Happy New Year from Interesting Items. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- Bait
- FBI
- Shutdown
- NFL
- Seals
- Silence
- Quake
- Bait. The Trump WH released a proposed fix for DACA / Dreamers last week. It must have been pretty good as everyone on the open borders side of the argument went ballistic. Essentially, Trump will trade a 12-year long path to citizenship for these people and their families for appropriated funding for a wall, an end to the immigration lottery, and an end to chain migration. The DACA / Dreamers then get in the back of the immigration line. During that 12-year long period, if anyone commits a crime, they are no longer on the path, and get deported. Given that the vast majority of the DACA / Dreamers live in a world where criminality is commonplace, the WH is betting that they and their families will not be able to uphold their end of the bargain. I don’t substantially disagree with this. The problem is a future democrat or Chamber of Commerce backed president simply lifting the requirements with a wave of their regal hand. As of this writing, it appears that the strong anti-immigration senators Cotton and Perdue are both on board with this. In all, the path to citizenship will cover 1.8 million illegals. I do not know if that total includes their families who came in via chain migration. The actual number of DACA / Dreamers are closer to 3.8 million. If you figure that at least four family members followed each kid into the nation, the number approaches 20 million, a number large enough to turn the entire nation into Mexifornia. The Trump WH is playing a very high stakes game here. And they know they are. I believe that this is a trap, bait for the democrats to take, not unlike the bait they took with the government shutdown a week ago. In tossing this proposal out, he positions himself as a realist, who is not ugly or unfeeling to the so-called children. Instead he is sensitive to the interests and needs of hard working American citizens, which is not a bad place to be. He puts democrats and their special interest group Soros-funded rent-a-mobs in the position of arguing against what will appear to a lot of us as a very reasonable position. Once it is rejected, he can then allow O’Bama DACA / Dreamer EO to expire and start deporting people, starting with anyone and everyone who ever committed a criminal act while on this soil, blaming the entire sorry mess on democrat intransigence. I’ve never seen President Trump with a fly rod in hand, but I think he would be a heck of a fly fishermen, fooling fish with feathers, just like he is tossing out various bait, lures and flies putting democrats in the position to overextend themselves and take the bait. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/955574276714848257.html
- FBI. The FIB (formerly known as a law enforcement organization called the FBI) had themselves quite a last week. First, they claimed to have lost 50,000 text messages between FIB lead investigator Peter Stzrok and his girlfriend, also an FIB lawyer. The text messages were timed to be precisely across the period that the pair along with FIB Deputy Director Andy McCabe and others from the Intelligence community were putting their Plan B insurance plan into operation to remove newly elected President Trump from office after his election. There are places this sort of thing would be referred to as a coup d’état. That claim was blamed on a system-wide software upgrade that ate the SMS text messages from half the government phones at the FIB. Problem with all this is that SMS messages like e-mails are forever, being backed up on some server (probably a lot of servers) somewhere, things that would take intentional action by IT professionals to destroy. After a couple of days, the DoJ IG announced that the text messages were in the process of being recovered. One of the text messages had an FIB agent suggesting the text messages be deleted. When you start destroying evidence, you are instantly committing obstruction of justice, something Mueller’s merry band of inquisitors are trying to entrap President Trump and his people with. Too bad that the Hillary supporters already did the nefarious deed. So, lying to an investigator is a federal crime, but when the investigators lie to people investigating them and conspire to destroy evidence, that is apparently not obstruction. Got it. I’ll try to remember. The DoJ IG memo on FISA abuse has been reviewed by all House members and the House majority is in the process of getting it released. DoJ attempts to obstruct its immediate release have fallen on deaf ears. Given the number of people who have seen it without leaking it to media, one would conclude that it is not damaging to Trump. Final FIB news from last week is that it appears that the FIB interview of then Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was a setup, pure entrapment, led by self-identified co-conspirator Peter Stzrok. Flynn thought the questions were going to be about national security and like Scooter Libby and Martha Stewart, chose to talk to investigators rather than immediately asking for a lawyer. The FIB is badly, badly corrupted and in need of a thorough house cleaning, if not a complete shutdown and elimination complete with salting the ground, so nothing grows afterwards. Never, ever talk to an investigator. https://pjmedia.com/trending/page-strzok-referenced-fbi-secret-society-met-day-election/
- Shutdown. Senate democrats orchestrated a government shutdown a week ago in an attempt to tie a DACA / Dreamer fix to the omnibus spending legislation needed to keep the government open. So, the feds closed their doors for 4 days over a weekend. Unlike past Republican presidents who allowed both democrats and their water carriers in the drive-by media do define them and their actions, Trump instantly fired back with a devastating broadside that the democrats never saw coming. The WH and most Republicans in congress framed the argument as democrats more supportive of 800,000 illegals than they are of American Military members out in harm’s way. While true, this does not resonate positively with anyone but the most ardent democrat rent-a-mob member. It took democrats only a few days to cave like the proverbial cheap suit and pass an extension for another three weeks. This is the first one of these that I have seen democrats take any public relations heat. And it is long past time that happened. Yes, it is all a game, but then again so is football, and people get hurt playing games (sports) all the time. Long past time that our side was not the only one taking incoming fire. This was the first obvious setup / trap laid by the Trump WH for democrats. It won’t be the last. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/20/donald-trump-democrat-shutdown-nice-present-one-year-anniversary-president/
- NFL. Yet another black eye for the NFL last week with the announcement that the League rejected an ad intended for the Super Bowl by AMVETS that ended with the hashtag #PleaseStand. The ad featured veterans saluting the flag and ended with information on donations to charitable organizations. The story was reported in the Army Times. The NFL claims that the Super Bowl ads are not a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement. Apparently, the only people that can make political statements protected by the First Amendment are those are players who trash the flag, law enforcement and the National Anthem. Vets and military are only good as political props for the occasional flyover, carrying the flag and related eye candy for the league. The NBA and NHL both accepted the ad for their all-star games. http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2018/01/23/veterans-group-says-nfl-censored-pro-national-anthem-pleasestand-super-bowl-ad/
- Seals. SCOTUS last week rejected a request to review endangered species listing for bearded seals living in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The request was for the SCOTUS to review a 2016 Ninth Circus opinion that reinstated protections for the seals. The listing was based on a climate change forecast that due to manmade global warming by next century, all the Arctic Ocean ice would be gone, and the seals would die. The current polar bear as endangered species listing was based on a similar weather forecast, that one only a half a century out. During the O’Bama years, the greens with a friendly Interior Department cronies pushed that noodle as hard and as fast as humanly possible, having successfully listed the polar bear using the climate change weather forecast, they then tried to list every single other mammal in the Arctic using the same technique regardless of the actual health of the population. As each listing comes with the requisite plan for recovery that locks up thousands of square miles of the Arctic as protected habitat, shutting down all development, these sorts of listings are particularly popular with anti-development greens. And if they can shove as many of these things through the Ninth Circus to get a favorable opinion with the listings despite all science involved, they are successful. Today, the bearded seal is not threatened, and has both robust health and numbers. Of course, as these seals are polar bear food, the excessive numbers of polar bears may end up driving them into threatened status in the not so distant future. The Endangered Species Act sorely needs reform or outright repeal. Sooner would be better than later. https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2018/01/22/u-s-supreme-court-rejects-appeal-of-protections-for-alaskas-bearded-seals/
- Silence. One of Joe Miller’s cohorts in political travels, David Eastman got himself elected to the Alaska House as a state legislator from the MatSu a couple of years ago. He turned himself into a reasonably competent legislator. He also has an incredible ability to get under the skins of the self-congratulating, preening members of the democrat and RINO-led House majority. Last week during Special Orders at the opening of this year’s session of the Legislature, Eastman asked for a moment of silence for all the babies who had lost their lives to abortion since Roe v Wade 40 years ago. He spoke about the 60 million abortions and the sanctity of human life. Most House members stood in the moment of silence. Four didn’t, all strong, self-described feminists. They were Rep. Geran Tarr, Harriet Drummond, Ivy Sponholtz, and David Guttenberg. Tarr is one of the nastiest bullies in the House. Drummond is one of the most unpleasant. Sponholtz is being groomed for higher office, and Guttenberg is just too dumb to know better. http://mustreadalaska.com/took-knee-house-reps-moment-silence/
- Quake. Woke up Monday night with the pulls on my dresser rattling. This is normally a very bad sign, though it took a while for me to realize it at the time , as is it is the way a large earthquake announces its beginning. Earthquakes send out several types of waves that arrive at different times. First to arrive are P and S waves, which are what made the house rattle. Last to arrive are the surface waves, which are what rearrange buildings, the countryside, and bounce people around. Generally, the longer the time between the arrival time of P & S and surface waves, the larger and farther away the quake is. This one was pretty big, weighing in at a M 7.9 some 600 km south of Anchorage, which was almost far enough away. The bed swayed for a long time, but fortunately the movement was not as severe as a M 7.1 three years ago that was only 150 miles away. Power stayed on. Nothing was rearranged on the shelves or within the house. This quake also triggered tsunami warnings because it was out in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska. It took place at 1230 AM. A large number of people in Kodiak evacuated to higher ground. Coast Guard in Kodiak launched all their helos and fixed wing airframes. The Homer spit was also evacuated. Only saw one report of perhaps 12 – 18” high wave in Kodiak. There were no other reports of a wave. This quake was the result of a strike slip movement within the Pacific plate near where it starts subducting beneath the North American Plate, not unlike the movement along the San Andreas fault. While I can think of better ways to wake up, there are most certainly worse ones. Such is the cost of living in this part of the world. https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2018/01/23/8-0-earthquake-in-gulf-of-alaska-tsunami-alert-for-coast/
More later –
– AG