Bummer: Biden’s DOJ Fighting Relief Claims For Separated Illegal Alien Families

By William Teach June 26, 2023 – 10:30 am

There’s something very interesting missing from this incredibly long USA Today piece

Biden promised to end family separations. So why is DOJ fighting relief claims in court?

The question from a Phoenix immigration supervisor came in on her BlackBerry: Should a parent and child apprehended at the border be separated? The response from Michelle Lee, an administrator with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, came back in two minutes: yes.

That is among many inside details of the most controversial of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” efforts that are woven through recently unsealed court documents related to nearly 40 lawsuits filed against the government.

As one of his first actions in office, President Joe Biden followed through on a campaign promise when he vowed to end the “moral and national shame” of his predecessor’s immigration policies and halt the prosecution of parents for often minor immigration violations that were used to justify the separations.

Yet today, the Department of Justice is actively defending those very policies in court. By doing so, it in effect is asking families to decide whether reliving their pain is worth a potential payout. Families and their attorneys say they shouldn’t have to make that choice.

Interesting, since kids were separated from their parents during the Obama admin, and, who was vice president during that time period? Granted, it was not really and official policy, but, it happened quite a bit, since they were also not sure if the adult were the actual parents, or, simply running those kids into the US. Remember all the photos of kids in cages and Democrats freaking out in 2018? Yeah, mostly over what they were seeing from the Obama era.

And let’s not forget that the Biden admin has also been keeping kids in cages separated from the adults, as the NY Times itself admitted.

One mother separated from her children in 2018, who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said she was disappointed that the U.S. government is fighting to deny them justice.

“My children may be forced to go through daylong questioning by government lawyers and medical examiners who will try to blame me for what happened to them,” she said in Spanish. “I’m terrified that they’ll be taken away from me again and forced to relive the trauma of the separation. Families like mine have suffered enough.”

You should be reunited with them and deported. Unless her asylum claim has been accepted, of which the percentage is very low, why is she still in the US?

The conflict between policy and action comes down to protecting the powers of the presidency and reducing future payouts to the families.

“It’s ironic that while candidate Biden said that family separation was abhorrent, as a president he’s allowing his Justice Department attorneys to fight these cases,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University. But, he said, “every administration wants to preserve its flexibility and discretion on immigration, because immigration affects our sovereignty and foreign affairs.”

Monetary settlement talks have fizzled, although some of the attorneys for the families continue to hold out hope for an agreement. Some of the lawsuits that have advanced the furthest in the legal process are under protective orders, so attorneys are not allowed to discuss the specifics of the cases or the interrogation of families. As the cases move forward, however, they are preparing to prove their claims, including by preparing their clients for depositions.

Why would we give cash settlements to people who came illegally? There’s a simple solution: immediately deport them all. If they want to apply for asylum, do it outside the US. Nowhere in the article does it delve into Obama and Biden separating kids.

Read: Bummer: Biden’s DOJ Fighting Relief Claims For Separated Illegal Alien Families »

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Hot Take: US Needs Diplomatic Blitz After Wagner Group Coup

By William Teach June 26, 2023 – 6:45 am

Politico’s Colin P. Clarke actually thinks that the Brandon administration is actually going to fill a void

The U.S. Needs a Diplomatic Blitz to Fill the Power Vacuum the Wagner Coup Leaves Behind

It’s likely to take several more days, if not weeks and months, to make sense of the unusual insurrection staged by the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. But already it’s clear that Russia is facing twin crises, one at home and one abroad. (snip)

The aborted coup attempt exposes the fragility of Putin’s regime at home. Before the Wagner offensive was called off, Putin turned to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for assistance, with the latter dispatching his own mercenaries, known as Akhmat, to help quell the rebellion. That Chechen forces had to come to the rescue of the Kremlin is ironic in its own right, but it also signals something more troubling for the longer-term prospects of Putin’s rule: Even with the Wagner uprising temporarily quelled, the brazen nature of the assault will likely lead to problems elsewhere, both at home in Russia, but also in its sphere of influence around the world. (many paragraphs about the Wagner group and their operations and influence around the world)

If Wagner winds up being pulled out of some of the countries where it currently operates, that could create an opening for a U.S. diplomatic blitz to help figure out how to fill the resulting power vacuum and regain influence in those areas. In particular, there could be an opening in some African countries where Washington might be able to offer security cooperation or build partner capacity arrangements in exchange for pledges to move toward democratic or good governance initiatives. With China also making inroads into Africa, this is an opportunity the United States should not let pass.

Yeah, this is the foreign policy mess of an administration that the NY Times essentially called a steam mess

Biden faces an era when treaties are more likely to be broken than brokered

President Biden leaves today for Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence. But the commemoration also serves as an unspoken reminder that such diplomatic breakthroughs have become a thing of the past.

At a time of ferocious warfare in Europe and crackling tension elsewhere around the globe, the sort of bold, painstaking negotiation that brought peace to the Emerald Isle a quarter-century ago has largely disappeared from the scene. Bargaining tables sit empty these days. Shuttle diplomacy planes have been grounded. Treaties are more likely to be broken than brokered.

It would be too much to call it the death of diplomacy, but there certainly is a dearth of diplomacy for now. While Biden fervently believes in deal making, his efforts to revive the Iran nuclear accord have collapsed, and it is widely considered futile to even try to end the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict or negotiate with North Korea at this point. The Russians have suspended the New START treaty, the last major Russian-American arms control agreement, and there appears to be little prospect for diplomacy to halt the fighting in Ukraine in the near term.

This is the same admin which f’ed up the Afghanistan withdrawal, which set the conditions where Russia felt comfortable invading Ukraine, which gave the green light for China to invade Taiwan recently, initially told Americans stuck in Sudan that they were on their own, losing massive influence in Africa and Israel, and even Britain is moving away. Why would anyone think the Biden admin would have any influence and be able to do a diplomacy blitz?

Read: Hot Take: US Needs Diplomatic Blitz After Wagner Group Coup »

Posted in Joe Biden | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach June 25, 2023 – 1:41 pm

…is a wonderful public transit rail system, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny, with a post on 3 videos for your viewing pleasure.

It’s ladies with glasses week.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach June 25, 2023 – 9:05 am

Patriotic Pinup Baron Von Lind

Happy Sunday! Another wonderful day in the Once And Future Nation Of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we are in Summer. This pinup is by Baron Von Lind, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. The Gateway Pundit shows topless women dancing with children at a pride event
  2. Sultan Knish features Obama bringing back the race card
  3. Powerline covers what Bud Light thinks of their consumers
  4. Moonbattery notes “gynosexual” added to Newspeak dictionary
  5. Maggie’s Farm wonders if anyone believes any news regarding Ukraine-Russia
  6. Legal Insurrection discusses post-modern medicine
  7. Geller Report covers how Hunter got $5 million dollars
  8. Don Surber covers the wages of BLM
  9. Da Techguy’s Blog notes high crime at the Post Office
  10. Cold Fury discusses The Black Knight (it’s not what you think)
  11. Climate Depot highlights Macron calling for a global climate tax
  12. Blazing Cat Fur notes Sweden dumping their climate targets and agenda
  13. Real Climate Science covers St. Greta protesting in Paris
  14. Green Jihad features Democrats coming for your kids and not caring that you know it
  15. And last, but, not least, Watts Up With That? highlights coal to the rescue in the UK

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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Federal Judge Greenlights Exposing Children To Smut

By William Teach June 25, 2023 – 7:00 am

Who’s going to now argue that it’s fine to bring children to strip shows and bars? To porn theaters and shops? Because that’s generally the same thing

Federal judge blocks Florida from enforcing ban on minors attending drag shows

A federal judge in central Florida on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new law banning minors from attending drag shows.

The judge, Gregory Presnell, was acting on a request by the restaurant chain Hamburger Mary’s, which sued Florida last month claiming that the law was overly broad and put a chilling effect on the right to free speech under the First Amendment.

Pretty sure that there’s no free speech involved in keeping minors out of strip clubs. No one under 16 can get a tattoo in Florida, and parental consent is required for those 16 and 17. Heck, parents need to give consent for most medical procedures. But, we’re also really talking about young children, most of whom aren’t even out of grade school yet, and many who are under 10.

Presnell, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, determined that while some people may find a drag performer reading a children’s book to a minor during a performance to be inappropriate, it doesn’t necessarily constitute an obscene performance. He also stated that current obscenity laws already “provide Defendant with the necessary authority to protect children from any constitutionally unprotected obscene exhibitions or shows.”

Florida’s Republican-led Legislature passed the measure in April that bars minors from attending drag shows with “lewd” performances. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, signed it into law in mid-May. The governor previously said such drag performances “sexualize” kids and has pushed for stricter restrictions around them.

Are strip clubs where they don’t get naked “lewd”? The kids see this same amount of skin on the beaches. But, they are banned.

Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, said in a statement that the administration believes the “judge’s opinion is dead wrong and [we] look forward to prevailing on appeal.”

Hamburger Mary’s frequently hosts “family-friendly” drag performances where children are invited to perform.

Yeah, we’ve seen the family friendly performances that people have filmed.

Read: Federal Judge Greenlights Exposing Children To Smut »

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Surprise: Eric Adams Shipped A Bunch Of “Asylum Seekers” Out Of NYC

By William Teach June 24, 2023 – 6:55 pm

Shockingly, sanctuary city mayor doesn’t like having all those illegal aliens in NYC

Eric Adams hammered Florida and Texas over migrants. But he sent asylum-seekers to both.

After lashing out at leading Republicans for busing asylum-seekers to Democrat-led cities, New York Mayor Eric Adams turned around and did something similar — sending dozens of migrants to red states like Florida and Texas.

And Adams didn’t stop at the nation’s borders.

Between April 2022 and April 2023, New York City spent around $50,000 to resettle 114 migrant households in cities around the U.S. and the globe, according to information obtained exclusively by POLITICO through a public information request. Some were sent to countries in South America — and one all the way to China.

The most common destinations were Florida, which received 28 families, and Texas, which received 14.

That represents a fraction of the nearly 79,000 migrants who entered the city since last spring, and is thousands fewer than Gov. Greg Abbott has sent out of Texas. But the fact that New York City paid for trips to Republican strongholds could further inflame national tensions on a subject that is sure to influence both Congressional races and President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.

At the same time, Adams is in a tight spot: The migrant crisis is costing the city billions. And as pressure on its shelter system reaches a critical level, the mayor is trying every possible release valve from busing asylum-seekers to other destinations to housing them in former jails.

He and the rest of the illegal alien supporting Democrats in NYC asked for this with their support of unfettered, mass illegal immigration. It’s all fun and games till you’re forced to play the game, right?

Read: Surprise: Eric Adams Shipped A Bunch Of “Asylum Seekers” Out Of NYC »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach June 24, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are wonderful plants sucking carbon from the air, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lid, with a post wondering what Congress will do now that Durham exposed the Deep State.

Doubleshot below the fold, check out The Last Refuge, with a post on Jack Smith now asking to delay trial against Trump.

Read More »

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

NJ AG Sues Schools Who Have Policy Of Informing Parents If Their Child Is Participating In Trans Fad

By William Teach June 24, 2023 – 10:30 am

Children do not belong to government. Things children do at school should not be hidden from parents, especially when they’re learning bad things at school

New Jersey’s attorney general files civil rights complaints against three school districts alleging discrimination against LGBTQ+ students

Just days after three New Jersey public school systems simultaneously enacted policies requiring educators to notify parents of changes in their children’s gender identity, the state is pursuing legal action.

New Jersey State Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced the complaints against the Middletown Township, Marlboro Township and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional boards of education, all in Monmouth County.

In a series of complaints filed in a New Jersey Superior Court, the state alleges policies requiring staff to notify parents when students express desire to change names, pronouns or bathroom and/or locker accommodations “target transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary students by singling them out for differential treatment, requiring parental notification for those students but not their peers.”

In separate companion legal briefs, Platkin also petitions the court to temporarily halt the policy changes from taking effect while legal challenges play out.

These areas tend to be the more Republican voting areas of NJ, along with most of Monmouth County. Even the Democrats in the county will tend to be much less moonbat than most Democrats in the state in areas like Newark and Trenton. The parents in those areas won’t abide with their schools playing the same games schools in heavily Democratic Party run areas do, particularly with their children.

Marc H. Zitomer, who represents the Marlboro Townhip Board of Education, told CNN that disagree with the attorney general’s argument that schools are discriminating against LQBTQ+ students.

“We also have an exception in our policy if such notification would endanger the health or safety of the child,” Zitomer says.

“However, it is our position that keeping parents in the dark about important issues involving their children is counterintuitive and contrary to well established Supreme Court case law that says that parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children,” adds Zitomer.

Sounds like the districts will fight.

During public remarks, a member who identifies as part of Marlboro’s LGBTQ+ community expressed concern that children will feel forced to out themselves before they are ready and erode the confidence they have in their teachers.

“Students have very delicate relationships with their teachers now more than ever before,” said the community member. “My teachers are in this room. I trusted them with my life. We’re going to break that trust. We’re going to shatter that trust.”

Does this person have children? Why are teachers being confidants and parental stand-ins, especially since the schools are K-8, not high schools? Teachers teach. That’s it. Kids shouldn’t be looking at deep relationships with their teachers. If a child is acting out, getting violent, smoking, doing drugs, and more, parents are notified. Teachers are not parents to these kids, kids who are not 18 yet. Maybe the teachers, activists, and Platkin should worry more about test scores and teaching the kids.

Read: NJ AG Sues Schools Who Have Policy Of Informing Parents If Their Child Is Participating In Trans Fad »

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Surprise: Missouri River Flooding Caused By Government, Not ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach June 24, 2023 – 7:00 am

Hey, remember this?

Climate change worsens flooding devastation across the Midwest

Every Missourian remembers the powerful rain and flooding in 2019 — events that caused widespread destruction and financial loss across the state. Farmers lost their livelihood for months and families had to offload heaps of cash for flood insurance after losing their homes. Residents in Missouri received more than $93 million in federal reparations for damages.

The reality of flooding is tragic. It strikes hard and fast, leaving devastation in its wake. Missouri can expect more of this flooding as unpredictable climate change patterns continue to create threats to the environment and the species that depend on it. While it can be challenging to adequately prepare for flooding, there are ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. This may help lower the frequency and risk of severe flooding events.

The connection between climate change and flooding is disastrous. Further exacerbated by human activity, climatic instability may become more frequent leaving people wondering if the thunderstorm that is supposed to happen the next day will lead to the loss of houses and farmland. The more intense the changes in the climate, the more intense the repercussions will be.

You can find lots of stories like that. But

US engineers contributed to Missouri River flood damage and must pay landowners, court rules

The U.S. government may have to pay tens of millions of dollars — or more — to landowners along the Missouri River after a court ruled it worsened flooding there since 2007 that killed crops and wrecked homes and businesses.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court’s 2020 ruling that the federal government must pay for the landowners’ loss of value to the land. But the appeals court went even further in its decision last Friday, saying that the government must also pay them for crops, farm equipment and buildings lost to the flooding and finding the government contributed to the devastating flood of 2011.

Courts have found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for recurrent flooding since 2007, three years after it changed how it manages the Missouri River’s flow to better protect the habitat of endangered fish and birds. It did so by notching dikes to increase water flow, keeping more water in reservoirs and reopening historic chutes, allowing the river to meander and erode banks.

So, not climate doom.

Federal officials argue that the changes the Corps made were necessary to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act and a separate requirement from Congress passed in 1986 to protect fish and wildlife.

No good deed goes unpunished.

The ruling comes as federal and state officials wrestle with the rising costs of floods made more severe by climate change, and droughts that will require tough water management choices.

You had to know that they would shift the blame, right?

Read: Surprise: Missouri River Flooding Caused By Government, Not ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

San Francisco’s Mayor Has Hot Ideas For Dying Downtown

By William Teach June 24, 2023 – 6:45 am

In a rational world, a mayor of a city that’s dying would look to reverse the symptoms. If you’re overweight and having all sorts of health issues you don’t switch from cake to ice cream, right? You lose the weight, exercise, eat better, and hopefully decrease all those health issues like diabetes, circulatory system problems, etc. Not in Liberal World

San Francisco mayor proposes tearing down Westfield Mall and other shuttered downtown retailers

San Francisco’s mayor Thursday proposed remaking the city’s struggling downtown by tearing down abandoned retail space, including the city’s Westfield mall, and building new structures to reshape the struggling city.

“We can’t completely rely on retail in downtown restricting what happens in downtown anymore,” Mayor London Breed told Bloomberg’s Technology Summit in San Francisco on Thursday.

Yeah, they just can’t rely on all those business which generate jobs, revenue, and tax money, eh?

Breed’s comments come as San Francisco faces empty offices, a cratering commercial real estate market, and an exodus of retailers from its once-bustling downtown area, especially as pandemic work-from-home policies saw many residents leaving for less expensive parts of the country.

San Francisco has also come under fire recently by politicians, business leaders and locals for a perceived uptick in retail thefts, though it’s not clear that crime has grown significantly more serious, according to industry watchers.

It’s not perceived, and people in SF have long complained about things like car thefts, break-ins, poop in the streets, homeless everywhere, garbage all over, and now they get people committing low level crimes openly.

Breed argued that an overall shift to online shopping post-pandemic has contributed to declining foot traffic in the area.

“You can convert certain spaces. A Westfield Mall could become something completely different than what it currently is,” she said.

“We can even tear down the whole building and build a whole new soccer stadium. We can create lab space or look at it as another company in some other capacity,” she added.

Cool, a soccer field. With poop, homeless, druggies, and drug needles all around it. And people won’t want to go there. Who’s going to pay to build it? Where’s that money coming from with a declining tax base? By the way, has she considered that San Francisco doesn’t own the property? Where’s the money coming from to purchase, then develop it?

Rather than focusing on getting the crime and homelessness problems under control, the aloof and out-of-touch London Breed chooses to talk about building a soccer stadium or create “lab space” whatever that means.

Read: San Francisco’s Mayor Has Hot Ideas For Dying Downtown »

Posted in Liberal World | 14 Comments | Trackback URL
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