on a nonstop journey to dismantle existing immigration laws, at first through Executive Orders, and more recently word of mouth. Biden’s criminal disregard for congressionally approved, presidentially signed immigration laws led to a 2 million-strong illegal alien invasion at the Southwest Border last year, plus 500,000 “gotaways” that eluded border patrol agents, and the numbers tick up daily.
On April 1, the CDC announced that it will end the Title 42 regulation on May 23. Title 42 allowed border patrol agents the wherewithal to expel, on the basis of COVID-19, some migrants who wanted to enter the U.S. and claim asylum. But at the same time, the agents processed family units and other so-called vulnerable migrants who were eventually bussed or flown to the U.S. interior.
The immigration crisis of the year past will soon look like a Sunday morning walk in the park. All hell is about to break out on the border. Immediately after the news broke about Title 42 and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ confirmation that the restriction would be lifted, Internet images of global migrants lined up to get past Mexican police, and proceed to the U.S. border, appeared on various sites.
Mayorkas, Biden’s co-conspirator in the dismantling of America, immediately began with double talk. Once the order is lifted, Mayorkas said that individuals will be processed under standard procedure. In a prepared statement, Mayorkas said that smugglers will spread misinformation about U.S. admission to take advantage of vulnerable migrants. But Mayorkas concluded with: “Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
Sounds tough, but no one believes him. Mayorkas’ statement about removal directly conflicts with his earlier pronouncement that simply being illegally present doesn’t qualify an alien for deportation. In other words, current or future migrants have no concerns about being returned to their home countries. If they wish to stay, they’ll stay. Like his boss Biden, Mayorkas is a great one for making up new faux immigration laws as he goes along, but acting on them as if they are congressionally approved. Existing immigration law is crystal clear: those unlawfully present are deportable.
Despite pleas from his fellow Democrats to retain Title 42, Biden shows no sign of backing away from his open border tolerance. At least two Texas Democrats have asked Biden to delay ending the policy until Southern Border apprehensions and encounters slow. U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, and Vicente Gonzales, a McAllen Democrat, joined several of their Republican colleagues earlier this week in a letter to Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. In part, their letter read: “… small border communities lack the appropriate housing, transportation, and healthcare infrastructure to manage the ongoing release of migrant populations into their jurisdictions.”
Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema, Mark Kelly and Joe Manchin implored Biden to enforce Title 42, but to no avail. Sinema and Kelly urged Biden to formulate an as-yet-undrafted replacement plan for Title 42. Manchin called Biden’s move “a frightening decision” that will lead to record-breaking illegal immigration during the current fiscal year.
Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels, National Sheriffs Association Border Security Committee chair, stated the obvious when he said that Biden has forsaken border law enforcement, that his Cochise County is “already beyond a crisis” and that border-related crime has cost local taxpayers more than $1 million. Under Biden, Dannels said that he’s seen the “erosion of infrastructure and the rule of law.” Checkpoints have been shuttered, and a Border Patrol station is down to a skeleton crew. In summary, Dannels, a 37-year law enforcement veteran, said what many Americans, whether they live on the border or in the interior, have already concluded: “We have been abandoned; let’s just say that.”
Veteran observers of D.C. politics can’t quite figure out Biden and his immigration policy. Mid-term elections are seven months away, Biden’s favorability polling among likely voters is in the tank; 53 percentdisapprove, and his immigration handling stands even lower at 59 percent disapproval. As unlikely as it may seem, the staunch America-last Democrats and Biden’s inner circle of globalists are content to lose their jobs, and take their party down with them, over an open border immigration policy that no one wants and harms everybody – first and foremost, blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Opening Day 1939 Or When Athletes Really Were Heroes
By Joe Guzzardi
To diehard baseball fans’ delight, but to traditionalists’ chagrin, Opening Day is here. But MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the players union have agreed to so many preposterous rule changes that fans might have trouble recognizing the game they once revered as the national pastime.
The designated hitter, an American League abomination since 1973, will now be utilized in National League; the ghost runner, so-called even though he’s clearly visible to all, will begin the 10th inning on second base; post-season playoffs will be expanded to include 12 teams instead of 10, with the top two seeds getting a first-round bye, and, most laughable, special rules have been approved for individual players, the Shohei Ohtani rule.Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants 2014 World Series Most Valuable Player now pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, best summed up the latest baseball nonsense. Said Bumgarner: “I don’t know, I’m sure we’ll have a different rule in three months, maybe the next year after that. We’ll just make it up as we go. We’ll see whatever they like, the flavor of the week.… Maybe we’ll start playing with a wiffle ball or something.”
None of the 2022 changes are surprising. The players, despite their average $4.5 million annual salaries, want to get off the field and to their awaiting post-game buffets ASAP. Expanded playoffs mean more money for the players and owners, and the Ohtani rule helps keeps baseball’s biggest draw on the field longer.
Pity the beleaguered Cleveland cranks who must put up with MLB nonsense and their team’s woke new nickname, the Guardians. The Indians are gone, and their 100-plus year history down the memory hole where they’ll co-exist with their old mascot, Chief Wahoo. Indian fans can take comfort, however, in their rich past. Fire-balling 21-year-old Bob Feller, a World War II hero, started seven Opening Days, and in the 1940 game, he pitched a no-hitter. On the road in Chicago and at the White Sox Comiskey Park, Feller, in 40-degree weather, fired a 1-0 no hitter, the first of three in his career, along with 12 one-hitters.
More to the point about the former Indians, now Guardians, in 1939, Feller got the nod to open the season, this time at home in Cleveland Stadium against the Detroit Tigers. The Cleveland weather was so frigid that only about 24,000 fans showed up in a ball park that accommodated 80,000 to watch Feller dominate the Tigers 5-1, and shut down future Hall of Famers Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg, although the pair did draw their team’s only two walks. In his compete game win, Feller struck out 10, and allowed three hits.
Those fans that braved the cold got a special treat. Judy Garland, only 16 but already an MGM contract player, sang the National Anthem. Garland had completed filming on The Wizard of Oz; the movie was in the can as they say in Hollywood, but had not been released. In Cleveland for a two-week performance at the old State Theater, Garland got her manager’s permission to attend the senior prom at the University School, a local prep school. Since young Judy’s schedule didn’t allow much time for socializing, her manager okayed the prom.
On game day, despite the bitter, wet weather, Garland willingly posed for photos with Indians’ manager Oscar Vit and the Tigers’ pilot Del Baker. And – get this – she also posed in a magnificent full-feathered Indian headdress.
Although both superstars in their respective professions, the lives of Feller and Garland took different directions. From an early age, relentless overwork that studio bosses forced upon her, despite her tender age, eventually led to Garland’s drug and alcohol abuse. Garland had financial trouble with the Internal Revenue Service for nonpayment of back taxes, and eventually died in London from a drug overdose at age 47.
Feller, a teen standout like Garland, was so popular at such a young age that NBC broadcast his high school graduation to a national audience. “Rapid Robert,” as Feller was called, went on to a Hall of Fame career, and served as a U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer during World War II where he earned six campaign ribbons and eight battle stars. Ironically, because he was attending to his cancer-stricken, dying father, the patriotic Feller had a military deferment, but nevertheless enlisted only days after Pearl Harbor.
After Feller’s death at age 91, Mike Hegan, then-Indians’ broadcaster and son of former Feller battery mate Jim Hegan, said that the Indians of the 40s and 50s were the face of Cleveland, and Bob was the face of the Indians. Hegan continued: “But, Bob transcended more than that era. In this day of free agency and switching teams, Bob Feller remained loyal to the city and the team for over 70 years. You will likely not see that kind of mutual loyalty and admiration ever again.”
The Guardians’ woke ownership, the meddling, menacing Manfred and the selfish players union have little concept of loyalty or of honoring baseball’s rich tradition. As Bummy said, “It is what it is,” like it or lump it.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
Opening Day 1939 Or When Athletes Really Were Heroes Opening Day 1939 Or When Athletes Really Were Heroes Opening Day 1939 Or When Athletes Really Were Heroes
