What is the solution to the calamity at our southern border?

February 20, 2024

The catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border is currently the most serious national security threat to the nation. Millions of illegal aliens have come across the border with virtually no interference, have been encountered by Border Patrol agents, given a court date several years in the future for which they may or may not show up, and then are released into the country, often being flown or bused to the location of their choice. 

More than a million “gotaways” have sneaked across the Rio Grande without even coming face to face with the Border Patrol, and who knows who they are, where they are, or what their intent is?

This situation has become so intense and wide-spread that the mayors of sanctuary cities are now complaining about the problems this laxness has caused them, with thousands of illegals needing to be dealt with at the cities’ expense (read “taxpayers’ expense”).

Tens of thousands of Americans have died as a result of the lax control of the border that has allowed tens of thousands or millions of fentanyl pills to be smuggled in. Many others have been victims of crimes by illegals, and who knows how many potential terrorists are among those millions coming in from more than a hundred countries, including China?

Despite the painfully obvious failure of the Biden administration to secure the border and protect Americans, the man directly responsible for securing the border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, keeps insisting that “The border is secure and the border is not open.”

He also blames the ridiculously huge number of illegals entering the country on insufficient border policies, rather than on the true cause: President Joe Biden’s Executive Orders almost as soon as he was sworn in that cancelled several existing policies that were working and keeping illegal entry at a very low level before Biden took office.

But while the border situation may benefit from some policy updates, the problem is that Mayorkas is not following the laws, and chaos is the result. Is not following laws a high crime or misdemeanor?

Finally, some action was taken. The House of Representatives succeeded in passing an impeachment action against Mayorkas on the second attempt.

Republican members of the House Committee on Homeland Security released this statement on impeachment: “After our nearly year-long investigation and subsequent impeachment proceedings, and having exhausted all other options to hold him accountable, it is unmistakably clear to all of us—and to the American people—that Congress must exercise its constitutional duty and impeach Secretary Mayorkas. The Secretary has consistently willfully and systemically refused to follow the laws passed by Congress, abused his authority, and breached the trust of Congress and the American people on numerous occasions. The result of his failure to fulfill his oath of office has been a border crisis that is unprecedented in American history—a crisis that has cost the lives of thousands of Secretary Mayorkas’ fellow Americans.”

The Committee produced reports of its findings in the five-phase investigation, totaling nearly 400 pages, plus interviews with Border Patrol Sector Chiefs:

* Phase 1: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ Dereliction of Duty

* Phase 2: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Has Emboldened Cartels, Criminals, and America’s Enemies

* Phase 3: The Devastating Human Costs of the DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ Open-Borders Policies

* Phase 4: The Historic Dollar Costs of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ Open-Borders Policies

* Phase 5: The Massive Waste and Abuse Enabled by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

* Transcribed Interview Appendix: First-Hand Accounts of the Crisis From Border Patrol Sector Chiefs.

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee criticized the Republican impeachment effort, saying it was a “baseless sham.” “MAGA Republicans have wasted their opportunity to make progress on immigration and border security policy,” rather than participating “in a conversation about bipartisan legislation,” they said.

But Republicans know, as Democrats should and likely do, that additional legislation is not needed to fix the border. All that is needed is for Biden to reverse his day-one actions and restore the border control that he cancelled in his childish actions against all things Trump.

And exactly how is the Republican effort against Mayorkas different from the Democrats’ twice impeaching then-President Donald Trump, all the while knowing that the Senate would not convict Trump in an impeachment trial?

They impeached Trump twice to make the point that they disapproved of him as President, so it is perfectly acceptable, by Democrat reasoning, that Republicans impeached Mayorkas for his ignoring laws, even though the Senate will not convict him.

Is Mayorkas deliberately lying about there being a crisis? Or, is he satisfied with what is happening, that he and Biden want millions of illegal aliens coming into the country? They apparently like the chaos in the border states and the sanctuary cities, the drug deaths and other deaths caused by illegals, and the potential for some illegals to be terrorists in waiting.

Otherwise, why would they not openly work to fix the problem? Why would they continue to deny that there is a crisis of monumental proportions at the southern border that threatens the very people they were elected to protect?

A teacher’s view of how America’s history is being taught

February 13, 2024

A major problem in America is that so many of us do not have a correct understanding of the origins of our country, and the ideals put forth in the founding documents.

The political left is working very hard to transform the country from what it is and was to something that suits the left’s ideals, the primary one of which is perpetual control of the government and the people residing here.

That concept is 180 degrees from what our Founders created. Their idea was a limited government with the maximum degree of personal freedom: a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The concept of government of, by and for the people was part of a speech by then-president Abraham Lincoln several decades after the Constitution was ratified in the Gettysburg Address in 1863 as the nation fought the Civil War.

Lincoln’s now-well-known phrase is an apt description of the way our government was perceived and designed, and has operated for over 200 years..

In every nation, regardless of its ruling ideology, there are some who have different ideas about how things should be. In many of those nations, you can die or be severely punished for expressing ideas contrary to the ruling philosophy. But not in America, where we have the Bill of Rights as part of our Constitution that guarantees us the right to free speech, among other valuable freedoms.

Today, we see free speech and other guaranteed rights being restricted by some. We see efforts to challenge our history and aspects of that history under attack, both in plain sight and under the table.

Education is one of those places where un-American ideas are being pushed on our children at every level of schooling. These efforts are being strongly denied by the indoctrinators, who blame critics of their efforts by those with conservative, traditional views of America as exaggerations or lies.

“American history must be taught fully, fairly and honestly or else we have a limited understanding of the past, with no way to explain the present, and no hope of building a better future.”

That truth was written by Michael R. Burgess, in The Island Packet on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Burgess is and has been for many years a history teacher, and now teaches in Lexington County, SC. He was selected as the state’s 2023 History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and is recognized by the S.C. Department of Education.

Of what is currently happening, he wrote, “We are at a crossroads in South Carolina with how American history is to be taught in our classrooms. We are trapped between those who want to whitewash and sanitize our state and national story to omit those truths we find uncomfortable and those who want to erase any part of our past that does not meet our 21st century social and cultural norms.”

He described a false perception that “the dedication to learn, embrace and understand American history is lost among our youth.” It is the education system that is to blame for the failure to present true history to children, not a lack of interest.

“We do not devote enough time to teaching it at the elementary, middle or high school levels. Our standards do not require a thorough teaching of key figures and events in American history. We are losing our best U.S. History teachers as a consequence of large class sizes, long hours, low pay, and bureaucratic overreach. And, U.S. History teachers are the focus of a war being waged against them by groups who wish to whitewash or erase our history.”

“Many U.S. History teachers believe it is safer to create neutral, vanilla, plain -rice-cake learning experiences which fall short of needed instruction, but avoid the onslaught of those who tear teachers down.

If we want American history to be told and taught fully, fairly and honestly, and if we want our children to be prepared to lead this nation forward, we must make significant changes to the way we approach teaching American history.”

Burgess goes on to say that those teachers presenting U.S. History in the proper way need the strong support of the public, and not attacking the devoted and honest ones with “innuendo and false accusations for the wrong-doings of a few rogue actors.”

The problems he sees in his state are not restricted to South Carolina. This same mentality exists in many states, perhaps every state in the country. There is an active faction determined to subvert the strong traditional education that has been the rule for many decades.

Burgess closes with a quote from George Orwell: “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

And the actions cited by Orwell can be easily seen in education in many, many classrooms, schools, and districts across the country. If they are not reversed and our education system returned to its previous structure of honesty and integrity of mission, our nation will continue its slide toward the misery of socialism.

What is our country? A constitutional republic, if we can keep it!

February 6, 2024

As has been noted here before, the United States of America is a unique and very special country. While it is based upon democratic principles, it is not a pure democracy. It is a constitutional republic.

What’s the difference? In a pure democracy, 50% + one person can decide what happens to the 50% less one person. In a democracy, two wolves can decide to have the lamb for dinner, without the lamb having anything to say about it.

If America was a pure democracy, our elections would be decided by those living in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and a few other large cities. There would be no point in voting if you live in places that think differently.

Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler, who taught at the University of Edinburgh, said this about democracies back about the time the United States adopted its constitution in the late 1700s: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.” This comment was based upon history.

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury,” he said. “From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

Another piece of history is that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been only about 200 years.

The rather short history of pure democracies and great civilizations drove our Founders to develop a system that could outlast the previous civilizations. Therefore, they created our constitution establishing the United States of America as a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

Despite this great work, there are Americans today working their hearts out to change our system to one like those with short lives, and making the life of the unique United States much shorter than if we stick to the Founder’s plan.

Former President Ronald Reagan once said about our country, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

“It is not ours by inheritance, it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people,” he said. “Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”

Some 50 years ago, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, speaking to an audience about the way the British Labour party wanted to do things, said: “You want to keep more of the money you earn? I’m afraid that’s very selfish. We shall want to tax that away. 

“You want to own shares in your firm? We can’t have that. The state has to own your firm. 

“You want to choose where to send your children to school? That’s very divisive. You’ll send your child where we tell you. 

“The trouble with Labour is that they’re just not at home with freedom. Socialists don’t like ordinary people choosing. For they might not choose socialism.”

In an interview, she said of the idea of the government controlling everything: “You know when the state does everything for you, it will soon take everything from you. You will then have no basis for personal freedom, political freedom, nor economic freedom. 

“The state must never substitute for personal responsibility. I know that we’ll only get the kind of country, the kind of prosperity, the kind of standards that I wish to see if everyone says ‘it’s my job to do my best. It’s my job to try to lend a hand to others and not to say, oh, I’m not going to do that, that’s for the state.’

“What sort of society do you think we’d have if you have people saying that it’s the state’s job to find a job. It’s the state’s job to house me. It’s the state’s job to look after my family? Freedom is inseparable from personal responsibility. You know there’s a famous quote from George Bernard Shaw … ‘Freedom incurs responsibility. That’s why many men fear it.’”

Ideas like packing the Supreme Court with liberal justices that change, rather than follow the intent of our laws and Constitution; doing away with the Electoral College; making Washington, DC a state; allowing millions of illegal aliens to come into the country at will, giving them benefits, and perhaps citizenship or voting privileges; putting into effect soft-on-crime policies that encourage rather than discourage criminal activity; allowing rules with the force of law to be made by unelected bureaucrats, giving government broader authority to control our lives; parents being labeled “terrorists” for protecting their children from indoctrination; not protecting free speech in online forums, are leading us down a deadly path.

The America of the Founders can last many more years. But we have to not only resist further changes to the way America works, but seriously work to restore those original qualities that have been eaten away by those wishing for more state power, and less personal freedom.

Biden’s catastrophic border policy puts Americans in danger

January 30, 2024

Most people in the United States today understand that the situation at our southern border is a crisis. Looking back to FY2001 (October 2000 through September 2001) at the illegal border crossings, here is what has happened since then.

Using data from Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, here are the numbers.

In FY01 there were 1,266,214 illegal entries. That was when George W. Bush was President. Through the rest of his term, until FY2009 the number generally decreased, and during the last fiscal year of Bush’s second term, the number was 733,825.

During Barack Obama’s two terms, the numbers were lower, but started to rise during Obama’s second term, ending at 415,816.

During the tenure of Donald Trump, in the first two years, the numbers were lower than that of Obama’s last year in office. During the Trump’s third year, FY2019, the number rose to 859,501, and during Trump’s last year in office, FY2020, the number was 405,036. During Trump’s 4-year tenure, the total of illegal entries was 1,979,210.

Joe Biden became President in FY2021, and the illegal entries totaled 1,662,167. The following year, the number rose to 2,214,652, and in Biden’s third year, FY2023, the number was more than 3.2 million.

Since Biden took office, 6.2 million illegal entries have occurred at our southern border. In his first year, more than 400% more illegals entered the country than in Trump’s last year, and nearly as many as in Trump’s total after four years as President.

A report released on October 26th by the House Committee on Homeland Security contains these Key Facts:

* Encounters at the Southwest border in FY2023 increased over 40% since FY2021, 4% compared to FY2022, and more than 100% compared to FY2019.

* Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a 40% increase compared to September 2021 and 18% compared to September 2022. 

*Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways.  

*In FY2023, 169 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry. 18 were apprehended in September alone.

*So far in FY2023, CBP has arrested 35,433 aliens with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide, including 598 known gang members, 178 of those being MS-13 members. 

*In FY2023, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations, has seized 27,293 pounds of fentanyl, coming across the Southwest border—enough to kill more than 6 billion people.

An opinion article authored by Simon Hankinson appearing in The Hill last month lays the blame for this catastrophe at the feet of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “It is hard to think of a single appointed official in U.S. history who has done more harm to this country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and rule of law than this one man,” he wrote. But as culpable as Mayorkas is, he must share the blame with his boss, Joe Biden, who approves of his “work.”

In contrast to today’s goings-on, here are the opinions of two prominent Democrats from several years ago.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY had this to say about border security and illegal entries to our country in 2009, during Barack Obama’s presidency.

“People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens, and illegal aliens are people who should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally.

“Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple.

“Until the American people are convinced that we will stop future flows of illegal immigration, we will make no progress in dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are here now.

“When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers,’ we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose.

“If you don’t think it’s illegal, you’re not going to say it. I think it is illegal, and wrong.”

And in 2007 during George W. Bush’s presidency, then-Senator Joe Biden, D-DE, offered this advice.

“Ladies and gentlemen, no great country can say it is secure without being able to control its borders. Period. What I would do about it is what I proposed to do about it almost 13 year ago. 

“I would radically ramp up the number of border security guards we have, the use of electronic surveillance material we have to guard the border, and the number of what they call ‘virtual fences.’ They’re not really fences. Virtual fences from aerostat balloons … whereby we could control the border much, much better.”

Very wise words from men who today hold two of our most important government positions, and who are now 180 degrees in opposition to their sensible positions of several ago.

This crisis can be ended fairly quickly if Biden would reverse his Executive Orders that changed so many things about border enforcement, by enforcing existing laws, restoring “remain in Mexico” and Title 42, and following Texas’ example of blocking the border.