Thursday, June 28, 2018

The Sorry State of the Left-Wing Media

Cristina Laila at The Gateway Pundit took issue with a story by ABC and rightly so.  When innuendo and suspicion are reported as news your wallet has been stolen and your pockets are empty.  In other words, you ain't got squat.
"Robert Mueller is investigating ‘billionaires with ties to Russia’ who attended Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities."
No **** that's the basis of an investigation?  These men are under investigation because they're rich, Russian and attended the inauguration?  Mueller is off his meds.  This is a great legal mind?
"Several billionaires with deep ties to Russia attended exclusive, invitation-only receptions during Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities, guest lists obtained by ABC News show."
How many is several and what does deep ties even mean?  And where was ABC when Bill Clinton was riding Jeff Epstein's PedoPlane to pervert Fantasy Island.  Last time I checked Epstein was a billionaire and I haven't heard ABC's George Stephanopoulos utter a syllable of concern.
“This reflects a Russian strategy of gaining access to our political leaders ..."
But multi-million dollar donations to The Clinton Foundation don't!!!  Good grief, this is all they have?  Since when is it a crime to have rich people at exclusive inaugural events?

I wonder how many people on Mueller's lynch mob attended Hillary Clinton's Election Night Epic Failure Party? Huh?

**********************************
I've been out of work for about three months now due to my heart condition. If you could spare the change please drop by my #GoFundMe and chip in, I'd appreciate it.  And share my campaign on your social media. Thanks, Kirby
 

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

The Gordian Knot of Illegal Immigration

The first and most glaring part of the illegal immigration problem is that our neighbor to the south, Mexico, is allowing people to pass through to our border. Please notice that Mexico doesn't allow these people to apply for asylum. Mexico would never let these people remain in Mexico without documentation and they never speak of a path to citizenship. Then strangely enough the U.S. becomes the bad guy for requesting a modicum of order.

The second feature of this problem is the propaganda surrounding it. Yes, I said propaganda. The U.S. media is engaged in a massive propaganda campaign designed to bring about a emotional response while misleading their audience on the facts. If a news outlet interviews someone who misstates the facts or makes a false accusation that news outlet can't be said to have misrepresented the facts. They were just doing an interview. Let's look at how that is done in this story.
Williams said the growing backlog of asylum seekers is not the result of a significant increase in the number of families asking for asylum but rather a slowdown by the Trump administration in processing them.
Since the zero tolerance policy has been implemented and the news of children being separated from adults has spread more family units are reporting to our ports of entry. The quote you see is not a statement of fact, it is someone's opinion. An opinion which conveniently fits the narrative. Beyond the fact that people are trying to get into our country I found nothing of substance in the article. Evidence to the contrary is everywhere..
"That hasn't stopped immigrants. Though totals on border crossings are down, the number of families coming through the southwest border jumped sixfold in May to 9,485 compared with the same month in 2017. There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the USA. 
That article goes on to say how bad it is in Central America but never asks the question why it is the U.S. alone that must shoulder the burden of providing a safe haven. The U.S. is never lauded for giving safe haven to millions while our neighbors Canada and Mexico stand idly by. Why isn't Mexico the bad guy? Canada? Both countries have criticized the U.S. while doing nothing to help.

If conditions are so bad in Central America why hasn't the U.N. done something about it? The people arriving at our border aren't fleeing war or natural disaster. Instead it's said they are fleeing poverty and violence. So, not only are these migrants undocumented but for the most part their claims of victim-hood are unverifiable. Under these circumstances how could this many people be properly vetted for entry?
"By a wide margin, the U.S. has more immigrants than any other country in the world. As of 2015, the United Nations estimates that 46.6 million people living in the United States were not born there. This means that about one-in-five international migrants (19%) live in the U.S. The U.S. immigrant population is nearly four times that of the world’s next largest immigrant destination – Germany, with about 12 million immigrants."
That quote from PEW Research speaks tons about the propaganda that abounds in this country. Despite having one of the most liberal legal immigration policies in the world the socialist media would have you believe that Americans are opposed to immigration. The wave of undocumented migrants at our southern border has put an exclamation point on our nation's ability to cope with such an influx.
“We’re not changing the policy. We’re simply out of resources,” she said, adding that it is up to Congress now to step in and change the laws.
That quote from WH Spox Sarah Sanders.  about sums it all up. Enough is enough. In light of the numbers on immigration and the volume of people arriving at our southern border it is clear that a tough border policy must be implemented to discourage this activity. To say that the U.S. is adverse to immigration is faulty. Our nation is based upon the rule of law and ignoring those laws puts the nation at risk.

I haven't been a particularly avid supporter of building a wall. Now I believe that it would be in the interest of national security to do so. A wall would deter illegal crossings and funnel asylum seekers to ports of entry. If there were a backlog of migrants in Mexico awaiting processing at the ports then Mexico would be made to bear the responsibility of having let those migrants pass through. A situation that might cause our southern neighbor to reconsider its participation in this activity.

Should you decide to visit Guatemala and investigate conditions there on your own be advised you will need a passport. Also be advised that Guatemala has the best economy in Central America.
 ******************************
I hope you've enjoyed my random musings. I am currently out of work due to medical conditions. I would great appreciate you dropping by my #GoFundMe page and reading my story. Donate if you can and share my story on your social media. Thank and God bless. Kirby













Saturday, June 23, 2018

FBI: Oversight is Crucial

Sonam Sheth has a new article today at Business Insider. New documents have been released to the oversight committee and I think Mr. Sheth did a good job of airing the concerns of Democrats who seem opposed to transparency. Let's dig in with a quote then.
 While Republicans say the requests are part of their congressional oversight responsibility, Democrats accuse their colleagues across the aisle of using classified information to play politics and compromise the Russia investigation.
A big part of the campaign to damage President Trump's administration has been the leaking of classified information by partisans within the DOJ and FBI. Then there was the shocking revelation of James Wolfe the director of The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence literally in bed with a journalist leaking classified information. So that we see, once again, Democrats accusing Republicans of doing what they have been caught doing.
"The immediate concern, said former CIA operative Glenn Carle, is that turning over information related to FISA records could compromise sources and methods."
Mr. Carle, when a secret court tasked to issue warrants for spying on terrorists and international criminal organizations is duped by officers of the court into issuing surveillance warrants on American citizens then oversight is justified. The documented partisan mindset of the officers involved makes it necessary to examine your precious sources and methods.  The Business Insider continued to quote Mr. Carle.
"If something is coming from an entire committee, rather than a party, then the government is speaking through that committee," he said. "If it's coming from one party, that indicates political bias and could skew the outcome and fly in the face of the oversight function itself." 
We have a situation unlike any in our history where the party in power, Democrats, used the offices of government to spy on the rival party during an election year. That Democrats have no interest in having their dirty laundry aired in public should be no great surprise. Mr. Carle seems to have no problems with the political bias which led us to this place.

Were they spying? What's the FISA court for, spying! I brought up the Business Insider story to point out the empty rhetoric on the left. Any reasonable person knows that if the roles and people involved in this had been reversed the leftists would have exploded in place. And rightfully so. Finally some sage observations by Alan Dershowitz at Fox Business.
“There has never been a more important time in our history for checks and balances to be operating, whether it’s regarding President Trump’s immigration policies, where we’re seeing checks and balances in play and whether it be the Mueller investigation,” Dershowitz said during an interview with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday.
***************************************

Thanks for taking the time to read. The comments section is OPEN!!! Also, I've been out of work with health issues for almost three months now. If you would take just a moment to drop by my #GoFundMe page and donate as little as $5 then share it on Twitter and FaceBook I would be truly humbled and grateful. As someone who has worked hard his entire life this has been a very difficult time. Kirby's Medical Fund











Friday, June 22, 2018

Venezuela's Socialist Undoing

story out today from Reuters is another in a recent slew detailing the calamitous fall of the socialist state. The article is derived, in part, from the U.N. human rights office and deals with extrajudicial killings by security forces. To no one's surprise the Venezuelan dictator Maduro blames the United States for his country's disastrous situation.
The unpopular Maduro has cast the release of dozens of opposition members as a peace gesture following his re-election to a new six-year term last month, which was condemned by most Western nations as an undemocratic farce. His government denies the detainees are political prisoners.
From Forbes Magazine

The despotic Maduro can blame the U.S. for it's problems till the cows come home. The truth is not hard to find. In another story from Reuters we learn that the true culprit is PDVSA Venezuela's state run oil producer. Capitalism is by no means perfect but the successes of state run anything could probably be counted on one hand.
Crude exports are Venezuela’s main source of revenue, but the OPEC member has seen deliveries fall sharply in the last few months, dropping to 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) in May from 1.24 million bpd in April, according to Thomson Reuters trade flows data.
Citgo can process up to 749,000 bpd of crude in three U.S. refineries. In the past, PDVSA supplied as much as 40 percent of Citgo’s crude requirements, but volumes have been slowly declining for years.
Maduro and his regime point to U.S. sanctions that according to almost everyone are purely symbolic. The U.S. sanctions apply to oil exported to U.S. markets. PDVSA has been unable to fill contracts to many of it's customers and the reason for this traces right back to the problems of socialism. A smart company re-invests profits to ensure it can meet market demands. A state run outfit like PDVSA turns over its revenues to the state and as you can see in this story the results have been disastrous.
The problem of export capacity has become so acute that PDVSA is demanding customers send ships that can handle ship-to-ship loadings, since there is a backlog of ships trying to load up at the country’s decrepit ports. PDVSA is even considering declaring force majeure on contracts that it will be unable to fulfill. The upshot is that PDVSA might have only 694,000 bpd available for export in June, which is less than half of the 1.495 mb/d that it is contractually obligated to deliver this month.
That quote from the OilPrice website pretty much sums up the situation. Did you catch the part about decrepit ports? Ship to ship transfers of oil risk a environmental hazard. This is a desperate measure that results directly from the failures of a socialist system. Free market systems operate very differently.

A robust U.S. economy boosts the country's consumer appetite. In recent years our ports have not been able to handle all of the incoming freight so it has been sent to Mexico where it's offloaded and sent into the U.S. by rail. Around the country port authorities and states have lobbied the government for funds to expand our own capabilities. Let me point out there is no lobbying in a socialist state.
Work to deepen the Savannah River channel from 42 feet to 47 feet to accommodate larger cargo ships from the expanded Panama Canal reached its midway point earlier this year.
Georgia’s inland and coastal ports are vital cogs in the state’s economy. A study released in March by the University of Georgia found that maritime trade accounts for $44 billion of the state’s gross domestic product and the ports directly or indirectly touch more than 439,000 jobs.
Those quotes are from a Atlanta Journal article you can read here. The state of Georgia and concerned industry leaders lobbied our government for funding.  This is how capitalism and our government work. As I said earlier, it's not a perfect system. It does get results. When I hear some left-wing academic demonize capitalism in order to pontificate on the virtues of socialism I have to do the eye roll. The least little bite of the socialist apple may very well doom our republic.

I began with extrajudicial killings by Venezuelan security forces. Britain has taken more than a little taste of that socialist apple. It should be noted that I was unable to contact Tommy Robinson for this story.
 *******************************************
I'm out of work due to a chronic heart condition. Please drop by my #GoFundMe page and help out an old Vet if you can. My situation is frustrating and difficult but I'm toughing it out. You can make a difference. Kirby's Medical Fund

  

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Border Separations and the Misinformation Campaign

I have become increasingly frustrated by the MSM coverage of the immigration crisis which varies from misleading to outright lies. The crisis has been caused not by President Trump but by the waves of people intent on entering the country illegally. Period.

On the issue of separating minors from adults who are charged with illegal entry I would like to point to one article by NBC which typifies the biased coverage. Fact Check: Did Obama Separate Families.

Notice that title, Fact Check. The article has very little in the way of facts. Instead what NBC has done is interview Obama era officials that deny, obfuscate, then minimize whatever detentions there might have been.
"Once custody concerns were resolved, "there was pretty immediately reunification," Gilman told NBC News. "There were not 2,000 kids in two months — it’s not the same universe," she added."
Of course there wasn't 2,000 kids in two months. There's a Republican President now and this immigration tsunami has morphed into another riotous left-wing protest movement. Look deeper into what Denise Gilman, Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School is saying. "...there was pretty immediately reunification."  Twenty days is the maximum for detaining minors that arrive with an adult. That's the law and there is nothing to suggest that administration officials have done anything other than follow the law.

Remember this is not a fact or sworn testimony but an interview with a left leaning news organization. So that I'm not accused of taking Gilman out of context let me add that she said that maybe once every six months they might come across a separated family unit. Well Director Gilman I would remind you of your own words, "it's not the same universe."

Let me direct your attention to a article by CBN News that you can read here.
WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security reports a 325 percent increase in "unaccompanied alien children" and a 435 percent increase in "family units" entering the country illegally.
Many of us have come to accept that liberals are adverse to facts. The NBC article, despite its title, has zero facts. Denise Gilman's comments absent the facts of the current situation are meaningless.  Look at the numbers. Trump did not create those numbers or the current crisis. Now another quote from the CBN article.

Nielsen adds that in the last three months, her office has seen a spike in illegal immigration that has exceeded 50,000 a month.

I'm just a dumb, out of work truck driver but I have a question, have we increased the manpower at the border 435 percent?

'Prison-like' migrant youth shelter is understaffed, unequipped for Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy, insider says

The good old LA Times, they're just trying to be helpful. There's no bias at all, you see. This is all the fault of Trump's zero tolerance policy. Let's check in with The Daily Caller and find out what that curmudgeon from Alabama, Jeff Sessions, has been up to.
“Sessions is talking to congressional members and is hoping for a legislative fix. The AG wants an immigration policy that is just, fair and enforceable. They talked about making sure that these really are the parents of these kids,” Perkins said. 
Working with congress ... diabolical!!! That quote from The Daily Caller story is from Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
He continued, “They are looking at how to use DNA tests in the field to verify they are parents and not traffickers. The reality is if American parents put their kids through what these immigrant parents have done to their kids — they would be charged with child abuse.”
When you consider that most of these people arrive at our border undocumented doesn't this seem like a prudent course of action? The Radical Left seems to be advocating that not only should we step aside and let these people in but that we should also close our eyes. 
 Jeff Sessions considers forcing asylum-seekers with sons and daughters in tow to take DNA TESTS to prove children are theirs
That headline from the UK Daily Mail. 
Jeff Sessions didn't force these people to come here without identification. I can't say what sort of expectations these legions of illegal entrants may have had upon arriving here but I certainly expect the Attorney General of The United States of America to enforce existing law.

I can also see that with so many unaccompanied minors headed to our borders that there would be adults who would take advantage of the situation and claim to be a parent expecting it to make their own entry easier. Gaming the system happens all the time. And if we don't make every effort to ensure these minors aren't being trafficked then there will be a trafficking problem. If DNA testing in the field can be done then it should be for the sake of the minors the Left-wing propaganda outlets claim to be so worried about.

I began by talking about facts and in the last paragraph I suggested that unaccompanied minors may be taken advantage of by adults looking to more easily enter our country by claiming to be a parent. I found another interesting story from a Colorado NBC affiliate 9news and you can check that out here.
Did the Trump administration really lose 1,500 children?
Not in the way it’s being portrayed by some people.
Here's what happened: ORR tried to contact 7,635 kids it placed with adult sponsors, but 1,475 them didn’t answer.
That doesn’t mean the agency lost them. Some of those kids forgot to respond, didn’t get the message or chose not to because someone in their household is undocumented.
Let's also speculate that we're letting people in who simply drift off into the shadows and off the grid. When we talk about minors the majority are teenagers who may have ties to Central American gangs. Those youths may not wish to remain where we can monitor them.

The much maligned zero tolerance policy simple means that anyone caught entering the country illegally will be arrested. Did we have a policy before of arresting some and not others? That wouldn't make sense to me.

Let me get back to some of the very dubious coverage of the family separations at the border. USA Today brings us the story of Lester Morales from Guatemala. If his story is to be believed, and I don't know how it could have been verified, Morales left Guatemala with his family on what became a 18 day journey to the United States. According to him he lost his wife an infant child along the way. He arrived here and upon finding out that he might be separated from the toddler he brought with him said, 'I thought we'd be safe here.'

I think the people at USA Today might have picked the wrong human interest  story to highlight. For all any of us know this man might have waylaid a woman and taken her child and now upon finding out authorities might want to verify his story is having second thoughts. In any case, this story should strengthen the case that separations are needed to ensure the safety of children arrivals and that DNA testing would indeed be helpful in ascertaining the validity of a claim.

Another story from Business Insider brings together the Tweets of a Texas Immigration attorney recounting an exchange he had with then President Obama.
"I'll tell you what we can't have," Obama said, according to Free. "It's these parents sending their kids here on a dangerous journey and putting their lives at risk."
******************************

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post. As a veteran I'm concerned about the future of our country. I am currently out of work for medical reasons. I started a #GoFundMe page to help with Medical bills and loss of income. Please take just a moment to visit my page and share it with your friends. Your support will be sincerely appreciated. Kirby's Medical Fund 













Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The Immigration Disinformation Campaign

Last night after I finished my Twitter News Roll I tuned in briefly to the rebroadcast of the Laura Ingraham show. You can catch the whole episode here. Laura touched on something I had tweeted about yesterday. That is asylum seekers can go to a port of entry claim asylum and not be separated from their children. When Ingraham asked her two guests why perhaps this wasn't being done one had a reply that dumbfounded me. She said and I paraphrase, after such a long journey that it might not be clear where the port of entries were.

This woman is smart enough and has the credentials to have been invited onto the Angle. Me, I'm just a dumb out of work truck driver. My response, keep in mind that I'm deplorable and a bitter clinger, would be follow a damn road. There's no way that anyone, no matter how uneducated, expects to find a port of entry by cutting out through the brush.

Washington Post
The real truth is that these people are being herded to our borders by smugglers that have no interest in visiting a port of entry. Smuggling, of any type, is a crime. This wave of people intent on illegal entry so overwhelms our agents that it hamstrings their ability to intercept drug shipments and other contraband. That is the biggest factor behind this crisis.

When Patton was poised to intervene in The Bulge he suggested that he might capture as many as 400,000 German troops. Omar Bradley quickly pointed out that baby sitting that many POWs would require so much manpower it would cripple the Allied advance. On our border smugglers drive their flock into an area with the expectation that Border Patrol agents will intercept them. This ties up the manpower in the sector making it easier for those carrying contraband to escape detection. This is my assessment of what is probably happening but I'm not open to any argument that this is all just random.

My position then is that even if this migration was organic criminals would look for ways to take advantage of it to further their smuggling. Do I think the waves of people crossing our border is organic? No. This is very likely the result of behind the scenes manipulation by groups affiliated with George Soros.

**************************************

I hope you enjoyed my musings on our border crisis. I think the issues of separating children from adults is just a distraction from the real problems we face. I'm currently out of work for medical reasons. If you would take just a moment and read my story I would be deeply appreciative. I think that #GoFundMe is one of the better things to come out of the internet. It give people the opportunity to quickly support people caught in a crisis of their own whether it's a car crash, shooting, or natural disaster.  

The Disappointment that is Gaza

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords Palestinians have missed the opportunity to develop a healthy Palestinian culture and form a government that would benefit its people. The Palestinians have instead used the lands ceded to them as a staging ground for terrorist assaults against their neighbors the Israelis. Their blind hatred for Jews will never be abated until someone in the Palestinian community comes forward advocating for real peace.


Looking at a map of Gaza one thing jumps to my mind, ocean front property. I have seen, in my time, small Arab nations transform themselves into  tourist hot spots for the uber rich. These nations now host Grand Prix races and other events which draw the richest people in the world. To do this they had to become tolerant of other cultures and embrace a culture of peace. Their success should be celebrated and held up as a template for peace.

Peace talks have done very little to improve the lives of the Palestinian people. It is time to talk about economic development. There will never be any talks about sharing Jerusalem so long as the Palestinians cling to their culture of violence. World leaders should cease their denouncements of Israel and have a very honest chat with Palestinians about peace and providing for their people.

For too long there has existed a culture of violence in the Middle East. All of the old grievances, whether it Sunni versus Shia or Arab versus Jew, have no place in the twenty-first century. People flying fire kites are doing nothing to improve the lot of the Palestinian people. Just as irresponsible world leaders who fault Israel for defending herself are doing nothing to advance the cause of peace. Those same world leaders omit from their narrative that the world has seen Israel engage in peaceful relations with its Arab neighbors.

Finally let us place the blame where it rightfully belongs, Iran. Across the middle east Arab nations and Israel are dealing with the bloody influence of the Iranian regime. It is high time the world unite against the Iranian government and force them to end their deadly game of regional chaos. I would say to you that anyone who criticizes Israel's right to defend itself is an ally of the murderous Iranian regime.

*******************************************
 If you follow me on Twitter you have doubtless seen my plug my #GoFundMe campaign. The frequent tweets might seem over the top but it is the only way I can get the word out. I promise you my need is very real. I'm barely keeping my head above water. You can read my story on the #GoFundMe page, donate as little as $5 and share on your social media. Please retweet me because getting my story out is key to the success of this campaign. You can not understand how deeply grateful I am for any support. Thanks and God bless you all. Kirby McCain


Saturday, June 2, 2018

SpyGate: The Fallout Continues

Bill Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s immediate boss. However, as noted in the text messages Strzok often worked around Priestap at the behest of the person giving him political instructions – FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

By going around his boss, Priestap, Strzok and Lisa Page did the man a favor. He still has his job. And as this was likely at the behest of McCabe maybe it tells us why they did so. Priestap is set to testify before the Senate.  A little more from https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/05/24/timing-chairman-goodlatte-and-chairman-gowdy-schedule-testimony-from-bill-priestap/

Bill Priestap will have specific knowledge of the events contained within the upcoming IG report on how the FBI and DOJ handled the Hillary Clinton investigation; and Priestap will have similar knowledge surrounding the still ongoing IG investigation on FISA abuse and the activities of those who participated in “SpyGate” against the Trump campaign.
And Jim Hoft at the Gateway, Giacalone resigned from the Hillary Clinton case and retired from the FBI because he felt the case was going “sideways”; that’s law enforcement jargon for “nowhere by design.”   Giacalone is expected to testify. It's a bet the agents are pissed. There were too many things happening that they felt were underhanded. Giacalone wasn't allowed to do a proper investigation.

The most damaging thing to The FBI would be to sweep this under the rug.  It appears that while some agents were bending the rules in pursuing Trump - Russia collusion others were hamstrung in pursuing questions about Clinton's home brew server.

Now Andrew McCarthy at National Review says we need take a better look at the George Papadopoulos case.  It paints what appears to be a total setup to plant information which can then be used to start an investigation.  McCarthy is right. With every new detail we can get caught up with the new bit of information. Most times I think we gain more context.

If the FBI was so concerned about Russian meddling then why did they not recover the DNC server? There seems to some inconsistencies and the answers seem obvious. Clinton entitlement. A foreign power having leverage on a candidate screams Clinton Foundation.  The FBI and DOJ has never shown much interest in that. Which is why I say we can't allow this to slide. As painful as it may be to these institutions the why of these inconsistencies must be looked into and addressed.  Like the sham email server in the Clinton wine cellar / massage parlor.

So what is the end? It must be brought to a conclusion which restores confidence in our premier law enforcement. We the people must be assured that the FISA courts will no longer rubber stamp requests for warrants against American citizens with evidence so flimsy as appears to have been used against the Trump campaign. Going forward the goal should be to restore faith in our system.

Friends if my prose is a bit off it's because there's much on my mind.  I've been struggling. I'm out of work and have been for two months. I've begun to consider I might never return to my profession. I started a GoFundMe page to deal with the loss of income and cost of medical treatment.  If I can get anywhere near my goal I think it's time to seek disability or transition. You can donate as little as five dollars and just as importantly, share my story with your network of friends. Help an American and you help America.

https://www.gofundme.com/Kirbymccain