Tag Archives: President Biden

The Hysteria Continues

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The political left’s hysteria over the addition of a ballroom to the White House continues. Those objecting choose to overlook the fact that the addition is paid for by private money and that the addition is needed to provide a place for larger gatherings. Meeting in tents outside because the White House is limited in the number of people it can host is simply not appropriate. There are not that many months when the climate of Washington, D.C., is all that comfortable outside–humidity, heat. and cold are normal occurrences. Those objecting also seem to forget that additions and changes to the White House have occurred multiple times over the years–paid for with taxpayer money.

On Thursday, Townhall reported:

New York AG Letitia James vowed to make a name for herself by prosecuting President Trump, vowing to “get” the former President and going so far as to try and seize his properties. Frank Luntz warned her that such a move would make Trump more popular with voters. Luntz was right, and now James is facing charges of mortgage fraud.

The Left is calling that prosecution a “weaponization” of our justice system. That’s adorable for a variety of reasons, of course. Enforcing the law is not a “weaponization” of anything, and Democrats spent years telling us “no one is above the law.”

What they meant by that, of course, is that Republicans aren’t above the law. Democrats, on the other hand, are.

Rather than learning from this — after all, many people warned them that weaponizing the government against Republicans would backfire — Democrats are doubling down.

Case in point: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just vowed to investigate the people who made private donations to President Trump’s White House ballroom project.

The article notes:

Jeffries said, without evidence, that the donors were probably using the donations to curry favor with the Trump administration.

“More likely, this is part of what Donald Trump has been doing since day one of his presidency: running the largest pay-to-play scheme in the history of the country. And probably soliciting donations from people who’ve got business before the United States government,” Jeffries said.

“And all of this is going to have to be investigated. It will. All of this will have to be uncovered. It will. And these people are going to be held accountable, no matter how long it takes,” Jeffries continued. “And that’s a warning to all of these people participating in this scheming to manipulate taxpayer dollars and, of course, to destroy the people’s house. The White House belongs to the American people. It doesn’t belong to Donald Trump.”

Right. And 75 million Americans voted for Donald Trump to be president. It’s their house, too. Hakeem Jeffries went on MSNBC and threatened people who are making lawful donations to improve the White House.

President Trump was a successful businessman before entering politics. In the circle of people he hung around with, a donation of several thousand dollars is probably not even noteworthy. The idea that this is pay-to-play is ridiculous, particularly since the Democrats in Congress never seemed to question President Biden’s seemingly endless supply of funds.

Ending Partisan Partnerships

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On Monday, American Greatness reported that FBI Director Kash Patel has ended the partnership between the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is good news. The ADL is not a neutral player.

The article reports:

FBI Director Kash Patel has formally cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that were enacted under former director James Comey, saying, “The FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”

Patel accused Comey of writing “love letters” to the ADL and of embedding FBI agents within the group that has recently been under fire from Republican lawmakers for listing Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization as an extremist group.

The ADL had described TPUSA as being tied to, “a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.”

The article notes:

The FBI also announced that it is cutting its ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) over the organization’s history of labeling conservative groups and individuals as extremists.

America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit law firm, has documented the close coordination between the SPLC and the former Biden Justice Department, including training and data access.

Both the ADL and SPLC are accused of flagging political targets for the Biden DOJ  and contributing to the weaponization of government against parents who spoke out against school boards or activists who peacefully protested near abortion clinics.

The FBI has been arresting criminals (as they are supposed to do) since President Trump took office. As of March, the FBI had arrested three people on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. During 2024, the Biden administration arrested none of the Ten Most Wanted. Obviously, the focus of the FBI needed to change, and it has.

I Don’t Think This Is What The Founding Fathers Had In Mind

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about how some of the White House staff under President Biden viewed their jobs.

The article reports:

A former aide to President Joe Biden said White House staff felt justified doing “undemocratic things” in order to stop the “existential threat” that was Donald Trump.

Axios reporter Alex Thompson revealed on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream that White House insiders revealed to him they often viewed themselves as the decision makers in the Biden administration and were shielded from the president’s oversight.

“If you believe — and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe — that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things,” Thompson said.

Another aide also reportedly told Thompson that former President Biden “just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years.”

“He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while,” Thompson said the aide told him. “His aides could pick up the slack.”

“When you’re voting for president, you’re voting for the aides around him,” the aide said.

No, actually you are voting for the president and his policies. So who is the threat to our democracy (actually we are a republic)?

It is concerning to me that a group of unelected people who are supposed to be aiding the President in his job would take it upon themselves to take over the job of President.

I think it’s time for our schools to start teaching the U.S. Constitution.

Do We Have A Congress Or A Club?

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A club is a group of friends brought together by a single interest or purpose. Joining a club can be advantageous to its members–improving skills in a certain area such as sewing, gardening, or even investing. Generally speaking a club wants to grow, and a club will stand behind its members when necessary. The members of a club will also work to protect the club from anything that might negatively impact the power or prestige of the club.

The American Congress (according to the U.S. Constitution) is responsible for making laws and controlling the purse strings. It is elected by the people to represent the people. There are also committees in Congress to investigate various matters and make recommendations to the Justice Department when applicable.

Lately, Congressional investigations have become partisan shouting matches where activities that are illegal are exposed and ignored. It is as if the participants are participating in a play. They are willing to list offenses, but not willing to hold any of the “club members” accountable.

Where are the consequences for lying about the Russia Hoax? Where are the consequences for the January 6th Committee destroying evidence (oh, that’s right–they were pardoned by the autopen)? Where were the consequences for placing classified material on an unsecured server (actually that was the Justice Department)?

It is becoming obvious that President Biden was not running the country for the past four years. Who was? Does anyone care who was? If Congress investigates, will they put on a show–shouting and accusing each other of being partisan–or will there be consequences for the lie perpetuated on the American people for four years? Didn’t anyone notice the lack of cabinet meetings? Joe Biden held just nine full Cabinet meetings during his entire term. Who was at those meetings? The last meeting was run by Jill Biden. Did she even have the security clearances to be included?  Where was the 25th Amendment?

William F. Buckley, Jr., once said, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.” I feel that way about Congress.

The “Guardians Of Justice” Are Suddenly Awake

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about some of the judges who are issuing Temporary Restraining Orders to stop President Trump’s policies. Oddly enough, they were never concerned when the Biden administration ignored the law or refused to enforce the laws already on the books.

The article reports:

Where were these Guardians of Justice when Joe Biden illegally invited and lured in millions and millions of “new Americans and undocumented immigrants?” Where? Why nowhere, of course. These robes seemingly had very little to say about U.S. Code § 1325 (based on Article IV, Section IV of the Constitution) and its undeniable violation. A violation that has, and will continue to for decades, fundamentally changed the history of America. Letting in millions and millions of aliens, and then making the citizenry pay for their everything from schooling, health care, drunk driving deaths, rapes, murders, and any other crimes they committed while here has changed life for us all on many different levels. 

Now, progs like to use descriptors from “hard-working, good people seeking a better life” to “who will pick our crops and make up our hotel beds?” (Note to any progressives in the unlikely event of reading this: The latter sounds an awful lot like “who will pick our cotton and sweep up around the Big House?”) Basically, I don’t care if they are good people; I only care if they are bad people because they should not be here in the first place. We have plenty of our own good people and really don’t need any new bad ones.

Still, where were these judges when Biden (or whoever was pushing the knobs behind the curtain) was busy border-busting? This newfound sanctimony and sudden respect for the rule of law was absent over the last four years, and the impact it will have on this country is going to be generational.

The article concludes:

Trump, in his last term and nearly 80 years old, could also simply ignore these rulings and enforce his own orders anyway. Joe Biden defied a SCOTUS ruling and forgave $48 billion in student loan debt, and nothing happened to him/his administration. No federal judge — neither on the circuit nor the highest court there is — seemed to have anything to say about that. Well, why shouldn’t Trump do the same thing and just ignore them?

Because as tempting as that might be, Trump has more integrity than that, and he knows it would help to wreck the system even more so than it already is. So he goes through the appellate process and tries to right the wrongs, relying on the same judiciary system that screwed him in the first place. I just hope there are still some good judges left in that pool.

The Lies Told In The Quest For Clean Energy

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a study of the carbon footprint of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The article reports:

The Biden administration deliberately buried a final draft version of a study that would have undermined its January 2024 decision to pause approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, according to four Department of Energy (DOE) sources.

Former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and former President Joe Biden announced the LNG freeze in January 2024, stating that it would remain in place until the DOE could conduct a fresh study of the climate and economic impacts of LNG export growth. The Biden DOE finalized a draft of the study in 2023 and subsequently buried it because the initial version’s findings would have contradicted the administration’s rationale for the LNG freeze, according to four sources inside the Trump DOE granted anonymity by the Daily Caller News Foundation to freely discuss a sensitive matter.

“The Energy Department has learned that former Secretary Granholm and the Biden White House intentionally buried a lot of data and released a skewed study to discredit the benefits of American LNG,” one DOE source told the DCNF. “They were prioritizing their own political ambitions over the interests of the American people, and the administration intentionally deceived the American public to advance an agenda that harmed American energy security, the environment and American lives.”

The article notes:

While the September 2023 and December 2024 versions of the paper bear the same name, the final version released to the public did not include a specific type of analysis of LNG exports known as the consideration of market effects, Trump DOE sources told the DCNF. That particular analysis — included in the buried September 2023 version of the study, but not the final product — found that U.S. LNG exports would bring down global emissions by displacing more polluting sources of energy abroad, and its absence from the December 2024 version allowed the Biden DOE to skew the final report’s findings against increasing LNG exports.

This report is interesting considering the fact that according to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, President Biden was unaware that he had shut down LNG exports (article here). According to Speaker Johnson, the President was only aware that he had ordered a study. It is becoming obvious that in recent years, our government has lied to us about a number of things.

How Much Did The Inflation Reduction Act Actually Cost?

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about the actual cost of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was not about inflation–it was about subsidizing green energy.

The article reports:

When former President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022, it did so along party lines with not a single Republican voting for it. At the time, a Senate one-pager summarized the law as costing taxpayers $369 billion, based on Congressional Budget Review (CBO) estimates. 

A new study from the Cato Institute finds that the law could cost as much as $4.67 trillion by 2050. That’s roughly 12 times the stated cost. The study also concludes that the subsidies are undermining innovation and driving investments toward subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand. 

“The government should not have a hold on the economy in such a way that it can truly distort entire markets, and that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is,” Joshua Loucks, research associate with Cato Institute and co-author of the analysis, said in a video explaining the study. 

…The subsidies for the IRA come in two forms — production tax credits (PTC), which provide tax credits per unit of energy produced, or investment tax credits, which provide tax credits for various investments in carbon-free energy. Which one developers take depends on the project and their business preferences. With the ITC, the subsidies provide an infusion of cash up front, whereas the PTCs provide payouts over time. 

Some of these are not capped, and others are only phased out when certain greenhouse gas emission reductions are met. Using models from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the study shows there’s little likelihood that these reductions will be met in the next 25 years, meaning the subsidies have no meaningful end date. 

The article concludes:

The study’s authors argue that, in light of the IRA’s actual costs, a full repeal of its energy subsidies is needed. If a full repeal isn’t possible, Congress should limit taxpayer liabilities by placing caps on the dollar value of the subsidies, add expiration dates instead of emission reduction targets — or both. 

“Delaying action only strengthens the political and economic interests tied to its subsidies, making reform even more difficult as the web of government handouts expands,” Loucks and Fisher warn in an article on “The Fishtank,” Fisher’s Substack. 

Repealing the energy subsidies in the IRA is a wonderful idea. This is another budget cut the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) needs to look at.

The Cost of War

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War is expensive. It costs lives, loss of infrastructure, problems with the food supply, and a basic disruption of everything when it occurs. Unfortunately, it is also profitable for some people. It should also be noted that those who declare war are rarely the people called to fight the war they declare.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Since that time, America has given roughly $175 Billion dollars to Ukraine to fight that war. President Trump is now in the process of attempting to end that war.

Who is profiting from that war? Obviously, the defense industry’s weapons making business is doing well—they have to replace the weapons being used. But there seem to be other people profiting from the war as well. President Zelensky claims that Ukraine has only actually received $75 Billion. I have heard reports that the difference is simply a bookkeeping technicality, but I am not necessarily convinced of that.

Let’s look at some of the things that made it possible for Russia to invade Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The price of a barrel of oil in February 2022 was $107.69. To provide some perspective, in January 2021, when President Biden took office, oil was selling for $63.68 a barrel. Because of the Biden administration’s energy policies which ended American energy independence, by February 2022 the price of a barrel of oil was $107.69. The Russian economy is dependent on oil exports. Oil prices are determined internationally. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has some control over oil prices, but that control lessens when America is exporting oil. Because the Russian economy is dependent on oil exports (and thus dependent on the cost of a barrel of oil), when the price of oil falls, Russia experiences fiscal deficits, a weaker economy, and a weaker currency. When President Trump was in office, the price of oil was low, and Russia could not afford to invade Ukraine. The invasion of Ukraine had to do with a weak President (President Biden), but it also had to do with the escalating price of oil. That is no longer the case. Oil prices today are roughly $70 a barrel.

It is quite possible that we will see the war in Ukraine end in the coming weeks. To some degree that is due to the negotiating skills of President Trump, but it is also due to the economic and energy policies of President Trump. We are learning that putting a man in the White House with business skills will help all Americans economically as well as pave the way for peace by using economic leverage.

The Actions Of A Nasty Little Man

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On Saturday, Townhall posted an article illustrating one way the Biden administration was involved in the lawfare against President Trump. There were many aspects of the actions of the Biden administration that were clearly illegal.

The article quotes Fox News:

The Biden White House turned over government cellphones belonging to President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to the FBI in May 2022 as part of a bureau probe into the aftermath of the 2020 election, tying Trump to that investigation without sufficient predication, Fox News Digital has learned.

The FBI did not need a warrant to physically obtain the government phones from the Biden White House.

But after acquiring the devices, agents began drafting a search warrant to extract the phones’ data, sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital.

“The Biden White House played right along with the FBI’s ‘gotcha’ scheme against Trump,” a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital. “Biden’s Office of White House Counsel, under the leadership of Dana Remus and Jonathan Su, gave its blessing and accommodation for the FBI to physically obtain Trump and Pence’s phones in early May 2022. Weeks later, the FBI began drafting a search warrant to extract the phones’ data.”

The phones were obtained and entered as evidence as part of the FBI’s original anti-Trump 2020 election investigation, which eventually was taken over by special counsel Jack Smith. That case was known inside the bureau as “Arctic Frost” and was opened April 13, 2022, by anti-Trump former FBI agent Timothy Thibault.

Thibault, according to whistleblowers, broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying Trump to the probe without sufficient predication. Thibault broke protocol by taking action to open the investigation and involve Trump despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his role. Only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations.

There were a lot of rules and policies ignored in the treatment of President Trump during the Biden administration. It would be nice to see the people who ignored those rules and policies held accountable. Unfortunately, if the case of Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith is any indication, there will not be serious consequences for their actions. Clinesmith lied on the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) application. His lie resulted in the illegal surveillance of President Trump and his campaign and to the Russia Hoax. Clinesmith in August pleaded guilty to “one count of making a false statement within both the jurisdiction of the executive branch and judicial branch of the U.S. government, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.” He was given 12 months probation, 400 hours of community service, and no fine.

There Are Financial Reasons Some Judges Are Fighting President Trump

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Om Thursday, The Daily Signal posted an article detailing the background of some of the judges opposing the agenda of President Trump.

The article notes:

Federal judges ruling against President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions have been almost entirely appointees of his two Democrat predecessors.

Some were previously activists, others were steeped in Democrat politics, and one is a former clerk for then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor. These judges have issued rulings to block Trump’s policies on immigration, federal spending, the Department of Government Efficiency, and other matters. 

Plaintiffs have been “forum shopping” to attain more favorable rulings, said Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice. Forum shopping means they search for specific parts of the country where judges are more likely to be liberal and sympathetic to their case.

Here is some information on some of the judges involved:

A one-time major Democrat donor, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island, recently sided with a group of Democrat state attorneys general in a lawsuit to block Trump’s attempted funding freeze for numerous federal grants to nongovernmental organizations. 

From 2000 until when President Barack Obama nominated him to the federal bench in 2010, McConnell contributed about $60,000 to Democrat candidates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed his nomination, noting his long career as a lawyer who sued over lead paint and tobacco, Forbes reported. 

…In a separate case targeting the order on the funding freeze, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of the District of Columbia, an appointee of President Joe Biden, imposed a restraining order on the freeze. AliKhan was previously on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the D.C. solicitor general. 

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali of the District of Columbia, a Biden appointee, enforced a restraining order to prevent the spending freeze on foreign aid disbursed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 2020, Ali contributed $1,500 to Biden’s presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. He also made modest contributions to numerous other Democrat candidates. 

…U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of the District of Maryland, an Obama appointee, blocked the Trump administration from conducting immigration raids and arrests at certain houses of worship. 

During much of Obama’s time in office, Chuang was the deputy general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Before that, from 2007 to 2009, he was the deputy chief investigative counsel for the Democrat majority on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was also a past contributor to several Democrat candidates, including giving $750 to Obama’s 2008 campaign and $1,250 to the 2004 presidential bid of Democrat John Kerry. 

You get the picture. Please follow the link above to the article for information on some of the other judges involved. None of these judges can realistically be expected to be objective.

The Double Standard In The Church

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On Tuesday, The American Thinker posted an article about some of the recent comments made by the Catholic Church.

The article reports:

Within days of Donald Trump’s November landslide, Bishop Mark Seitz, head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, warned that Their Eminences were preparing to “’raise our voice loudly’” if Trump’s immigration policy “’violates basic human rights.’”

This episcopal loudness signals the end of the USCCB’s scrupulously-maintained four-year vow of silence through the entire presidency of the “devoutly” Catholic Joe Biden.

Their silence spoke volumes to Catholics witnessing Biden doing his utmost to wage open war on the most fundamental teachings of the Church. Not only was this “‘good Catholic’” (Biden claimed Pope Francis described him this way during a 2021 audience), the most extreme pro-abortion president in history, but his DoJ used federal law enforcement to imprison peaceful pro-lifers, and target traditional Catholics as “potential domestic terrorists.”

Biden proclaimed “transgender equality” to be “the civil rights issue of our time,” and weaponized his administration to pressure international medical experts to abandon limits on trans surgeries for minors. He transformed the White House lawn into a Pride Celebration freakshow of gender deviants, which went viral thanks to one particularly repulsive “transgender woman” flashing his fake breasts for the cameras.

The article concludes:

Last October, a survey of Catholic Trump supporters showed an astounding 76 percent agreeing with the statement, “I support Trump because of his stance on immigration.” Are Pope Francis and the American bishops really telling all these Catholics their consciences are “wrongly-formed”? and their sole recourse is to renounce MAGA and embrace the Left’s disastrous erasure of our national borders?

This is a grave indictment. Yet, for some reason, Catholic Democrats are spared such pastoral rebukes. On one side we have a formal papal letter effectively anathematizing any Catholic who agrees with deporting illegal immigrants; on the other, an offhand interview remark entrusting President Biden’s intransigent abortion extremism to his “‘good Catholic’” conscience. 

As far as the bishops go, too much of this incoherence is the fruit of Marxist thought prevalent in Catholic seminaries in the 1960s. The USCCB’s one-sided social-justice hectoring exemplifies Herbert Marcuse’s “liberating tolerance” — “intolerance against movements from the Right, and toleration of movements from the Left.”

Millions of Catholics, watching how their bishops publicly fawn over politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden — whose progressive views on climate change or income redistribution they share — infer falsely that “good Catholic” and “good Democrat” are interchangeable. The Babylon Bee headline, “Pope Francis Announces That God Agrees With Whatever It Is Democrats Want To Do Right Now,” has a disturbing basis in reality.

President Trump has emerged as a sort of litmus test to see if people in authority actually have principles. When they become so anti-Trump that they will justify open borders knowing that it includes drug and human trafficking in order to support a Democrat President, they have lost their moral compass.

The Money Machine Is Drying Up For The Cartels

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about the migrant smuggling machine that has made so much money during the past four years.

The article reports:

What was once a “well-oiled migrant smuggling machine” into the United States has collapsed thanks to President Trump’s border enforcement and promise to deport every illegal alien in the country. So, to make money now, many of these same smugglers are taking self-deportees back to Venezuela.

Naturally, the far-left Associated Press reports on this as though it’s a bad thing…

“They once braved the jungles of the Darien Gap, trekking days along the perilous migrant passage dividing Colombia and Panama with a simple goal: seek asylum in the U.S.,” reports the AP. “Now, boat-by-boat, those migrants … have given up after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum, and are returning to the countries they once sought to escape.”

Hey, all Trump did was enforce the law. If people want asylum, there is a legal way to ask for asylum at a point of entry. These folks didn’t do that. Former President Joe Biden tried to aid and abet their lawlessness with an app that would grant them an asylum hearing, but that’s now how it works, that is not the law, and Trump killed the app.

So now, tee hee…

After explaining that the boats had until recently been “part of a well oiled migrant smuggling machine” that was extremely lucrative for the smugglers, who took advantage of a seemingly unending influx of “hundreds of thousands” heading in the United States, AP came to my favorite part:

“But now that much of the Darien’s migrant smuggling industry has collapsed, some smugglers are taking advantage of the reverse migration to charge steep costs to migrants – between $200 and $250 per person, including minors – for the boat rides.”

I admit that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. However, as long as we elect politicians rather than patriots, that system is not going to be fixed. Meanwhile, we need to enforce the laws as they are written. When illegal aliens self-deport, it saves the government money. That is not a bad thing.

It Pays To Check The Facts Before You Lecture

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On Saturday, Townhall posted an article that essentially fact-checked a recent statement by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Rachel Maddow was criticizing President Donald Trump for giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The only problem with the criticism was that the contract was not awarded under President Trump, but under President Biden.

The article reports:

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has once again found herself in hot water after making false claims about President Donald Trump giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The liberal pundit, known for her questionable takes and liberal meltdowns, fabricated this narrative despite no evidence to back up the allegation. This latest misstep only adds to the growing list of inaccuracies from Maddow and other left-wing media figures attempting to distort the truth to discredit Trump and Musk.

…Although Maddow accused Musk of “self-dealing” regarding the multi-million dollar armored Tesla deal, she neglected to mention that the procurement list was revised under Biden on December 13, 2024— several weeks before Trump took office. The State Department stated that the Biden administration had requested it to explore options for adding armor to off-the-shelf electric vehicles, and the project was still in its initial phases.

Anyone who still watches the mainstream media and believes what it says is not only uninformed–they are misinformed.

Quotes Of The Week

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I can always depend on Senator Kennedy of Louisiana to provide some good quotes. On January 29, The Media Research Center posted a few:

Kennedy warned that the U.S. is “headed for a multiple-vehicle pileup” caused by the mutually essential needs to extend the tax cuts enacted during President Donald Trump’s first term while also cutting federal government spending.

If the Trump tax cuts aren’t extended, taxes will go up by $4.3 trillion, with 60% of the increase hitting middle class and lower income Americans, Kennedy cautioned.

Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt has topped $36 trillion, or $102,000 per citizen, the senator noted, stressing the need to spur economic growth.

“I don’t want to blame it all on President Biden, but, if the shoe fits, wear it, Cinderella,” Kennedy said, regarding the nation’s unprecedented debt fueled by wanton spending.

The article concludes:

“So, I hope all the folks today will go home and take off their Batman t-shirts, wash them [because they’re] probably a little sweaty.

“I hope everybody will go home – those who drink, have a cocktail – take their meds and put this all in perspective. That’s what that OMB memorandum (on excessive spending) was all about.”

Kennedy then closed with his vehicular warning:

“If you don’t believe we’re going to have to cut spending substantially, then you shouldn’t be driving.”

He is right. If we don’t cut spending, we will totally tank our economy.

Taking Economic Action Against Iran

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On Friday, The Jewish News Syndicate reported that the Trump administration has put sanctions on Iran’s oil shipments. The money from Iranian oil has been used to fund terrorism around the world. Iranian oil paid for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The article reports:

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Thursday on an oil smuggling network generating hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran.

Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff used front companies to ship oil and used the revenue to fund terrorist groups, including Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, according to the department.

“The Iranian regime remains focused on leveraging its oil revenues to fund the development of its nuclear program, to produce its deadly ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles and to support its regional terrorist proxy groups,” stated Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary. “The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any attempt by Iran to secure funding for these malign activities.”

Thursday’s action is the first round of new sanctions on the Islamic Republic since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday re-imposing a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran.

The sanctions target part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and shell companies that help Iran smuggle oil and ultimately sell it to China.

When President Trump left office in 2020, Iran was collapsing financial because of the sanctions the Trump administration had put in place during President Trump’s first term. Unfortunately, one of the first things President Biden did was remove those sanctions. We may have missed a golden opportunity for regime change in Iran. Hopefully, the new sanctions will have the same impact the old sanctions had.

Running The Government Like A Business

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President Trump has been a successful businessman for years. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but overall, he has done very well. He has the mindset of a businessman–keep costs down, eliminate waste, and make a profit. The federal government is not necessarily supposed to make a profit, but keeping costs down and eliminating waste is a pretty good idea. That’s what the Washington establishment fears.

On January 30th, The Daily Signal posted an article about the firing of the 17 inspectors general. The article points out some of the reasons they were fired.

The article reports:

There is a very strong argument to be made that those inspectors general failed to do their jobs during the past four years. Their failures provide Trump with all of the “due cause” he needs.

Just two examples suffice: their failure to investigate the misbehavior of their departments in attempting to interfere in the 2022 and 2024 federal elections and in using government resources to violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens and censor their opinions and social media accounts.

…In 2021, Joe Biden issued an executive order directing all federal agencies–including every one of the agencies whose inspectors general were fired–to get involved in state election administration. The agencies had to implement “strategic” plans to use agency personnel and resources to persuade and “assist” members of the public who interacted with those agencies to register and vote in federal elections. That included providing access to “vote-by-mail ballot applications,” identification documents, and multilingual voting materials.

…Think about that for a moment. What possible business is it of the Energy or Commerce or Transportation Departments to play a role–any role–in our elections? Zero. Zip. Zilch.  

…Congress never appropriated any funding for any federal agency in the executive branch to engage in voter registration and ballot activities, with only one exception: the Federal Voting Assistance Program office at the Pentagon that helps overseas military personnel and their families.

Yet not a single inspector general investigated any of these illegal activities and illegal spending of taxpayer funds at any of their agencies. Why not? 

The article also cites other examples where the government violated the civil rights of its citizens and the inspectors general sat on their hands. Please follow the link above for further details.

Gaslighting At Its Best

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President Biden’s pardons caused a bit of controversy. The concept of preemptive pardons is rather unique. However, the Democrats’ and the media’s response to the preemptive pardons is interesting.

On Wednesday, PJ Media posted an article about Senator Warren’s explanation of why President Biden had to issue the preemptive pardons.

The article reports:

..But at some point, Anderson Cooper asked her about the familial pardons Joe Biden issued about 15 minutes before leaving the White House and heading off to Shady Pines or wherever they sent him. 

“The last-minute pardons by then President Biden to his family members, you know there were pardons earlier this morning which were reported on, but these last-minute pardons, he chose to, I mean, make it last minute when there wouldn’t be as much attention, obviously, and they wouldn’t kind of overshadow the ride to the capitol — was that a mistake?” Cooper asked. 

Initially, Warren replied with a simple statement: “The president — President Biden — should answer for himself.”  

Fair enough. But she couldn’t leave it at that. Not only did she not leave it for Biden to “answer for himself,” but she also went on to blame someone else for these sneaky, last-minute pardons: Donald Trump. 

Warren explained that poor Biden is just a kind-hearted old family man who had no choice but to make these pardons out of fear that Trump might try to use his sweet little family against him just because Trump doesn’t like him. 

The media and the political left seem to forget that President Trump has been in office before. During his time in office, he did not use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies–that is something President Biden did.

There is, however, a new twist in the story. President Biden did not pardon himself, and there are reports of a $240,000 bank deposit going directly to him with no explanation. This could get interesting.

The Price Of Ignoring The Law

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We have watched in recent years as criminals who committed serious crimes were released from jail without bail. We have seen the constitutional rights of the January 6th defendants ignored. We have seen justice administered unevenly for a number of years now, so it should be no surprise that on his way out the door, President Biden thumbed his nose at our justice system.

On January 20th, CBN News reported the following:

During his final hours in office, and with President-elect Donald Trump set to be inaugurated as his successor today, President Biden has issued preemptive pardons for some controversial figures who have dominated headlines in recent years.

Though none of them have been convicted of crimes, Biden announced he’s pardoning Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and everyone involved in the January 6 congressional investigation, which would include outspoken Trump critics like ousted Rep. Liz Cheney.

Biden says he took the extraordinary step to prevent the Trump administration from prosecuting those people because he’s concerned they’ll be targeted with “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”

To refresh your memory, the people involved in the January 6 congressional investigation destroyed evidence and withheld evidence from their fellow Congressmen and from the American public. There is nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting them for their crimes.

General Milley has gone on the record as having called a secret meeting at the Pentagon during which he instructed senior military officials not to take orders from their Trump unless he (Milley) approved them. He also reportedly reassured the Chinese that he would tip off Beijing in case of an impending attack by President Trump (article here). Under normal circumstances, that behavior would result in a court martial at least. There would be nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting the general for those actions.

The preemptive pardons may not stand up to court challenges. Whether they stand up or not, they provide a preview of the talking points of the political left. Any action against the crimes of people who were allies of President Biden during his administration will be characterized as political. Any actual crimes will be ignored and not mentioned.  It is up to Americans whether or not they want to see the laws of America and the Constitution upheld. All of us need to make noise when those laws are ignored.

A Disturbing, But Not Surprising, Story

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On Saturday, Red State posted an article about the workings of the Biden administration, including some comments by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

The article includes the following story:

JOHNSON: They wouldn’t let me meet with him, and his staff kept giving me excuses. This went on for like eight or nine weeks, “I’m sorry Mr. Speaker, he doesn’t have time.” What are you talking about? I’m second in line to the presidency, he has time. I need to talk to him. We had, I can’t say the classified parts, but we had some big national concerns at the time that I was losing sleep over. Finally, I just went to the whole press corps and said the president is not being allowed to meet with the speaker so they start putting pressure on him. 

Long story short, they finally relented, they invited me to the White House, I show up and I realize it’s actually an ambush because it’s not just me and the president. It’s actually Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem, the CIA Director, and everybody, and then so I walk into the Oval, and I say, “Ah, I know what this is. They’re going to hotbox the Speaker on Ukraine funding.” That’s what it was. 

This is probably the third week of January. We sit down, we’re in the midst of it and I’m saying, “We don’t need to have this conversation.” The president reaches over, just like this, we were sitting right next to the fireplace in the Oval, and he says, “The Speaker and I just need a couple minutes together. We y’all just leave us alone?” And I looked up on the faces of some of staff standing around the wall, and they were like, “No, he did it.” 

He called it, he’s the commander in chief, so everybody leaves, and he and I are standing awkwardly in the middle of the Oval Office right over the rug by that coffee table, and I said, “Mr. President, thanks for the moments, you know, this is very important, I’ve got some big national security things I need to talk to you about that I’ve heard, and I think you know, but first, real quickly, Mr. President, can I ask you a question?”

“I can’t answer this for my constituents in Louisiana. Sir, why did you pause LNG exports? Liquified natural gas is in great demand by our allies, why would you do that? Cause you understand, we just talked about Ukraine, you understand you’re fueling Putin’s war machine?”  And he looked at me, stunned, and he said, “I didn’t do that.” And I said, “Mr. President, yes you did, it was an executive order like three weeks ago.” He said, “No, I didn’t do that,” he was arguing with me. 

The story continues:

That’s where things get even crazier. Biden went on to admit he signed an executive order, but he told Johnson that believed he had only authorized a study on the effects of LNG. 

JOHNSON: I said, “No you’re not sir, you paused it, I have the terminal, the export terminal in our state, I talked to those people this morning. This is doing massive damage to our economy, to our national security.”

I thought, “We are in serious trouble.” Who’s running the country?” I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know.

In other words, someone had used subterfuge to get the President of the United States to sign an executive order he didn’t even know he was signing. Those around him were weaponizing his senility to push through their far-left agenda, and Biden wasn’t even sentient enough to notice. That is the very definition of shocking. 

There are four major points to note in this story:

1. President Biden’s staff was reluctant to have him meet with Speaker Johnson.

2. President Biden’s staff did not want him to meet with Speaker Johnson alone.

3. What President Biden signed was not what he was told he was signing.

4. Why did Speaker Johnson wait until now to tell this story?

What Constitution?

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Remember the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)? Well, as he leaves office, President Biden is proclaiming that the ERA is the law of the land and is part of the Constitution. Wow! Who knew!

On Saturday, PJ Media reported the following:

Remember the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)? It’s back, and Old Joe Biden, trying to do as much damage to the nation as he can before he slouches off to his taxpayer-funded Delaware beach house for good on Monday, now says that it’s the law of the land. What’s that? You didn’t notice that we suddenly have a new Constitutional amendment? Well, we may not, but on Friday, Old Joe’s joyful announcement that the amendment was a done deal added an eggbeater to already troubled waters.

The ERA was a central preoccupation of the 1970s when the outgoing figurehead was just beginning his storied career as a leftist prevaricator, character assassin (see Clarence Thomas for details), and premier corruptocrat in the United States Senate. Feminists bombarded Americans with propaganda slogans including “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” and “A woman’s place is in the House… and the Senate.”

But when Congress approved the ERA on March 22, 1972, it set a deadline of seven years for the necessary three-fourths of the states to approve it. That deadline came and went on March 22, 1979, with only 35 states approving of the amendment. Thirty-eight were needed, so that was that. In 2017, however, as the #MeToo movement was cresting, Nevada became the 36th state to approve the ERA, with Illinois following in 2018 and Virginia in 2020.

So the amendment was over the line, with just one problem: the seven-year deadline had passed over forty years before Virginia ratified the thing. Even before Virginia ratified the ERA, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Dakota tried to head off its post-deadline passage, filing a federal lawsuit in 2019 to stop any other states from ratifying the amendment.

This is the statement from President Biden:

On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.

It passed all of the hurdles except being in compliance with the Constitution. That is a problem. There is no way this becomes the 28th Amendment unless the process begins again with a seven-year deadline.

I Suspect This May Be A Very Temporary Agreement

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The big news right now is the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The fact that the hostages are coming home is wonderful, but I am not sure the rest of the deal will hold for very long if it happens. Hamas has a way of changing the rules on the way to the signing of an agreement. Right now, it is a great idea to get the hostages out, but with President Trump coming into office and Netanyahu in charge in Israel, I suspect Hamas is not going to be happy for very long.

On Wednesday, Red State reported:

On Wednesday, we reported that Israel and Hamas had reached a tentative ceasefire deal, which will result in the release of some of the terror group’s hostages. Debate has raged in the ensuing hours over whether it is a good deal for Israel and which American commander-in-chief deserves the credit: lame-duck President Joe Biden or incoming President-elect Donald Trump.

While we certainly hope for the release of all the hostages taken in Hamas’ savage Oct. 7, 2023 attack, their newest chief is sounding anything but peaceful. In fact, despite the deal being reached, Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya delivered a sick, bloodthirsty call for more violence and said he was “proud” of Oct. 7.

His words are deeply disturbing:

Hamas Leader Khalil al-Haya allegedly promised another October 7 style attack during a press conference Wednesday just after a tentative ceasefire was announced, according to multiple reports.

Al-Haya said that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel “will forever be a source of pride for our people” and expressed no regret for the destruction caused by the terrorist group, according to multiple sources. As of Wednesday afternoon, a six-week ceasefire is set to begin on Sunday, with both sides set to exchange hostages and Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza.

The article concludes:

The message continues to be delivered over and over again—usually by Hamas itself—that a civilized world cannot exist alongside such a barbaric death cult that believes in sadistic violence over everything else. Joe Biden could never wrap his head around this, but hopefully incoming President Donald Trump does understand it. While it would be beautiful to see some of the hostages released, the fact that the terrorists still hold them after all this time shows the depths of their depravity.

The reality is that there will be no true peace until these maniacal zealots are wiped off the face of the earth.

We can’t put Hamas in jail because they will take hostages to get their members back. The solution to the Hamas problem is one I don’t want to think about.

Laying Another Land Mine For The Trump Administration

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I wasn’t aware that the peaceful transition of power included laying land mines for the incoming administration, but apparently in the mind of President Biden, it does.

On Friday, Red State reported the following:

The press for years tried to sell you on the narrative that Joe Biden is a decent, genial, value-driven guy, but so many of his actions have proven otherwise. Since Donald Trump officially became the president-elect in November, the lame-duck commander-in-chief has been waxing poetic about a smooth transition, but almost every official act he takes is designed to kneecap Trump’s stated agenda—you know, the one the American people overwhelming chose over the Biden-Harris failed vision.

His latest move: extending temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in this country. It’s unclear how many of them are here illegally, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say: a lot.

…Biden is making a mockery of the transition period and doing everything in his power to thwart Trump’s –and the American people’s—hopes and desires. He was all toothy grins when he met with the president-elect in the Oval Office in November, but behind the scenes he’s been consistently stabbing him in the back. Perhaps that was what he was smiling about like a diabolical comic book villain—he knew what he had in store for the incoming commander-in-chief.

I think it is time to consider carefully a constitutional amendment moving the inauguration day for an incoming President closer to the actual election. The amount of damage President Biden continues to do in his final days in office is staggering. I suspect we are all going to be shocked when the final list of pardons comes out.

Does He Even Believe This?

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about Senator Schumer’s explanation of the reason for the defeat of so many Democrats in November’s election.

The article reports:

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that voters “didn’t realize how much” the Democratic Party had done for them over the last four years heading into November’s elections, claiming it played a key role in his party’s demise.

President-elect Donald Trump scored a historic win for Republicans in November, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote, while Vice President Kamala Harris failed to even match the numbers President Joe Biden had received in 2020. On “Meet the Press,” NBC host Kristen Welker questioned Schumer about his thoughts on the “root cause” of the Democrats’ loss, noting that Democratic strategist James Carville had blamed the state of the economy under the Biden-Harris administration.

“I told my caucus and I’ll say it here, too. We should regard this election, certainly it was a loss, but it’s also a challenge, and we did some things right against very severe headwinds. We kept four of those seven contested Democratic seats, but we did some things wrong and we have to look in the mirror and see what we did wrong,” Schumer said.

“Then there’s some things we didn’t do that we should have done. One of the things we have to do is we must focus on the working families of America,” Schumer added. “We believe in them and we passed all kinds of legislation that helped them with the infrastructure bill which made our economy stronger and employed lots of people.”

Meanwhile, back in reality, on December 22, 2024, The Center Square reported:

President Joe Biden is only a few weeks away from the end of his time in office, and one key part of his legacy is undeniable: inflation.

Biden has battled inflation from the start, but critics say he helped fuel it with trillions of dollars in deficit spending during his four years in office. Federal debt spending is offset in part by printing money, which increases inflation.

Biden has boasted bringing inflation rates down from about 9% earlier in his term to roughly 2.5% currently.

While the rate of inflation has slowed, that doesn’t mean prices have decreased. In fact, they continue rising, albeit slower than earlier in his term.

The federal government released a a key inflation marker Friday, its Personal Consumption Expenditure index, which rose 2.4% last month, a bit less than expected.

Overall, though, prices have risen more than 20% since Biden took office.

It really is the economy, stupid.

View From The Lair

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Revenge of the Narcissists

PLEASE! Stop asking “How much damage can Resident Brandon do before 1:00pm on 20 January, 2025?” It isn’t a rhetorical question any longer. They are taking it as a challenge. I’m not using “they” as a “they/them” pronoun choice preferred by a gender confused person who can’t distinguish whether they are singular or plural (actually, anyone who uses a plural pronoun as a descriptor is likely schizophrenic; using such a pronoun is a scream for help). Rather I use it in the classical sense – it’s not Joe Biden alone who is making these decisions.  And it’s not just that he has a staff to assist him.  He isn’t cognitively aware enough to  be the originator of these plots.

Joe Biden was recognized as a moron 40 years ago and he certainly hasn’t become any more astute in the interim.

Anyone who thinks that they are “The One” who can become the leader of the free world; who thinks that they are entitled to sit in the Oval Office has to be a narcissist. That’s not an insult, it’s just an acknowledgment of someone’s self appreciation. All presidents are narcissists; some exhibit the condition more than others.

Being a narcissist isn’t the problem. It’s the behavior that results that is the problem. Many people point to the staff of the White House, or to Dr. Jill Biden or members of the previous Obozo Administration as the likely source of the damaging decisions being inflicted upon our fair country.  All are likely candidates.  Whether they are working in organized concert or passing around ideas that turn into deliberate disasters, that might never be revealed.  What is certain is that FJB personally isn’t capable of coming up with these ideas.  He’s barely able to regurgitate them from a teleprompter.

My money is on Resident Obozo.  Anyone who writes (or takes the credit for writing) two autobiographies (three if you want to count BOTH volumes of the latest one) before they turn 65 exhibits a pretty strong appreciation of self.  Remember when he announced that “We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For”?  Or that his appearance on the presidential stage would start the healing of the earth? Yeah, pretty self aware.

So now, at the end of the third Obozo term, the chief narcissist is striking back. This is not to ignore the fact that Resident Brandon is himself quite an example of self love, it’s just that he can barely distinguish between his wife and an ice cream cone. Always an admitted Marxist, Obozo is getting in his last swipes at our republic.  Like all Marxists, destruction is the tool of choice. He is at last revealing the “Transformation” that he promised during his first presidential campaign.  The question is whether we can make it until 20 January.

ciao,

The Snark

About That Peaceful Transition Of Power Thing

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Is the peaceful transition of power supposed to include doing everything you can to make things more difficult for the next President? Asking for a friend.

On Monday, Breitbart reported the following:

The Biden administration released 11 Yemeni terrorists, who were captured after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, from Guantanamo Bay.

While the men had been “approved for transfer by national security officials” more than two years ago, they were approved to be transferred to Oman on Monday, according to NPR News.

Oman reportedly “agreed to help resettle them and provide security monitoring” for the 11 prisoners, who are described as being “former al-Qaeda members,” according to records from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The outlet noted that the transfers of the prisoners were “originally scheduled to happen in October 2023,” but were paused “due to concerns” regarding the “instability in the Middle East” in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That the plan was resurrected during President Biden’s final two weeks in office signals a last-ditch effort by his administration to shrink Guantanamo’s prisoner population and get closer to his goal of trying to close the facility. In recent weeks, the U.S. has transferred four other Guantanamo inmates — a Kenyan, a Tunisian and two Malaysians — and is preparing for the transfer of at least one more, an Iraqi.

This is not smart. In 2015 I noted that about 30 percent of the prisoners released have gone back to terrorism (article here). At a time of heightened terrorism alerts in America and around the world, why would you free terrorists. It should be noted that there are no “former al-Qaeda members.” When dealing with ‘former al-Qaeda members,’ Americans (and others) need to keep in mind that in the Islamic faith there is a principle called “taqiyya,” generally described as lying for the sake of Islam.

The decision to release terrorists is a decision that will come back to bite us. Even if the terrorists we are releasing are older now, they will still be involved in planning terrorist attacks in the future. This was not a wise move.