RUTHFULLY YOURS

On January 13, 2015 President Obama delivered his last State of the Union Address. His assessment of the state of the union was nothing less than astonishing.

As I listening, incredulously, to his address laden with fabrications, boasts and accusations, I found myself thinking back to my days as an INS agent (when I would question individuals who were suspected of committing crimes and being frustrated that they not only lied but that they would often dodge and weave to avoid directly answering my questions).

I recalled interrogating criminals who seemed delusional, providing supposed justification for committing crimes that ignored the facts or reality or reasonableness.  They lived in a parallel universe.

One of my fellow agents- with whom I worked regularly for many years, would listen to such an individual we were questioning, turn to me as say, “I wonder what the color of the sky is in this guy’s world- because it sure as hell isn’t blue!”

On Tuesday night, I found myself wondering at the color of the sky in Mr. Obama’s world.

Within minutes of beginning his speech he said:

Our unique strengths as a nation — our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery, our diversity, our commitment to rule of law — these things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.

In fact, it’s that spirit that made the progress of these past seven years possible.  It’s how we recovered from the worst economic crisis in generations.  It’s how we reformed our health care system, and reinvented our energy sector; how we delivered more care and benefits to our troops and veterans, and how we secured the freedom in every state to marry the person we love.

Under his administration’s executive orders that undermined our immigration laws, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens were provided with employment authorization- often displacing American workers and undermining our national security by providing these illegal aliens with official identity documents without interviewing them or conducting field investigations.

He made an absolute mockery of the system of Checks and Balances thereby circumventing the legislative process mandated by the Constitution through the use of his “pen and phone”- yet he declared our “commitment to the rule of law” would “ensure our pros  perity and security for generations to come!”

Mr. Obama had the unmitigated chutzpah to tout his Labor Department concocted unemployment statistics that ignore the tens of millions of underemployed and unemployed American workers.

It has been said, “Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.”

Consider this excerpt from his address:

Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction. (Applause.) Now, what is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit; changes that have not let up.

Today, technology doesn’t just replace jobs on the assembly line, but any job where work can be automated. Companies in a global economy can locate anywhere, and they face tougher competition. As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities. And more and more wealth and income is concentrated at the very top.

All these trends have squeezed workers, even when they have jobs; even when the economy is growing. It’s made it harder for a hardworking family to pull itself out of poverty, harder for young people to start their careers, tougher for workers to retire when they want to. And although none of these trends are unique to America, they do offend our uniquely American belief that everybody who works hard should get a fair shot.

Again we must remember how many more authorized foreign workers this administration has encouraged to enter the United States and how many hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens have been provided with employment authorization even as more jobs are being lost to automation.

Consider how the administration has provided foreign students with the authority to work in the United States to remain in the United States for years to receive “practical training” which really means that they can be gainfully employed.  These foreign students are not covered by Obama Care nor are illegal aliens, such as the “DREAMERS” who have been granted employment authorization under DACA (Deferred Action- Childhood Arrivals).  This means that all things being equal, an employer who hires such foreign workers saves a minimum of $3,000 per year for each of these workers- making them economically, far more attractive to their employers than American or lawful immigrant employees.

Another one of his “nuggets” was the statement, “And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?”

This administration has seized every opportunity to politicize everything it could to achieve political goals that ignore reality- thereby dividing our nation in ways that would have been unimaginable before.  The words he spoke at the State of the Union address have been contradicted for more than seven years by his actions and the actions of members of his administration.

No rational person wants criminals, terrorists or the mentally ill to possess firearms.  As an agent, I was thrilled to take guns away from criminal aliens.  However, while Obama seeks to whittle away at the Second Amendment, he needs to be reminded about the infamous ATF investigation, “Fast and Furious” that enabled high-powered firearms to fall into the hands of the extremely violent Mexican drug cartels.

We must also remember that it was Mr. Obama who ordered the release of tens of thousands of criminal aliens, supposedly, because of the sequestration of funds.

However, my recent article for FrontPage Magazine, “Obama’s Immigration Policies: Instrumentalities of Change– Displacement of American workers, suppression of wages and importation of new voters” included this paragraph:

On December 2, 2015 the Washington Times infuriatingly reported, “ICE gives away $113 million, says not enough illegal immigrants to deport.”  That article focused on the testimony of the Director of ICE, Sarah Saldana, who conceded that although there may be as many as 15 million illegal aliens present in the United States, that because of a number of factors including administration policies, ICE had returned $113 million in appropriated funds that were supposed to be used to arrest and deport illegal aliens.

Now the administration claims that although we have more illegal aliens present in the United States than ever before, they are somehow not worthy of being deported.

The borders of the United States serve as little more than speed bumps to smugglers who facilitate the entry of illegal aliens into the United States- among whom are, undoubtedly, criminals and terrorists and contraband- including narcotics.  Consider the undeniable fact that the demand for heroin has never been higher yet the price of heroin has never been lower.  Classic economics dictates that when demand for a commodity rises the prices for that commodity are generally driven up.  The only way for the price of a sought after commodity to drop is if the supply outstrips the demand.  Inasmuch, as heroin is not produced inside the United States, every gram of heroin present in the United States provides unequivocal evidence of a failure of border security.

Most violent crime is directly or indirectly related to narcotics and gangs.

Consider that an offical press release of the LAPD posted on that police department’s official website begins with this excerpt:

Statistics have shown that approximately 70-80% of all homicides are gang related.  These homicides tear at the fabric of our community and destroy family units.  In an effort to reduce the incidence of violent gang crime and develop meaningful strategies to intervene and prevent gang disputes, the Criminal Gang/Homicide Division (CGHD) was formed.

While many gang members are American citizens, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of gang members are, in fact, aliens from Latin America, Asia, Russia and elsewhere.  Yet the Obama administration returned money that had been appropriated to deport illegal aliens.

The outrageous policy of “Catch and Release” resulted in huge numbers of illegal aliens who had been apprehended by the Border Patrol to be released.  The vast majority of these aliens failed to show up for their immigration hearings.

Incredibly the administration has also applied this insane concept of “Catch & Release” to some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world who had been captured and held at Guantanamo.  These vicious individuals are now also being released.  The administration claims that they are being “transferred” to other countries, yet far too many have shown up on the battlefield.

Obama says that ISIS does not pose an existential threat. We need to ask Mr. Obama how he defines the term “exist.” ISIS cannot make the landmass we inhabit disappear but they certainly are determined to kill as many people as possible- with Americans being their primary target. They seek to destroy us and our way of life.

Mr. Obama is still talking about the need for change- this is something all Americans should agree with- to drastically change the direction our ship of state is sailing under Mr. Obama’s guidance.

Election Day cannot come soon enough!