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Ruth King

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Supreme Court Allows Federal Government to Remove Texas Border Wire

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/supreme-court-allows-federal-government-to-remove-texas-border-wire-5571384?utm_source=R

The Supreme Court voted 5–4 vote to allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire that was set up along the U.S.–Mexico border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott while a legal challenge plays out.

In a brief order, the high court vacated a ruling issued in mid-December by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh voted to deny the application to vacate that lower court injunction, which would have prevented Border Patrol agents from removing the barrier.

Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the Biden administration. No one provided an explanation for their vote.

The order represents a win for President Joe Biden’s administration, which has struggled to curb illegal immigration into the United States since he took office in 2021, amid an ongoing battle with Mr. Abbott, a Republican, over the border.  The administration had filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court and argued that Texas was blocking federal agents from carrying out their duties.

In arguments to the high court, Biden administration lawyers claimed that the barrier prevented agents from reaching illegal immigrants who already entered the United States. Lawyers for the state of Texas, however, have said that Washington has not been able to secure the border as Mr. Abbott’s administration set up razor wire fencing under the Operation Lone Star plan.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Three Former Presidents Start NGO to Import Illegal Aliens into the U.S. By Eric Lendrum

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/22/three-former-presidents-start-ngo-to-import-illegal-aliens-into-the-u-s/

Three of the five former Presidents of the United States have started a new non-governmental organization (NGO) with the explicit purpose of chartering flights to import illegal aliens into the United States.

As reported by Just The News, the NGO Miles4Migrants, founded by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, is teaming up with two other organizations, American Express Global Business Travel and Welcome.US, to expand upon a previous effort that focused solely on Afghan refugees following the disastrous withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021.

Welcome.US was originally launched for the purpose of bringing in at least 85,000 Afghan refugees, and also has ties to the far-left billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Foundation. The new coalition between Welcome.US, Miles4Migrants, and American Express Global Business Travel will seek to raise money to import illegals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ukraine.

“Donations are needed to fund the flights for newcomers to travel to the United States,” the initiative’s webpage openly declares. “Those forced to flee often leave behind all but what they can carry, and the costs of international travel can be prohibitive. Welcome Connect Travel removes the cost of travel as a barrier for both sponsors in the United States and the displaced families they are supporting through humanitarian sponsorship.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

2024—America’s Year of Living Dangerously Add it all up, and the world abroad agrees America is in rapid decline and will not or cannot defend its interests, or for that matter itself. By Victor Davis Hanson

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/22/2024-americas-year-of-living-dangerously/

Lame-duck presidencies, especially in the last six months of their final term, in general can offer opportunities for America’s enemies to take advantage of a perceived vacuum as one government transitions to the next.

But these normal changeover months are especially dangerous when a perceived weak or appeasing lame-duck president is likely to be replaced by a strong deterrent successor that will likely serve as a corrective to his disastrous policies.

James Buchannan (1857-1861), a northern but pro-South president, was a particularly anemic chief executive. He had done little if anything to try to deal with the growing rift between North and South, especially the furor over the Dred Scott decision and Bloody Kansas. Even when warned, Buchannan did little to beef up the U.S. Army or increase its weapon stockpiles to deter any potential secessionist state.

After Buchannan declined to run for a second term, the South understood that the abolitionist and anti-slavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln might well be elected in 1860—given the North/South split within the Democratic Party. And they understood that President Lincoln might well use force to stop secession.

Therefore, in the waning days of the Buchannan administration, after Lincoln’s victory, seven southern states seceded during the presidential transition, a confused North reacted little, more would follow, and a terrible Civil War became inevitable.

During the waning days of the crippled second term of Richard Nixon in summer 1974, communist North Vietnam saw a once deterrent president fatally weakened by Watergate. It was encouraged by a renewed antiwar movement, a likely soon anti-war Congress, and the next president, Gerald Ford—a probable caretaker soon to be replaced by an anti-war Democrat. And so in late 1974 and 1975, the communists renounced ignored peace accords, judged correctly that the directionless US would not help South Vietnam stop a massive invasion from the North, and thereby won the 12-year-long war.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Did Taiwan just have its last election? Beijing pulls the strings, and Biden dances Don Feder

By on January 22nd, 2024

President Biden’s reaction to Taiwan’s presidential election was instructive. He could have said that “the United States congratulates Taiwan on another free election” or “the people of Taiwan must determine their future.”

Instead, the president said exactly what Beijing wanted him to say: “We do not support independence” for Taiwan. When Chinese President Xi Jinping pulls the strings, Mr. Biden dances to the tune.

Taiwan’s Jan. 13 election was another milestone. Vice President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party won 40% of the vote in a three-way race. It marks the first time that one party will control the presidency for three consecutive terms.

With 23 million people, Taiwan has the world’s 21st-largest economy. According to the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index, it’s the freest country in Asia and the 12th-freest in the world. China ranks 149th, barely ahead of Iran.

What Beijing does to its people recalls the darkest days of 20th-century totalitarianism — democracy crushed in Hong Kong (despite solemn promises of “one country, two systems” at the time of reunification), cultural genocide in Tibet, the imprisonment and torture of 3 million Uyghurs and organ-harvesting prison camps.

Nations eager to condemn Israel for defending itself in a war for its survival smile benignly at Beijing’s savagery.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

How Ron DeSantis Crashed and Burned It wasn’t so much that DeSantis lost. It was that Trump won Charles Lipson

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://thespectator.com/politics/ron-desantis-crashed-burned-trump/

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” That verse from Matthew (22:14) certainly applies to presidential aspirants. The latest to be called but not chosen is Ron DeSantis, who ended his campaign Sunday. Technically, he “suspended” the campaign, but that was simply to comply with campaign finance laws. In practice, the run is over. 

The campaign was a brief, unsuccessful effort by a candidate who began with high promise, based on his success as Florida governor. He won that office, just barely, in 2018 after a decisive endorsement from Donald Trump. He was reelected overwhelmingly in 2022 against a well-regarded Democratic opponent. In five years, he turned a state that had been purple for decades — remember Bush versus Gore in 2000 — into a reliably red one, fueled by a strong economy and an influx of people from high-tax, high-regulation states in the Northeast.  

DeSantis didn’t accomplish any of that with middle-of-the-road policies or watered-down compromises. He pursued a tough-minded conservative agenda on schools, taxes, public health and more. He defied Washington to reopen schools and the economy during Covid, producing a sharp recovery without worse health outcomes. Other Republican governors followed suit. He enacted school choice legislation and, more controversially, signed a six-week ban on abortions after the Supreme Court returned those decisions to the states (the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade).  

Those policies and their demonstrable success were red meat for a red base. No one doubted he would be a strong conservative voice in the White House, willing to resist the pressure of Washington insiders and national media, doubts the base clearly has about Nikki Haley. Thanks to those policies and his success in Florida, he began with more than enough funds to make his case to voters.  

He decided to make that case on the most favorable ground, Iowa, where Republicans share DeSantis’s values. He finished a distant second in the caucuses there and failed to win a single one of the state’s ninety-nine counties. He was trailing so badly in the New Hampshire primaries that he effectively withdrew from them. South Carolina was next up — and he was trailing badly there

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Mindless Embrace of Houthi Terror Shoshana Bryen

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/18/opinion-the-left-finds-a-new-terrorist-group-to-enthusiastically-support-shoshana-bryen/

“From the River to the Sea” is the chant of left-wing activists who have joined with “pro-Palestinian” (actually pro-Hamas) demonstrators in the US and Western Europe. Which river? Which sea? The few times protestors have actually been asked the question, their lack of familiarity with the issues – and the geography – have been clear. It is stupefying to see “Queers for Palestine” on placards.

Now there is a new meme.

Extolling Iranian-armed and trained Houthi terrorists who were firing on American and other shipping, kidnapping crewmen from the ships, and firing missiles at southern Israel, and have now fired on American warships, the minions in the West wave signs proclaiming, “I stand with Yemen.” And “Hands off Yemen.”

Amazon helps.

One protester told The New York Post, “The Yemeni people and the Palestinian people are the only free people because we resist by any means necessary…  As long as there is resistance in Palestine and Yemen, as long as there is a blockade on Yemen and Gaza, we will stand up to resist it.”

Really? The Houthis ARE NOT YEMEN. And the only people attacking Yemen ARE THE HOUTHIS, who were listed as a sponsor of terror by the Trump administration after an attack on a Yemeni civilian airport.

Yes, the Republic of Yemen is at war with the Houthis.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Threatens Netanyahu’s Drive to Destroy Hamas by Con Coughlin

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20323/biden-threatens-netanyahu-drive

The Israeli premier has also reiterated his long-standing opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, which he insists would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.

Israel’s efforts to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas, though, are at serious risk of being undermined by the Biden administration’s growing hostility towards Netanyahu’s government.

There are credible indications, moreover, that the Biden administration’s hostility towards Netanyahu has led it to work with senior figures within Israel’s security establishment, which is known to have a difficult relationship with the Israeli premier, to remove his government from power.

[T]he Palestinian leadership has always been just as deeply and outspokenly committed to the destruction of Israel as Hamas is.

Instead of trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government, the Biden administration would be better advised to grasp the vital strategic consideration that defeating Hamas is as much in the interests of the US as it is for Israel.

The deepening antipathy of the Biden administration toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to derail Israel’s military offensive to destroy Hamas.

With every day that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) maintain their military effort to end the threat to Israeli security posed by Hamas’s presence in Gaza, more details emerge of the staggering underground terrorist infrastructure the Iranian-backed group has constructed in Gaza.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Inflated Grades, Increasing Graduation Rates, and Deflated Test Scores Those who are obsessed with equity are doing great damage to American education. by Larry Sand

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/inflated-grades-increasing-graduation-rates-and-deflated-test-scores/

“But when you are obsessed with equity, quality is an afterthought. We may be raising a nation of illiterates and innumerates, but they will all be equally brainless.At this time, the American Medical Association is embracing equity, and perhaps exams to enter the medical profession will soon cease to exist.God help us.”

Grade inflation is rampant and has been so for many years. Back in 2011, an in-depth study by three Ivy League economists looked at how the quality of individual teachers affects their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and, using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation, and higher adult earnings. The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”

But to those who believe in equity über alles, quality is an afterthought, and many states are ditching any objective criteria for entry into the teaching field. In California, teachers traditionally have had to pass the ridiculously easy California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) to gain entry into the profession, but the test is now under fire.

Is it because the test is a snap and needs to become more rigorous? Hardly.

Christopher Davis, a member of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, claims that standardized testing causes “disproportionate harm to people of color.” In an equity-driven statement, John Affeldt, managing attorney at Public Advocates, agrees, saying, “CBEST is a barrier for educators of color,” and thinks the test should be eliminated.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Hamas’ Howl in Amsterdam It can happen here. Bruce Bawer

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-howl-in-amsterdam/

For a while there it looked as though my semi-annual long weekend in Amsterdam would come to naught. Several days of massive snowfall made travel impossible in our part of Norway and closed down Oslo Airport for most of a day. Thanks to the snow, the usually reliable bus to Oslo pulled into the station a couple of hours behind schedule; and the airport express trains, which are never so much as a minute late, were delayed by an hour or so.

There was one surprise on the express train. In every car, they have these big video screens on which they give you a couple of the latest headlines, current temperatures in major European cities, stock market news, and flight departure times. Somewhere in there, there’s always an ad – invariably innocuous, instantly forgettable. Not this time. The ad – big blood-red letters on black backgrounds – was placed by Doctors without Borders, and it demanded an end to the “genocide” in Gaza.

Having allowed plenty of time because of the chaos, I got to the airport several hours early. I killed part of the time watching a couple of new YouTube videos in which the U.K. podcaster Konstantin Kisin interviewed participants in a pro-Palestinian rally in London. It wasn’t a particularly dense crowd, and it consisted mostly of young English people. They carried signs, distributed by the Socialist Workers Party, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding that Palestine be free “from the river to the sea.”

A brief, polite questioning by Kisin established that they didn’t know what that meant, and that none of them really knew much of anything, for that matter, about Islam or Israel or the history of the Middle East. They’d spent four years learning that white is bad, darker shades good. They had yet to discover that there was more in heaven and earth than was dreamt of in the lyrics to “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance.”

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Dementia And Double Standards

By on January 22nd, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/01/22/dementia-and-double-standards/

Every once in a while media bias is so flagrant, it’s worth pointing out.

At an event in North Carolina last Thursday, President Joe Biden called out for a congresswoman with whom he claimed he’d just been photographed. She was, at the time, in Washington, D.C.

At an event in New Hampshire the next day, presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared to mix up Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley when talking about Jan. 6.

Guess which mental lapse was ignored while the other was covered by the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, ABC News, The Hill, PBS, and countless other news outlets.

About a minute into his speech about the taxpayer money he’s dumping into high-speed rail, Biden veered off his teleprompter and apparently forgot where he was, or what day it was.

“Where’s Deborah?” he asks, referring to Rep. Deborah Ross, who was in Washington. “Did she — I just had my picture taken with her. That’s probably why she left. (Laughter.) No, all kidding aside — but, anyway — you — oh, she couldn’t be here, actually. That’s not true. I got it mixed up.”

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