90 Miles From Tyranny

Friday, March 26, 2021

Morning Mistress

Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,

Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.

If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.

Please Leave Silently Into The Night......

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Girls With Guns

Bill points to a three-part approach for in-country processing

The Biden administration is reviving and expanding on the Central American Minors Refugee/Parole program launched in 2014 (and expanded in 2016) by the Obama administration, and terminated in 2017 by the Trump administration.1 While Biden's February executive order sought to "to reinstitute and improve upon the CAM Parole Program" only,2 the entire program, in a new advanced version, is making a comeback.3

The new CAM version will have more outreach, but the rationale is the same: Don't come here illegally because we will design in-country processing programs to get you in legally. That was, in essence, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' recent message to Central Americans rushing to the Southern border when he asked them to "wait".4 Mayorkas was clear: "We are not saying don't come. We are saying don't come now, because we will be able to provide a safe and orderly process to them."5 (All emphases in quotations are added unless otherwise indicated.) Three programs, specifically designed for Central Americans as "additional options for legal pathways for migration", are likely to be forthcoming.6

That is also, in essence, what President Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos when asked about the "crisis at the border":

I can say quite clearly don't come over. And the process of getting set up, and it's not gonna take a whole long time, is to be able to apply for asylum in place. So don't leave your town or city or community. We're gonna make sure we have facilities in those cities and towns run by department of — by DHS and also access with HHS, the Health and Human Services, to say you can apply for asylum from where you are right now.7

The question remains: Will reopening in-country processing (or what I have called the "back door"8) convince people to apply for a ticket instead of simply showing up at the door? This disincentivizing strategy did not seem to work for the Obama administration; it may not for this one either. Biden's plan may be more elaborate than Obama's, but there is no guarantee it will help resolve the ongoing border crisis.

Restarting CAM

The Department of State announced on March 10 the reopening of the Central American Minors (CAM) program:

As another concrete step in implementing our comprehensive regional migration management strategy, we are expanding legal pathways to enter the United States by reopening the Central American Minors (CAM) program. As directed by President Biden, the Departments of State and Homeland Security (DHS) have initiated the first phase of reinstituting and improving the CAM program to reunite qualified children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with their parent or parents who are lawfully present in the United States.9

The program is presented as an essential protection tool for children:

The program ... represents our continued commitment to ensure that our immigration system ... protects the most vulnerable, especially children.10

But CAM, following its 2016 expansion, was no longer limited to "minor children"; adult sons and daughters could also qualify. It was not even restricted to the "children" (minors or adults) of U.S.-based parents; adult "caregivers" (grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, etc.) were also able to join in.11

CAM is set reopen in two phases under the Biden administration...

..And When I Say Dear, I Mean You Either Are A Totalitarian Fascist Or You Support Totalitarian Fascists, So When You And Yours Try To Take Me And My Rights Away, I Will Feel No Remorse.

Is It Time That You Had That Talk With Your Son?

Tell Your Daughter Too!

Oh, And Another Thing Son, Don't Let 'Em Take Your Guns!

(That's What Their Trying To Do!)

The Growing Desperation (And Dangerousness) Of The Gun Control Movement

Gun control activists are growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that even with Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, their agenda is still in doubt on Capitol Hill. A new piece at POLITICO highlights the palpable sense of desperation starting to emanate from anti-gun organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety and its affiliate Moms Demand Action, where activists know that their window of opportunity to put new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms is closing. The razor-thin Democratic majority in the House and Senate could very well disappear after the 2022 midterms, and activists

For the gun reform movement — a centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s agenda for at least a quarter century — the question this week has become, if not now, when?

“This is the moment,” said Shannon Watts, founder of the advocacy group Moms Demand Action. “The NRA is sidelined by bankruptcy, and we have a gun-sense trifecta in the White House, the Senate and the House.”

… It’s a pivotal moment for gun politics. The history of midterm elections suggests Democrats are at risk of losing the House next year, shrinking their window for legislative victories.

“The time is definitely now,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of the gun-control group Giffords. “We can’t wait.”

There’s a muddled message coming from the anti-gun advocates. On the one hand, they say that now is the time, knowing that they’re likely to lose ground in next year’s elections, but they’re still trying to spin their movement as one that’s growing in popularity across the country.

Tom Sullivan, a Colorado state lawmaker who sought elected office after his son, Alex, was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, said the climate surrounding gun legislation has “obviously” shifted — as evidenced by his own election and those of other survivors of victims of gun violence, including Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, whose teenage son was shot to death in 2012. Gun control was a winning issue for Democrats in some congressional swing districts nationally in the midterm elections in 2018.

“We can run on this issue, and we can win elections on this issue,” Sullivan said. “Quite obviously, the tone has changed.”

Sullivan’s comments ignore the fact that, despite spending tens of millions of dollars in states like Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas in an attempt to flip state legislatures into anti-gun majorities, the 2020 elections actually resulted in Republican gains at the state level. Republicans in Iowa just sent a Constitutional Carry bill to the desk of Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for (and is likely to receive) a Second Amendment Sanctuary measure from lawmakers in Austin.

At the federal level, Democrats and gun control activists lost ground in...

Kamala Harris' controversial niece Meena deletes tweet assuming Boulder gunman was white because he was 'taken into custody alive'

Meena Harris deleted her tweet on Tuesday after police revealed 21-year-old gunman Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa is of Syrian descendant
Vice President Kamala Harris' niece had assumed the Boulder gunman was white because he was taken into custody alive
She immediately faced backlash from some on Twitter
Alissa was born in Syria and moved to the US when he was three
He now lives in Arvada, Colorado, around 30 miles from the grocery store he targeted

For a state that couldn’t pass a modest measure on Education Savings Accounts just two years ago, it’s a breathtaking turnaround. What changed?

In February 2018, public school teachers brought West Virginia to its knees. Seeking pay raises and better health plans, unions had declared a “work stoppage” in all 55 counties, shuttering every public school in the state. The “stoppage” — which was in fact an unlawful strike — dragged on for nine school days, costing children nearly two weeks of instruction. Under pressure, the Republican legislature rushed through a pay raise to pacify the unions.

The victorious teachers of West Virginia quickly became the darlings of the socialist left. Jacobin magazine, which had extensively covered the strike, ran a victory-lap interview entitled “What the Teachers Won.” News coverage touched off copycat strikes, beginning in Arizona and spreading to other states. The “Red for Ed” movement was born, uniting unions, socialists, and other far-left radicals in dreams of an American labor renaissance.

Flush with victory, West Virginia teachers’ unions got bolder. The next year, they went on strike again, taking aim at broader education policy. The Republican Senate had passed a bill granting teachers their second pay raise in two years, but they tied it to something for parents: school choice.

It wasn’t much—open enrollment, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for special-needs students, and permission for three charter schools statewide. But West Virginia was one of the last remaining states without school choice, and “Red for Ed” wasn’t letting that go without a fight.

The 2019 strike lasted only two days. The West Virginia House of Delegates quickly caved, scuttling school choice and passing a “clean” pay raise for teachers. But 18 Republicans in the state Senate stood firm. No school choice, no second pay raise, they said. Their stand forced the governor’s hand. A special session in June resulted in the passage of modest school choice measures. Open enrollment survived; so did the three charter schools. ESAs did not.

For Republicans, it seemed a small win in exchange for two costly, bruising strikes. Unions were confident that the vast majority of West Virginians were on their side.

“Educators across the state are livid at these developments and dead-set against school privatization,” wrote the Trotskyist World Socialist Web Site. “In this, they are joined by virtually all of the state’s workers and youth. . . . Eighty-eight percent of West Virginians support their public schools and oppose charters.” Leftists vowed a reckoning in the 2020 election for those 18 villainous Senate Republicans.
‘It’s a Game-Changer’

That was then; this is now. Last week, with very little noise or fanfare, the West Virginia legislature passed the most expansive Education Savings Account program in America. While ESAs in most states are only open to a small percentage of children, the new West Virginia Hope Scholarship will be available to 90 percent of schoolchildren in...