Tag Archives: The Independent Journal Review

Too Little Too Late?

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On Thursday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article reporting that the Biden administration is building part of a border wall at our southern border.

In May 2023, Townhall reported:

According to Customs and Border Protection, since January 2021 when Biden took the oath of office, there have been 5,118,661 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southern border. Add to that the number of known “gotaways” — illegal immigrants who were either spotted visually by border agents or detected via unmanned monitoring equipment and not apprehended — since Biden took office, and the number of illegal immigrants who’ve entered the country is even greater.

Through the first half of Biden’s term from January 2021 through January 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported 1.2 million “gotaways.” That is, at least 1.2 million illegal immigrants were confirmed to have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The actual number of illegal immigrants who entered the country unimpeded is, by nature of the crime, unknown. It could be double the number of known gotaways, it could be three times worse, or more. We just don’t know, thanks to Biden’s border policies. 

The number of illegal immigrants who have entered America since President Biden took office is larger than the number of people who live in 33 or our states. How is it possible for that number of people to assimilate and how is it possible for our social safety net to provide for the needs of that number of people without collapsing (see Cloward-Piven)?

The Independent Journal Review reports:

The Biden administration has changed its stance on building a border wall to curb the flood of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. 

Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, posted a notice Thursday, declaring, “It is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas.”

This takes effect immediately, citing, “As of early August 2023, Border Patrol had encountered over 245,000 such entrants attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Fiscal Year 2023.”

Have enough illegals already come in to collapse our treasury and change our voting demographic so it’s okay to close the border now? Is this being done because 2024 is an election year and Americans can see the damage the open border has caused?

Stay tuned.

About That “Bidenomics” Thing

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On Monday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about rising gasoline prices.

The article reports:

Gas prices have quietly been on the rise over the summer as President Joe Biden and his administration have touted the merits of his “Bidenomics” agenda.

U.S. oil prices jumped by nearly 4% last week, and the per-gallon price at the pump hit a national average of $3.75 Monday, the highest recorded average since November 2022, according to AAA and the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Continued increases may pose a new headache for Biden, who is promoting the “Bidenomics” agenda ahead of his 2024 run for reelection.

Global oil prices are up 16% since late June, and they have increased for each of the past five weeks, according to CNN. Prices may only continue to rise in August and September as Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC+ members undertake production cuts equivalent to about 1.5% of global supply, announced in early July.

The price increase is partially due to the actions of OPEC (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) which has cut its production, but that cut is also due to the fact that America is no longer respected enough to be able to negotiate to prevent that cut and that America is no longer energy independent. Had we maintained our energy independence, the cut would not have had much impact.

Some of us remember the gas lines of the 1970’s. Energy independence will prevent those gas lines from happening again. It is unfortunate the the Biden administration did not understand the need to continue America’s freedom from the whims of OPEC.

 

Linking To This Article Got My Two Groups Restricted On Facebook

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When I do my early morning research for this blog, I often post articles that I want to read later in two Facebook groups–Right Wing Granny and Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association. Both groups are open for anyone to join and posts made in those groups can be seen by everyone. I was a little surprised that linking to the following article got both of the groups restricted (my link went against community standards), but I suspect the tweet is the reason why.

On Monday, The Independent Journal Review posted the following headline:

James Woods Re-Writes Fox News’ Headline for Network – And It’s a Lot Better Now

The article at the Independent Journal Review reports:

Just like the American justice system, is Fox News using kiddie gloves when it comes to Hunter Biden now too? Or are they just sexists?

Hollywood legend James Woods thinks it’s squarely the latter as he blasted the beleaguered news network over a headline involving the incumbent president’s son.

The article includes the following screenshot:

By using the headline they used, the article immediately paints the picture of Biden’s son as almost an innocent bystander being attacked by someone is not considered worthy of respect.

The article notes:

The issue, however, was that the story also happened to display a headline that read: “Biden’s son dragged into court as fiery child support battle against ex-stripper heats up.”

Woods wasn’t a fan of that headline.

“He’s called ‘Biden’s son,’ but she’s dismissed as ‘ex-stripper,’” he pointed out. While the linked article above sports a different title, internet archives do show that Fox News featured that headline on Saturday morning.

“This is journalistic sexism at its lowest,” Woods said, before proceeding to fix it for Fox.

“Why couldn’t the headline just as easily read, ‘Ex-crack addict dragged into court by mother of his child?’” Woods said, making the headline better by significant margins on a couple of levels.

The child involved has been ignored by the Biden family. That may work to the child’s benefit considering some of the antics of the Biden family.

The Problem With Mail-In Ballots

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On Monday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about signature verification used on mail-in ballots in Nevada.

The article reports:

For the second congressional election in a row, a journalist has demonstrated that there is a potential hole that could be exploited in the way one Nevada county deals with mail-in ballots.

In 2020, columnist Victor Joecks of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tested Clark County, Nevada’s signature verification process for mail-in ballots, and found that eight ballots were accepted in which the handwriting on the envelope containing the ballot and the ballot itself was different.

This year, six ballots made it through, he wrote in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“I had 11 people send me a picture of their ballot envelope. I then wrote their name in my handwriting. Each voter then copied my version of their signature onto their ballot return envelope.

“They sent me a picture to ensure it wasn’t their normal handwriting. This simulated signing someone else’s ballot,” he wrote. “It’s also legal because each voter signed his or her own ballot.”

In a perfect system, all 11 would have been set aside, he said. Instead, only five failed to make it through.

So according to what he did, it is possible that slightly over half of the ballots accepted could have invalid signatures.

The article concludes:

Nevada voters had until Monday to resolve problems with mail-in ballots, a process known as curing.

Joe Gloria, Clark County’s registrar of voters, said that as of Saturday there were 14,651 uncured ballots in his county, of which 7,139 remained unresolved as of Saturday, according to The Washington Post.

Let’s just all go to the polls on election day like we used to. I would even allow one extra day, but I would not allow mail-in ballots. There is too much opportunity for fraud.

If You Really Are Pro Women…

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On Wednesday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about some recent comments by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The article reports:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was blasted for her comment about crisis pregnancy centers.

Warren told reporters, “In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by 3 to 1.”

She added, “We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.”

Wait a minute. Let’s look at some of the things crisis pregnancy centers do. First of all, crisis pregnancy centers generally inform their clients about the medical risks of abortion and the development of the baby in the womb  (something abortion clinics do not do). Crisis pregnancy centers often do a sonogram for the expectant mother so that she can see her baby (abortion clinics do not do that). Crisis pregnancy centers provide diapers, baby equipment, and financial assistance when needed to women in crisis pregnancies. I don’t see any of that as torture. Abortion clinics are essentially assembly lines. You come in, have your abortion, are given a short time to recover, and then are sent home. There is not a lot of physical or psychological aftercare provided.

I am sorry that Senator Warren sees helping a pregnant woman as torture. I would think that if the Senator was truly interested in providing good healthcare for women she would welcome the crisis pregnancy centers. I would also think that the Senator would be grateful to these centers for the assistance that they provide for women in need. I don’t see how shutting down crisis pregnancy centers helps women at all.

It should be noted here that many Democrats in Congress and across America receive large campaign donations from Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in America). Might that be the reason Senator Warren would like to shut down the crisis pregnancy centers?

The Plot That Was Ignored

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On Monday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about the media silence about the attempted murder of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The article reports:

It has not even been a week since an armed man was arrested after allegedly aborting an attempt to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and yet the story appears to have largely disappeared from the headlines.

Kevin Tober of the conservative Media Research Center’s NewsBusters tracked the amount of time major news outlets’ Sunday shows spent on the incident.

According to Tober, ABC News spent zero minutes on the Kavanaugh story and 19 minutes and eleven seconds on the Jan. 6 committee hearings.

It may well be that the mainstream media is reluctant to report on the attempted murder of Justice Kavanaugh because too many Americans will remember the following statement by Senator Schumer (source of quote here):

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Schumer shouted. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions!”

There was a time when that statement would have at least resulted in censure by the Senate, but in the current political paradigm, the statement was barely noted. Senator Schumer did not cause the planned attack on Justice Kavanaugh, but he certainly set the political climate for the attack.

Nothing Like Keeping Your Priorities Straight

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On Friday, The Independent Journal Review reported that House Democrats are working on passing a bill to create a plan for reparations for slavery in time to be passed during the Biden administration.

The article reports:

House Democrats say they are ready to take the next step to force through a bill that would study how reparations for slavery will take shape, but want to hurry to assure passage of any plan can be implemented by the Biden administration.

“This has been a 30-plus year journey,” Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas said in reference to her efforts to have reparations approved, according to The Washington Post. “We had to take a different approach. We had to go one by one to members explaining this does not generate a check.”

But it would cost $12 million of taxpayer dollars, for starters.

And under H.R. 40, the bill House Democrats think they can force through with their razor-thin House majority, the bill would form a commission to which Republicans need not apply to determine how reparations would be structured.

The make-up of the commission is noted in the article:

And under H.R. 40, the bill House Democrats think they can force through with their razor-thin House majority, the bill would form a commission to which Republicans need not apply to determine how reparations would be structured.

The panel would have 13 members, one each appointed by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont as president pro tempore of the Senate, and six from civil rights groups that support reparations.

The article explains the ‘justification’ for reparations in the current time:

Jade Magnus Ogunnaike, a senior campaign director at Color of Change, said the commission will rebut the effort of opponents of Critical Race Theory.

“At the heart of what the critical race theory fight is about is the refusal to educate young people and by proxy their families about the harm America has done to Black people,” she said. “And so you have people asking: ‘Why should a Black person today receive reparations, none of you experienced slavery?’ And this is why I think H.R. 40 is so, so important because it’s going to explain and show the ways that slavery, the Jim Crow era and Reconstruction materially impacted Black communities and their legacies.”

Ogunnaike said the racial wealth gap will vanish once reparations are passed.

“There are so many White families who may not be wealthy, but they have a home that they inherited from their grandparents who bought the home with federal funds when they returned from World War II,” Ogunnaike said. “So few Black people have that ability, and that’s a direct harm at the hands of the federal government. It’s time for them to repair it. Black organizers, the Black movement has done an incredible job of making this a centerpiece of conversation, now we need to figure out the how of how we move people to action.”

Is anyone in Congress actually interested in addressing the actual problems America is currently facing–inflation, energy independence, high gas prices, rising crime, etc.?

This Used To Be Illegal–Maybe It Still Is

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On Sunday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about the Mankato School Board in Minnesota. The School Board has voted unanimously to pay non-white teachers “additional stipends” based only on the color of their skin.

The article reports:

Not everyone was happy with the vote. Republican state Rep. Jeremy Munson criticized the policy, saying, “Our largest local school district just voted to pay people differently, not on merit, or by the content of their character, but based solely on the color of their skin.”

“This is allowed and encouraged under a revision to Minnesota state Statute 122A.70,” Munson continued. “Mankato Area Public Schools Policy number 466 provides pay for black and native American school staff above which is paid to white employees.”

The article concludes:

I wonder what Martin Luther King, Jr., the gold standard in race relations and the American Dream, would say. Bearing in mind MLK’s signature quote, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” it’s safe to say he would call it what it is: racist.

MLK’s vision of America is one of a work-in-progress. We’re not there yet, but we’re on the way. The radical left seeks to undermine King’s legacy with policies that are anti-American and blatantly racist.

Don’t let them.

This makes no sense. No one has any control over the color of their skin. It is something you are born with. I have no problem paying teachers more for higher degrees, but increased pay based solely on skin color is simply racist. If this were done in the south and white teachers received more money, there would be massive outrage.