The Exodus Continues

On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about another large company leaving New Jersey.

The article reports:

Samsung plans to its relocate its U.S. headquarters to Plano, Texas, which will cost New Jersey roughly 1,000 jobs.

The South Korean tech giant said this week that it would move its headquarters out of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, to its campus in Plano, Texas, less than one year after it celebrated the opening of a new headquarters in Bergen County, New Jersey.

The transition will be completed by the end of the year, according to Samsung. Samsung has been in Bergen County for roughly three decades and operated its Ridgefield Park headquarters from the early 1990s before moving to Englewood Cliffs in 2025.

“Samsung Electronics America Inc. is undergoing a business transformation designed to better position our organization for long-term growth and future success,” Samsung said.

“As part of this effort, we are relocating our US headquarters from New Jersey to our existing campus in Plano, Texas, building on our 30-year presence in the state,” it continued in a statement.

Samsung has yet to say if it will completely abandon the New Jersey location, which exceeds 300,000 square feet.

The article concludes:

Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, said in a statement:

Samsung’s decision to reincorporate in Texas is just the latest example of a seismic shift taking place in the business landscape. Pro-growth states like Texas that actually want companies to succeed are proving to be powerful magnets for businesses being crushed by radical policies and politicians in places like New Jersey, New York and California. Notably, in addition to keeping taxes low and regulation light relative to their competitors, Texas has taken groundbreaking steps to protect businesses incorporated there from molestation by rogue woke actors like Proxy Advisors. By making this sensible move, Samsung and other companies are demonstrating that they’re done being battered by far-left government hacks and woke Wall Street firms and will fight to put the interests of their investors and customers first.

He added, “Consumers Research applauds these firms and hopes more are encouraged to follow.”

If New Jersey wants companies to remain in their state, they need to reconsider who they are electing to office.

Save America: Public Safety

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

This is the latest article of a series on issues critical to the survival of our nation as we have known it  as we celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary. The topic of public safety is of concern to all Americans and especially to me, since I spent my career as a psychologist in the North Carolina Department of Correction. One of the requirements of correctional psychologists is to assist in determining which inmates are reasonable risks for release back into society and which should stay in prison. This article summarizes some of the essential facts that effect crime and that decision process.

Like many essential things in our country’s history, it is important to look back and see what has worked and what hasn’t. As most people realize, the crime in Democrat run cities and states exceeds that in most more conservatively run places. Let’s examine why. First, it is important to realize that a very high percentage of crimes are committed by a very small percentage of the population.  For example, about 1% of the population commits about 65% of all crimes. Violent crimes are committed by 3% to 5% of the population. Second, 3% to 5% of specific neighborhoods account for over 50% of all crimes of violence. Clearly places you want to avoid if you can. Third, offenders commit many more crimes than those for which they are arrested. Active criminals commit an average of 9 to 17 offenses per year when free in society. Very rarely is a criminal arrested the first time he commits a crime. Think of it as a profession or career, because that’s what it is to the typical criminal. Going to prison is seen by most criminals as a price they have to pay occasionally so they can return to their profession. Fourth, criminal continuity is very common, with most delinquent criminals going on to become adult criminals, while non-delinquent juveniles remain noncriminal all of their lives. Fifth, most criminals when released from prison go on to commit more crimes. For example, 68% of released prisoners are rearrested within 3 years of release, and 82% within 5 years of release. Not very encouraging. You may recall that Governor Cooper released 3500 prisoners before their sentences were completed ostensibly due to the COVID virus. Based on the data above showing an average of 9 to 17 offenses committed each year, the Governor’s ill- advised release accounted for approximately 31,000 to 60,000 crimes. So much for concern about public safety Governor! Sixth, criminals are most likely to commit crimes at the highest rate in early adulthood; and Seventh, the individuals committing the most crimes are those who are members of criminal gangs.

OK, so what do we do about it? It would be great if we could ensure that all children are raised by two parents who instill a conscience that respects right from wrong, and good from evil. Obviously, this is not happening to those who become criminals. Since we cannot control conscience development, the best option is swift arrest, conviction and incarceration. Incarceration not to rehabilitate, which is rare, but rather to remove from society as long as the law allows. The idea of not prosecuting (like in California), suspended sentences and early parole are all threats to public safety. Sentences should increase as the criminal shows a pattern of continued criminal activity. Remember, for every arrest that results in a sentence, the criminal is committing many more that go undetected. It should also be remembered that the dichotomy of property versus violent offenders is not supported by the facts. Many property offenders also commit many acts of personal violence since both types of crime reflect the lack of a moral conscience and no sense of empathy for others.

Instead of reducing sentences, we should go back to the 1980s where sentences were longer and more certain. Incarceration during the young adult ages of criminals has the greatest impact on improving public safety. So, the next time you hear a district attorney, judge or politician talk about reducing what they consider the high incarceration rate in this country, you will know what to do and how to vote. The safety of the citizens should take precedence over sympathy for the criminal.

I ran this article a few years ago. It bears repeating.

Eighty-two Years Ago

 

Seventy-eight years ago on June 6, 1944, some very nervous young (and not so young) men were boarding boats in England in preparation for an invasion of France. My father was one of the men who landed at Utah Beach.

A website called allthatsinteresting reports:

Brig. Gen. Teddy Roosevelt Jr. — the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt — landed with the first wave of soldiers at Utah Beach. After personally scouting the area, he determined that their location was better, as there were fewer German defenses.

“We’ll start the war from right here!” he stated, and he rerouted the rest of the landings to his location.

Roosevelt led the 8th Infantry despite using a cane – he had arthritis and a bad heart. Maj. Gen. Barton, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, later recalled meeting Roosevelt on the beach:

While I was mentally framing [orders], Ted Roosevelt came up. He had landed with the first wave, had put my troops across the beach, and had a perfect picture (just as Roosevelt had earlier promised if allowed to go ashore with the first wave) of the entire situation. I loved Ted. When I finally agreed to his landing with the first wave, I felt sure he would be killed. When I had bade him goodbye, I never expected to see him alive. You can imagine then the emotion with which I greeted him when he came out to meet me [near La Grande Dune]. He was bursting with information.

That’s called courage and leadership.

A website called business insider posted the following in 2012:

On this day 68 years ago, nearly 3 million Allied troops readied themselves for one of the greatest military operations of world history.

D-Day. And the push that led to Hitler’s defeat.

At least 160,000 of those troops landed on the shores of Normandy, France. As they stormed the beaches, General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s confident words summed up the incredible significance of their mission:

“You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you,” he wrote in a famous letter sent to troops before the assault. 

The May Jobs Report

The May jobs report has been released. The numbers are very good.

According to a Friday Fox Business article:

The U.S. economy added jobs at a modest pace in May amid uncertainty surrounding the impact of conflict in the Middle East on the labor market.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported that employers added 172,000 jobs in May. That figure is above the estimates of economists polled by LSEG, who predicted a gain of 85,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%, which was in line with the expectations of LSEG economists.

Revisions were made to the payroll numbers for the prior two months, with March revised up by 29,000 from a gain of 185,000 to a gain of 214,000; while April’s report was revised up by 64,000 from a gain of 115,000 to 179,000.

Taken together, employment in March and April was 93,000 jobs higher than previously reported.

It’s amazing how the numbers are treated when a Republican is in the White House versus when a Democrat is in the White House. Somehow when a Republican is in the White House, the expectations are lower and the revisions tend to raise the numbers. Do you remember how many numbers they had to lower during the Biden administration?

The article notes:

Private payrolls added 120,000 jobs in May, well above the LSEG poll’s prediction of 85,000 jobs. April’s gain of 123,000 jobs was revised up to 177,000 jobs, while March’s gain of 190,000 jobs was revised up to 202,000.

Government payrolls grew by 52,000 jobs in May. Local government accounted for most of the gain, adding 55,000 jobs for the month compared with 1,000 jobs added by the federal government. Those gains were partially offset by a decline of 4,000 jobs in state government.

The manufacturing sector added 7,000 jobs in May, topping the gain of 2,000 jobs expected by LSEG economists.

Because of the war in Iran and the higher gas prices, inflation is an issue. However, the economy is expanding and moving into the private sector, which is where the growth is healthy for the economy.

A Miscarriage Of Justice

On June 4, Fox News posted an article about the protesters who disrupted a Minnesota church service in January.

The article reports:

Dozens of anti-ICE protesters, including former CNN journalist Don Lemon, will avoid state criminal charges after storming a Minnesota church service in January — a decision church leaders blasted as effectively giving activists a free pass to disrupt religious worship.

St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao said in a statement Wednesday that her office would not pursue charges, saying the available evidence did not support prosecution under Minnesota law.

“Following a careful evaluation of the video footage, investigative reports, and other available materials, prosecutors determined that the current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes,” the statement said.

This isn’t surprising, but it is definitely disappointing.

The article notes:

Federal prosecutors have already charged 39 people, including Lemon and another independent journalist, with civil rights violations tied to the disruption. The federal cases remain pending.

There should be consequences for going into a church and disrupting the service. There were also instances of preventing parents from getting to their children in Sunday School. The protesters would not talk to the Pastor, but the Pastor did ask Don Lemon to leave. It’s sad that the state is refusing to enforce the law.

The FACE Act makes it a federal crime, with potentially steep fines and jail time, to use or threaten to use force to “injure, intimidate, or interfere” with a person seeking reproductive health services, or with a person lawfully trying to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship. It also prohibits intentional property damage to a facility providing reproductive health services or a place of religious worship.  (source here)

I hope the protesters are convicted under the federal charges. I have no doubt that if protesters had gone into an abortion clinic and disrupted what was happening there, the state would have pressed charges.

Bringing Sanity To The Federal Firing Process

On June 4th, USA Today posted an article about a change in the process of firing federal employees.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order converting nearly 8,000 federal workers who are in “senior policy-influencing positions” into at-will employees, making it easier for the administration to fire them.

About 97% of the reclassified positions are among the highest-ranking career positions, such as directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers and policy analysts who are involved in drafting regulations and guidance and determining who gets federal grants.

At an Oval Office event June 3 to sign the executive order, Trump invited James Sherk of the Domestic Policy Council, the mastermind behind the change, to share his thoughts.

Sherk said federal employee removal procedures are often lengthy.

“If you have employees who are trying to undermine the wishes of American people by pushing of their own agenda or just incompetent in what they’re doing, agencies have a longstanding typical time getting rid of them. And that’s a particular problem,” Sherk said.

“What this does is basically treats those employees like private sector workers. They can be hired on the basis of merit … but if they’re messing up, then they can be removed real quickly rather than taking a year longer.”

A fact sheet issued by the White House put the idea behind the change in starker terms. It said that because firing employees is burdensome, “agencies seldom remove career employees” for “subversion of Presidential priorities.”

Only about 50,000 employees will be affected by this change–they would be reclassified to Schedule Policy/Career.

The article concludes:

Since the start of the second Trump administration, the federal government has reduced the workforce by more than 300,000 civil service jobs. The cuts were driven by layoffs, buyouts and deferred resignation offers in concert with the Department of Government Efficiency.

We are definitely moving in the right direction.

The Government NEVER Does It Better

On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about a program in Rhode Island to provide affordable housing.

The article reports:

Rhode Island has spent an eye-popping $52.2 million to produce 200 rental units since voters approved a $120 million housing bond in November 2024, a local nonprofit research organization has revealed.

The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council’s 35-page report reveals the imprudence commonly found in government-financed housing initiatives. The Ocean State subsidized half of each rental unit’s development costs, which RIPEC found were almost 50% higher than in the private sector.

If they were subsidizing half of the development costs, that means that each rental unit cost about $520,000. I just looked up the current value of a house that I once owned in Rhode Island. The house is a three-bedroom ranch with one bathroom. It’s current value is approximately $400,000. These rental units cost more than a house!

The article notes:

“If you think about your normal private market, real estate transaction, there are two sources of capital,” says RIPEC Senior Analyst Dr. Jeff Hamill. “When you buy a house, you make a down payment and take out a mortgage — that’s all there is.”

“But when it comes to financing affordable housing, I have seen projects with up to twenty sources of financing,” Hamill continued. “The average probably has six or seven. Each of these sources might have different rules and requirements.”

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, found that each additional funding source extended a project’s timeline by four months and increased costs by $20,500 per unit.

Worse, government-financed housing projects often require developers to integrate hilltop planners’ irrelevant policy priorities. Labor requirements, climate policy, and community benefits agreements bloat building costs.

The article concludes:

“Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, community engagement meetings, and aldermanic prerogative are commonly used to kill or downsize new developments at a time when residents desperately need more housing stock,” he told The Washington Examiner.

Rhode Island does not need another expensive housing bond that enriches bureaucrats, consultants, and favored developers while producing too few homes. It needs a simpler, faster, cheaper housing policy that removes barriers to construction. If lawmakers want more affordable housing, the answer is obvious: Let builders build.

Removing unnecessary regulations would save money for all Americans.

We Are Finally Seeing Some Results

On Monday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about some serious cuts made to the Department of War spending.

The article reports:

The Deep State’s endless gravy train just collided with a massive brick wall.

In a direct and no-nonsense video announcement, Hegseth revealed the Department of War is immediately terminating $5.1 BILLION — yes, BILLION with a capital B — in wasteful contracts for consulting, nonessential services, DEI, climate nonsense, and duplicative IT work.

According to Hegseth, one of the largest savings comes from contracts awarded through the Defense Health Agency to consulting giants, including Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen, and other firms.

Those cuts alone are expected to save taxpayers approximately $1.8 billion.

Another $1.4 billion will be saved by eliminating a software reseller contract tied to enterprise cloud IT services.

Hegseth also highlighted a staggering $500 million Navy contract dedicated to what he characterized as bureaucratic “business process consulting.”

The article concludes:

So, if you’re keeping score at home, today’s cuts bring our running total to nearly $6 billion in wasteful spending over the first six weeks of the DoD-DOGE effort here at the Defense Department.

Their job is to go out and find the stuff that we can get rid of and then flow back into—drive back into—warfighting capabilities here at the Defense Department.

So, we want to thank our friends at DOGE. We want to thank all the folks here that have contributed to this effort.”

This is only a small percentage of the federal budget, but it is a good beginning. The problem has never been the lack of income from taxes–the problem has always been the runaway spending. It looks as if some of the things that DOGE discovered are now being acted on.

Confronting Fake News

On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about President Trump’s debunking some recent fake news.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump went scorched earth on reports that the Iranian regime cut off contact with the U.S. over Israel’s recent military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote, “Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous.”

This is what the President posted on Truth Social:

The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today. Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, “It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!”

The Iranian state media has claimed that Iran suspended the talks because of Israel’s activities in Lebanon.

The article notes:

However, he (President Trump) also stressed that he had not heard this directly from the regime and posited that the reports were meant for media outlets to pick up. Trump on Tuesday said he believes Washington and Tehran could come to an agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz while pushing Iran toward giving up its nuclear program.

…Trump has consistently demanded that Iran abandon its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, material that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. Iran has rejected full concessions on the nuclear matter, but expressed willingness to draw down its program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and other demands.

Meanwhile, Americans are dealing with heightened gas prices as a result of Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which it started shortly after the war started.

It really is time for this to be over, one way or the other.

Some Basic Thoughts On Iran

The article I am sourcing here was posted on Tuesday, so a lot can happen between then and now, but this is how the situation looked then.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the war in Iran.

The article notes:

Me?

I just want the Iranian regime gone. I realize why we couldn’t state that as an aim at the beginning of this action against them, and that was fine with me. Any strike against the mullahs and crippling of their ability to inflict casualties on Americans at large, and, increasingly, their citizens at home, was fine with me.

Every bomb dropped, every missile that hit, every bullet that hit was one less chance for their deadly, malevolent mischief, and one more blow that should have been struck forty-seven years ago and never had been.

Since we entered the ‘negotiation’ phase, knowing who’s on the other side of the table, I have been waiting for the Iranians’ overconfidence – born from jerking Americans around for nearly five decades – to trip them up. For them to smugly pull a ‘one-step-over-the-line, unforgivable strike or act of bravado that gets them smoked back to stone and ash. 

Trump is capable of it, but what would trigger it?

The article includes an X post from Central Command:

U.S., Partner Forces Defend Against Aggressive Iranian Behavior

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. forces successfully defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, and conducted self-defense strikes on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East, June 2.

Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors; however, all failed to hit their intended targets. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces.

Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.

No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.

It’s time to end Iran’s stall tactics and get the job done!

Good News From The Medical Field

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about some of the recent developments in dealing with cancer.

The article quotes a New York Times article:

A drug nearing regulatory approval, daraxonrasib, is the first to substantially extend the lives of patients with pancreatic cancer. It works by targeting a cellular protein that fuels not just nearly all pancreatic tumors, but also many lung and colon cancers. Those three are the leading causes of cancer deaths.

Now, some scientists predict that the approach could wind up being the most significant advance in cancer treatment in 15 years, since the arrival of immunotherapy…

The drug that opened the floodgates, daraxonrasib, has been fast-tracked for review by the Food and Drug Administration and could win approval later this year. Until then, the agency has signed off on a plan by Revolution Medicines, the small Silicon Valley company developing the drug, to offer early access to some patients.

The pills, three taken daily, are not a cure — eventually, daraxonrasib stops working. Many patients do not respond. And it has side effects that can be harsh, including rash, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and raw, split fingertips.

Until now, however, patients with pancreatic cancer have typically been offered grueling chemotherapy that does little to extend their lives.

The article also mentions positive developments in breast cancer and prostate cancer research.

The article concludes:

All of these developments are good news for future patients diagnosed with these cancers and could lead to additional breakthroughs as other companies race to find similar drugs they can bring to market. None of this happens overnight of course but with advances in AI we can expect it to happen much more frequently in the coming years. In ten years time, the cumulative change in treatments and survival rates could be pretty dramatic compared to where we are now.

This is really good news!

It Was Always About The Money

On Monday, Just the News posted an article about where a lot of the money designated for ‘green energy’ actually went.

The article reports:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he has made several criminal referrals after uncovering a major political enrichment scandal that routed billions in Biden-era green energy grants to Democrat cronies. “It’s about self-dealing,” Zeldin tells Just the News.

Zeldin said he has canceled or stopped about $29 billion in EPA grants – including one for $2 billion to a nonprofit tied to longtime Georgia Democrat election activist and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – after unmasking a series of pass-through groups used to route taxpayer monies to the politically connected.

“As you look through all of these pass-through entities, you’re seeing so many connections to former Obama and Biden administration officials and Democratic donors, people who were former Cabinet members, other high-ranking administration officials,” he said during a wide-ranging interview Monday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

Zeldin said he has referred several of the transactions to the EPA inspector general, the agency’s chief watchdog, and the Justice Department for possible prosecution or further investigation. “Those referrals have been made,” he said.

Zeldin said some of the allegations have their roots in legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, when Congress and the White House were all in Democrat hands. “They included all of this funding in this so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. And then they would work with these different agencies of the Biden administration to get it out to their unqualified friends. The whole thing just feels criminal,” he said. “[…] This is clearly something that falls into the category of blatant waste and abuse.”

The article concludes:

Zeldin said he is confident that when all litigation is complete most of the $29 billion in grants he has flagged and blocked will be returned to the Treasury as savings for taxpayers.

“We’re not taking money from left-wing NGOs to give them to right-wing NGOs,” he said. “This is about getting that money back to the taxpayer. This is about making sure that that money coming through an agency like EPA doesn’t have any amount of waste and abuse, that there’s a zero tolerance for it.”

Always remember the following quote:

In March 2016, I posted an article with the following:

…Then listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:

“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.

So what is the goal of environmental policy?

“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.

It’s never been about the environment!

When The Labor Market Changes Faster Than Education

On Monday, Real Clear Markets posted the following headline:

The Labor Market Is Evolving Faster Than the Four-Year Degree

The article reports:

This summer, millions of graduates will face prolonged unemployment or underemployment in a frozen labor market – not because their degrees are inherently useless, but because employers no longer need the knowledge and skills they spent years developing. The real problem with higher education today is not access, cost, or quality, but its timing.

Each year, college freshmen are required to make long-term decisions about their education with little information about their strengths as job seekers, or the labor market they will eventually enter. Majors and coursework are often decided at the outset of enrollment, based on guidance or guesswork about employment conditions years into the future. Shifting gears is possible, but a costly endeavor involving additional semesters, sometimes years, of further schooling.

At the same time, a significant portion of coursework keeping students off the labor market is not directly tied to their intended career paths. In fact, a mere 40 percent of students complete internships or work-based learning programs prior to graduation.

The consequence is a growing disconnect between when education occurs and when it is most valuable. Students are asked to frontload their learning – acquiring most of their skills before entering the workforce – rather than developing them alongside real-world experience. This delays feedback, limits adaptability, and increases the risk that their education does not align with employers’ current needs.

There are some very good points made here, but there are also some things being overlooked. Years ago I worked for a company that I would describe as change-resistant. The person in charge of the day-to-day operations was set in his ways and resistant to computers and basic human resource requirements. He was pretty much running the company the way it would have been run in the early 1970’s. At one point the owner’s son came in and began running the business. He was young and had a much more contemporary business background. His attempts to bring the company into the twenty-first century were met with major resistance. Eventually the company failed. How marketable your college skills are depends very much on the career path you choose–there are many older companies out there that are looking for a slow transition to the twenty-first century. Today’s college students could probably meet that need.

Please follow the link to read the entire article.

Good News From Colorado

On Monday, Red State posted an article about the release of Tina Peters from prison in Colorado.

The article reports:

Tina Peters is free.

The 70-year-old former Colorado elections clerk was released Monday following Gov. Jared Polis’ May commutation of her nine-year sentence on felony charges for her role in breaching the county’s election voting systems and equipment in 2021. She was concerned that there were irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, where Joe Biden received a mind-bending 81 million votes despite campaigning mostly from his basement.

…Although the mainstream media constantly refers to her as an “election denier,” and many Democrats portray her as the personification of evil, it was nice to see a Dem actually speaking up for free speech and against prosecutorial overreach:

In an interview with 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark, Polis said he commuted Peters’ sentence because he felt she was oversentenced for expressing inaccurate, but constitutionally protected views.

“She committed a crime. What’s an issue here is how long the sentence is,” Polis said. “I agree with the appeals court that in the sentencing hearing, the judge incorrectly looked at and considered her bizarre viewpoints, her speech, and held her speech against her.”

According to a Just the News article from November 2021:

Peters said in August at a news conference, “The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s office directed her staff to turn off the video surveillance of the voting equipment,” CBS 4 Denver reported.

Peters explained that she had copied files on the voting machines for security before the update was made.

“I was concerned they were going to delete important election files, I did a backup image before and after they did that,” Peters told the news outlet.

She alleges that the images showed numerous voter files were removed during the update and her job was to supervise the files.

In October, Peters was prohibited by a Mesa County judge from overseeing the county’s election in a ruling on a lawsuit filed by Griswold, according to Colorado Politics.

I don’t know if the corruption Tina Peters exposed will ever be dealt with, but at least she is free.

Getting Drugs Into America Without Going Through Customs

On Monday, The New York Post posted an article about the recent discovery of a tunnel running between the Tijuana area and the United States.

The article reports:

Cops on both sides of the US-Mexico border are investigating a sprawling underground passage uncovered in the Tijuana area that is believed to extend toward the US.

The tunnel was found Saturday in the Nueva Tijuana neighborhood during a raid carried out by Mexican federal authorities, with support from the Mexican navy, according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office.

Investigators said the hidden passage stretches roughly 869 feet and sits about 21 feet below ground, making it one of the more substantial cross-border tunnel discoveries in recent years.

The article notes:

The underground route was uncovered after authorities executed a search warrant at a property in eastern Tijuana.

During the operation, officers seized a variety of items, including ammunition, cellphones, bank cards, a digital video recorder and dozens of doses of methamphetamine.

While inspecting the site, investigators located a wood-lined tunnel that officials believe was constructed to reach the US border.

Mexican authorities said evidence recovered during the raid suggests the property may have been used as a logistical center for criminal activity, including the storage and movement of narcotics, weapons and explosive materials.

…“Special Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego, in coordination with our Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) partners, are conducting a criminal enforcement operation involving a cross-border subterranean tunnel in Otay Mesa, CA,” a rep for Homeland Security Investigations told NBC 7 in a statement.

“To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation and ensure the safety of all involved, we are unable provide additional details at this time,” the rep added.

The wall and active border enforcement have made a major difference in the number of people and the amount of drugs coming across our southern border; however, there will always be people trying to skirt the rules. Hopefully this tunnel can be promptly destroyed.

Again?

On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a recent bus accident on Interstate 95 in Virginia.

The article reports:

A crash in Virginia that killed five people last week involved a non-English-speaking driver of a bus who obtained a commercial license in New York state, U.S. Transportation Secretary Duffy said on Sunday.

Among those killed were a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, officials said, adding that the driver of the bus slammed into stopped traffic on Interstate 95 in Virginia. The driver, Jing S. Dong of Staten Island, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and additional charges are likely, Virginia State Police said.

The prosecutor’s office in Stafford County, Virginia, said Dong was arrested and would be in custody while he is treated for his injuries at a hospital.

Police officials confirmed that the driver of the bus, a man originally from China who became a U.S. citizen, “doesn’t speak English,” said Duffy in a May 29 post on X.

“He received his commercial drivers license from New York State in 2024. Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states’ accountable, enforcing the rules of the road, and cracking down on drivers who can’t speak English,” Duffy wrote. “If you can’t be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus.”

The article notes:

Federal law requires the drivers of commercial vehicles to be able to speak and read English well enough to perform their job safely, according to the White House.

The article concludes:

Earlier this month, Duffy signed an order announcing new guidelines that truck drivers must meet the federal requirements to understand English well enough to understand road signs and be able to communicate with law enforcement officials.

A number of states have allowed drivers to take their license tests in other languages even though they are required to demonstrate English proficiency. California offered tests in 20 other languages.

American road signs are in English. If someone cannot speak or read English, they should not have a driver’s license–commercial or otherwise.

Completing The Investigation

On Saturday, Front Page Magazine posted an article about the investigation into the 2017 shooting at a Congressional baseball game. It seems that the investigation was whitewashed and Americans were never told the truth about the motive.

The article reports:

Instead of classifying the incident as domestic terrorism, the FBI falsely claimed that Hodgkinson had no political motive and was trying to commit suicide.

9 years later, a reckoning is coming and the leftists are fuming.

FBI Director Kash Patel last week fired a senior intelligence analyst who played a role in the FBI’s 2017 assessment of the motives of the gunman who attacked a House Republican baseball practice, a report that drew the ire of the GOP because it did not label the incident as domestic terrorism.

Four people familiar with the matter said Deputy Assistant Director Emily Morales received a letter from Patel on Friday ending her FBI employment, after which she turned in her badge and was “walked out” by FBI security, as is standard practice.

Morales could not be reached for comment.

The article notes:

…The FBI brass and agents on the scene repeated what they knew to be an obvious lie. And the Hodgkinson cover up was just incident in a series of cover-ups.

The Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) has released its report on mass public attacks in 2017. It mentions, “terrorism” only once and the word “Islam” doesn’t appear in it at all.

That’s strange because two of the attacks, the Lower Manhattan car ramming and the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting rampage, were Islamic terrorist attacks. The perpetrators, Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbeki immigrant, and Aashiq Hammad (Esteban Santiago), both credited ISIS with inspiring their killing sprees. These two Muslim terrorists had managed to kill a combined 13 people while wounding another 18.

And then there was Kori Ali Muhammad who had murdered 4 people in Fresno. Muhammad had shouted, “Allahu Akbar” when confronting the police just like Sayfullo Saipov would 3,000 miles away.

The article concludes:

We need a major housecleaning when it comes to intel analysis. We have people in the FBI and the intel community actively covering up leftist and Islamic terrorism and that means we’re fighting blind. Meanwhile actual counterterrorism experts were forced out during the Obama administration and experts like Robert Spencer would never be allowed near any federal law enforcement agency. That urgently needs to change.

We can’t solve a problem if we refuse to acknowledge it.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Is anyone reading this old enough to remember the ‘don’t fool mother nature’ commercials? They were margarine commercials where mother nature created havoc after someone tried to fool her. I don’t know about the margarine part, but I do know that we tamper with nature at our own risk. We have a large number of great white sharks off the New England coast because we are protecting the seals. I don’t think creating a feeding ground for sharks was the goal, but that’s where we are. Now some brilliant scientists are about to do something that defies the imagination.

On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

America’s most infamous tech company has a bold, potentially risky plan to supposedly reduce the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses, assuming the federal government will sign off on the proposal.

As The New York Post reported, Google wants federal approval to unleash approximately 32 MILLION mosquitoes into the states of California and Florida over the next two years.

This is supposedly part of an effort to halt the spread of several serious mosquito-borne illnesses, including West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever.

The Google researchers particularly focused on West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis. The former is the leading mosquito-borne disease in the US and is widespread in California amongst local bird and mosquito populations.

…Rather than releasing biting insects, the company plans to release male mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacteria. When the infected males mate with wild female mosquitoes, the offspring do not survive, helping suppress mosquito populations over time.

Because only female mosquitoes bite humans, experts say the releases would not increase the number of biting mosquitoes.

Are these the same scientists who regarded kudzu as a beautiful, ornamental ground cover? Are these the same scientists whose hybrid silk worms got loose from the Museum of Science in Boston and became known as gypsy moths? You get the picture. Let’s not increase the mosquito population in order to decrease it. What happens if the mosquitoes find some way to adapt?

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Actually, unless you live in Los Angeles, these are someone else’s tax dollars, but the fact remains that this is a total waste and abuse of the taxpayers’ money.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

A convicted murderer and alleged gang member was being paid by Los Angeles taxpayers to patrol neighborhoods as a “peace ambassador” until federal authorities arrested him Friday morning. Now, city leaders are facing questions about how he got the job in the first place.

Michael Angel Alvarez, 41, aka “Diablo,” was arrested on Friday during a traffic stop for possession of body armor by a violent felon, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. 

Alvarez was being paid by Los Angeles city tax dollars to patrol as a “peace ambassador,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

A program launched by LA Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, peace ambassadors were meant to be a way “to support Angelenos in moments of crisis” by providing people who are not law enforcement to aid in non-emergency situations, according to Hernandez’s website. 

“Each team consists of two unarmed workers who have lived experience in the justice or gang systems and are trained in violence prevention and trauma-informed care,” the website states.

According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Alvarez earned approximately $58,000 through the program last year. Essayli alleged that Alvarez maintained ties to the 18th Street gang while employed by the city.

I can actually see the value of having a former gang member act as an ambassador to the gangs, but I would want to be absolutely sure that the former gang member had a total change of heart and lifestyle. I also would not be willing to pay him for the work. There have been many people who have come out of very rough situations who have found a relationship with Jesus and totally turned their lives around. I am personally aware of two pastors who spent time in jail and do an awesome job as pastors. However, this is an individual thing, and simply holding out money without thoroughly checking the person’s current alliances is a really bad idea. If someone volunteered without being paid, that might be an indication of a heart that wanted to help.