What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Wow. Force reduction is certainly necessary, and welcome by many troops too. But how about you show a little class? Is that too much to ask?
From TheNYPost “In a stunning display of callousness, the Defense Department has announced that thousands of soldiers — many serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan — will be notified in the coming weeks that their service to the country is no longer needed.
Last week, more than 1,100 Army captains — the men and women who know best how to fight this enemy because they have experienced multiple deployments — were told they’ll be retired from the Army.
The overall news is not unexpected. The Army has ended its major operations in Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan. Budget cuts are projected to shrink the Army from its current 520,000 troops to 440,000, the smallest size since before World War II.
What is astonishing is that the Defense Department thought it would be appropriate to notify deployed soldiers — men and women risking their lives daily in combat zones — that they’ll be laid off after their current deployment.”
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2. Really? And this is the first they noticed?
From TheWashingtonExaminer “In unprecedented criticism of the White House, 38 journalism groups have assailed the president’s team for censoring media coverage, limiting access to top officials and overall “politically-driven suppression of the news.”
In a letter to President Obama, the 38, led by the Society of Professional Journalists, said efforts by government officials to stifle or block coverage has grown for years and reached a high-point under his administration despite Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to provide transparency.
Worse, they said: As access for reporters has been cut off, the administration has opened the door to lobbyists, special interests and “people with money.”
And as a result, they wrote, Obama only has himself to blame for the current cynicism of his administration. “You need look no further than your own administration for a major source of that frustration – politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies. We call on you to take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in,” wrote David Cuillier, president of SPJ.”
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3. Too simple a solution?
From TheWashingtonTimes “We taxpayers are expected to house, feed, clothe and care for almost 30,000 illegal aliens for a full year, according to the White House’s official request. That’s a small city.
Instead, we could fly all of them home for one-half of 1 percent of the $3.8 billion that President Obama proposes we spend. That’s a savings of 99.5 percent!
Most of his proposal is to pay living expenses. At the unofficial reported cost of $250 per person per day, President Barack Obama is proposing we spend $1.8 billion “to provide appropriate care for unaccompanied children.” That works out to 19,726 minors for a year. (The official term for them, written into federal statute, is “undocumented alien children.” Not undocumented immigrants, migrants or refugees. Those other terms are efforts at propaganda.)
In addition, Obama wants another $879 million “for detention and removal of apprehended undocumented adults traveling with children,” and “alternatives to detention programs” for these adults. He blends “removal” with “detention” to make it impossible to determine how many removals are planned.”
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These next few discuss things mentioned yesterday in more detail. This didn’t happen overnight. These are some of the players, along with our govt and White House, who have brought on this “crisis.” And this is a coordinated effort.
The Coyotes.
From NBCNews “Ramshackle hotels that rent rooms for $5 a night line the main street in El Naranjo, Guatemala, signs of the outpost’s status as a waystation for Central American migrants trying to make their way to the United States.
The lawless, dangerous town is home to drug-traffickers and human smugglers — the coyotes who negotiate and make deals with the desperate travelers right out in the open.
During a visit to El Naranjo, a team from NBC Nightly News watched one such transaction — four Hondurans, two of them teenagers, making a deal — while a Guatemalan soldier a few feet away turned a blind eye.”
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Governments we aid, working against us and enabling the situation.
From The Examiner “On Monday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina held a joint press conference in Playas de Catazaja, Mexico, to officially announce an agreement to make it easier for those making the illegal journey to the United States from Central America, to cross into Mexico.
The Southern Border Program to Improve Passage, will provide for more border checkpoints along Mexico’s border with Guatemala, and offer more protection and even emergency medical care to those making their way north. The illegal aliens will receive a so-called Regional Visitor’s Card, according to El Universal.
Officially, the program will grant the cards to only illegal aliens from Guatemala and Belize, allowing them to remain in Mexico’s southern states for 72 hours (more than enough time to reach the U.S./Mexican border by train). While, those two countries share a border with Mexico, the program will undoubtedly benefit anyone who makes it to the border, which would explain why our Border Patrol stations are currently overflowing with illegal aliens from El Salvador and Honduras as well.”
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The Gangs.
From JudicialWatch “The nation’s most violent street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha—are actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing illegal immigrant minors and they’re using Red Cross phones to communicate, a Homeland Security source tells Judicial Watch.
JW has reported extensively on the crisis created by the sudden influx of mostly Central American minors that have crossed into the U.S. through the Mexican border in recent weeks. It has created havoc and will end up costing American taxpayers billions of dollars to house, process, medically treat, feed and inevitably educate the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) which are being dispersed throughout the country. They are bringing in dangerous diseases—including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis— and occupying our military bases as shelters.
As if all this weren’t bad enough, the invasion is also supplying the nation’s most dangerous street gangs with new soldiers. The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gangs are on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the newly arrived illegal aliens, according to JW’s source. The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.”
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Obama enabling La Raza, the racist immigration “right” group.
From TheCapitalCityProject “Federal funding surged to a radical immigration group under the Obama administration after a former top member of the organization joined the Obama team in 2009.
In 2009, Cecilia Muñoz was appointed as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration. She served in this position until January of 2012 when she became the President’s Domestic Policy Advisor and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, a position which coordinates the domestic policy making process in the White House.
Muñoz is the former Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), one of the most radical groups today behind the push for a compete overhaul of the United States immigration system. She is married to Amit Muñoz-Pandya, a human rights lawyer and former counselor to the Open Society Institute, which was established and funded by liberal billionaire George Soros.”
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4. Will Israel allow them an out yet again?
From TheJerusalemPost “Hamas feels that it has been forced into a confrontation with Israel – one that it did not want at this stage because of its increased isolation and financial crisis.
The massive Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours have surprised Hamas and other Palestinian groups. Hamas apparently expected a limited response to the recent rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns. But as the IDF intensified its strikes against Hamas targets – including the homes of some of its top commanders – it became clear to the movement’s leaders that Israel means business.
On Tuesday night, Hamas spokesmen were sending distress signals to various parties. The organization is concerned that if the IDF operation continues for another few days, the movement will pay a very heavy price – one that could even bring about an end to Hamas’s rule over the Gaza Strip.
Hamas accused Israel of “crossing all the redlines” by bombing the homes of its military commanders. This shows that Hamas did not expect Israel to take such a drastic move. Less than 24 hours after the beginning of the IDF offensive, Hamas talked about the need to return to the truce that was reached with Israel in 2012.”
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5. Not could be higher, it is higher.
From MSNNews “Tax credits for families that don’t qualify. Medicare payments for treatments that might not be necessary. Unemployment benefits for people who are secretly working. Federal agencies reported making $100 billion in payments last year to people who may not have been entitled to receive them.
Congressional investigators say the figure could be even higher.
“The amounts here are absolutely staggering,” said Rep. , R-Fla. “It’s over $100 billion each of the last five years. That’s a staggering half a trillion dollars in improper payments.”
“In 2013, federal agencies made $97 billion in overpayments, according to agency estimates. Underpayments totaled $9 billion. That adds up to $106 billion in improper payments, or 3.5 percent of all the payments made by the federal government.”
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6. Cut. Nose. Spite. Face.
From BuzzFeed ” One of the nation’s largest public-sector unions is severing its ties with the United Negro College Fund because the group accepted donations from the Koch brothers and its president spoke at a Koch-funded summit.
In a letter sent Tuesday, AFSCME President Lee Saunders wrote that the UNCF has taken actions “deeply hostile” to public employees, which he considers a “profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement,” and that the union will end its relationship with UNCF.
Saunders cited the UNCF’s decision to accept a $25 million grant from Koch Industries, Inc. and the Charles Koch Foundation as a reason for the split, as well as the decision by UNCF President Michael Lomax to speak at a summit hosted by the Kochs in California.”
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Wandering Views 
Too much.
Just too much to digest.
This country is sick. It needs to vomit real bad.
Maybe some in November, but it won’t help much.
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Peggy Noonan: http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/the-crisis-on-the-border-1405029753?mobile=y
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#2. MSNBC will still carry their water.
MSNBC has a radio commercial to visit their website. They want to stop gun violence, protect voting rights and see that no one falls through the cracks.
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I stopped at the Judicial Watch article, where it said, “They are bringing in dangerous diseases – including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus, and tuberculosis.” That is complete and utter hogwash. Tuberculosis has been alive and well in the USA for centuries, brought over by the first European explorers and migrants (it then killed hundreds of thousands of native Americans) – most people don’t realize that it has never gone away, just been kept well contained through public health efforts. Swine flu entered the USA (and Canada) several years ago, and there is nothing to say how it got here – there are a lot of tourists who visit Mexico. The only person in my community who died from the virus had been to Mexico.
Ebola virus is found in Africa, not in Central or South America – and the chances of anyone carrying Ebola into the States is mighty slim as its symptoms are too horrific to go misdiagnosed and it kills quickly. The only cases of Ebola ever identified in the US were monkeys imported for scientific research. It is a stupid tactic to try to say these Central American children are carrying Ebola. As for dengue fever, I know someone who came home from a missions trip with dengue – shall we ban all journalists, tourists, and missionaries who go to places that are endemic with dengue? I’m going to violate Godwin’s law and say such hysteria looks very much like the Nazi’s propaganda against Jews, when they laid all infectious diseases at their doorstep. Shame on the authors for acting like nasty schoolchildren, trying to smear the people they don’t like with anything they can think of.
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Just a hint that not all is as it seems.
http://live.wsj.com/video/opinion-deportation-or-asylum-for-immigrant-children/A8967E40-4248-4F3D-9900-1D746C77C7DC.html?mod=djemMER_h#!A8967E40-4248-4F3D-9900-1D746C77C7DC
Mary Anastasia O’Grady has always seemed very wise and knowledgable about Latin America.
You will have to sit through a commercial.
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Roscuro,
No one is saying those diseases don’t already exist in the US, just this is an influx of new infected folks. As someone in the health industry you should be aware of the dangers they can present to the public. We need shots to visit these countries for a reason. They’re getting them here, now, but that’s after the fact.
As to your Goodwins Law violation, I think the comparison is offensive. Talk about hogwash.
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The Real, nobody coming from Central America is going to carry Ebola. It does not exist there. So yes, it is hogwash.
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Roscuro,
Also you seem to be letting your empathy for the children, which is a good thing, be your sole focus here. That won’t solve this.
The children here are being fed, housed, given medical care, toys, and safety. The conditions aren’t ideal, but it’s an improvement. Those here should be cared for and dealt with according to existing laws. But the continued influx must be stopped. Then and only then can you deal with those here. All they’re doing is dumping them at bus stations to find relatives, many also here illegally.
Also you must weed thru the gang members and cartel contacts, and get them out quickly. If you dump them loose with court dates, they’ll disappear. That’s what they’re sent here to do- deal drugs and recruit members.
And above all, these govts need to stop this- ours, and the sending countries. This is economic terrorism. They encourage the lawbreaking for one and only one reason. Without the US dollars sent back by these illegal immigrants, and our tax dollars, they’re economies would be in serious trouble. They know it, and that’s why they encourage it. But they take jobs that struggling Americans are in need of to care for their own. They take billions from our economy, not to mention the social services dollars they take. See #5. Being fiscally responsible is not being cold hearted.
Our govt needs to stop this. If we’re going to pay for these countries anyway, we might as well make them states, take control and clean out their corrupt govts, and let them stay home. But this? This won’t work. And to handle it responsibly, it has to be about way more than just the kids.
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I do not fear an influx of disease from immigrants from any corner of the world and furthermore, I have good reason to think that the Western public health system has the ability to be able to deal with it. Tuberculosis does not spread so easily that a camp of children could give it to residents of a nearby town. It, like its relative leprosy, requires long periods of close contact with symptomatic individuals and a weakened immune system.
Dengue, a mosquito borne illness (by the way, journalists, etc. who travel the world do not get shots against dengue, as no vaccination exists) will spread north by insect vector, not by human contact – which is why I was never worried about catching it from my acquaintance. Like malaria, it requires a build-up of the host mosquito population, not the human hosts, before it could became endemic in North America. As for swine flu, it has shot its bolt – it has infected (or vaccinated) a large enough part of the North American population that it is simply dwindling into yet another flu virus amongst many.
Any Ebola victims would be so hurriedly identified and isolated that it would never have the chance to spread – it is not a highly infectious disease if common precautions about hand washing, etc. are observed. The virus itself seems to be becoming less deadly – its last outbreak in Zaire had a fatality rate of about 90% and the same virus is now only about 50% fatal in its current outbreak in Ghana, Liberia and Guinea. The people I worry about catching Ebola are the friends and coworkers I left in the Gambia, as the Guinea border is actually very close and people travel across the borders frequently.
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Roscuro,
It’s a shame you gave up on the Judicial Watch piece. At the link, you’d have found this.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/07/illegal-alien-minors-spreading-tb-ebola-dengue-swine-flu/
The source for the Ebola claim is a letter to the Center for Disease Control from a US Congressman, who is also an M.D.. You can read that here.
Click to access Gingrey-Letter-to-CDC-on-Public-Health-Crisis.pdf
And not everyone currently violating our laws and sneaking over the southern border is from South America.
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The Real, this is not just empathy for the children. I cannot stand to see well educated people lash themselves into a frenzy over a public health crisis that does not exist. Fear of disease can move otherwise reasonable people into shameful actions. I cited one historical case but there are many others, from the anti-Jew hysteria during the Black Death to the opposition to immigrants in early twentieth century America. The latter incident, worded in much the same way as the current one, was the breeding ground for such individuals as Margaret Sanger to develop eugenics and population control programs. This is a warning to not panic – fear is a highly destructive force, and using disease to urge against immigration is akin to yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theatre.
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The letter cites no other sources than ‘reports’ and thus is based on common gossip. The Congressman may be a doctor, but that does not mean he is an expert on tropical disease. If he was, he would have known that Ebola has never been endemic in Latin America and the travel time would be too long for anyone from Africa to carry the disease unnoticed from Africa to Latin America to the US. My doctor was wise enough to know she was not an expert on tropical disease and sent me to a travel doctor when I was preparing to go to The Gambia.
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Part of the reason these diseases are rare here is because we have a system in place to prevent people from bringing them here. Let’s use these. Also you’ll remember HRW,standards for letting them into Canada. Health and criminal check, wish we could do that.
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I though that was what the holding camps were for, to screen the children – that would be why public health officials are working there. It is rather like the holding place on Ellis Island where they screened immigrants as they entered New York harbour, in those days of open immigration in the early twentieth century. The screening didn’t stop the panic then and history seems to be repeating itself, although one-third of the American population can trace its ancestry to those who passed through Ellis Island.
I would dispute that tuberculosis is rare in North America. I trained in a small local hospital and there was a tuberculosis patient in isolation there. Two of my fellow students, born and bred in Canada, had to temporarily stop the program to ensure that the TB identified on their chest X-rays was inactive. One of my teachers had inactive TB from her years as a public health nurse in a large city. There are many people walking around with inactive, non-infectious TB; as TB cannot be completely cleared from the body, though it can be forced into dormancy. TB is carried by animals, like cattle – thus one of the reasons for screening beef and pasteurizing dairy products – so it will never be completely eliminated. It is like leprosy – there was a recent outbreak in the southern US of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) due to people eating infected armadillo meat.
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Bob – most service are belatedly starting to realize there are long term benefits to higher wages and benefits (ie Costco approach) . From what I understand, McD’s and Walmat would consider a higher wage but want the gov’t involved so the raise is industry wide.
You are assuming a connection from higher minimum wage to inflation which just doesn’t exist. I’ve heard all the arguments and the theory behind the connection but these advocates have yet to come up with solid historical data. Yes the price of gasoline has risen dramatically in the past ten years but that has no connection to minimum wage hikes — for one, min wage hasn’t risen nearly as much as the price of gas (or a burrito).
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1. You’re surprised? Since when has the military been anything but callous to its enlisted men? Sure there’s been some improvement since the cannon fodder days of Civil War and WWI but the reality is still the same.
2. Ahh yes that liberal media myth blows up again.
4. Bad leadership on both sides but especially on the Hamas side. Hezbollah made the same mistake in 2006. I don’t like the methods of both sides but hey I’m not there. However, I can’t fathom Hamas’ leadership or logic
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I don’t have much to add to Roscuro’s comment — she correctly blew up the disease meme which is used both a a scare technique and as a metaphor.
When I saw pictures of the protestors yelling at the busloads of Central American children, I was reminded of pictures of screaming adult protestors at black school children during the 1950s integration of the South. The issue is different but the image is the same. When I read the rhetoric posted by AJ, I’m reminded of the anti-immigration screeds written to protest southern and eastern European immigrants in the late 19th century — the dirty papist who would undermine Christian America. The idea of communicable diseases and social ills figured prominently in that era also. So Roscuro may have over reached in using the Nazi metaphor. I was reminded more of this essay; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paranoid_Style_in_American_Politics
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This may be worth $10 just for the entertainment value and raises an important issue at the same time.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-honest-politician-crash-the-most-expensive-senate-race-of-all-time
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hwesseli,
I have asked about those of us on a fixed income. A raise in minimum wages does something to my purchasing power, but what?
What does a raise in the minimum wage do to my savings? (i.e. the purchasing power of the money I saved.)
Please don’t ignore my questions. It looks like I have 2 points that you can’t refute. As of now, they are unanswered.
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Today Roscuro taught us something that really has me scared: You can get leprosy from eating armadillos. I don’t generally order an armadillo steak, but you never know when there might be a little armadillo in your chile. What is worse is that the armadillo’s natural habitat is virtually identical to my own:
armadillo habitat map
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2. At last. Good for them. Finally. And, yes, the media has generally given the president a friendly “pass” since the 2008 campaign. Most everyone acknowledges that now, even those who are liberal and in the media. As Obama would say, that debate has been “settled.”
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I need a 9 year old to help me post maps.
http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/dasynove.htm
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bob — not ignoring you I don’t think you like my answer. A raise in the minimum wage would have no or very little effect on those on a fixed income. The only drawback would be if a raise caused inflation, but it doesn’t. You might benefit from better service by retail and restaurant industry who are now staffed by people who not only are less stressed about their finances, happier with their job and boss, but will also be more long term at their place of employment and thus more qualified to assist you. And as they will be better paid, they will be less reliant on social assistance saving your various levels of gov’t money,
ricky – please don’t tell me armadillo taste like chicken. I’ve had bison and venison and recommend both over mass produced beef. On my bucket list is a properly spiced, minimally marinated, medium rare Kobe steak.
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hwesseli,
Thank you for answering. I just don’t see how you can think raising the minimum wage doesn’t affect prices.
My father died at 82 years of age. If I die at 82, that will be 15 years from now. Wages have gone up $3.25 in the last 15 years here in California.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/minimumwagehistory.htm
That was a rise of 56%. So this has not raised prices?
I went to a kids’ birthday party today. The 9 year old didn’t believe me when I told her the first present bag was a pony and the second was a unicorn.
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You guys seem to be setting your focus on something that has little to do with the overall picture. Disease is an issue, but not the large one you seem to think it is. No one is making the argument that disease is high up the list of what folks are complaining about. While disease was mentioned, the point of that piece, and mine, and the point mentioned the day before was the gang situation, not the diseases although they were mentioned. The piece was even titled
“MS-13 Actively Recruiting Illegal Alien Minors at U.S. Shelters”
The only ones I’ve seen focus on the disease aspect, other than simply mentioning the public health dangers these illegal immigrants present medically, is you two. And you’ve yet to address the focus of the piece, the gangs, or the numerous other issues mentioned. How about a response on some of those, instead of the strawman you seem to have constructed on your own to beat on?
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