Monthly Archives: February 2024

The Real Purpose Of The Raid At Mar-a-Lago?

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If you don’t have your conspiracy hat on, you are probably going to need it for this article.

An animal is most dangerous when it is cornered. On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about the illegal spying on President Trump during the presidential campaign of 2016 and afterward. Obviously, that was illegal, but it seems as if Democrats are not required to abide by laws.

The article reports:

The US Intelligence Community asked foreign spy agencies to surveil 26 associates of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election, which triggered the allegations that the former president’s campaign had been colluding with Russia, according to a report. 

Former CIA Director John Brennan identified and presented the targets to the US’s intelligence-sharing partners in the so-called “Five Eyes” agencies – the intelligence-gathering organizations in the US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – according to a report published Monday on Michael Shellenberger’s Public Substack. 

The report by independent journalists Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag has not been confirmed by The Post.

They cite multiple unnamed sources, including ones close to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). 

The article concludes:

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation in 2021 after admitting that he falsified an e-mail to renew a wiretap against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

​​Page had been wiretapped after intelligence sources suspected he might have been targeted by Russian spies. The wiretap, which was approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, was renewed several times after it was first granted.

Last March, Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI investigation of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia was “seriously flawed” and had no basis in evidence, after a four-year review of the probe. 

In response, the FBI said it had “implemented dozens of corrective actions” since the improper Trump probe and that “the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented” had the reforms been in place in 2016. 

In 2022, Taibbi and Shellenberger were involved in the publishing of the Twitter Files expose, which detailed how the social media giant’s previous management team sought to silence controversial voices and suppress news items such as The Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Do you really believe all necessary corrective actions have been taken? What if there is more to this than meets the eye? What if documents detailing exactly who was involved in this illegal activity exist and the FBI does not know where they are? Would they logically be at Mar-a-Lago or in President Trump’s possession? Is it possible that was what the raid at Mar-a-Lago was really about since other Presidents have never been treated that way?

President Trump is a smart man. I suspect (and I would also suggest that the parties who broke the law spying suspect) that somewhere in a very secret place the documents showing the abuse of our justice system are in President Trump’s possession. I also think that those who engaged in the illegal spying will be brought to justice if President Trump is re-elected. That is why the deep state is working so hard to prevent President Trump from being our next President.

Are You Surprised?

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On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article reporting that President Biden will not take a cognitive test during his upcoming annual physical.

The article reports:

The White House says President Biden will not take a cognitive test — even after a damning report from his own Department of Justice highlighting his “poor memory” and voters expressing major concerns about his mental acuity.

“The president proves every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks — by dealing with world leaders, by making difficult decisions on behalf of the American people — whether it’s domestic or national security,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday, quoting from Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.

“That is how Dr. O’Connor sees it, and that is how I’m going to leave it,” she said, adding that she has known the now-81-year-old Biden since 2009 and he is still “sharp.”

“When we have meetings with him and his staff, he is constantly pushing us, trying to get more information, and so that has been my experience with this president,” Jean-Pierre said.

I am not willing to demand that every candidate for President take a cognitive test, but I would support a law that said every President over the age of 70 in office should include a cognitive test as part of his annual physical.

The article also notes:

Last year, O’Connor did not put Biden through any cognitive tests. The doctor has also never taken questions from the press — in a clear break from White House precedent.

Jean-Pierre, asked about finally letting O’Connor take reporters’ questions after the oldest-ever president’s annual physical, which is expected to take place as soon as this month, refused to commit to whether that would occur.

At this point, I think the only thing that is keeping President Biden from being forced to step down from the presidency is the fact that Kamala Harris is Vice-President.

What They Left Out

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about what was left out of special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials.

The article reports:

Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson on Monday asked that Attorney General Merrick Garland account for special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials making no mention of a batch of materials the National Archives recovered from the president’s attorney’s office in Boston.

Hur’s report became public last week and stated that “[o]ur investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” It further declined to bring charges against the president, in part, on the basis of his poor memory.

Writing to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Hur, the GOP lawmakers asserted that “[t]here appears to be a significant factual omission in Special Counsel Hur’s report on his office’s investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.”

In March of 2023, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirmed that it had retrieved nine boxes from the office of Biden attorney Patrick Moore that had been taken from the Penn Biden Center in Washington. Those materials were then transferred to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. At the time, NARA had not reviewed the materials.

There are a lot of questions about the funding of the Penn Biden Center. I will just leave that there.

The article concludes:

The Republicans set a deadline of Feb. 23 for the DOJ to answer whether Hur reviewed the nine boxes in question and to document their contents.

Please follow the link to read the article. The details in this are amazing. Those boxes have done some serious traveling. One wonders if anything was subtracted from those boxes during their travels.

Another Reason Not To Trust Much Of Middle East Reporting

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about an Al Jazeera journalist secretly worked for Hamas.

The article reports:

Adraee (IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee) said the IDF found the journalist’s laptop inside a Hamas camp in the northern Gaza Strip. “A laptop belonging to someone named Muhammed Samir Muhammed Wishah, born in 1986 from Bureij, was seized,” Adraee said. “It is clear from the documents that Muhammed Wishah is a prominent commander in the anti-tank missile units in the military wing of Hamas.” 

Adraee said the IDF found the journalist’s laptop inside a Hamas camp in the northern Gaza Strip. “A laptop belonging to someone named Muhammed Samir Muhammed Wishah, born in 1986 from Bureij, was seized,” Adraee said. “It is clear from the documents that Muhammed Wishah is a prominent commander in the anti-tank missile units in the military wing of Hamas.” 

The article concludes:

The IDF, calling out the Qatari state-owned news network, reposted Adraee’s post and wrote, “Hey @AlJazeera, we thought your journalists were supposed to give unbiased reports on situations, not actively participate in creating them on the front lines as Hamas terrorists.”

In January, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari revealed evidence showing that two Gazan journalists killed by the IDF belonged to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization.

I had not realized that AlJazeera was Qatari owned. This is one more reason to question the role of Qatar as mediators in negotiations about the Israeli hostages. It is amazing what the IDF is discovering as they dismantle Hamas in Gaza.

This Shouldn’t Even Be Constitutional

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On Monday, The Federalist posted an article about the Ukraine spending bill that just passed the Senate. Hopefully it will die in the House of Representatives–it protects everyone’s border but America’s!

The article reports:

A Ukraine aid supplemental negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate GOP leadership includes a provision setting the stage for a potential third impeachment of Donald Trump, according to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” Vance wrote in a letter sent to congressional Republicans on Monday. “All Republicans should oppose its passage.”

Vance’s letter is in reference to a $95 billion aid package advanced by the Senate on Sunday, which includes funding for (mostly) Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Noticeably, the measure — which was supported by 18 Republicans — does not address the ongoing invasion at the U.S. southern border.

Just as Congress is not supposed to pass laws that limit or control the actions of future Congresses, Congress should not be allowed to pass a law that limits the foreign policy of a future President. 

The article notes:

“If President Trump were to withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, ‘over the objections of career experts,’” as Democrats claimed in their 2019 impeachment of Trump, “it would amount to the same fake violation of budget law from the first impeachment, under markedly similar facts and circumstances,” Vance wrote. An anonymous U.S. official told The Washington Post last month that the Biden administration is hoping to provide “’future-proof’ aid for Ukraine against the possibility that former president Donald Trump wins his reelection bid.”

In recent days, the Senate has proposed a horrible border bill followed up by a horrible foreign aid bill. Neither bill did anything significant to help with American border security. If this continues, we need a new Senate.

Good News As The Result Of Not Caving To Political Pressure

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On February 12th, Front Page Magazine posted an article about the rescue of two of the October 7th hostages in Gaza.

The article reports:

After months of fighting, Hamas had been forced to fall back to its stronghold in Rafah on the Egyptian border.

And the pressure on Israel not to go into Rafah intensified. Not only AOC and Bernie Sanders, but Biden warned Israel not go in because of the “humanitarian impact”.

Israel went in and brought out two hostages.

Are any of the people talking about “humanitarian impact” thinking about the fact that Hamas has been holding people hostage since October 7th. Has anyone considered the fact that at least thirty of the hostages are known to have been killed–either dying in captivity of their injuries on October 7th or killed in captivity by Hamas. Why isn’t the pressure on Hamas–if they released the hostages and surrendered, the war would be over. If Israel stops fighting, there will be more war.

The article notes:

Bringing two hostages home is a moral triumph for Israel.

After the previous hostage deal, Hamas supporters, including AOC, kept hammering home the claim that the only way to free the hostages is to cut a deal with Hamas. But cutting deals with terrorists just leads to more dead bodies and more hostages.

Finally, by leading the operation with a successful hostage rescue, Israel reversed at least some of the narrative about Rafah. The pro-Hamas crowd will double and triple down, as they always do, but after months of war, there is a moment of genuine joy.

Argentina President Javier Milei, who was recently in Israel, expressed appreciation for the rescue of the two hostages, who were Argentinian nationals, and there has been singing and dancing all over the world.

The Biden administration is betting on the wrong team. Israel is not the problem. Israel is not the one who started this. Israel is not the one committing criminal acts against civilians.

The Buck Stops Anywhere But Here

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Most Americans are willing to admit that we have a crisis at our southern border. Most Americans are aware that the crisis began when newly-elected President Biden undid all of the Executive Orders President Trump had used to close the border. However, President Biden is still blaming President Trump for the border crisis. Evidently the fact that President Trump has been out of power for three plus years does not play into President Biden’s logic.

On Saturday, Breitbart posted a list of 64 ways that President Biden has opened America’s borders.

I will post part of the list. Please follow the link above to read the entire list and the details.

Here are some of the highlights:

  1. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden terminated the National Emergency at the Southwest border (Proclamation 9844), thereby halting emergency construction of a border wall.
  2. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) further entrenching the unlawful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
  3. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., demonstrating intent to reward illegal border crossers with a path to citizenship.
  4. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden revoked Trump-era Executive Order that was designed to ensure there was meaningful enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
  5. Jan 20, 2021: The Administration issued an Executive action ending limitations and restrictions against immigration from certain countries associated with terrorism.
  6. Jan 20, 2021: The Biden Administration announced a 100-day moratorium on deportations and immigration enforcement, effectively providing amnesty to criminal and other removable aliens and sending the signal the Biden Administration would not enforce the law. 
  7. Feb 1, 2021: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented Acting Secretary Pekoske’s policy requiring a new “process [that] shall provide for assessments of alternatives to removal including, but not limited to, staying or reopening cases, alternative forms of detention, custodial detention, whether to grant temporary deferred action, or other appropriate action.”
  8. Feb 2, 2021: President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14010 and began processing asylum claims at the border.
  9. Feb 6, 2021: Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspended, and began termination procedures, for the Trump Administration’s Asylum Cooperative Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
  10. Feb 2021: The Biden Administration voluntarily stopped applying Title 42 expulsions to children across the board, setting off a major wave of unaccompanied alien children, family units, and illegal aliens generally heading to the U.S. border.

That’s only the first ten. President Biden willingly ended the programs that were securing our southern border. He is responsible for the disaster that border has become. He is also responsible for any negative results of the large number of military-age men that are coming across that border.

The Overlooked Smoking Gun

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On Sunday, The Liberty Daily posted an article by Peter Roff of the Daily Caller News Foundation. The article dealt with one point in the Special Counsel’s Report of President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents that seems to have been overlooked.

The article notes:

Nonetheless, by focusing on what special counsel Robert Hur wrote about Biden’s failing memory in his report on his mishandling of confidential government files dating from his time as vice president, they missed the more significant nugget in Hur’s explanation of why there would be no indictment.

Remember, the Biden Justice Department indicted former President Donald J. Trump over the same issue. The outcomes were different, Hur explained, not just because Biden couldn’t remember things but because he cooperated with the investigation while Trump didn’t.

That should about blow the case out of the water. It all but confirms Trump was singled out for special treatment, as he claimed. The case against him is political, and it’s okay for America to move on because there’s really nothing to see.

As a former president and as a citizen, Trump has rights. He doesn’t have to turn over every document they ask for to the government. Every departing chief enters into a negotiation regarding what they can take with them when they leave. The rules are not at all clear.

They’re obviously not supposed to take any of the furniture that was there when they moved in with them (one recent first couple apparently missed that memo). As far as any documents go, the president and the National Archives are usually allowed the time necessary to work out who gets to keep what.

The former president was not afforded the same luxury as his predecessors. His suggestion the Biden Justice Department rushed the case into court to damage him politically now looks stronger.

I am not a lawyer, but there is another aspect of this that is troubling. Let’s say someone robs a bank and puts the money in an interest-bearing account hidden somewhere. After five of six years in prison, they figure they can live on the interest, so they give back the money. Are they then not charged with the crime? That’s what this sounds like (other than the obvious unequal justice under the law).

What Was Actually In Those Documents?

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Putting aside the fact that a Senator or Vice-President shouldn’t have classified documents in his home or garage, let’s take a look at what some of those documents were and how they might be related to other issues.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden retained documents related to Ukraine that were classified as “secret” and “confidential,” according to a report by Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Hur, released on Feb. 8.

The 388-page report states that the FBI found a folder labeled “VP Personal,” containing two documents—a telephone call sheet and talking points for a call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which occurred on Dec. 11, 2015—marked as “secret.”

There is a handwritten note from President Biden in the upper-right corner of the sheet asking his executive assistant to “get [a] copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please.” The document was labeled “confidential” and “EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY.”

Additionally, one appendix in the report states that President Biden kept a memo with the subject line “U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine,” from September 2014. The results of the classification review indicate the memo was “confidential.”

President Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration at the time. His son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of directors of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in May 2014.

Nothing like breaking the law to help and unqualified family member in his job.

The article concludes, reminding us:

Burisma contacted the source to seek assistance in buying a U.S. company to merge with, in the hope that it could go public in the United States.

After the disclosure of an investigation into Burisma by Ukraine’s prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in 2016, the source informed Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, that it could negatively affect the company’s prospective initial public offering.

Mr. Zlochevsky replied that Mr. Hunter Biden “will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” according to the document. Mr. Shokin resigned in March 2016.
President Biden in 2018 bragged at the Council of Foreign Relations that he got Mr. Shokin dismissed.

“‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he said about his interaction with Ukrainian officials, referring to a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

Mr. Shokin has said that the threat was cited when he was ousted. He said in a sworn statement that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked him to resign because of “pressure from the U.S. presidential administration, in particular from Joe Biden.”

But as of now, there will be no consequences for President Biden ignoring the laws he should have been enforcing.

Destructive Carbon Emission Mandates

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The Marxist Left is out to destroy our country. Period. Anyone who does not recognize this is either blind or part of the problem. Karl Marx in his book, The Communist Manifesto, stresses the importance of finding an issue that allows the government to control the people. Well, the Democrat Marxists have found that issue: the manmade CO2 climate change hoax. Regrettably, we have some Republican legislators who have been going along with this non-scientific, unproven belief that threatens to destroy our country and our standard of living.

Recent declarations by respected climate scientists are increasingly showing that there is no evidence that CO2 emissions have any impact on climate conditions. In fact, they have argued that increasing CO2 levels enhance plant growth essential to man’s survival. The climate has changed dramatically over millions of years as a result of natural causes such as solar flares, earth orbit, tilt of the earth, ocean currents, and other changes having nothing to do with man’s actions. Climate change, whatever the causes, is not an existential threat to mankind. What is a threat are the extreme actions being taken to combat a non-existing problem. No modern civilization can exist without adequate, inexpensive energy from fossil fuels. We are committing social suicide by going along with the elimination of fossil fuels.

Let’s look at some things occurring in North Carolina that are heading us down the road to economic catastrophe. First, in 2021 the General Assembly passed and Governor Cooper signed HB 951 which established the requirement to cut carbon emissions from electric power plants 70% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This will require massive expenditures on solar and wind farms and the construction of massive battery centers to store electricity, since wind and solar are intermittent sources. Who makes the solar panels, the wind mills, and the battery components? You guessed it; our global enemy China. It is estimated that the average consumer’s electric bill will quadruple and there will be massive electricity shortages. Germany, which tried to rely on solar and wind, had to reactivate their coal fired plants to handle the demand for electricity this winter. The cost of electricity in Germany is three times higher than in the United States. Meanwhile, we have the technology to have the cleanest coal fired plants in the world and have a 200 year supply of coal; which we are now sending to China.

Second, the Cooper regime is proceeding with the construction of offshore wind farms. One off Kitty Hawk and the other of the southern coast near Bald Head Island. Again, these will be built by foreign countries and use Chinese components. Just think how vulnerable these wind mills will be to attack in the event of war.

I hope I have made my case that these actions are a real threat to the citizens of North Carolina; and all for no legitimate reason. Manmade Climate Change is a Marxist hoax! We need to pressure the General Assembly to (1) repeal HB 951 establishing CO2 emission mandates; (2) block the construction of wind farms off the coast; (3) remove all state tax incentives for solar and wind energy projects. Before you cast your vote this year, find our where each candidate stands on this issue. It is a looming crisis that must be stopped.

The Danger Of An Open Border

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America is a land of immigrants–legal immigrants who came here to build a better life and were vetted before they were allowed in. Currently we are being overrun by people seeking access to our welfare system and an easy life. I don’t begrudge anyone seeking a better life, but I do have a problem with seeking a better life at someone else’s expense. As American cities pour money into housing, feeding and providing medical care for people who are here illegally, our own citizens who are struggling economically are being ignored. Our homeless are on the streets–they are not getting hotel rooms and three meals a day. Aside from the misplaced priorities of our current border policy (or lack thereof), there is the national security aspect.

On Friday, The Daily Caller reported:

  • Federal immigration authorities released for one day a Pakistani man who illegally crossed the southern border into California whose name appeared on the terror watchlist, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • Border Patrol apprehended the Pakistani national on Nov. 10, 2023 in Tecate, California, according to the memo.
  • “Imagine how many cases like this one get through without us knowing,” a DHS official told the DCNF on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

The article continues:

The Pakistani national entered the U.S. illegally on Nov. 9, 2023 and was nabbed by Border Patrol the next day in Tecate, California, according to a memo the DCNF received from two different Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources. While in Border Patrol custody on Nov. 22, the Terrorism Screening Center (TSC) confirmed he was a positive match on the terror watchlist, according to the memo.

Despite this, the memo says the terror suspect was released from the custody of ICE San Diego on Jan. 23. ICE served him with an “Order of Release on Recognizance” with tracking technology through the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program during that time.

Border agents served him with an expedited removal order on Nov. 11, after which he expressed that he had a credible fear of going back to Pakistan, according to the memo.

On Jan. 24, however, the ICE office in San Diego informed the agency’s office in Los Angeles of his presence on the terror watchlist, along with his “mandatory detention requirement,” and had him report on his own to the ATD check-in office. ICE Los Angeles was able to arrest him when he showed up for the check-in.

Imagine how many cases like this one get through without us knowing,” a DHS official told the DCNF on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

I fear we have reached the place where ordinary Americans are going to have to be responsible for their own safety. Terrorist do not generally value their own lives, and that fact makes them very dangerous. Because so many of the people who have crossed our southern border are military-age men, we may all have to be prepared to defend ourselves from a major attack within our country.

 

CPAC Goes International

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CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) holds its annual gathering from February 21 to February 24 in National Harbor, Maryland. The meeting is one of the biggest gatherings of conservatives in America.

On Friday, Breitbart reported that Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador who just won reelection, will speak at the event.

The article reports:

CPAC, one of the biggest annual gatherings of conservatives in the United States, is taking place from February 21 to February 24 at the Gaylord Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside the U.S. capital. CPAC is hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU) every year going back decades. Many U.S. presidents have spoken there, and former President Donald Trump—the leading GOP candidate for president this year—is set to again address the conference with a record-setting 14th appearance. The previous record-holder by a GOP president was Ronald Reagan, who spoke 13 times at CPAC.

Bukele’s speech at CPAC will come on Thursday, February 22, ACU and CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp told Breitbart News. It comes after Bukele won reelection with more than 85 percent of the votes cast.

“It is our high honor to announce that El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele will add his voice on our opening day,” Schlapp told Breitbart News exclusively. “Bukele is an unapologetic traditionalist who encourages the American people to rediscover the values that made her strong and spread a freedom revolution that is now in jeopardy. In America, Hispanic voters, once a main component of the left’s political coalition, are realizing that the Socialist Democrat party hates their faith, their families, their traditions and their patriotism to their chosen country.”

Bukele, in a statement, said he is excited to speak at CPAC and that he plans to focus on his crackdown on crime in El Salvador.

The article concludes:

It’s not just wins by conservatives in places such as El Salvador where Bukele just won reelection or down in Argentina where newly elected President Javier Milei won in late 2023. In recent years Giorgia Meloni—a top conservative—won the prime minister position in Italy. What’s more, top conservatives are expected to take other elections worldwide including in Portugal in early 2024—while European Parliament elections will take place in the summer.

Schlapp told Breitbart News that CPAC is also hosting Santiago Abascal, a top conservative elected official in Spain, forecasting that his address could be similar to one Meloni gave to CPAC before she became prime minister of Italy.

“We just announced that Spain’s Santiago Abascal, a leading conservative elected official, will address our conference just as PM Georgia Meloni did before she became Italy’s Prime Minister,” Schlapp said.

This is good news for America and good news for the world. Freedom is on the march.

The Next Big Climate Scare

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In America (and in some other places) we just aren’t paying enough attention to our impending doom due to global warming, global cooling, or whatever climate change is currently fashionable. Therefore, it is time to raise the stakes to get our attention. Brace yourself, we are about to start hearing about deaths due to climate change. How you actually calculate that is a mystery, but that hasn’t stopped the propagandists yet.

On Thursday, wattsupwiththat reported:

The next big climate scare is on the way. Advocates of measures to control the climate now propose that we begin counting deaths from climate change. They appear to believe that if people see a daily announcement of climate deaths, they will be more inclined to accept climate change policies. But it’s not even clear that the current gentle rise in global temperatures is causing more people to die.

In December, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at COP28, the 28th United Nations Climate Conference, and mentioned climate-related deaths.

“We are seeing and beginning to pay attention and to count and record the deaths that are related to climate,” she said. “And by far the biggest killer is extreme heat.”

According to Ms. Clinton, Europe recorded 61,000 deaths from extreme heat in 2023, and she estimated that about 500,000 people died from heat across the world last year.

Global temperatures have been gently rising for the last 300 years. Temperature metrics from NASA, NOAA, and the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom estimate that Earth’s surface temperatures have risen a little more than one degree Celsius, or about two degrees Fahrenheit, over the last 140 years. But are these warmer temperatures harmful to people?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most cases of influenza occur during December to March, the cold months in the United States. Influenza season in the southern hemisphere takes place during the cold months there, April through September. The peak months for COVID-19 infections tended to be the cold periods of the year. More people usually get sick during cold months than in warm months.

More people also die during winter months than summer months, according to many peer-reviewed studies. For example, Dr. Matthew Falagas of the Alfa Institute of Medical Sciences and five other researchers studied seasonal mortality in 11 nations. The research showed that the average number of deaths peaked in the coldest months of the year in all of them.

It’s easier to stay healthy when the weather is warm–the sun provides Vitamin D, and as long as you don’t overdue it, fresh air and sunshine are healthy.

Please follow the link to the article. It includes some very interesting charts, including the one below:

 

Numbers don’t lie.

Does America Have A Justice System?

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Hur has announced that President Biden will not be charged for mishandling classified documents. I suppose it would be petty to point out that as a Senator or a private citizen he was not entitled to have those documents in his personal possession, but I guess that really doesn’t matter.

The article reports:

Among the reasons stated for not pressing charges was that Biden would present to the jury ‘as sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

I would like to point out that this elderly man with a poor memory is President of the United States. I also question the ‘well-meaning’ part.

The article continues:

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote in a 388-page report to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The materials, stated the report, included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” The FBI collected these items during a search of President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence last year.

This is  unbelievable. President Trump’s house gets searched, and he gets charged while President Biden (because he is essentially considered a senile old man) gets away scot free. They searched Baron Trump’s room. Shouldn’t someone have searched Hunter Biden’s room?

I don’t know how (or if) we recover from the banana republic we have become.

 

Victor Hanson’s Statement On Special Counsel Hur’s Report

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Victor Davis Hanson’s Twitter statement on Special Counsel Hur’s report:
Biden is Too Demented to Be Found Guilty of Crimes,  But Not Too Demented to Be President? Special Counsel Robert Hur just found Joe Biden was guilty of violating national security laws in removing classified documents— after examining then Senator and Vice President Biden’s some 15-year habit of removing classified files to his offices and residences, where they were stored in unsecured fashion.
Period. End of story.
Hur then as a disinterested Special Counsel, not a local county prosecutor on a limited budget, logically would have indicted and prosecuted Biden.
It really is a jury’s decision to determine whether Biden was guilty or innocent, or whether he is pardoned/exempted by reason of dementia.
It is not the role of Hur, as a prosecutor and advocate for the state, to imagine how difficult his case might be to prove someone so incapacitated like Biden was guilty, as Hur’s own research and investigations had otherwise indicated that he was.) Is mindset, intention, or mental status a normal consideration of violations of national security laws, or is it the act itself?
So we are back to the James Comey defense: Hillary was guilty but in Lord and Savior Comey’s judgement no jury would likely convict a presidential candidate of such stature of violating national security laws. (NB:  After her reprieve, Hillary immediately claimed such extenuating circumstances were proof of her innocence! And Biden in a nanosecond likewise claimed he is now exonerated too, as was the administration’s plan all along).
Finally note the following:
1) The Left, Hur, and others believe that someone who has lost his faculties and who would not be allowed to drive a semi-truck, teach a class, diagnose a patient, argue a case, wire a house, or cook a hamburger is nevertheless fit enough to run the United States of America.
2) Note this same old/same old shocking but predictable asymmetry. Trump is a mere four years younger than Biden. The left fixated on the fact that he recently confused Nikki Hayley with Nancy Pelosi. Are we then to expect Jack Smith to follow the precedent of his fellow special counsel Hur, who was likewise appointed by Biden administration AG Merrick Garland and thus to conclude that although Trump violated the law by removing files, he seemed too confused to indict, given the likelihood of a sympathetic jury?
3) Hur himself tried to preemptively defend himself from the obvious conclusion that he extended special considerations not to indict Biden in a manner Jack Smith did not to Trump. Yet he omits that there were key differences in the two cases:
Biden had no putative right, as did Trump as President, to declassify files he took home.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago walled and surveilled estate was far more secure than Biden’s rickety garage.
Biden had stored files for over a decade not less than two years.
Biden’s attorneys came forward just days before Smith was appointed on November 18, 2022. So it was not altruism that prompted their confession after Biden’s years of secretly hiding such illegality, but rather fear that Trump would soon be hounded for a ”crime” of which Biden was found out to be long guilty. So they went public to preempt that charge and falsely claim civic virtue.
This is just more of a long, disgusting pattern of biased applications of the law: Jan 6 vs 2020 May to October deadlier and more violent riots; election denialism of Trump versus Stacey Abrams’s nonstop claims of being the real governor of Georgia; “insurrection” called for in Trump’s speech vs Kamala Harris’s threats that the 2020 riots (“protests”) would and should keep going; the Trump 2020 election gambit versus the 2016 Leftwing coordinated effort to leverage electors into renouncing their states’ popular vote mandates. And so on.
No Department of Justice in our history has ever done more to undermine Americans’ confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice.
This is not the America we grew up in.
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Racial Harmony in the SOUTH in the 1970s?

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Author: Raynor James    raynor@cctaxpayers.com

I believe there was much racial harmony in most small cities in the American South in the 1970s. I also believe that personal stories can often illustrate and clarify more universal truths. Are you willing to make a trip with me to check out those premises?

Recently, Hal’s and my son, David Kelly, sent out a letter that started that train of thought. The subject was “SSG James Blackwell’s Passing.” It was addressed to “ALCON.” In part, the letter read, “I have the sad duty to report that SSG James Blackwell, a long-time member of the Fredericksburg [Virginia] Guard has passed away.

“I interviewed Staff Sergeant Blackwell a few years ago. He has always been an inspiration to me. He was able to shine a light where few dared to tread. You see he was one of the two first African Americans to serve our local National Guard since the 1880s. He was a civil rights trail blazer of sorts, joining the local Fredericksburg Guard in 1971. My father, B.G. Hal D. James (Va,R) and Reverend/Mayor Lawrence A. Davies set it up. Think about how hard it would have been with the Vietnam War, the antimilitary public sentiment and joining an all-white, male only military organization. They did a wonderful job in their role as mentors as you can tell from the attached photos! When I became the Battalion Commander (2009), I invited both trail breakers to attend a drill weekend one more time and gave them both honorary life membership into the Fredericksburg Guard Association.

“SSG BLACKWELL, thank you for your service!” The letter was signed, “LTC David K. James (Retired), Director, Fredericksburg Guard Association Foundation.”

That letter set off a ton of memories. Lawrence Davies was a black minister who became our good friend and strong ally. May I tell you about it? It started while Hal was president of the Fredericksburg Jaycees. The Committee to name the “Young Man of the Year” came up with a list of candidates, and Lawrence was one of them. No black man had ever been nominated before, and it set off an uproar. There were people who threatened to resign if Lawrence were chosen. Hal met with the committee and instructed them to please base their decision strictly on merit. He said they had to do the right thing. Then, if that caused a problem, they’d need to figure out how to deal with that in an honorable way.

Lawrence was chosen. No one resigned. Everything was fine.

Remember the summer Washington, D.C. was almost burned to the ground? The Fredericksburg Guard was called up for riot duty. I was very worried as were others. Lawrence called Hal with an idea, and that was the birth of Fredericksburg’s Bi-racial Volunteers. Our sons and I went to the first meeting which was held in Lawrence” church, but discussion soon made it clear that it would be a good idea to have only young men as active members. As it evolved, pairs of young men (one black and one white) wearing arm bands went to outdoor events at which lots of young people were expected to congregate. They just roamed around and started conversations and “poured oil on troubled water” where needed. There wasn’t one single troubling incident in Fredericksburg that summer.

Later, Lawrence came to Hal about integrating the Jaycees and Hal sponsored Johnny Johnson, a black art professor at Mary Washington College. Johnny was accepted without any resistance. By the way, his art was beautiful, and I coveted it, but every year at the Woman’s Club art show, his prices stayed just ahead of my ability to pay.

You know about how integration of the National Guard went. No problems. Several similar things happened, and at some point, Lawrence ran for mayor of Fredericksburg. Hal and I were among his campaign workers. Not surprisingly, Lawrence won. In fact, he was Fredericksburg’s mayor for about 20 years. Lawrence wasn’t Fredericksburg’s black mayor; he was Fredericksburg’s beloved mayor of all of its people.

That’s just one little (then) city, but we knew people in lots of other towns who were having similar experiences. Then we made the big mistake of electing the flagrantly racist Barack Obama who managed to sabotage years of improvement. Things improved again with Trump. Now look at the pickle we’re all dealing with. We need prosperity and harmony!

Recognizing The Major Problems In The Environmental Movement

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On Wednesday, Stream posted an article by a former environmentalist listing five reasons why he gave up “green policies.”

Here is the list:

Failed Climate Change Predictions

Science is about accurate prediction. If Newton’s theory had failed to predict how apples fall, then it would be useless.

Few scientists have been as bad at this (basic) job as climate scientists. In one of the most comical episodes I’ve ever seen, climate scientists erected signs in Glacier National Park predicting its glaciers would be gone in 2020 — only to be forced to leave the signs after the predictions proved false. For a year, tourists to the park were met with a monument to the legacy of climate science: They stood looking simultaneously at glaciers … and the sign that promised, on the good authority of climate science, that the glaciers were not there.

Where Did the Wild Spaces Go?

Thoreau said of nature: “We need the tonic of wildness.” Thoreau was right about me at least. One of my primary motives for being an environmentalist was that I believed natural wild spaces were good for the soul.

…And that brings us to wind farms. I hate wind farms. They kill birds and destroy forest habitats. The blades are made of materials that fill waste dumps and can’t be recycled. They require lithium batteries that have to be mined with methods that create the very kinds of problems the “clean energy” movement is supposed to solve.

Politics Over Facts

Speaking of facts: The relationship between science and politics only works when the causal arrow between them goes from scientific facts to politics.

Bullying Over Debate

One of the clear signs that a movement is rotten is when it resorts to silencing its opponents rather than debating them. The modern “green” movement contains the worst set of bullies I’ve ever seen; indeed, they serve as primary fodder for my forthcoming book called Liberal Bullies.

Lack of a Cost/Benefit Analysis

Even at the height of my pro-environmentalist sentiment, I wasn’t opposed to all oil drilling. I know we need energy; I use it every day. I just wanted moderation that purposefully preserved a significant amount of wild nature. Well, across the board, the green movement increasingly just bludgeons us with simple-minded ideas that ignore the obvious costs of their policies.

Keep in mind that list comes from someone who at one time supported the green energy movement. It’s time for the rest of the supporters of the movement to wake up.

 

This Is Very Concerning

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CBS News reported on Tuesday that Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, has been found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The article reports:

Jury deliberations, which lasted 11 hours, began Monday after a week-long trial to determine if the mother bears any responsibility for the Oxford High School shooting, where her son killed four students, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Hana St. Juliana, and injured seven other people on Nov. 30, 2021.

The jury foreperson told CBS News Detroit’s Andres Gutierrez that one factor that the jury focused on was that Jennifer Crumbley was the last adult with the gun before her son used it in the mass shooting. 

Jennifer Crumbley is the first parent in the United States to go on trial in a mass school shooting carried out by their child. 

Mrs. Crumbley bought the gun for her son. That was really stupid, but was it any more stupid than a parent who buys a sports car for their high school child who secretly drinks? The school knew the child was troubled. The school asked that the child be taken to therapy (obviously too late). What is the school’s responsibility? Does the school have a responsibility to monitor a troubled child and keep him away from other students?

I really think this is a bad decision. Buying the child a gun was really stupid, but that really wasn’t the problem. Would the child have gotten hold of a different weapon and done the same thing? This will set a very bad precedent.

 

 

 

While We Were Watching Other Things…

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Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article about what is currently happening in  Afghanistan. I’m not sure at exactly what point we totally botched our handling of Afghanistan, but we obviously did.

The article reports:

Over two years after the Biden administration abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan, China is sliding in with its eyes on the war-torn country’s natural resources.

China is being welcomed with open arms by the ruling Taliban government, according to a Pentagon audit.

What’s more, the Taliban are moving to warm relations with China, sending their first ambassador to Beijing, according to John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

“On December 1, 2023, the new Taliban ambassador to China, Bilal Karimi, arrived in Beijing, marking the first ambassador the Taliban have sent to another country since seizing power in 2021. While no country formally recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, China does maintain an embassy in Kabul,” Sopko’s latest audit for Congress and shared with Secrets said.

The audit suggested the Taliban are campaigning for more Chinese investment.

It said the Taliban have “reportedly asked” to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative.

Sopko said the Taliban’s acting commerce minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, has been very direct in wooing Chinese investment. He quoted Azizi saying, “China, which invests all over the world, should also invest in Afghanistan. … We have everything they need, such as lithium, copper, and iron.”

In the last year, China and the Taliban have inked a 25-year mining contract at Amu Darya, said to have the world’s third-largest oil and natural gas reserves. A Chinese firm is also investing in Afghan power generation and building a major cement factory.

For a number of years, China has been quietly creating a monopoly on the raw materials needed to support modern technology. This is another step in that direction.

Policies Have Consequences

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We can all look back with nostalgia at the prosperity and low inflation we enjoyed under President Trump. One of the keys to that prosperity was deregulation that allowed business and the economy to grow.

In January 2021, Forbes reported:

According to the administration, agencies in the 2020 fiscal year issued 145 deregulatory actions and 45 significant regulatory actions, for an out-to-in ratio of 3.2 to one.

Of those deregulatory actions, 58 were deemed “significant” by agencies and the administration. Comparing significant-in to significant-out still gives a ratio of 1.3 to one.

This regulatory streamlining requirement was one of the earliest 2017 moves of the Trump administration, put in place by Executive Order 13771. A Biden administration will kill it on “Day One,” as the incoming supervisors like to say.

We have now had three plus years of the Biden administration’s economic policies. It has been a tough three plus years.

On Monday, Blaze Media reported the following:

A group of black voters told MSNBC last week why they are considering voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

Reporting from Charleston, South Carolina, MSNBC correspondent Trymaine Lee spoke with black voters in a barbershop and discussed the “appeal” Trump has over President Joe Biden with black men specifically.

They explained:

    • Thomas Murray: “I just think that Donald Trump, in spite of all the craziness he may have in his head, reading some of the things that he talks about with business, I can kind of agree with as far as business-wise because I’m trying to grow my business. As far as Biden, I haven’t seen Biden really care about business like that. And my concern is having my business, so that I can build generational wealth, so my kids can see and have something to take upon when I’m not here.”
    • Kinard Givens: “A lot of my friends we’ve only voted once, and Trump is kind of all we know — Trump and Biden. And they’re like, ‘Well, we were broke with Biden. We weren’t with Trump.’ And that’s kind of the only thing that I’m hearing over and over again is that ‘with Trump, we had money.'”
    • Juston Brown: “A lot of people admire the persona and they want to be him. They want to enjoy the perks that he has. He seems to always be able to circumvent the rules.”
    • Anthony Freeman: “Donald Trump has a reputation of being the money man.”

As James Carville stated in 1992, “It’s the ECONOMY, Stupid!” That statement still holds true today.

Things We Can Learn From Nayib Bukele

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Nayib Bukele is the recently re-elected President of El Salvador. He won re-election by a landslide.

On Tuesday, Red State posted some interesting information about his victory.

The article reports:

As RedState reported, Nayib Bukele has secured a landslide re-election win in El Salvador. That came despite global accusations of authoritarianism and couched U.S. opposition, so much so that Bukele took to sarcastically calling himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”

He’s not a dictator, though, and to prove it, El Salvador welcomed in international election observers to monitor the process as the incumbent secured around 83 percent of the vote, demolishing his closest rival, a left-winger who only got seven percent. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mostly bit his tongue and put out a congratulatory message, though it was still laced with underhanded jabs at Bukele’s governance. 

“The United States values our strong relationship with the people of El Salvador, forged over 160 years and built on shared values, regional ties, and family connections. Events in El Salvador have a direct impact on U.S. interests at home and abroad. Only by working together can we achieve our full potential and overcome the greatest obstacles in our hemisphere and globally,” Blinken said. “Looking ahead, the United States will continue to prioritize good governance, inclusive economic prosperity, fair trial guarantees, and human rights in El Salvador under our Root Causes Strategy.”

Under Bukele’s leadership, El Salvador has gone from one of the most dangerous countries on earth to one of the safest. Using emergency powers granted to him by the nation’s legislative body, over 70,000 people have been arrested, a development that has sent many American liberals into fits of panic. You know what, though? It’s worked. 

People can walk their neighborhoods again without fear of being abducted and worse. Even the downtown area where Bukele’s victory speech took place was once ruled by gangs. El Salvador was a failed state, and despite cries of “authoritarian tendencies,” it is no longer one. That’s the reality, whether people like the methods or not.

American liberals are scared to death that Americans might follow the example of El Salvador and elect a President who would actually enforce laws and fight crime. Securing the southern border would be a good start. Of course it is President Trump who fits that description. It would be nice to see some of our major cities again become the tourist attractions they once were.

Funding Homeschools

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

School choice has become an increasingly important issue as parents observe the overall unacceptable academic performance of public schools and the exposure of their children to socialist indoctrination inconsistent with their values. School choice includes public, charter, private, and homeschools. Most clear thinking people applaud school choice and recognize that competition in any endeavor leads to improved performance. It is also important to recognize that parents, like the rest of us, pay the taxes that support public schools that have been a monopoly.

In 2023, the General Assembly expanded the existing Opportunity Scholarship Program that allows parents to apply for funds to support attending private schools. This revision expanded the income eligibility requirement by raising the income limit. That is the good news. The bad news is that they did not include homeschools in the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Having homeschooled my youngest daughter, I am fully aware of the significant personal and financial sacrifice that parents make when homeschooling their children. The General Assembly needs to correct this error by making parents of homeschoolers eligible for this scholarship program. In truth, the solution is simple: the money should follow the student.

It is my understanding that some homeschooling parents are reluctant to accept government taxpayer’s money for fear that the government will impose restrictions and regulations on how they conduct their homeschools. This is a valid concern since that government almost always tries to exert control anytime they issue funds. However, we should not throw out the baby with the bath water. The law adding homeschools to the Opportunity Scholarship Program must be written in a way that preserves the independence of the homeschools In addition, homeschooling parents should always have the right to decline to accept a scholarship.

One final concern is the whole idea of an income limit that is part of the Opportunity Scholarship Program. When I was a senior in high school, I was awarded a N.Y. state four year college scholarship. It was awarded, not on the basis of my parent’s income, but rather based on the results of a standardized test. That was an example of meritocracy, where the scholarship was awarded based on achievement. We have come a long way in the wrong direction. The idea of awarding scholarship funds based on income is the Marxist idea of taking from the higher income people and giving to the lower income people. I truly wish that our conservative Republican legislators would see this for what it is and do away with the lower income requirement. The country would be much better off. We need to stop the slide towards Marxism before it is too late.

Congress Actually Listened To The People!

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The text of the border bill crafted by the Senate was released Sunday night. People who read the bill quickly pointed out that the bill did not secure the border and it provided more money for Ukraine than the annual budget of the Marine Corps. The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson declared the bill dead on arrival (as it should have been).

This was Stephen Miller’s Twitter post:

Well, the uproar has had an impact on Congress.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the shocking decision to recommend Republicans block the advancement of the Senate pro-migration border bill.

That first procedural vote was set for Wednesday. It is unknown if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will forge ahead, although that is likely.

McConnell cited the overwhelming number of Senate Republicans planning to vote against the measure either on substance or because they wanted more time, according to Punchbowl News.

The longtime Republican leader has spoken in favor of the deal and did not express any personal hesitations about the legislation to his colleagues.

According to Punchbowl, McConnell said the political mood in the country has changed since negotiations began months ago. At that time, McConnell and Democrat leaders agreed to pair foreign aid to Ukraine, of which McConnell is the Senate’s greatest champion, with a border compromise.

If you believe McConnell’s explanation, I have a bridge to sell you. The real reason McConnell changed his mind is that it is February of an election year and McConnell is afraid that the voters might remember his support for this awful bill. The sole purpose of this bill is to legalize as many illegal aliens as possible before November so that they can be Democrat voters. Why McConnell was willing to go along with that, I don’t know.