Rich Lowry
by Seth Frantzman{ americanthinker.com } ~ After overreaching on the Trump-Russia collusion attempted coup, rather than admitting they were wrong, humbling apologizing and moving on, Democrats and I include the media here are doubling down... They are hellbent on seeing the entire dirty cop-Mueller report, with the House Judiciary Committee voting on party lines to authorize a subpoena of the report without redactions sooner than AG Barr’s promised mid-April release. In their minds, the 400-page report contains all manner of evidence of collusion and obstruction, despite the summary written by Barr and Rosenstein that says otherwise. Note that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein was easily confirmed by the Senate and has been defended by Democrats since he appointed dirty cop-Robert Mueller to be special counsel, and yet now they apparently believe he is lying. If Rosenstein and Barr were misrepresenting the report in their summary letter, one would think dirty cop-Mueller and his partisan team of attorneys would be outraged and speaking out to correct the record. Yet they are silent. This is the same gang that had no problem evidently leaking advance notice of Roger Stone’s commando-style arrest to CNN so they could be on site filming everything. If Barr and Rosenstein weren’t truthful in their summary, why isn’t CNN reporting on “unnamed officials” who dispute the summary? Perhaps all is not what it seems. There is much debate over who is wearing a black hat, or a white hat, meaning bad guy versus good guy, from the President Trump perspective. Is dirty cop-Mueller a white hat or a black hat? Despite much speculation, no one knows for sure, other than dirty cop-Mueller himself, Rosenstein, and Barr and a small circle around them. Suppose he is a gray hat, somewhere in between, and is laying a grand trap for the Democrats to waltz into, a big steaming pile of MAGA? Let me explain with the caveat that this is just my theory based on following all of this quite closely, but with no more inside knowledge than anyone reading this. If I am full of hot air, offer up a better theory. Regardless it’s all speculation at this point...
{ americanthinker.com } ~ Medieval English kings were not nice people. Edward III (1312–1377), in particular, used his son the Black Prince to wage a form of warfare called chevauchée... which consisted of killing and burning everyone and everything that could be reached by fast-moving raiders. The object was twofold. One was to destroy an opponent's logistics base and discourage supporters. The other was to bait the opponent into leaving a good defensive position and coming out into the open, where he could be attacked; a noble needed strong nerves and a stony heart to stay behind walls while his subjects were slaughtered and his lands destroyed. As many have noted during the past week, dirty cop-Robert Mueller and his legal sell-swords must have been aware for nigh onto two years, at least, that the accusation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians had no evidentiary support. Nonetheless, per the attorney general's summary letter to Congress, the investigation spent tens of millions of dollars, employed 19 lawyers and 40 other professional staff, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communications records, authorized almost 50 pen registers, made 13 document requests to foreign governments, and interviewed 500 witnesses. Barr and dirty cop-Mueller seem to regard this recounting as cause for satisfaction, as evidence of great diligence by the Department of Justice. But each of these actions inflicted substantial expense and career damage on those unlucky enough to be caught up in it. Every one of those witnesses should have lawyered up, knowing the ruthlessness of prosecutors on the scent of a big-time case. The game is to find something on a lower-level person and threaten him with heavy penalties unless he gives the prosecutor a more tempting target. If no extortionary material can be found, the witness can be accused of lying to the FBI, with the proof consisting of notes taken by the interviewing FBI agents themselves, since the agency refuses to make recordings. Family members can be threatened. Most of these witnesses have kept quiet about the experience, content to have escaped. Some are speaking out, such as Michael Caputo, who has written eloquently and repeatedly about the costs imposed on him and others...
Rich Lowry
When historians look back to this era, they will wonder why we insisted on outsourcing our border control to a foreign country.
President Donald Trump’s threat to close down the southern border with Mexico isn’t a sign of strength, but of frustration fading into desperation.
He is reacting with understandable alarm at a spiraling migrant crisis on the border, and is looking to Mexico to address it because we are unwilling to do it on our own — not unable, unwilling.
There were more than 100,000 apprehensions at the border in March, an increase from the 76,000 in February. The numbers for both months were the highest in 10 years. The total for the fiscal year could hit a million, a historic surge completely overwhelming our capabilities.
We built our border facilities to hold single men, back when illegal migrants were largely adult males from Mexico, rather than family units from Central America. This means that they are ill-suited for the needs of women and children. Regardless, the sheer numbers are leading to authorities releasing migrants almost as soon as they are caught.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen warned Congress last week of “the real-time dissolution of the immigration system.”
It’s not that border control has been tried and failed; it hasn’t been tried. Thanks to court decrees and congressional enactments, we don’t permit ourselves to quickly return minors from Central American countries, or to detain them for any significant period of time. They get released, along with the adults accompanying them.
The asylum process is broken. The initial so-called credible-fear interview to determine whether asylum-seekers get to the next step of the process approves almost all of them, even if they are unlikely ultimately to win asylum. In the meantime, they are waved into the country and probably never removed.
The migrants coming in increasing numbers realize that we are helpless to exclude them and, indeed, surrender to Border Patrol agents when they get here.
Congress could fix all this in an afternoon, with a few key changes in the law. Trump has a Nancy Pulosi problem much more than an Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador problem. But, since Pulosi is unmovable, Trump has to try to work the Mexican president, known by his initials, AMLO.
Mexico has done more to play ball with the U.S. under Trump than most people would have thought possible, yet all the migrants showing up at our border are still traveling through the country. Mexico doesn’t make controlling these migrants a high priority because they will end up here, not there.
The talk of cutting off the border isn’t aimed at the migrants, who largely don’t come through ports of entry, but at forcing the Mexican government to do more. Maybe the mere threat of the resulting economic disruption will work.
But if Trump goes through with closing the border, the strategy has some of the same weaknesses as the government shutdown earlier this year. Where does it end? If Mexico doesn’t act quickly, how long are we going to keep the border closed? The longer it’s closed, the more pain will be felt in the U.S. economy at a time when there are already signs of softness. What if Mexico initially buckles, then backslides? Will we shut down the border again, or threaten to?
Even if this gambit were guaranteed to succeed, it’s insane that a sovereign country of unparalleled power has tied its own hands such that it must try to bully and cajole a foreign nation to do immigration enforcement for it.
In a more rational world, Congress would take seriously the spectacle of U.S. officials — and humanitarian organizations — scrambling to handle a flood of humanity showing up every day, and give them the legal authorities and resources to get the situation under control. That it won’t is a dereliction of duty of the highest order. ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/62126?mailing_id=4169&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4169&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body
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