Claims And Issues

THEY'RE "ON WISCONSIN!"

(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)

We are reliving 2016.  Well, we're not, not all of us.  But The Occupant is reliving 2016.

The Occupant is trying to keep being The Occupant.  That apparently means repeating the imagined triumphs of 2016 in Michigan, Pennsylvania and, yes, Wisconsin.  See MICHIGAN, PENNSYLVANIA & ... WISCONSIN NEXT?  "BE AFRAID.  BE VERY AFRAID, posted here on Saturday morning, November 21, 2020 predicting that the next target is going to be Wisconsin.

Now it is Wisconsin.  Late in the afternoon on the same day, the LOS ANGELES TIMES posted this Associated Press story:  Wisconsin Officials Say Trump Observers Are Obstructing Recount.

Reportedly the current Occupant's Observers are supposed to remain quiet but they can't help themselves, "interrupting vote counters with questions and comments."

They are only supposed to have one representative at each counting table in Wisconsin, but sometimes they have two.

Other times they pose as "independents" so they can have more observers.

It is also reported that there appears to be a pattern in Wisconsin.  Many, some or all of the Occupant's Observers object to every single ballot.

A County Election Commissioner in Wisconsin told the Associated Press that this was all "prima facie evidence of bad faith[.]"

He said it.  The Associated Press quoted it.  "On Wisconsin!"

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.    

 

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be ....

.... also."  Matthew 6:21.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

 

Two headlines from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper on Saturday, November 21, 2020 tell the whole story.

    1.    Trump Again Bids to Undo Loss, Orlando Sentinel, p. 1, Section 1, Sat., Nov. 21, 2020.

 

    2.    659,000 Floridians Still Remain Out of Work, Orlando Sentinel, p. 1, Section 2, Sat., Nov. 21, 2020.

 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

INVESTIGATE THE MINION!

 

(Photo by Patricia McKnight / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

In a fictional world, Bad Guys sent an email to voters saying that they should vote for Randy Rino.  The email was sent only to Democrats.

The Minion, who worked for Randy Rino, called reporters to a meeting to read them a press release.  Minion's press release declared that it is official policy that the email was designed to hurt Randy Rino.

The Minion did not take any questions.

Here's a question even for this fantasy world:

Why?

Why did an email telling people to vote for Randy Rino hurt Randy Rino?  So if the people who received the email were intimidated and then they actually voted for Randy Rino, how does that hurt Rino, of all people?

Why did The Minion refuse to take questions after he read his press release?

Why is a press release official policy now?

Why?

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MORE CATHOLIC THAN THE POMPEO? MORE JUSTICE THAN JUST?

(Sec. of State Pompeo with Cardinal Raymond Burke, Sept. 30, 2020.  Photo by Andrew Medichini / Associated Press).

The recent shenanigans of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seem to center around his attack on the Pope as being insufficiently Catholic for Mr. Pompeo's purposes.  See Jason Horowitz and Lara Jakes, Rebuffed by Francis, Pompeo Aligns With Critics of Vatican's China Deal, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, October 1, 2020, p. A13.  (This in itself is rich.  Pompeo is a Presbyterian.)

Mr. Pompeo is apparently aligned with people who think they are "more Catholic than the Pope," as the saying goes.  This raises some questions for another business associate of the current Occupant, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

These are not questions about her Catholicism even though she is pretty blatant about her self-identification as a "Catholic."  These are questions generated by the New York Times descriptions of the "holier than thou" Catholics Mr. Pompeo is hanging around.

Callista Gingrich, wife of Newt Gingrich whom you will perhaps recall, is one of the people that Mr. Pompeo has been hanging around lately.  She married Mr. Gingrich who, says the New York Times, "converted to Catholicism after his third marriage" and who "is a co-chair of Catholics for Trump."  It is a good question for Judge Barrett to be asked:  Are you a member of Catholics for Trump?  If so, what do they do and in particular, what do you do for them?

Another of Mr. Pompeo's associates is identified by the New York Times as Cardinal Raymond Burke, a cardinal in the United States who said that he would refuse communion to another Catholic seeking office whose positions were not agreeable to him.  Parenthetically, who told this man that any cardinal, bishop, or priest has the authority to refuse communion with Jesus Christ or that Jesus would ever do the same, never having refused communion with anyone during His earthly life?

Talk about being more Catholic than the Pope; these people act like they are more Christian than Christ.

But here's the question for Judge Amy Coney Barrett:  During your short time as a judge, have you ever refused justice to someone whose views you too disagree with or find distasteful to your sensibilities?

That's an easy one.  How about this question:  Is it ever right for a judge, including a Justice on the Supreme Court, to deny someone their day in Court because their personal positions are not agreeable to you?  If so, when and why?

Now, there's a big huff and puff right now about picking on Amy Coney Barrett for announcing that she is some kind of Catholic.  None of these questions has anything to do with that.  Rather these questions are directed to her as a judge.

The Supreme Court motto is famous:  "Equal justice under the law."  We're entitled to know in this country whether a Justice will work for equal justice under the law and not her associates' views, which may or may not be justice.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MOSCOW MITCH CALLS THE SHOW. DEMS ARE EXTRAS.

There will be a show trial on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Senator Mitch McConnell's orders. The show trial will be a hearing in Washington, D.C.

    Senator McConnell has called back 100 U.S. Senators for the purpose of holding a hearing to confirm another person as a federal appellate judge.

    I have previously issued calls for the Senators, and particularly the Democrats on the committee holding the show hearing, to give Moscow Mitch the show trial he demanded when he called them all back during a pandemic. Show Truth.

    Here are some more topics to raise. Democrats, you can act like Republicans at this show trial, you know. You can make long statements and ask short questions, if asking questions don't get in the way.

    Remind people that this is a crisis. That this is a pandemic. That this is a matter of health, and life, and death. Come back to Washington to deal with the coronavirus. Not to anoint proteges of the powerful.

    Remind the people of the United States, or at least those people who have ears to hear, of things like:

• The number of people who tested positive for coronavirus yesterday.
• The hospital admissions yesterday for coronavirus.
• The number of people who have to use ventilators to breathe, at last report.
• The number of people who have died in the United States, and the number of people who have died across the globe, so far.
• The small number of tests that the U.S. has for anyone not named Kushner.
• The low number of ventilators that the U.S. has available, unless you work in the White House.
• The total absence of face masks especially N95 masks, and why, in the United States.
• And other similar topics that some people need to be reminded of.    
• Show Truth.

    Democrats, you want our respect. Earn it.

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Prompt: "I'm only staying sane during the pandemic because ..."

I'm staying sane during the pandemic because I remember how I got my first book contract. I wrote a letter in response to a call for topics. The publisher called me and asked me to write the book.

That was 37 years ago. I have been blessed that my contract includes writing supplements every year. And so every year since I have written supplements, including this year.  I am working on them now. 

That is how I'm staying sane. I'm staying sane because I can work like I have worked for years and because I recognize how blessed I am to be able to say that.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Ask them what they are conserving.

"Someone should ask Mr. Ralston and the conservative legislators and judges in Wisconsin what they are conserving."  David Blight in New York Times op-ed published in print on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020.

GA Spkr Ralston:  706.632.2221

He does not have a Twitter account and he will not reveal his EMail account online, but he has a Communications Director and here is his Twitter handle: 
@KalebMcMichen.

Ask the conservative legislator leaders in Wisconsin:
Senator Fitzgerald:  608.266.5660
On Twitter @SenFitzgerald.

WI House Speaker:
On Twitter @SpeakerVos.

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DESPERATE PEOPLE CAN BE WILLFULLY NAIVE.

This morning I heard a report that the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City will open itself up to become a hospital for 400 Covid-19 patients. They have identified "Samaritan's Purse" as their "partner" in this project. They have not said, so far as I have heard, that Samaritan's Purse has agreed not to discriminate against the patients that Samaritan's Purse notoriously and publicly dislikes.  Samaritan's Purse apparently has issued press releases but has not signed any non-discrimination agreements so far as I can tell.

    Previously I heard a report that the City of New York also decided to "partner" with "Samaritan's Purse" to provide hospital facilities to Covid-19 patients. Once again, I have not heard that Samaritan's Purse has put it in writing that they agree to provide facilities to care even for people they do not like.

(Nolis Anderson / New York Times)

    "Trust but verify," Ronald Reagan famously said. That applies here. You cannot reasonably expect a leopard to change its spots; that is asking too much of the leopard. But you can demand that any organization built on discrimination against large portions of the population must sign a non-discrimination agreement.

    That includes any organization that "partners" to provide care in a pandemic.

    Desperate people can be willfully naive; they most certainly are willfully naive if they do not obtain non-discrimination agreements here.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

PRAY FOR THE ECONOMY?

At our televised Church services this Palm Sunday morning, we learned from the homily that one of our prayers is apparently supposed to be "for the economy."

The economy is people. People who have jobs. People who get paid for work. People who have to pay bills and who cannot pay their bills without their jobs.

I hope that we all think of people when we think of the economy.

And I hope that it's the thought of people that was in everyone's mind when they said that we should pray "for the economy" this Palm Sunday morning.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

WHAT IF ANYTHING MORE COMES THEIR WAY? AND OUR WAY?

On October 31, 2019 the United States House of Representatives voted to formalize impeachment inquiry procedures.  Many news outlets reported this, including CNN, so it was obviously known at the time.

A string of emails from June through October 2019 became public in January 2020.  Those emails revealed that the acting comptroller of the Defense Department, Elaine McCusker, sent and received many of the emails.  The House impeachment inquiry included testimony about them.

Briefly, the emails reflected concerns about compliance with law over the withholding of previously appropriated military assistance to Ukraine from the United States.  One official of the current regime wrote that the decision was made at the top.  He tried to blame the Department of Defense though.  The story of the hidden emails was first reported by Kate Brannen, Exclusive:  Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon's Legal Concerns, JUST SECURITY, January 2, 2020.

Elaine McCusker famously wrote back in an email to him during this time:

You can't be serious.  I am speechless.

Associated Press, Ukraine Backlash Continues as Pentagon Nomination is Withdrawn, LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 3, 2020.

After these emails had been written from June through October, and after the House formalized its impeachment inquiry in October, Elaine McCusker accepted the regime's formal nomination in November to be Comptroller of the Defense Department.

She must have remembered those emails.  She did not count on them becoming public.

Her nomination has just been withdrawn.  Associated Press, supra.

The truth will out.  And in this regime, promotions for the "speechless" are out too.

Clearly it is not enough to be speechless in private.  Nothing good comes of it or, if good does come, it comes a long time later after a whistleblower's complaint is made public.  Beyond withdrawing previously announced promotions for those who remain publicly silent, what if anything more will come their way?  And our way?

Photograph via the Department of Defense.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

 

 

VINDICTIVENESS IS FOR LOSERS. RESIST THEM. DON'T HATE THEM.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday.

  February 5, 1865.

 (Alexander Gardner /

National Portrait Gallery,

Washington, D.C.)

The Department of Homeland Security is effectively making New Yorkers stand in line at airports now.  The bar is expected to affect 50,000 people now and another 175,000 people by year's end.

The ban was announced by the current Acting DHS Secretary because, he said, New York State enacted a driver's license law that hinders the Federal Government from accessing the New York State Government's motor vehicle databases without a court order.  New York is one of about a dozen States plus the District of Columbia that require ICE to get a court order before the Feds start rifling through State databases without a warrant.  The whole story is laid out, for example, in the Washington Post here and here, and New York State is filing suit to block the ban.  See Luis Ferre-Sadurni, New York Will File Lawsuit Over Traveler Program Ban, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, February 8, 2020, at A23 (online access controlled by The New York Times).

Net result:  People who can afford not only to pay for airline tickets and baggage fees etc. plus pay the program fees, are now going to have to wait in TSA lines with everyone else.  I too have waited in TSA lines.  It's not so bad.

In a similar way, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired from the National Security Council staff on February 7 after he testified in the House Impeachment Proceeding under subpoena.  He had already given or was in the process of giving notice that he was leaving at the end of February.

                                       (Andrew Harnik / AP)

Net result:  Colonel Vindman will be leaving his position about 3 weeks earlier than he otherwise would have.

Colonel Vindman's brother was a lawyer with an ethics portfolio at the National Security Council.  He did not testify about anything but he too was fired on February 7.  This is all reminiscent of the greater vindictiveness levelled against Andrew McCabe who was terminated a day or so before his Federal pension would have vested.  It is true that the thread that is common to all these incidents is the desire to inflict harm regardless of whether other reasons exist, or not.

However, the incidents highlighted in the media over the uproar in New York and repeated in the media over the departure of Colonel Vindman have not really inflicted all that much harm.  Not really.  They display a disgusting vindictiveness but they do not carry real harm as their consequences.  The people that indulged their vindictiveness in these cases have shown themselves to clearly be losers.

Net result:  They are vindictive and they are losers.  Resist them.  Don't hate them.  If you hate them, you become them.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FIFTH THIRD BANK: DID YOU REALLY THINK THESE BANKERS ...

... GIVE A DAMN?

They were for it, before they were against it, and now they're for it again.

Fifth Third Bank switched back to discrimination after a U.S. Senator, see MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE.  IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT, popped off against their position.  No coincidence here:  Fifth Third Bank is regulated by the Feds.  Marco Rubio is a Fed.

This must be remembered about Fifth Third Bank or nothing wonderful can come of this tale, to paraphrase Dickens:   They are bankers.  They are in the business of using other people's money.  When they take a credit on their taxes, for example, other people's taxes have to make up the difference.  Other people pay.

So now they say they find nothing wrong with taking tax credits for donating to discrimination.  See Leslie Postal, Fifth Third to Keep Funding / Bank reverses, will continue to back program benefiting schools with anti-LGBTQ policies, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sat., Feb. 8, 2020 (unless you have a free article coming, the Orlando Sentinel may be online behind a paywall). 

Let's stay focused here:  It's not about their choice.  It's about making you and me pay for it.

And giving Fifth Third Bank a tax credit.

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MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE. IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT.

Marco Rubio, currently a United States Senator serving in Washington, D.C. from Florida, reportedly says he does not want to change the State system of taxation. Schools discriminate in Florida with taxpayer money, but Senator Rubio defends their choice. See Annie Martin, Rubio Critical of Banks' Back Out, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 (online access behind a paywall).

My choice would be not to pay for discrimination. What about my choice? Florida's choice? America's choice?

No, Marco Rubio, it's not about their choice. It's about making me pay for it.

And anyway, we're in Florida here, not D.C.  The Feds have no say in this.  And Marco, you're a Fed.

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MANNY DIAZ, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE.

IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT.

Manny Diaz, the Chair of the Florida Senate Education Committee, reportedly says he does not want to change the system. Schools discriminate in Florida with taxpayer money, but Senator Diaz defends their choice. See Gray Rohrer and Skyler Swisher, Diaz: No Voucher Program Changes, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020 (online access behind a paywall).

My choice would be not to pay for discrimination. What about my choice? Florida's choice? America's choice?

 

No, Manny Diaz, it's not about their choice. It's about making me pay for it.

 

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'MR. SCHIFF, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!'

It seems clear as of this writing that the U.S. Senate will not subpoena John Bolton to testify in an Impeachment Trial.

It is already clear that Mr. Bolton will not testify voluntarily.  For whatever reason (some suggest that the reason lies in hyping sales once his book is finished), Mr. Bolton will not testify  under oath without a subpoena.

  (White House Photographic Office - Ronald Reagan

Presidential Library, ID C12449)

Cut through it.  Adam Schiff, subpoena him.  He needs to testify under oath and in  his own words. Adam Schiff, stop the posturing and get to it.  At least take his deposition in closed session away from any opportunity for a TV performance.

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KNOWN SUICIDE RISK LEFT ALONE UNCHECKED, NOW NO VIDEO EITHER.

Oh, please.  We're supposed to believe this? Reis Thebault, Video From Epstein’s First Apparent Suicide Attempt Lost Due to ‘Technical Errors,’ Prosecutors Say, WASHINGTON POST ONLINE (posted January 9, 2020).

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THE CENSUS, THE STATES, AND THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.

The constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is on appeal.  Again.

Twenty States are suing to declare all of the ACA unconstitutional because Congress in 2017 reduced a tax to zero dollars.  (Seriously.)  The 20 States contain a collective population of 135,928,851 according to U.S. Census 2019 Population Estimates.

Twenty States plus the District of Columbia are on the other side defending the ACA.  They have a collective population of 158,550,088.

To put the difference in perspective, it is greater than the population of the entire State of Florida.  So even if everyone in Florida was accounted for, and even if all the people in all the States were all for or all against the ACA depending on whether their own States were suing or defending the ACA's constitutionality, there would still be 2 Million more people left over who want the Affordable Care Act's provisions to continue.

And that's the way it is.

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NYT, AGAIN: "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES." Rebecca Solnit.

The New York Times has anointed another "devout Catholic."  This time the Times anointed William Barr of all people.  See Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Benner, Right Rejoices as Barr Assails Liberal Culture, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, December 9, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports; posted online under a different headline).

Previously they declared Kenneth Cuccinelli "a devout Catholic" in The Public Face of Homeland Security Also Ruffles Its Feathers. A Lot, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A12 (to say again, be forewarned: the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports). Mr. Cuccinelli is the latest acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or "USCIS."  I previously pointed out some of the many reasons that Mr. Cuccinelli isn't anyone's "devout Catholic" in an article posted here on September 8, 2019, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit.

This is insulting. As I told the New York Times in September's article, we will have to discuss what being "a devout Catholic" means. That long discussion is coming, sooner than later.  

A devout Catholic does not lie that his Inspector General's report affirming the FBI somehow debases the FBI the way he does.

A devout Catholic does not betray an old friend like Robert Mueller by publicly suggesting that he was incompetent.  Especially when that friend conducted an investigation that resulted in dozens of indictments and a report that runs for hundreds of pages presenting two volumes of evidence for impeachment of a president.

And a devout Catholic does not say that a politician's political campaign was spied on not by Russia, mind you, but by his own Government particularly when the truth is all to the contrary of what he says about it.

It is not my place to judge Bill Barr as a person and I am asking you not to judge him or Ken Cuccinelli either. I am not saying that either Barr or Cuccinelli is a bad person. I am saying that neither one should be called "a devout Catholic." Barr's actions in particular are not devout and they are not Catholic. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but you shall know them by how they act and not by what they say about how devout they are.

To paraphrase the Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, William Barr may have a right to rule if we let him. But he has no right to call his reign Catholic.  See "THIS IS NOT DECAY.  THIS IS ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION," posted here on October 27, 2019.

Or to call it the United States of America.

 

Download CI 12.11.19.

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"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN."

From Behind A Curtain, Naturally.

It started and ended with a tweet.  The Secretary of the Navy and the Admiral in charge of the SEALS thought that a trophy photograph clearly displayed conduct unbecoming.  In it, the individual in question is photographed standing on top of the body of an unarmed man.  Parenthetically, I tried to get you that photo, but it is much, much easier to find photos of the individual smiling at his good luck than it is to find the trophy photo.

The Secretary of the Navy said that the Navy does not act on a tweet.  He wanted an order to keep the individual in the photo in the Navy SEALS.

The Navy Secretary wasn't fired, apparently.  At least that's how the story goes.  The Secretary of Defense asked the Secretary of the Navy to voluntarily resign.  So, the Secretary of the Navy voluntarily resigned over the weekend.  Read his resignation letter here.

The chair of the Joint Chiefs says that ends the matter.

Except it really doesn't, you know.  That photo doesn't even come close to displaying what the SEALS stand for.  The individual in question is standing in a trophy photo on the dead body of his unarmed victim.  (Is he the next Secretary of the Navy?)

That leaves the Admiral in charge of the SEALS who doesn't want this individual in his command, either.  No word yet on what has happened to him.

My best guess?  Plan on the Secretary of Defense asking him, too, to "voluntarily resign."  There appears to be nothing that the current Secretary of Defense will not do.

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CALIFORNIA, THE E.P.A., AND JOURNALISM IN 2019.

Some people don't understand, or say they don't, why the current Environmental Protection Agency administrator sent a letter to California saying that California was in trouble because a lot of homeless people live in California, and they are dirty, and that is not good for the environment.

As you have probably heard, California has been pushing back hard against the current EPA's attempts to roll back environmental protections previously and perhaps currently required by law.

This is the last paragraph tucked away at the tail end of a lengthy newspaper report:  "Last week more than 600 former E.P.A. officials signed a letter calling for a federal investigation into what they called an 'inappropriate threat of use of E.P.A. authority' against California."  Lisa Friedman, E.P.A. Skirted Protocol to Jab Blue California, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., October 16, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times may charge for online access).

That should have been the lead paragraph.  It explains everything we could ever want to know about this.

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RADIO SILENCE: INSURANCE AGAINST ACCOUNTABILITY.

Kenneth T. "Cooch" Cuccinelli II, or junior, is the latest Acting head of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services.  A couple of months ago, USCIS sent letters to people in the United States who had been given permission to be here to receive medical treatment that will save their lives.  The program that kept them alive is called the medically necessary deferred action program.

The letter which was issued by the USCIS on Mr. Cuccinelli's watch  -- without his signature on it -- told the patients to leave the United States or they would be deported.  The previously unannounced change was met with a firestorm of justified criticism.  Supposedly the USCIS is against the change now and will keep the medically necessary deferred action program alive.  See Miriam Jordan, Deferred Action For Immigrants Set to Resume, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 20, 2019, p. A20.  (The online link is here; be warned that the New York Times may charge for online access.)

Mr. Cuccinelli did not put his name to the announcements that supposedly reversed the USCIS's position to terminate the program.

As noted, Mr. Cuccinelli did not sign the earlier letter to the patients who would die without the medical treatment that is only offered in the United States.  That is the letter that reversed the medically necessary deferred action program in the first place.  As well as terminating the chances of the patients to live.  See "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit, posted here on September 8, 2019.

You may recall this guy.  He is the one who has never had any problem speaking in public.  For example, he publicly re-interpreted the poem inscribed at the base of the Statute of Liberty. He is used to speaking in public, in fact, he seeks out opportunities to speak in public.  He did a lot of public speaking when he recently ran for Governor of Virginia, and lost.   He is nowhere to be found on this issue.

Yet his fingerprints are all over it.

Moreover, he is the head of the USCIS that did all these things.  Maybe he is only the Acting head, but at the moment he is the only head.  These things all happened on his watch, not on somebody else's watch.  He owns this issue whether he likes it or not.

Radio Silence:  Insurance Against Accountability?

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SECRET COURTS DENY ACCESS AT THE BORDER.

There are presumptions that allow the public access to courtrooms and judicial proceedings throughout the United States unless the government shows good cause why access is denied. The presumptions of public access include allowing the media access so as to report on what is done by judges and the government.  Otherwise the judges and the government would do these things totally in secret.

One presumption comes from the United States Constitution. The other presumption comes from the common law that was in effect before the United States came into existence.

The current federal government has just established Immigration Courts in tents at the border in Texas. They have denied access both to newspapers and to U.S. citizens.

The current federal government has not given any reason for denying access to their courts, let alone shown good cause for denying access. See Gus Bova, Journalists Blocked From Attending Secretive Immigration Tent Courts, TEXAS OBSERVER, posted Wednesday, September 11, 2019.

What if anything is being done?

 

Download CI 09.16.19.

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IT'S 911. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?

Where are the children taken from their families by the current regime at the southern border? They say they cannot find the children that they took.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP.

The current regime and the truth have not begun a beautiful friendship, to put it mildly. So, check the foster homes, the orphanages, and every other place where the children may face forced adoption.

Stranger things have happened.

Heck, stranger things happen every day now.

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SECRETARY OF DEFERENCE: CHILDREN AND THE 101st AIRBORNE LOSE BIG.

You may know that Mark T. Esper is the name of the latest U.S. Secretary of Defense. What you may not know is that back in the day, before he became a lobbyist for a defense contractor that does a lot of business with the Defense Department, Mr. Esper was a soldier in the 101st Airborne Division.

The 101st Airborne Division is stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Mahaffey Middle School is at Fort Campbell. It was built even before the time that Mr. Esper would have been in the 101st Airborne Division. So it was there when he was there, in all probability.

Mr. Esper did not go to Mahaffey Middle School, though, and so far as we know, none of his children if he has any went there either. That may be Mahaffey Middle School's loss. But it is not their only loss.

Mahaffey Middle has needed renovations since the George W. Bush presidency. In 2007, a teacher at that school testified:

Garbage cans catch water from a leaking room while a broken heating and air-conditioning system produces sauna-like conditions in some classrooms, while other classes have no heat.

"The problems persist today," soldiers serving at Fort Campbell have disclosed. Aging School Loses Funding to Border Wall, by Helene Cooper, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times may charge for any online access), posted online with the headline, No New School at Fort Campbell:  The Money Went to Trump's Border Wall.

Nonetheless Mark T. Esper approved taking all $62,600,000.00 of its construction budget away, to help pay for an unauthorized border wall with monies dedicated by Congress -- and previously, dedicated by the Defense Department that Mr. Esper now heads -- to projects like the Middle School attended by children of the 101st Airborne Division.

Duty. Deference. Money.

Disbelief.

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"CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES." Rebecca Solnit

The New York Times has declared Kenneth Cuccinelli "a devout Catholic," The Public Face of Homeland Security Also Ruffles Its Feathers. A Lot, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A12 (be forewarned: the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports).  Mr. Cuccinelli is the latest acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or "USCIS."

This is insulting. We will have to discuss what being "a devout Catholic" means. That long discussion is for later, not for now.

A devout Catholic does not announce new rules designed to change the meaning of "public charge" so as to designate disabled people a "public charge" and label them unfit for this country, but Mr. Cuccinelli did.

A devout Catholic does not sponge away the message of the Statute of Liberty to ask only for people who can stand on their own two feet, but Mr. Cuccinelli did that too. Some people cannot stand on their own two feet, but they are still people. And in the United States, they can still live free.

And a devout Catholic does not send sick children to their deaths, many of whom were actually invited into this country on medically necessary deferred relief.

It is not my place to judge Kenneth Cuccinelli as a person and I am asking you not to judge him either. I am not saying that he is a bad person. I am saying that he should not be called "a devout Catholic." His actions are not devout and they are not Catholic. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but you shall know them by how they act and not by what they say about how devout they are.

To paraphrase the Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II may have a right to rule if we let him. But he has no right to call his reign Catholic.

Or to call it the United States of America.

 

Download CI 09.08.19.

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FLORIDA DISASTER RELIEF? IT'S BUYING CAGES AT THE TEXAS BORDER.

Hurricane Dorian is heading to Florida as I am writing these words.  What happened to the disaster relief fund?

The current regime is using it to buy cages at the Texas border.  See Caitlin Emma, DHS to Siphon $155M in Disaster Aid to Bolster Immigration Enforcement, POLITICO posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2019.

Download CI 08.30.19

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THE BALLAD OF MOSCOW MITCH.

The current Leader of the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has done deeds that people want to sing about.

♫MOSCOW, MOSCOW MAN! MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!

In 2016, Mitch McConnell refused to sign a bipartisan letter that the Russians were interfering in the presidential election.  The President of the United States, the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Ranking Member of the House were all reportedly on board with a joint letter calling out the Russians for their interference.  But not Mitch McConnell.  See Jennifer Rubin, McConnell Owes the Country a Fuller Explanation on Russian Meddling, Washington Post online February 20, 2018.

MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

In recent years, most recently in 2019, Mitch McConnell has refused even to allow a vote in the Senate on election security legislation that enjoys overwhelming support in the Senate as well as in the House.  If you can't vote on it, it doesn't have a chance to become law.  Period.  See Nicholas Fandos, New Election Security Bills Face a One-Man Roadblock:  Mitch McConnell, New York Times online June 7, 2019 (the New York Times may charge for online access).

MOSCOW, MOSCOW MAN!♫ MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

A previous article posted here called attention to Mitch McConnell's involvement in a Russian aluminum factory to be located in Kentucky.  The article raised some hard questions that to this day have not been answered.  See MITCH McCONNELL SAYS 'JUST A COINCIDENCE' AFTER RUSSIAN SANCTIONS REMOVED, posted May 17, 2019.

Other articles have recently begun to ask the same and similar questions about Mitch McConnell and Russian investment in an aluminum factory that the Russians made a deal to put in Kentucky.  See, e.g., Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, How a McConnell-Backed Effort to Lift Russian Sanctions Boosted a Kentucky Project, Washington Post online August 14, 2019.

So, sing along all! ♫MOSCOW, MOSCOW MITCH! MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

Download CI 08.19.19.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN GONE?

Despite telling a federal judge that children are not being separated from their parents, they are.

Beyond that, the federal government is now telling the same federal judge that the federal government cannot find many of the children. Many children separated from their parents by the federal government, in other words, simply cannot be found, says the federal government.

Where have all the children gone?

Check adoption agencies. Foster care programs. Anywhere where the children who were taken away might be sent away.

Once upon a time, it would have been unthinkable to think of federal agents taking children away from their parents. That was then, this is now. Now, it is very thinkable as it were that federal agencies might just be sending children away. So to say again, check the adoption agencies and the foster care programs and anywhere else that children are up for redistribution.  ("Redistribution."  A concept torn from human services agencies and twisted by the people who order children taken away from their parents like lifeless manufactured products.)

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WHAT GOOD ARE YOU, health and human services DEPARTMENT?

Ever had a loved one in a nursing home or an assisted living facility? Or even in the hospital? Heard about how the level of care they get in all of those places increases as the number of visitors increases?

"Health and Human Services officials have failed to conduct required visits of independent living programs for thousands of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found." Yasmeen Abutaleb, Agency Did Not Conduct Required Oversight of Program for Those With Disabilities, WASHINGTON POST online Wednesday, August 14, 2019.

The Administration for Community Living is the name of the branch of health and human services that has not conducted an inspection of independent living programs for people with disabilities, since Congress voted to delegate this power in 2012.

Not once in seven years. And that's the Office of Inspector General reporting that.

So: Today they say that "orange is the new black," that "50 is the new 60," and things like that. Is this another one of those sayings: "This is the new health, these are the new human services" in 2019?

Download CI 08.14.19.

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SPEAK, MR. BARR, SPEAK.

A guest article by John K. DiMugno, Esquire, a California attorney, legal educator, and the author or coauthor of multiple legal treatises and legal periodicals published by Thomson Reuters.

William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States, recently spoke at the American Law Institute’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The ALI likely extended the invitation shortly after Mr. Barr’s confirmation when there was hope that he would play a role similar to that of the departed General Mattis and General McMaster and place guardrails on the President’s more authoritarian instincts. By the time of the Annual Meeting, those hopes had evaporated. Mr. Barr’s dissembling about the contents of the Mueller Report raised serious concerns about the Attorney General’s complicity in administration efforts to undermine the rule of law.

This Blog highlighted the incongruity between Mr. Barr’s conduct in office and the core mission of the ALI. Notably, Mr. Wall’s post made no attempt to silence Mr. Barr, a solution that would have satisfied the wishes of many in the ALI who were rightfully appalled by Mr. Barr’s transparent attempt to mislead the American public. But barring Mr. Barr from speaking would have entangled the ALI in partisan politics, something the organization scrupulously avoids for good reason. Staying above the political fray insulates the ALI’s Restatements of the Law against charges of political bias and broadens their influence on courts and legislatures around the country.

Mr. Wall’s proposed solution—letting Mr. Barr speak while contributing the ALI’s earnings from the speech to legal aid societies around the country—perfectly balanced those competing concerns. It had the salutary effect of simultaneously benefitting public interest groups that desperately need the money while drawing attention to questions about Mr. Barr’s integrity.

Mr. Barr’s penchant for making transparently misleading and often contradictory statements has left some wondering what he hopes to achieve other than aggrandize power and influence in the Trump administration. Sharon LaFraniere, Charlie Savage and Katie Benner, People Are Trying to Figure Out William Barr. He’s Busy Stockpiling Power, New York Times on line, June 9, 2019. 

He misled the American public about the contents of the Mueller Report knowing full well that when the report was released several weeks later his lies would be evident to everyone.

When Mr. Barr sought confirmation as Attorney General, he told the U.S. Senate that he had known Robert Mueller for years and did not believe that Mr. Mueller would engage in a “witch hunt.”  Yet, shortly before his confirmation hearings, he sent a memo to the Justice Department characterizing the obstruction of justice charges against the President as “asinine” and sent an e-mail stating he saw far less reason to scrutinize the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia than to investigate whether donations to Hillary Clinton’s family foundation had influenced her actions as secretary of state. Once he was confirmed, he enabled the President’s attempts to distract from the contents of the Mueller Report by opening an investigation of those who investigated him.

When Mr. Barr was seeking confirmation, he told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he was willing to reconsider the Justice Department’s decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  But, when he became Attorney General, he put the resources of the Justice Department behind litigation in Texas federal district court seeking to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act.

As the song goes, “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth.  I say let Mr. Barr speak. Listen closely to what he says and watch what he does. Only then will whatever is happening start to become clear.

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