%20(1)%20(4)%20(1)%20(1).jpg)
By Matt Vespa
+++
Biden Breaks His Silence on Classified Document Scandal
++++++++++++++++
My dear friend and fellow memo reader, Allen West Lt. Col Ret, has written several meaningful Op Ed's interpreting the meaning of what our constitution dictates and how i should be used and/or interpreted.
+++
An Election, Not a Coronation
This past week the American people were given a very important lesson about constitutional governance, a vital one for our Republic. There can be no doubt that one of the most dysfunctional legislative bodies in these United States of America is the U.S. Congress. And, if our legislative branch is not operating within the enumerated powers, duties, and responsibilities as set forth in Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution, that has a watershed effect upon the other two branches of our government, executive and judicial.
+++
Allen West: Constitutional Priorities, Not Ideological
Greetings everyone. I pray your 2023 is off to a resounding start and will continue to rise in expectation and reward. I wish that I could say the same with what we have seen from the Biden administration so far. Here in Texas, we witnessed a modern-day Potemkin Village masquerade when Biden decided to conduct a drive-by at the El Paso port of entry. Anyone asserting that this was a Border tour or visit is gravely mistaken. The fact that El Paso was cleaned up and illegal immigrants were dispersed prior to Biden's three-hour "canine and equine theater," also known as a dog and pony show, was completely deceptive. There were no meetings with local law enforcement officials. There were no meetings with local community leaders, especially those who want border security. There were no meetings with representatives of the US Border Patrol union, and when was the last time a Democrat did not want to meet with union representatives?
+++
Colonel's Constitutional Brief: Back to BasicsEl Paso Bulldozed Illegal Migrant Camps Ahead of Biden’s Visit
Homeless illegal immigrant encampments in El Paso, Texas were so rampant that they had to be cleared and even bulldozed by local authorities prior to Sunday’s visit from President Joe Biden, the Washington Examiner reports.
Law enforcement officials told the Examiner that “hundreds” of people camped out on blocks surrounding a Greyhound station and an El Paso church were moved by local and federal authorities.
By the time Biden gave remarks in the Texas border town, the city streets were clean and void of any indication of an ongoing border crisis.
But according to PJ Media, the situation in El Paso was dire before Biden’s first-ever trip to the Southern border.
PJ Media reports
“El Paso had been turned into one gigantic homeless shelter after tens of thousands of illegal aliens crossed the border in December anticipating the end of the immigration restriction known as Title 42. But the Supreme Court granted a reprieve to Texas and other border states who had sued to keep the restrictions in place. As a result, streets, sidewalks, and parking lots in El Paso have been taken over by illegal aliens.
Now, Joe Biden has imposed a policy — probably to be challenged in court — that allows some illegal immigrants entry into the U.S. but forces most of the rest to wait. It’s a policy that has satisfied no one, especially groups that are agitating for open borders. About 300 of the illegals obediently marched through the streets of downtown El Paso demanding the government open the border.”
Instagram account “casa_carmelita” posted videos to their account showing police walking down an alley taken over by migrant encampments.
Twitter user “Pismo_B” posted a video of San Francisco’s streets, joking that residents are “pleading with Biden to visit” so “his cronies might be able to clean up like they did in El Paso, [Texas]!”
A senior federal agent told PJ Media in a text message that dissatisfaction from local residents has grown substantially, much thanks to the crime wrought by illegal immigration.
“The [community residents] that experienced it on a daily basis were fed up and they made it known,” the agent wrote.
“Crime was getting bad and many residents were complaining. Some migrants even took over private parking lots and were charging for people to use them for parking.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Voters Send Message — GOP-Led House Should Focus On Budget, Immigration, Taxes And Energy: I&I/TIPP Poll
In theory, the newly elected Republican House of Representatives should be working full speed ahead on the nation’s business. But because it’s taken so long to name a House speaker, it’s been delayed. Even so, Americans have a full agenda for Congress once it gets under way, the most recent TIPP Poll data show.
We asked Americans specifically what they wanted the new Congress to focus on during its first 100 days, the traditional time for a new group of lawmakers to unveil what their priorities and focus will be.
The list came from an online Golden/TIPP poll taken from Dec. 7-9 among 1,094 registered voters and having a +/-2.9 percentage point margin of error. It asked voters a simple question: “What do you want the Republican House of Representatives to focus on in the first 100 days?” Respondents were then given 15 possible answers.
Here are the top five:
“Budget, government funding, government shutdown” (37%); “Immigration/Border legislation” (36%); “Tax legislation” (27%); “Energy legislation” (26%); “Abortion legislation” (25%).
The middle five show the public is in something of an investigative mood:
“Impeach President Biden” (21%); “Investigations and hearings about Hunter Biden laptop” (21%); “Investigations and hearings about election integrity/January 6” (also 21%); “Impeach officials like Attorney General Merrick Garland (for Mar-a-Lago raid) (19%); “Investigations and hearings about IRS targeting” (19%).
And the bottom:
“Impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (open border)” (17%); “Investigations and hearings about COVID origins” (17%); “Antitrust legislation to rein in Big Tech” 17%); “None of the above” (8%); “Not sure” (7%)
What are we to make of all this? For one, Americans of all political stripes appear to have few things they desperately want the new Congress to take up. There’s a low-level consensus on a handful of items, but that’s about it.
Indeed, among all the possible priorities listed, none got a majority of Democrats, Republicans or independents, with one major exception: 56% of Republicans say they want immigration or border legislation passed. No other issue gets over half.
Even so, the border issue also struck a chord with independents, though not a majority, with 42% saying they wanted legislation, while just 18% of Democrats did.
This perhaps explains President Joe Biden’s sudden decision in early January to visit the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time during his presidency, after heavy criticism from conservatives and Republican Party regulars for ignoring the border problem.
Biden himself might be another target for the GOP. About 39% of Republicans responding to the poll want Biden impeached, while another 36% want Hunter Biden’s lost laptop investigated for what it might show of Biden family corruption.
But certainly, the budget is an area of potential major conflict. Since the poll was taken in December, the Democratic-led Senate approved a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, but did so with the aid of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 17 Republican senators.
Senators face voters every six years, while for House members it’s every two years. That means senators have the luxury of hoping the voters forget what they did between elections; representatives don’t.
The new Republican Congress will likely look to do something, anything, to slow the spending juggernaut, knowing full well that it is the most popular item among their own supporters. The anger among House Republicans against members of their own party in the Senate who supported the massive new spending bill is palpable.
One reason to look for action on these and other issues of interest, even without overwhelming support, is the recent battle over who should be the speaker of the House. It took an unprecedented 15 votes for moderate California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy to win the speakership, but in doing so he had to make lots of promises to furious Republican conservatives.
Why the anger against McCarthy? The $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill in the Senate was the last straw for many.
As Roll Call, the mostly centrist publication covering Washington, D.C., politics and policy, described it: “It not only covers the dozen annual spending bills for every federal agency, plus supplemental aid for the war in Ukraine and natural disaster victims, but also an extensive set of unrelated policies such as horseracing industry rules and a TikTok ban on government-issued devices.”
No one who voted on the 4,155-page bill had even read it.
McCarthy will have a short leash with distrustful conservatives of his own party.
As Roger Kimball, writing for American Greatness, described McCarthy, in words echoed by many:
He was only too happy to shovel billions of your and your children’s money to Ukraine while doing little to secure our southern border. McCarthy is from California, so, naturally, he likes to spend money. He even got behind such improvident and mendacious schemes as raiding Medicare to pay for the U.S. Postal Service. He was happy to fund the Jan. 6 kangaroo court, grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, and support mandates for the useless — indeed, dangerous — COVID vaccine for the military. In plain terms, his voting record is only intermittently conservative.
In response to his opposition within the GOP, McCarthy made specific promises, among them: A rule change to let one representative move to get rid of a House speaker; formation of a panel modeled on the 1970s-era Church committee to look into abuses by the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies against U.S. citizens; assignment of three members of the conservative Freedom Caucus to posts on the powerful nine-member Rules Committee; a vote on term limits for Congress, and votes on a balanced-budget and a stringent Texas Border Plan, among other items on conservatives’ wish lists.
All in all, the conservatives within the party have shifted the center of power from left to right. With the Senate in Democrats’ hands, few major initiatives are likely to make it to Biden’s desk for signing. But make no mistake: With McCarthy’s difficult ascension to the speakership, the first salvo of the 2024 election campaign has been sounded.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.
Terry Jones
++++++++++++++++++++++++
China controls The Panama Canal and apparently is happy to allow Iran to leave some ships there to irritate us and stick their finger in our eyes.
+++
Iran To Station Warships in Panama Canal
By Adam Kredo
Iran's navy is set to station warships for the first time in the Panama Canal, a critical trade route in America's backyard that has never before seen an Iranian military presence.
Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of Iran's navy, said on Wednesday that his forces will establish a presence in the Panama Canal later this year, marking the first time Iran's military has entered the Pacific Ocean.
Iran in recent years has placed a greater focus on moving its military into Latin American territories as it strengthens relations with anti-American dictators in the region, most notably in Venezuela. Iranian vessels have docked more frequently in Venezuela as Tehran's hardline regime seeks to prop up dictator Nicolás Maduro. These moves are meant to provoke the United States and signal that Tehran has the ability to station its military apparatus a stone's throw from U.S. territory.
Joseph Humire, a national security analyst who focuses on Latin American issues as executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society think tank, said Iran has been laying the groundwork for this type of voyage by holding joint exercises with allies such as Russia and China, two nations that have also been strengthening their ties with Latin American countries.
"This is what Iran has been building in Latin America for the past 30 or 40 years" by establishing embassies and bilateral agreements with a host of nations, Humire said.
Iran's goal "has always been to have a military presence in Latin America, so it's not surprising at all for its navy to announce it's going to make moves on the Panama Canal," Humire said, noting that in addition to Venezuela and Nicaragua, Iran has opened relations with Colombia.
"This is a tremendous escalation if it is to happen," Humire said. "Many people may discount Iran in terms of its capabilities … but I would not discount it because they have been building to this for a very long time."
Iranian rear admiral Irani said the navy presence in the Panama Canal is meant to "strengthen our maritime presence in international waters," according to comments published by Iran's state-controlled media.
"Today we can say that there is no scientific barrier to grow in that field," Irani said, adding that the Iranian naval forces are sailing in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
It is likely Iran sees its presence in Latin America as a means to bolster and protect its interests in countries like Venezuela, where Iran has been helping Maduro repair his country's dilapidated oil refineries. The two rogue regimes signed a 20-year cooperation plan in June 2022, when hardline Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was in the country for meetings with Maduro.
Latin American dictatorships have also served as a hub for Iran to evade U.S. sanctions and make arms deals.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-controlled terror group, also has a presence in Latin America that has been gaining ground for years. Hezbollah militants are known to travel freely in Venezuela and across the relatively lawless Tri-Border Area that includes Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
+++++++++++++
Laundering money and selling office through academia?
I went to Penn and I would put nothing past that school any more when it comes to hungering for money as their various great departments drop in respect. Wharton undergraduate was once number one, their MBA was number one. Even MIT beats them now. Ben Franklin should be turning over in his grave. Medical School still one of best.
+++
Penn Biden Center where classified papers were found is a ‘dark money nightmare’
By Isabel Vincent
The Penn Biden Center — the Ivy League think tank where lawyers found classified materials lined to the Obama White House — is a patronage mill for the Biden Administration.The Penn Biden Center -- the Ivy League think tank where lawyers found classified materials linked to the Obama White House -- is a patronage mill for the Biden administration. Penn Biden Center
The Ivy League think tank where lawyers found classified materials linked to the Obama White House is a patronage mill for the Biden administration, raising suspicions among critics that its establishment attracted tens of millions in donations from anonymous Chinese donors.
The Department of Justice is currently probing how “a small number” of classified documents from President Biden’s years as vice president ended up at the Washington, DC, think tank that bears his name, the White House confirmed Monday. A second batch of papers were found at an additional location, it was reported Wednesday.
The University of Pennsylvania received more than $30 million from Chinese donors shortly after the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which functioned as an office for Joe Biden before he was elected president, was announced in 2017, according to public records.
“The Penn Biden Center is a dark money, revolving door nightmare where foreign competitors like China donated millions of dollars to the university so that they could have access to future high ranking officials,” said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center.
The center, located in Washington, DC, is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and critics suspect that its establishment attracted tens of millions in donations from anonymous Chinese donors for the school. The center, located in Washington, DC, is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and critics suspect that its establishment attracted tens of millions in donations from anonymous Chinese donors for the school. AP
The University of Pennsylvania raked in a total of $54.6 million from 2014 through June 2019 in donations from China, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according to public records.
Most of the anonymous donations came after the university officially announced in February 2017 that it would create the academic center named for Biden, whose term as vice president under Barack Obama had just ended. In addition to leading the think tank, Biden was also named a professor at the school.
It was reported Wednesday that a second batch of confidential documents were found at an additional location. It was reported Wednesday that a second batch of confidential documents were found at an additional location. AP
The Ivy League institution received $15.8 million in anonymous Chinese gifts in 2017 and one $14.5 million donation in May 2018 — three months after the center opened — records show.
“The Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity,” said a spokesman for the University of Pennsylvania. “In fact, the University has never solicited any gifts for the Center. Since its inception in 2017 there have been three unsolicited gifts (from two donors) which combined total $1,100. Both donors are Americans. One hundred percent of the budget for the Penn Biden Center comes from university funds.”
The Center does not list any of its fellows or administrators on its web site, and does not have separate financial filings. It operates under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania with a mission of engaging “fellow citizens in shaping this world, while ensuring the gains of global engagement are widely shared,” according to its website.
Several people once associated with the Penn Biden Center now have key positions in the Biden administration. AP
Meanwhile, former fellows and administrators of the Penn Biden Center now have key positions in the Biden administration.
Michael Carpenter, the former managing director of the Penn Biden Center, was named the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, based in Vienna, in 2021. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also briefly served as director of the think tank before joining the Biden administration in January 2021. Before that, Blinken was a policy advisor for President Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the center from April 2018 to September 2020, is currently special assistant to the president and the National Security Director for the Western Hemisphere at the White House, according to his LinkedIn page.
Michael Carpenter, the former managing director of the Penn Biden Center, was named the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2021. Michael Carpenter, the former managing director of the Penn Biden Center, was named the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2021. Wikimedia
The sensitive material at the center was discovered by Biden’s personal lawyers on Nov. 2, 2022, while they “were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space,” according to a statement from Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president.
Sauber said that Biden used the Washington, DC, office space from “mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign” in April 2019.
After Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, the center said it would operate “completely independent of the Biden administration.”
Other Ivy League colleges have raked in Chinese money, including Harvard, which got $75 million during the 2014-2019 period, and Yale, which received $43.5 million, records show.
The Education Department opened investigations in 2020 into whether Harvard and Yale were meeting reporting requirements for foreign cash
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Selling California, as a place to move to/live, is a losing battle because Californians are not real people, their politics are progressively stupid and hypocritical, their crime is rising as their standard of living is collapsing and the immigration problem is fed by district attorneys that do not enforce laws and their taxes support all this social destruction.
Statistics reflect Californians are vacating the state in droves and do you realize four families have controlled the state for years and have intermarried and this has helped them hold onto power for decades and nothing appears to be changing. In two previous memos I posted these facts twice.
+++
GAVIN NEWSOM IS DELUSIONAL
By NOAH ROTHMAN
California is the fifth largest economy on the planet. It is blessed with one of the world’s most amiable climates, vast stores of human capital, and abundant natural resources. It is also plagued by a crippling inferiority complex—a condition best exemplified by the state’s governor. Gavin Newsom has developed an unhealthy obsession with Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, and he cannot help but define his state’s identity almost solely in opposition to how other states do business.
Newsom has spent the last year committing California’s taxpayer dollars to an advertising campaign promoting his state as America’s true beacon of freedom, which was conceived as a response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to advertise his state as the “freedom state.” Sacramento has sponsored ads berating Floridians for their choice of residence. As Newsom defines it, freedom consists of “freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and freedom to love.” In his state of the state address this week, the governor called California “freedom’s force multiplier” and denounced the “rising tide of oppression” spearheaded by the “small men in big offices” with whom he is obsessed.
Even a cursory survey of the legal and political landscape in the Golden State renders Newsom’s claim laughably obtuse.
You are not free in California to work in your private industry of choice while refusing to join the labor union that covers that industry. The United States Supreme Court struck down a scheme that allowed public-sector unions to automatically deduct fees from non-union members who happen to work in a unionized field, but private labor unions are not similarly obliged to preserve Americans’ First Amendment rights. California so resented that decision that it passed a law preventing public agencies from discussing with new employees issues relating to union membership or dues or even disclosing the time and place of union meetings. The objective of this legislation is to keep workers in the dark about their options in order to ensure that organized labor’s coffers remain full.
You are not free in California to perform, according to one study, 76 out of 106 lower-income jobs without first securing a license. Setting up shop as a dental assistant, milk sampler, salon shampooer, or just about anything having to do with construction involves hours of mandatory training, exams, and licensing fees. It’s a safe bet that most Californians are not petrified by the prospect of an unlicensed wash and rinse, but the cartels that restrict access to these industries have more leverage over state legislators than their constituents do.
You’re not free in California to import from other states an enormous variety of products that do not comport with the state’s absurd and frivolous product-labeling laws. The state compels firms to warn consumers if a product contains potentially harmful chemicals even if they don’t exceed reasonable risk levels. The law ensures that lumber contains sawdust, gingerbread houses and potato chips have preservatives, and treadmills are made with plastic. Manufacturers who do not comply with these regulations cannot ship products to the state, so Californians are deprived of access to harmless conveniences “from tennis shoes to patio furniture.” But only for their own good.
For years now, California has periodically drafted its citizens into the work of policing their neighbor’s water consumption. Citizens are encouraged to engage in “drought-shaming” in an effort to conserve the state’s dwindling water supplies. The real shortages that necessitate policies like these might be alleviated by constructing desalinization plants, which make seawater potable. But these are power-intensive projects. In a state plagued by planned, rolling blackouts due to its efforts to mothball nuclear and fossil-fuel-powered plants, desalination is not an option
California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, which prevent consumers from purchasing not just a range of firearms and ammunition but non-lethal self-defense products. In California, you can purchase any number of flavored marijuana commodities, but you cannot do the same with non-psychoactive nicotine products. Most maddeningly, the state is determined to phase the internal combustion engine out of existence. The effort to ensure “100 percent zero emissions” on California’s roads begins on California’s lawns. The state will functionally ban the use of gas-powered lawn equipment, which is cheaper and more efficient than electric alternatives, beginning next year.
Those are the “freedom tos” that the Golden State, in all its wisdom, has denied its residents. But what about the “freedom froms?” What of the positive liberties that serve as the basis for Newsom’s indictment of Republican-led states? In this regard, California doesn’t fare much better either.
Californians are not free from exorbitant costs of living. The state’s prohibitively high gasoline prices are a result of taxes and special blend requirements. Its food costs are inflated by “free range” requirements on livestock, and that price pressure will increase if the state successfully bans all gas- and diesel-powered trucking. These conditions have contributed to Dickensian levels of social stratification—though the fabulously wealthy are unlikely to encounter the roughly 6 million state residents who live below the poverty line.
They’re not free from menace. Theft has become a way of life to such a degree that even large chain retailers that can typically absorb reasonable losses are giving up on the Golden State.
They’re not free from ignorance. The state is home to some of the worst public schools in America, even though a staggering 40 percent of the annual budget is devoted to education.
They’re not free from maladministration. Last year, the state discovered that its budget estimates were off by only $122 billion. Instead of an anticipated surplus, much of which the state spent in anticipation of the windfall, Sacramento was saddled with a $308 billion budget deficit.
Every state has its problems as well as its comparative advantages. But not every American state goes around touting itself as the model to which the nation should aspire, even amid an exodus of its own citizens. If Gavin Newsom defines “freedom” entirely and exclusively as unfettered access to abortion until the final stages of pregnancy, he’s got a point about his state. Judging by just about any other metric, however, observers are left to conclude that either he is delusional or he thinks you might be.
++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment