Quick, Kill the Messenger!

By William L. Garvin

The “media moth” simply cannot resist “The Donald” flame.  But rather than deal with the substance of his message, it is more important to assuage bruised feelings of a hypersensitive population.  Trump, whose “tone” was far less callous than Planned Parenthood, said that there was a crime problem stemming from ILLEGAL aliens.    “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them.  They’re bringing drugs.  They’re bringing crime.  They’re rapists.  And some, I assume, are good people.”  Guess who agrees with him?  The FBI!

In its 79-page National Gang Report published in 2013, the FBI documented that gang membership in the Southwestern border regions consisted of up to 80% ILLEGAL aliens and were responsible for “…drug related crimes, weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, extortion, robbery, auto theft, assault, homicide, racketeering, and money laundering….Hispanic gangs, such as MS-13, the Eme, Surenos, and TB continue to pose a significant threat to the Southwest border region.”  If you didn’t know that in the 36,000 ILLEGAL immigrants released back onto the streets by the Obama administration there were 116 murderers, 43 convicted of negligent manslaughter and 14 convicted of voluntary manslaughter, it’s because the media and the government buried the story after making sure there was no messenger.

Meanwhile, Democrat presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley claims that “black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter” and gets booed by leftists.  That’s not surprising since Democrats booed God when He was mentioned in their platform at their convention.  Anyhow, O’Malley showed zero intestinal fortitude and actually apologized for saying “white lives matter and all lives matter.”  However, that doesn’t hold a candle to Hillary Clinton, the leading Democrat for president who said and then tweeted: “I’m not asking you to vote for me because I’m a woman.  Vote on the merits.  And I think one of the merits is, I am a woman.”  This is reminiscent of the aborted Obama campaign slogan: “Vote like your lady parts depend on it.”  In any event, the more Hillary is on the campaign trail, the lower her poll numbers fall.  She is unable to win hearts and minds and the incessant tsunami of scandals never ends.  Even the State Department Inspector General has recommended that a criminal investigation be launched.  Don’t expect anything to happen with this Department of Justice and we will probably never hear from that IG again!

Another message that has been buried is Susan Rice’s interview with Wolf Blitzer.  You remember Susan don’t you?  She’s the one who shamelessly broadcast Hillary’s canard that the Benghazi massacre was caused by a YouTube video.  On CNN in her interview with Wolf Blitzer Rice confirmed that there will be NO Americans involved in the inspections of the Iranian nuclear facilities.  Only countries that have “full diplomatic relations” with Iran will be on the IAEA inspection teams.  “There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA,” said Rice.  “The IAEA will do the inspections on behalf of the United States and the rest of the international community.”  Israel and the USA can rest assured that this administration doesn’t negotiate with terrorists; instead it capitulates to terrorists!

Also remember that the filmmaker who made the Hillary Benghazi scapegoat video was promptly jailed by the Obama administration.  Dinesh D’Souza also made a film critical of President Obama and was promptly prosecuted and jailed for a rather pedestrian campaign violation.  The administration has failed to cooperate with investigations about the IRS harassment and persecution of conservative organizations prior to the last election.  Now that videos have surfaced showing Planned Parenthood bargaining over butchered baby parts like an unsavory used car salesman, the maker of the videos (Center for Medical Progress) is going to be investigated by Democrat senatorial hopeful and California Attorney General Kamala Harris.  Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney General says she will also be looking into it.  Isn’t it pathetic that PP is so interested in saving and selling body parts of aborted babies but is not interested in saving the lives of those babies?  Anyone who believes that the recorded negotiations were just about the costs associated with storing and transporting the “parts” should not be allowed out without a guardian.

Leftists love to complain about “corporate welfare” and “crony capitalism” but have no problems funding the war on innocent, unborn lives.  It’s time to stop using taxpayer money to pay for Planned Parenthood and their barbaric practices.

Inmates Running Asylums

By William L. Garvin

Trigger Warning:  The following material is not suitable for politically correct, offense seeking, grievance industry, illiberal leftists, or close-minded, name calling cyber-bullies.  Proceed at your own risk!

Once again, the Obama administration maintains its impressive record of negotiations failure.  Hillary’s hilarious “reset” button with Russia resulted in getting our pockets picked with the START treaty.  Pledging “no American left behind,” we traded five top level Taliban prisoners for an American deserter.  So much for not negotiating with terrorists!  (And has anyone noticed that “Sergeant” Bo Bergdahl STILL has not received his Article 32 hearing let alone his court martial?)  Cuba ceded nothing towards curbing their human rights abuses and now the president is crowing about a treaty with the number one state sponsor of terrorism, Iran.

Iran has a forty-year history of lying and cheating regarding their nuclear program and avoiding UN and IAEA inspections.  John Kerry’s goal of “anytime, anywhere” inspections disappeared faster than his military medals.  Four Americans in Iranian prisons are still there despite being President Obama’s “top priority.”  Of course, that was not included in the negotiations because it would have “complicated” the nuclear issues.  Surprisingly, Iranian demands for relief from the conventional arms embargo (on which Kerry caved!) proved no such complication.  Releasing the $100 billion in frozen assets and removing sanctions to boost their oil economy will soon result in Iran being awash in terrorist cash.  They have millions chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America” but we are assured that they don’t really mean it.  Both Kerry and the President say the only alternative was war.  Really?  Wouldn’t “Negotiations 101” have pointed out that ratcheting up sanctions and cutting off the black market oil trading might have been a good intermediate step?  Or you could have supported the Green Revolution.  Or you could have sent a competent negotiator to the table.  But you didn’t.

Meanwhile, here at home, we have 276 “sanctuary cities” in 43 states that released 8,145 illegal aliens in the first eight months of 2014.  This is on top of ICE releasing 67,879 in 2013 into the general population.  The theory of sanctuary cities is that they want “undocumented immigrants” to feel free to report crimes without fear of deportation.  The efficacy of this theory is no more provable than the phantasmagorical “jobs created OR SAVED” or saved us from “the worst depression ever.”  The number of subsequent crimes and rearrests is sufficient cause for alarm.  We’re told that the “borders are more secure than ever” but Kate Steinle was not the first person murdered in San Francisco by a previously deported illegal however this murderer had been deported FIVE times!  Also remember that the murderer of Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Detective Michael Davis had been deported FOUR times!  So the question is “what border?”  Curiously, President Obama has never commented on any of these tragic losses nor did he comment on that of Chris Kyle.

We do hear the Obama administration’s concern about “income inequality.”  They seldom note that it has been worse under him than the previous administration.  Maybe when hundreds of thousands, even millions of poorly educated, low skilled workers come across the border with impunity, it might have an impact on income inequality.  It also provides an abundant supply of minimum wage employees which defeats the normal increase in wages dictated by labor supply and demand.  If it is pointed out that these are not “the best and brightest,” it is easier to kill the messenger than to deal with the message.  Some may remember when Castro cleaned out his prisons and mental health institutions with the Cuban boat lift from Mariel in 1980.  Truth is unsettling.

Finally, it is impossible not to note the video exposing the callous nature of Planned Parenthood operatives.  It was bad enough when one of their spokespeople said that it was between a woman and her doctor as to whether a baby that survived an abortion could be killed, a la Kermit Gosnell.  Here a PP doctor calmly eats her meal, sips her wine, and graphically describes how they crush a baby above or below specific areas in order to preserve specific organs and tissues FOR SALE.  There is no shame, no discomfort, and no awkwardness.  It’s just another transaction in the ordinary course of business, a business that receives over $500,000,000 in taxpayer subsidies every year. 

President Obama, the first sitting president to address his remarks to PP, closed his speech with “Thank you, Planned Parenthood.  God bless you.  God bless you.”  To paraphrase his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright:  “No, no, no. God won’t bless Planned Parenthood—God will damn Planned Parenthood!’”         

Questions of Perspective

By William L. Garvin

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . .”Charles Dickens, A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Recent Supreme Court decisions continue to define the cultural field of war and harden battle lines.  Chief Justice John Roberts continues to display amazing agility by ignoring plain language and resorting to “intent” in his ruling on Obamacare and then becomes a strict constructionist in his dissent on gay marriage.  Apparently he can have his cake and eat it too!

Now that he has extended federal subsidies for health care to those states without exchanges, what must they be thinking about all that time and money wasted setting up state exchanges?  It’s not as if they worked all that well anyway.  After more than $200 million, Hawaii closed down their state exchange as “economically unviable” and joined the shutdown ranks with Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, and Nevada.  So half the state exchanges have failed and proven to be bad ideas poorly executed and now turn to the federal exchange which is even more poorly executed and far more expensive!

In the meantime, all the promised Obamacare savings are gone with the wind.  Oregon expects more than half their plan premiums to be increased from 20 to 38 percent.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield have announced 2016 premium increases of 23% in Illinois; 25% in North Carolina; 31% in Oklahoma; 36% in Tennessee and a whopping 54% in Minnesota!  Furthermore, Aetna has bought up Humana and now Anthem and Cigna are in merger talks.  The “big five” may soon be the “big three” and consumers will have even fewer choices to bundle with their increased premiums and astronomical deductibles.

On the gay marriage front, battle lines center on the struggle between God’s law and Man’s law, between freedom of religion and a “no limits” interpretation of the 14th Amendment.  The ink was scarcely dry on the SCOTUS decision before a married couple in Montana requested a marriage license for a second wife.  Two sterling examples of leftist intolerance spit on Father Jonathan Morris during their gay pride parade.  Oregon levels a $135,000 fine against a bakery for not baking a cake.  After numerous threats and burglaries, the bakery closed down.  Adding insult to injury, Oregon has now issued a gag order and told them they cannot speak out on their views regarding freedom of religion while they appeal.  So no free speech for them either!  In their justification for the $135,000 damages, the plaintiffs allegedly suffered 88 symptoms such as “acute loss of confidence,” “excessive sleep,” feeling “mentally raped,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “impaired digestion” and “loss of appetite” which curiously also led to “weight gain.”

Meanwhile, all three clerks in Decatur County, Tennessee resigned their positions rather than issue same sex licenses.  An Alabama county has stopped issuing marriage licenses altogether.  Another judge has said he will no longer perform courthouse marriages.  Of course, the SCOTUS majority position assures churches and religious institutions that they have nothing to fear.  Apparently they think that the millionaire couple who will sue the Church of England to force them to perform their gay marriage could never happen here.  Tell that to the marriage chapel in Coeur d’Alene.  Tell it to the pizza parlor in Indiana, etc., etc., etc.  Tell it to the New York Times which advocated the loss of tax exempt status for churches saying they should be considered “political entities.”  Their premise is that the SCOTUS ruling makes “clear” that government shouldn’t be “subsidizing” religion and non-profits.

Finally, you’ve probably noticed that the illiberal left never asks a Muslim bakery for a cake or a mosque for a gay marriage ceremony.  Their activism is almost universally targeted at Christians.  So do not be surprised when more and more Christians engage in acts of civil disobedience based on sincerely held religious convictions and do not be surprised when God’s law prevails.  “When in the course of human events….”