(ConservativeInsider.org) – Ohio GOP Representative Bill Johnson’s early departure from the House tightens the Republicans’ slim majority in Congress. He announced on January 2 that he would step down on January 21 before assuming the presidency of Youngstown State University in March.
In his resignation letter, Johnson expressed pride in his district, describing it as “proud and patriotic,” but also alluded to neglect by “America’s elites.” He emphasized the crucial role of blue-collar communities, often called “flyover country,” in building the nation’s history and stressed their importance in America’s future. WFMJ reported that he humbly acknowledged being repeatedly elected to serve these communities.
After Johnson’s exit, the House will consist of 219 Republicans, 213 Democrats, and three vacancies. With only 219 Republicans, the GOP can only afford to lose two votes on any party-line issues with full attendance. Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker, left on December 31, and George Santos, the GOP Representative from New York, was expelled last month.
The slimmer majority could pose challenges, particularly as spending bills are required to keep the government open. Additionally, the House faces pressing matters like funding for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia and supporting Israel amid ongoing operations in Gaza following the October 7 attack by Hamas. The government funding legislation is set to expire in two stages: January 19 and February 2, following Johnson’s planned departure.
A special election has been scheduled for February 13 to fill the vacancy left by Santos in New York’s third Congressional District. Former Democratic Representative Tom Souzzi, nominated by his party, aims to reclaim the seat he vacated to pursue the governorship.
Republicans have selected Mazi Melesa Pilip, a Nassau County Legislature member. Born in Ethiopia, she moved to Israel at 12 and arrived in the US in 2005. The race is close, with one poll showing Souzzi leading Pilip by three points.
New York Democratic Representative Brian Higgins, 64, will depart from the House next month, providing the GOP with some breathing room. He cited frustration with the slow pace of progress in Washington as a factor in his decision.
Senate District 19 candidate Samantha Gasca has called for comprehensive information regarding illegal immigrants, urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to provide detailed data on those entering the state.
Gasca emphasized the need for information such as the total number of individuals who have crossed the border illegally, health screenings, criminal background checks, tracking of their whereabouts and legislative measures to keep the public informed.
“We the People of Illinois must band together and rise up to demand our leader/governor inform us thoroughly regarding the illegal immigration issue,” Gasca said on Facebook.
“Some excellent/quality data we might like to see would be things such as: 1) Total number of peoples who have crossed the border illegally— federally, state-wide, and within/around local municipalities; 2) Have they been screened for sickness, especially Covid?; 3) What is the status of their criminal background checks (If any have been reviewed)?; 4) Have we tracked their whereabouts including location of residence (e.g., in case we find out someone is a sex offender or sex/drug/arms trafficker), 5) Do we have legislature imagined going forward to make sure neighbors are informed, and 6) Are we checking their luggage, like all must even submit to in order to fly?”
“During Covid, Mr. Pritzker held what may have been daily briefings providing large sums of data. However in a particularly ‘touchy’ bipartisan situation politically, there is much silence. PR move? Out of touch? Lack of concern for what the majority of the state wants, as opposed to the desire to drive forward personal agendas?”
“We Illinoisans should be aware when undocumented peoples— here illegally— are living in our neighborhoods… could this tracking system be wise for such reasons as we might track potential traffickers, drug distributors, predators, thievery, etc.? Parents should be informed when their children are among/being exposed and indoctrinated with anti-American rhetoric.”
“We have a right to know how much we are spending to house those who are not tax paying citizens… tax dollars skyrocketing and pension funds going deduct, yet we are playing political games with people’s lives. Absolutely terrible.”
There are significant concerns from many that the tens of thousands illegal immigrants entering the state have not had appropriate background checks.
Pat Gibbons, a Chicago activist, recently echoed Gasca’s concerns in a press conference, emphasizing the potential health risks associated with the migrant influx.
He pointed to reported cases of scabies and measles in police districts where undocumented immigrants have sought shelter.
Gibbons underscored the need for a thorough vetting process and proper background checks for individuals entering the city.
Highlighting the situation with Venezuela, he expressed worry about individuals being released from jails and arriving in Chicago.
“The fact is,Venezuela is emptying the jails, crossing the southern border illegally and coming into Chicago,” Gibbons said.
Despite the city’s welcoming nature, Gibbons noted that the community feels uneasy due to the lack of information about these newcomers, emphasizing the paramount importance of knowing the members of their community, especially for the safety of children.
“We are a loving people. At the end of the day, we accept all people. But the neighborhood, the community feels unsafe because we simply do not know who they are. But we know who our children are,” Gibbons said.
Ammon Blair, a former US Border Patrol agent, revealed an extensive network operated by Mexican drug cartels and criminal smugglers in producing fake documents for immigrants, contributing to rising child labor and human trafficking issues in the United States, according to Federal News Wire.
Blair highlighted that cartels create counterfeit State Identification cards, Driver’s Licenses and steal American Social Security Numbers (SSNs), selling these fraudulent documents to illegal aliens.
Blair pointed out that cartels exploit the vulnerabilities of the Southern border, engaging in the production of fake documents for Unidentified Alien Children (UACs), contributing to child labor and human trafficking problems in the United States.
Despite efforts by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to confiscate counterfeit IDs, the prevalence of this criminal activity persists, with significant challenges in verifying the accurate identification of individuals involved.
Meanwhile a record-high number of individuals, 160 in total, listed on the terror watchlist were stopped from entering the US illegally at its borders by Sept. 2023, according to government statistics reported by the New York Post.
This marks a significant increase from the previous year’s 98 apprehensions.
The identities of those on the watchlist are closely guarded to avoid diplomatic incidents, tip-offs to terrorists and cartels, or retribution, citing national security threats.
The surge in attempts to cross the US borders by individuals on the watchlist has been noted since President Joe Biden took office, with concerns about terrorists and criminal actors exploiting the complex security environment.
Despite the record numbers, government officials emphasize that encounters with known or suspected terrorists at the southern border remain uncommon, representing less than 0.01% of total encounters in recent years.
Gasca has a diverse background spanning radio, counseling and business.
Since March 2018, she has been actively engaged as the Radio Program Content Coordinator and Data Analyst at Moody Radio.
Gasca also owns and operates God Heard LLC, a multifaceted platform established in July 2021. Through this venture, she offers pastoral counseling, life coaching, and business consulting services, thereby expanding her influence in these interconnected fields.
Senate District 19 includes all or parts of Lockport, New Lenox, Mokena, Orland Park, Tinley Park, Frankfort, Frankfort Square, Homer Glen, Joliet, Richton Park, University Park, Matteson, Homewood, Flossmoor, Park Forest, Olympia Fields, Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest, Markham and Oak Forest.
District 19 is currently being represented by Michael Hastings (D-Frankfort).
The Chicago Board of Education is preparing to remove police officers from public high schools. Local School Councils already have the power to remove officers, but district leaders are taking away that local control. From Illinois Policy
The Chicago Board of Education is reportedly preparing to remove police officers from high school buildings in the fall.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union leadership have vocally opposed police officers being stationed in Chicago Public Schools buildings. The school board was appointed by Johnson, a former CTU organizer, and will vote on whether to renew the $10.3 million police contract this summer.
During his campaign, Johnson said police “have no place in schools.” Once in office he ultimately deferred to Local School Councils to vote on whether to keep police officers in schools.
CTU leadership advocates police-free schools, claiming a police presence “perpetuate the racist school-to-prison pipeline.” They also took legislative action to push policies that could put other students in danger by restricting police presence and discipline of students.
Research on the effectiveness of school resource officers varies. That shows the importance of letting decisions rest with local leaders, who understand the environment and needs of their own community and schools.
The Chicago Board of Education wants to take away that autonomy from principals, teachers and families. It is expected to unilaterally decide to remove police officers from high schools.
Taking decision-making away from local leadership
Each school in CPS is different. Principals and other community members on Local School Councils understand the environment and needs of their schools. They are best equipped to determine the necessity of school resource officers.
CPS formerly provided every high school with two police officers. In 2019, CPS gave authority to Local School Councils to determine whether to keep the officers. No schools removed officers that first year.
During the next four years, Local School Councils in 25 high schools voted to remove all officers. This school year, just 16 high schools have two officers and another 23 have one officer. There are 91 traditional high schools in CPS.
Now CPS and CTU leadership want to remove all officers from Chicago high schools regardless of the wishes of local school council members. Some principals are voicing disagreement with this proposal by the board.
William Howard Taft High School Principal Mark Grishaber said, “I think a blanket (school resource officer) policy for the entire district in terms of safety is not the best for” Taft and some other schools. Most students and faculty at Taft support having police officers assigned to campus.
CTU advocates for fewer police in schools, other polices that could harm safety
This isn’t the first time CTU has advocated for situations that could put students at risk.
The union lodged a witness slip in favor of a bill allowing the Illinois State Board of Education to award competitive grants to districts that reallocate funding away from school-based law enforcement personnel to other practices, such as “restorative justice programs” and use of social workers. Grant funds were explicitly prohibitedfrom being used to increase the use of school-based security personnel.
Similarly, CTU lodged its opposition to a bill allowing school safety and security grants to law enforcement agencies to help defray the costs associated with hiring a school resource officer.
And the union also opposed using metal detectors in schools, objecting to a bill requiring public schools to install walk-through metal detectors at public entrances and directing the Illinois State Board of Education to make grants available, subject to appropriation. The bill also would have required metal detectors at institutions of higher education, hospitals and courthouses.
Empty envelopes of opened vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary are stacked on a table at King County Elections in Renton, Washington on March 10, 2020. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
New Documentary ‘State of Denial’ Goes over Election Illegalities in Maricopa County’s 2022 Election, Reveals ‘Intentional Conduct to Sabotage the Election’
A new documentary released on Wednesday, reveals the full extent of the chaos on Election Day last fall in Maricopa County due to voters unable to feed their ballots into the machines for tabulation. Speropictures released “State of Denial” in a viewing hosted by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) at Pollack Cinemas in Tempe, which is now available free online. The documentary interviewed the key people involved in figuring out how the problem arose, and why nothing happened in the courts to rectify it.
WPAA, which is working with the Kari Lake campaign, posted the documentary on X, along with the statement, “The movie of what the government knows, but will never admit. Kari faces defamation charges for telling the truth, while Scott Jarrett, Stephen Richer, and Bill Gates continue to gaslight and lie to the public.”
The documentary juxtaposed footage of Maricopa County officials reassuring everyone that very little went wrong on Election Day, while revealing how bad the voting anomalies were. At least 61 percent of vote centers encountered tabulation problems, the documentary revealed. One video clip showed Gates, who is a Maricopa County Supervisor, stating that “door 3,” where ballots were placed that were unable to be read by the tabulating machines, was “secure.” However, cybersecurity expert Clay Parikh said during the video that door 3 containers were not sealed.
WPAA conducted an investigation into the election to get to the bottom of the illegal activities. When the group attempted to review the county’s live cameras, Chris Handsel, WPAA’s data and technology director, said they discovered, “We have so many of the cameras that went down just before we started opening up these boxes and looking at the balance.”
Lake’s attorney Bryan Blehm discussed how Lake has been unable to find almost anyone to represent her challenging the election, since Democrats are coming after election attorneys who challenge the results of the 2020 and 2022 elections. “I was the only lawyer in the state of Arizona willing to take Kari Lake’s case because I know what happened in 2022, and I know what happened in 2020,” he said.
Lake frequently says she may end up representing herself in the future since the Arizona Bar is in the process of disciplining her attorneys.
Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen addressed the courts dismissing the election lawsuits. “The court[s] they just say well, there’s no evidence to baseless allegations of fraud allegations,” he said. “That phrase, ‘baseless allegations of fraud,’ was repeated, regardless of the evidence that showed that there was actually illegal voting and evidence of fraud.”
Blehm said the courts sanctioned election attorneys who brought the lawsuits in order to deter others.
“I believe it was an intentional effort to get attorneys to self-censor, to avoid potential sanctions,” he said.
Blehm pointed out how progressives got the courts concerned about interference in elections, but that was back when it was likely to hurt Hillary Clinton and Democrats. “They were convinced there was Russian interference in elections, so convinced courts to create misinformation boards,” he said. Blehm has been speaking out against the Arizona Supreme Court’s creation of a misinformation task force, resulting in the State Bar of Arizona coming after him for criticizing judges.
Olsen said there were four major problems in the election, which he sued over in his complaint representing Lake. They were tabulator rejections, chain of custody violations (which is a Class 2 misdemeanor), lack of signature verification, and First Amendment violations.
The documentary revealed that of 464,926 ballot scan attempts on Election Day, over 50 percent had misfeed issues. The federal Election Assistance Commission limits misfeeds to 1 in 500 ballots. There were 180,894 ballots rejected out of 248,070, with 16,724 ballots going to door 3.
This was juxtaposed with a video clip of Gates stating, “There was no one who came today with a valid ID who was turned away from the polls.”
Many voters revealed later that they were unable to vote because they ran out of time waiting in line; many had to return to work, were elderly or sick and unable to stand in line for hours, or had other reasons.
Olsen revealed problems found with the county testing the equipment.
“They didn’t test any of the tabulators that were used in the vote centers; they tested five spares [that were not ultimately used on Election Day],” he said.
The lawyer brought this out in the pleadings in Lake’s lawsuits, but so far the courts have done nothing about it.
The county was required to conduct Logic & Accuracy tests before the election, but WPAA reported that the county didn’t conduct the mandatory testing until after they had certified on October 11, 2022, that it had been done, and then illegally swapped out the memory cards without testing them afterwards. WPAA discovered this after obtaining the system log files, which revealed that the L&A testing was actually done on October 14, 17, and 18, a full week after publicly certifying that it had been completed.
Olsen said over those three days, the county cut the seals from 446 tabulators, which was against the law, then reprogrammed the memory cards, which were never tested. He said the seal was supposed to be on there during the election to show they had been tested. He added that the county didn’t remember they did that until seven months afterwards when they were caught, since warning signs showed up in the log files.
Parikh said the log errors meant the votes could have been tabulated for the wrong candidate, since the machines were forced to attempt to decipher the errors. He said there was no evidence the problem was ever fixed prior to the election.
Another problem WPAA found based on the log files was that the county duplicated over 8,000 ballot images in an attempt to fix the tabulator problem on Election Day. However, the county only admitted duplicating 1,300 ballots, Olsen said. He said he believed setting the printers to print 19-inch ballot images was “intentional conduct to sabotage the election.”
When WPAA requested video footage, the county sent them a limited amount, which revealed nothing since the cameras were located too far away from any activity. But WPAA had been recording their own video too, and figured out that the county could have sent them that video which revealed far more, but chose not to.
Similarly, when the Lake campaign asked to inspect the ballots, which the statutes authorize a candidate to request, the county refused to turn them over.
Parikh discussed how he figured out the tabulation problem. He asked the county to allow him to look at ballots from six of the vote centers. He asked for a ruler and could see that the margins on the ballots varied, leading him to discover that some of them had been printed with 19-inch images instead of 20-inch images. The incorrect 19-inch images were found in all six vote centers.
The documentary showed footage of Jarrett, the Maricopa County Elections Department co-elections director, testifying on the witness stand during Lake’s trial about the 19-inch ballot images. During the first day he testified about it, he denied four times that it could have occurred; said the size was never tested and never installed. However, the next day he testified that he discovered the “fit-to-print” problem a few days after the election. He was not disciplined for perjury, and Shelby Busch, co-founder of WPAA, observed that the judge called him “credible.”
Busch discussed the problems the group found with voter signature verification. “Some of the things we found were voter registrations that were put into the system that had no signature, or they had signatures that belonged to another voter,” she said. Handsel added that 21 percent failed the secretary of state’s standards for signature matching, and 9 percent were “egregious mismatches.”
Olsen pointed out that 9 percent was enough to alter any election outcome.
“Nine percent of 1.9 million would be 180,000,” he said. Additionally, he cited testimony from whistleblower employees who revealed that 15 to 40 percent of signatures didn’t match, but were approved anyway by second level managers.
Handsel said WPAA submitted public records requests to the county for its signature verification procedures, and determined that following them would take as long as 45 seconds per signature. However, many of the signature reviewers were “speed clicking” through the process, many with approval rates of 100 percent of all signatures. Olsen said the court determined that over 321,000 signatures were verified in less than three seconds, asserting that it did not violate the law.
WPAA was thwarted doing its investigation, because the county refused to turn over ballot affidavit envelopes containing the signatures from the 2022 election, only the screenshots of them.
In regards to the chain of custody problems, the documentary showed Maricopa County Elections Department Co-Elections Director Rey Valenzuela stating that when the county picks up mail-in ballots from the Post Office, the county does not count them before dropping them off at their third-party vendor Runbeck Election Services, which scans in images of the ballot envelopes.
Blehm pointed out this violated the law. “They gave Runbeck the authority to count their ballots and they have no legal authority to do so,” he said. Olsen said there were around 35,000 ballots which appeared at Runbeck lacking a chain of custody. Runbeck said it received 263,000 ballots on Election Day, but recorded that they scanned in 298,000 images. Olsen and Blehm are in the process of being disciplined by the Arizona Bar for bringing up this discrepancy in pleadings for Lake.
The documentary also showed footage of Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder, testifying during Lake’s trial that when ballots leave the voting centers in the bins, they are not counted so no one knows how many there are.
The documentary cited a poll from Rasmussen Reports earlier this month which found that one in five voters admit they committed voter fraud in the 2020 election, such as by filling out a ballot for someone else. It concluded with a message from Lake, who said the U.S. needs to return to conducting elections on one day only, in person, and hand counted. She cited France’s presidential elections, which are conducted that way.
Illinois Looks Under a Rock and Finds Another 46,000 People
We’ve cast serious doubts on the accuracy of the 2020 Census count in many blue states. The population numbers far exceed the annual Census population estimates, data on home sales, moving van destinations, IRS tax returns, and other measures of movements between states.
Illinois should have probably lost another congressional seat as should have New York. Just as the left used the COVID pandemic in 2020 to change long-established voting rules, they used the virus to change the way the Census was conducted. There is good reason to suspect that the counting errors cost the red states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona as many as three to four congressional seats.
So our jaws dropped open when we read this headline from the Chicago Tribune:
State officials claimed that there were far more people than originally counted who live in shelters, government-assisted housing, in prison, or are homeless.
You wouldn’t think a state would want to boast about these high numbers of indigents and criminals. But Governor J.B. Pritzker is celebrating that this recount will bring tens of millions more federal welfare dollars to his state.
None of this changes the sad reality of Illinois: the state is rapidly losing its most productive citizens – no matter what Census bean counters say.
The results of an investigation into voter fraud in Illinois are not only high but truly disturbing and the following thoughts came rushing through me after seeing them. Let’s face it election fraud in IL./ Chicago has been going on for a very long time. I, like most of us raised in the city, back in the day always thought that political pull was a good thing, it was a way to get your foot in the door. We accepted it we were for the idea that we/Chicago controlled everything and outsiders could go f….. themselves if they didn’t like it, this is our city. We didn’t mind because Blue-collar families depended on strong blue-collar politicians to stand up for them and that’s why these politicians “almost always Democrat” got our votes and our Union support. So what happened? When did this change?
When did these blue-collar politicians start to protect/vote in favor of sending our Union Jobs overseas, turning their backs on the Blue-collar worker and their Unions? And why are our Unions still supporting these politicians? When did these politicians and their voters become so anti-God and in favor of exposing our children to this nonsense in the school system?
Explicit materials like 3rd graders being taught how to masturbate, books teaching 5th graders how to give oral sex, or teaching little kids they can choose sex-altering surgeries!??? What happened to the mostly Catholic/Christian Union members who wouldn’t stand for it? Why aren’t they standing up by the thousands shaking their fist saying “NOT ON OUR WATCH!” Where did these people who believed in God and Country go? Or did they simply die off and we the supposed carriers of the torch just gave up and decided to fall in line and take the BS? Maybe we just thought that it’s in GOD’s hands and we can’t change anything.
Well friends that’s like leaning on a shovel and praying for a hole. If you had told me 27 years ago that in the future I was going to be not only voting Republican but also representing the Republican Party and getting involved in politics, I would have said “Get the F….. OUTA HERE!” To me this isn’t political, I know it seems like it is but it is not. We/our country is at a crossroads. It’s not a battle between Republican vs Democrat, white vs black, straight vs gay, vaccinated vs non-vaccinated or any other kind of divisive title or group society wants to pigeonhole a person into. What we are experiencing is simply Good vs Evil. Now we can continue to lean on our shovels and pray for that hole or we can start digging. Spread the word, and start in your own homes with your kids, if you haven’t already. Try having peaceful awakening conversations with family, friends, and neighbors that reflect commonsensical ideas. And most important get right with God, and if you need to reacquaint yourself He’s in the same place that you left Him waiting for your return.
The U.S. Government Facilitates Human Trafficking – Illegal Immigration is Big Business – Who’s Tracking the Crisis – First COVID, Now Migrant Disaster Proclamations
Migrant debris littering private property along the Rio Grande This week, I had the opportunity to visit the U.S. southern border at Eagle Pass, Texas. I was invited to join a small group of Illinois legislators, a Texas state representative, Congresswoman Mary Miller, and a couple of others. Jaco Booyens led the tour. Jaco is well-known for his work to prevent human trafficking. His organization is Jaco Booyens Ministries, and his team works on public policies related to detecting and preventing human trafficking. Our one-day tour included a visit to theEagle Pass Border Patrol Station, where we were not invited in to ask questions, Mission Border Hope migrant processing facility, Bridge 2 in Eagle Pass, and a farm that has been run over by illegals and is now a border crossing controlled by the federal government. In addition, I was also fortunate to have dinner with Don McLaughlin, the former Mayor of Uvalde the night before our border tour. We spoke about both the border crisis and the school shooting. He will be on my Sunday radio show tonight, so tune in to hear more. Seeing the border operation firsthand and hearing from people directly affected by the open border brought the situation into focus. More than one person who has been living by the border for years said the U.S. government is the biggest human trafficker in the world right now. That’s a very strong statement, but not inaccurate. Our government is doing nothing to stop the migrants from coming in. Instead, they are enticing, facilitating, and funding the massive movement of illegals in direct violation of our laws. Here are pictures of the staging area for migrants at Bridge 2 in El Paso, Texas. The top photo was taken around mid-December 2023. The bottom picture is from January 4, 2024. Same place, just a different angle.
The reason the staging area is empty in January is because on January 3rd a Republican Congressional delegation was there getting briefings and taking a tour. The government ensured migrants were not around – at least not en masse. They cleared them out to processing centers, held them back on the Mexican side, and some likely crossed further away from the Eagle Pass area. A border patrol officer we spoke with said they expect 10,000 to show up next week. They also cleaned up lots of trash. Sounds like a San Francisco-style clean-up ahead of the dog and pony show. Here’s what is revealed – if they can stop the flow of migrants for a few days, then they can stop the flow of migrants completely. That’s not what’s happening, though.Instead, our border patrol agents and other public safety officers are actively aiding the movement of illegals into our country.
Some of us walked past the staging area towards the line of containers to get a closer look at what was happening. While we were there, a couple of migrants actually scaled the container, crossed over the concertina wire, and then were helped down by law enforcement with the ladder, you see in the picture above. This is a screenshot from a video State Rep. Chris Miller took explaining what just happened. If you use Facebook, here is a link: (20+) Facebook If you can cross the shallow river, lay down blankets and clothes to climb across the wire, get on top of the container, and then cross another set of wire – good job! We’ll let you climb down to freedom and lots of government assistance. That’s what’s happening! The migrants were shown to prepositioned buses ready to take them to a processing center. Side note – we heard it costs Texas $5,000 per passenger to send the migrants to Chicago or elsewhere. Someone is making LOTS of money off the crisis. Another side note – Hotel costs at the border are outrageous. Holiday Inn Express is nearly $250/night. With other states sending public safety officers on temporary assignment to the border, this is another enormous cost to taxpayers. We spent hours at Heavenly Farms, a pecan farm owned by Hugo and Magali Urbina. Their 400-acre farm has been a crossing point for migrants. They are used to seeing a couple of hundred migrants walk through their property daily. They have encountered people defecating, puking, and walking naked on their land. In one week, they found 57 dead bodies on their property. They have seen 2 and 3-year-olds wandering around alone and encountered families in their barn. They began to work with border patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety to control the situation. Fencing was put up and the border on their property is monitored by the New Jersey National Guard, Texas National Guard, Texas DPS, U.S. Marines, and border patrol. Their strip of property is also where the infamous red buoys are located. That whole setup is a joke. The buoys stretch for 200 yards only, and just past the ends, migrants find a way to cross instead. They said they have seen migrants standing atop the buoys, mocking them.
I really couldn’t believe it when I saw it. You don’t even have to turn your head to see from one end of the buoys to the other. They are not as large as I thought they look on TV (of course, doesn’t everything look bigger on TV?). The buoys weren’t even floating but mostly perched on a sand bar. Unbelievably, Texas spent a million dollars on the buoys that don’t work, and the federal government is suing Texas to have them removed. If you saw it, you wouldn’t believe it.
The photo below is a screenshot from a video I took of State Reps. Dan Caulkins and Chris Miller shows the red buoys located on the border at Heavenly Farms in Eagle Pass, Texas. Notice how the buoys just end – randomly.
The biggest joke of all, though, was where the fencing ends. Just one look at the setup makes you know they are not serious about securing the border. In fact, the Republicans should make every single Democrat go to this one point and then dare them not to impeach Mayorkas over his lies that the border is secure.The picture below is the end of the fence line. Both sides of the fence are still on the private property of Heavenly Farms.
On the left side of the photo is the bank that has been excavated and built up by the government, with fencing at the top and concertina wire at the river’s edge. The vehicles are inside the fence. In front of the fence, from where I took this picture, is open to the river on a gentler slope where migrants cross and discard clothes and personal items. In the upper right corner of the photo, the fencing is open and border patrol picks up the migrants and puts them on buses to then transport them to a processing station. Now, do you understand what a joke this is? All they are doing is funneling migrants to one spot only to pick them then up and send them on their way. And this is happening on private property. Our government is facilitating the entire illegal movement of people into the country. Another cause for concern is the massive amount of money given to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to process migrants. We weren’t allowed to take a look inside an NGO affiliated with the United Methodist Church. However, they did let us into their parking area, which was otherwise hidden behind metal walls. State Rep. Brad Halbrook is in front of an outside area where approximately 150 migrants stood lightly dressed in 45-degree weather. Children were there as well.
I find it strange that NGOs have so much authority in processing illegals, given its importance to national security and since it is a fundamental function of government to watch over people who have committed a crime. There’s lots of money involved. Catholic Charities is a massive player in the migrant crisis. This Crisis magazine article from October 2023 is something everyone should read in its entirety. The author, John Cassara, gives the facts and numbers surrounding illegal immigration. He mentions that it has cost $151 billion for US taxpayers. The cartels charge tens of thousands of dollars to cross the border. One radio show host said the going rate is $6,000 for someone from South America and $25,000-50,000 for someone from the Mideast or China. Many of these poor people end up as indentured servants. Illegals come here to get jobs and get supported by taxpayers. They then take their cash and send it back to their home country. This is big money for these small countries. For example, the author notes, “Approximately 25 percent of El Salvador’s GDP is due to remittances.” On Catholic Charities, though, Cassara indicts them for facilitating illegality:
The cartels are expanding their physical presence and reach into the United States. They are increasingly involved in other lucrative crimes such as organized theft rings and stolen cars. The open border and illegal immigration also facilitate the entry of tens of thousands of military-age males from adversaries such as China and Venezuela into the United States. So far in 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol has stopped 146 individuals currently on the terrorist watch list. Those numbers do not count the ones we did not catch. Big business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other “elites” also benefit from illegal immigration. They enjoy cheap labor and more consumers. Meanwhile, the American worker—particularly minorities—suffer from depressed wages, loss of buying power, and the dilution of government services caused by illegal immigrant competition.The Democratic Party benefits from its promotion of open border policies and illegal immigration. It is part of former President Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of the United States. Without a national “conversation,” the Democratic Party is actively working to change the population dynamics. Illegal immigrants are given (bribed with) taxpayer-funded welfare, food stamps, healthcare, education for their children, and other government handouts. Illegal immigrants voting by the millions, facilitated by questionable practices such as lack of genuine identification, ballot harvesting, and drop boxes, change the electorate at the federal, state, and local levels. Coming from Latin American socialist collectivism, the schemes must seem normal to the recent arrivals. The Biden Administration has endorsed and incentivized the entry of more illegal immigrants than the populations of 32 states (counting the District of Columbia). Democrats know that if, for example, Texas turns blue, they will cement their hold on power. And power means the ability to control the money flow to their activists and special interests. With the above as context, let’s examine the role of the American Catholic Church in facilitating the immigration crisis. The corporal acts of mercy necessitate that we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, and clothe the naked. Our compassion dictates that we assist strangers to our homeland. But when it comes to illegal immigration, is our empathy misplaced? Is the Church enabling the above criminality and facilitating the oppression of the immigrants we are hoping to help? Are leftists and naïve do-gooders in the Church participating in the transformation of the United States that by far the overwhelming majority of all Americans, particularly Catholics, do not want? Decades ago, the State Department began to resettle genuine refugees in the United States. They approached the Catholic Church for help. Today, that legitimate assistance has turned into an “illegal immigration complex” worth billions of dollars.
Church members and leaders need to have a broader discussion about exactly what type of behavior they are encouraging, considering who is benefiting from illegal immigration that they are supporting. The solutions are not that hard. Build the wall, and don’t let people in. Expel people who overstay VISAs. Return people who are here illegally. We have comprehensive refugee and asylum programs. Talk to anyone involved in those legitimate programs, and one will quickly understand that the millions that have come over do not qualify for refugee or asylum status. Refugee vetting usually takes two years at a refugee camp before official status is granted. Migrants from Venezuela pass through seven other countries before reaching our border. At least a few of them are “safe” to seek asylum in and the rule is you seek asylum in the first country you get to. Venezuelans could also head to other South American countries to seek a new beginning. At least Argentina may get on the right track with their new conservative, capitalist leader in charge now. Tax Remittances. https://www.vance.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-vance-rep-hern-introduce-bill-to-tax-international-money-transfers-by-cartels-and-illegal-immigrants/ End sanctuary status. Our laws are meaningless if we won’t enforce them. In the meantime, the Illinois Freedom Caucus is calling on Governor Pritzker, who just announced his 18th Disaster Declaration on the migrant crisis, to give specific regular reports on spending, housing, and public safety concerns related to the crisis.Where are the daily pressers and data tracking like Pritzker had during COVID?
DENVER, CO — Facing critics over their 4-3 decision to remove Trump from the presidential ballot in 2024, Colorado’s Supreme Court insisted it was a necessary step due to concerns the usual election rigging system could fail.
“I know we have all the normal rigging techniques available to us, but we’re worried that Trump’s lead could grow so much that those efforts will fail to protect our democracy as they did in 2020,” said Justice Richard Gabriel. “Rest assured, we will not rest until we save democracy by making it completely illegal to vote for Trump. You’re welcome, America!”
Pollsters confirmed that even with classic rigging measures like hackable voting machines, unmonitored drop-boxes, illegal immigrants, ballot harvesting, and universal mail-in voting, it may still not be enough to stop Trump from being reelected. Experts are urging unelected Judges to put additional measures in place.
At publishing time, Trump had responded by vowing to build a wall around Denver.
As the country slowly increases in racism and right-wing bigotry, it’s important to ensure you don’t get caught up in their evil MAGA ways.
Today we celebrate the New Year, but also face a new era in Illinois Gun Control as today was the deadline for the forced registration of commonly owned firearms. The ISRA remains committed to fighting this unjust law, and we will need the help of every member, their families, friends, and fellow gun owners in Illinois to prevail.
“[A]dd to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.” 2 Peter 5:7 King James Version
Since faith is one of the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), “adding” virtue must mean virtue of a certain type, or virtue in sync with reason and experience. Both reason and experience tell us that tempting human nature can be very dangerous. And yet this is exactly the political policy of the current executive branch of the federal government – a stress test on brotherly kindness – a stress test on loving one’s neighbor as oneself. The political gamble is that human “deficient inclinations”, as St. Thomas Aquinas defines them, will prevail over patience and charity resulting in a cultural meltdown into chaos, violence, and baseness. Human nature, in other words, at its worst.
Miss Constitution thinks this is no accident. Having made the decision to end the nation-state of the United States of America by allowing an international invasion, the guess is that the normally rule-conscious and big-hearted American citizen will eventually break down into indiscriminate loathing that will then be labeled “racist” and “un-Christian” – the opposite of St. Peter’s admonition above. If deliberate, this is a clever and wicked plan. It is a plan only the clever and wicked could devise.
Add to your virtue, knowledge. . .
Our society is in the current fad of seeing all through the prism of race. Thousands of years ago Asians crossed a now non-existent land mass to come to North America and divided into distinct tribes. Some writers like to call these tribes First Peoples. One might call them aboriginal, like the forests some of them inhabited. With the invention of the compass, explorers began to take dangerous journeys by sea, and these tribes were discovered. The French, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danish, the British, and others were some of the first to emigrate from Europe to the west. Sometimes they were welcomed, sometimes they were not. Some of the peoples already here were “virtuous”, some were not. Some who emigrated here were “virtuous”, some were not.
And yet, the issue of immigration emphasizes the group, not the individual, and this distorts the discussion. American law on immigration has always been reactive of the times and that is why when one looks at the history of that law there are no real anchors or principles that undergird the statutes or the enforcement of those statutes. Other aspects of America’s Rule of Law are anchored in the timeless, in individual unalienable rights, in the existence of the soul, in man’s quest for liberty, in duty to God, country, and neighbor, in the very definition of citizen and republic.
Immigration, on the other hand, based on nationalities, religions, and races not persons, sways in the political wind of the “now.” When the British failed to re-conquer America in the War of 1812, Irish Catholics and Lutheran Germans came to America in droves. Catholicism in a Protestant country was seen by many as abhorrent. With the rise of industrialism after the Civil War, labor unions saw Chinese immigration as a threat to wages and the Chinese were excluded. Woodrow Wilson wanted to convince the nation that all Germans are blood-thirsty rapists so he could justify entering WWI.
And on and on it goes – immigration as a reaction to current events. The rise of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s created the perfect environment for national self-loathing and a change in immigration policy. From the concept that those who emigrate to America must learn our system and assimilate into a giant melting pot of stability to the concept of punishing “whiteness” by systematically eliminating the white majority was established by Congress in 1965 and signed into law by Lyndon Johnson. Chain migration (anchoring one family member so all are allowed to come) and virtually eliminating British and other founding nationalities, sealed the deal. The white American majority will be gone by mid-century. Senator Ted Kennedy proclaimed the dramatic change “will not upset the ethnic mix in our society. It will not relax the standards of admission.” Really? The United Nations and other globalist organizations are piling on relentlessly with notions of the elimination of nation-states and free international immigration.
And to knowledge, patience and brotherly kindness. . .
What had been the practice of emphasizing the group as a reaction to the political winds of the day, but screening the individual in that group, has been deliberately abandoned. Instead of the individually virtuous from many ethnic groups, it is assumed that race itself is a marker of the good. Nothing could be further from the truth. No notion could be more damaging to any society. And so, America is experiencing a stress test in brotherly kindness. Groups have invaded without screening individuals in these groups and Americans are asked to be patient and to be kind – a tempting of human nature.
And to brotherly kindness, charity. . .
How, then, are Americans to react to this obvious dismantling of our society? The US Constitution specifically prohibits, in Article IV, section 4, this current national policy of open borders. The Constitution, unfortunately, is not in play. What is in play is the individual American citizen. Tempted or not, impatient or not, temperate or not, it is not antithetical to St. Peter’s reminder for the individual American to feel righteous anger. Righteous anger translated into a demand for personal scrutiny of every person who has bypassed examination and entered the United States illegally. This anger is not tied to race, it is tied to reason, experience, and necessity.
It is in this midst of faulty ideology, of gross incompetence, of clever and wicked plans, of the abandonment of ancient and trusted principles, that the individual response must remain firm but humane. It is how the inappropriate are removed that is the measure of brotherly love. Of whatever race wanting to emigrate to America, whether tired or poor, whether yearning to be free, the American people have a right to ask that each person be virtuous.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 1 Peter 3:9
In a Constitutional Republic we repay evil and wickedness through free and fair elections. For those elections to have meaning, a virtuous people must have knowledge. Miss Constitution, again, calls for vigorous Civics Education, K-12, philosophy, authentic American history, Western Civilization, theology, the ancient languages, and ethics. Knowledge is the shield against the worst in human nature, charity the goal – in the firm hope that America may again obtain God’s blessing.
