The stories and pictures coming out of the southeastern part of the United States are horrific and terrifying. Hurricane Helene was more than catastrophic, but what is even more is the incredible lack of immediate response to human need and suffering by the United States government.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was supposed to be ready to aid at a moment’s notice. It was not and is not. FEMA is the responsibility of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. After Hurricane Helene hit the United States, Biden spent days on the breach and Kamala was busy raising money for her campaign. FEMA was no where to be found. Given the condition of Biden who appears can barely fully function, the bulk of the responsibility rests right in the lap of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Now we hear stories that private citizens who did respond are being prevented from helping. We are hearing stories that the National Guard and US Army troop and resources are being hampered or have not been given proper orders to move ahead. What is happening is at the least totally incompetent but bordering on criminal.
We hear now that FEMA has a lack of money. The story is that FEMA does not have enough funds to be able to respond to another hurricane or natural disaster. We know now that billions of dollars allocated to FEMA have been used up to provide for illegal aliens. They have gotten transportation, cash, cell phones, and housing. Funds have been depleted to the point of not having enough to help our own citizens.
Kamala comes in and offers $750 in aid to people who have lost everything. And people have to sign up to even get that paltry amount of aid. The problem is there is little way for people to even sign up.
We hear of all communications systems being destroyed. No cell phones and no Internet available. Power and lines down. Response came from action by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk with Starlink. But, now we hear that the government is taking Starlink down. Trump, as a private citizen, came quickly with aid and has given $25 million of his own money. He and Samaritan’s Purse under the leadership of Franklin Graham are and have been there with help.
Biden, Harris, Mayorkas (Homeland Security Secretary), and FEMA Adminstrator Deanne Criswell must go. They are all either totally incompetent or guilty of criminal neglect. Given the areas most affected by Hurricane Helene, one has to wonder if politics comes into the picture. Many of the areas most affected are heavy Republican politically.
In this time of huge domestic need for citizens of our country, we are reminded as well of the billions of dollars that have been diverted to Ukraine by the Biden administration. Dollars that are needed at home.
We are reminded as well of the response by the Bush administration to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Bush had Michael Brown at the head of FEMA. Brown had been the Judges and Stewards Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association for 12 years before joining FEMA where he was promoted to FEMA Administrator in 2003. He resigned 18 days after Katrina hit New Orleans. Maybe it is time for Criswell and Mayorkas to do the same.
United States citizens are hurting and crying out for help. US government should have been ready and was not. Those responsible must go.
Stupid Is as Stupid Does
The New York Times has once again shown itself in a recent column by writer Jennifer Szalai. One cannot read the original column in the NYT without paying for it. This is something I sure will not do given the history of the NYT. Up front, I am depending upon an in depth review of the Szalai column by others.
It seems Szalai believes the US Constitution is a danger to the country and a threat to democracy. Even that kind of thinking shows her stupidity. So, I did a bit of research. I learned Szalai was educated in Canada and Great Britain. This should tell you a lot already. Then I read she is a reviewer of non-fiction books. Maybe she should stick to that.
If she is going to be critical of the US Constitution, maybe she should bone up on some US history. The Founders of our country never intended it to be a “Democracy”. It was structured as a Republic. There are major differences built in. The Founders intended for the Federal Government to be limited in scope and the country never to be governed by a simple majority of the population. This is clearly evidenced by the creation of Congress in two parts: the House of Representatives that reflects population and the Senate that represents equally the states and not population. The Electoral College that selects the President reflects a combination of the number of Representatives and of Senators. It stops rule by the masses and gives significant political power to States equally….. The United States of America. How incredibly wise and cleaver.
This will not change. It is built into the Constitution. Any change would have to come by amendment to the Constitution; a process that is detailed and difficult to accomplish. Any amendment must first be passed by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and then approved by three-fourths of the legislative bodies of all 50 states; that’s 38 states. To make the change from the Electoral College to a simple majority vote for the President of the United States will not happen…… ever. The less populated states have the power to stop any such move and would. The Founders purposefully structured government, a Republic, this way.
Szalai also does not like the Supreme Court structure with President Donald Trump having appointed three of the current Justices. Again, she clearly does not understand United States government. Those three were approved by the US Senate as required by the Constitution. Trump did not have the power to appoint Justices by himself. Szalai, along with so-called Progressives, just does not like some of the current rulings by the Court. Too bad. There were rulings in the past that displeased Democrats and others that displeased Republicans. The structure of the Supreme Court with majority approval by US Senate required to be seated and the appointments to be lifetime do much to prevent manipulation of the Court makeup by one political party or another.
So, it appears the Founders of the Constitution knew a little more about what they intended for this country to be than that of Jennifer Szalai. She needs to return to reviewing books.
KT & Illegal Immigration
I am not sure why, but the Kokomo Tribune seems to have come down editorially and from a news standpoint on the side of illegal immigration. The recent front page story about a family from Venezuela now in Kokomo and an editorial on August 30th critical of Hoosier citizens in Seymour resisting the creation of a “Welcome Center” for illegal aliens suggests just that — in favor of illegal immigration.
Clearly, the Kokomo Tribune and by reference its parent company, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc, don’t get it. Crossing the border of the United States of America is a crime according to US laws. It does not matter what the conditions are in home countries. There is a legal way into the United States and there are illegal ways. I am all for welcoming people who have come the legal way on the the path to either temporary residency or perhaps ultimately to citizenship. I am totally against illegal immigration.
I repeat, obviously, the KT does not get it. It is now estimated there is something between 10 and 20 million illegal aliens now in this country. For comparison, the population of Indiana total is about 6.8 million. Illegal aliens are taking away from resources sorely needed to care of US citizens. For example…. schools, health care, jobs, housing and even other financial benefits; all from taxpayer money. Even in Kokomo, I see the presence of homeless people that badly need help.
The Indiana Attorney General has recently gone after three “Sanctuary Cities” in our state. One was in the Gary area, one in Lafayette/West Lafayette, and one in Bloomington. At last count, only one remains; the one in Bloomington. The other two have rescinded sanctuary city designation and actions. Indiana should have zero sanctuary cities.
One can feel sorry for folks in other countries that live under seriously adverse conditions. This does not mean the United States must become the destination for all who want to escape where they live for whatever reason…. particularly if it means crossing into the United States illegally. The citizens of our country are already in stress given the state of our economy under the nearly four years of the Biden administration. We don’t need more stress created by the presence of illegal aliens and the additional burdens they bring on.
I hope the Kokomo Tribune will support the immigration laws of the United States. Unless I am missing something, it currently does not.
At It Again
Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren is at it again. She has introduced a bill in the US Senate with a price tag of $550 Billion to fund the construction of new housing for low and middle income folks. And where is the money going to come from? Natural, raising taxes. In this case, she wants to re-institute estate (death) taxes including raising them above where they were before.
This is yet another crazy and unjust move by a liberal to penalize those who have accumulated wealth. She does not recognize that the dollars or value in an estate have already been taxed through income tax and sometimes through capital gains taxes. She wants to tax the dead for their success yet again.
What is the result? In the past we have seen families lose farms or have to sell off farmland to pay estate taxes. We have seen families lose businesses that have been built through entrepreneurial efforts because they had to be sold to raise money for estate taxes.
I can offer a first hand experience. I had family members that owned a daily newspaper in our town. It was a very successful newspaper in the day when newspapers were valued and sought after. But we had several elderly owners that did not have significant other assets beyond the value held by their share of ownership in the newspaper. That paper had to be sold to satisfy the payment of estate taxes. The family lost ownership that had been built by a single family member beginning in 1897 and passed down through a couple of generations later. Again, income had been produced by this newspaper through the decades and income taxes paid all along.
What Warren is proposing is about as unfair as it gets. Accumulated wealth and pay taxes along the way through effort and success and then get taxed again when you die and want your family to be able to carry on with benefit from your efforts. Think about it.
Warren has again shown her socialist/communist colors. Fortunately, this bill if approved by the Senate, and a companion bill introduced in the House by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver will never seen the time of day in the US House of Representatives as long as Republicans have a majority.
So, we have one more reason to take back the Senate, increase the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and take back the White House in the coming election.
Known by Many Names
Vice President Kamala Harris has been known by many names: Crazy Kamala, Cackling Kamala, Senator Kamala, District Attorney Kamala, CA Attorney General Kamala, Border Czar Kamala, and more. But the best one I have heard came from her days in California when she was climbing the political ladder with the help of Willie Brown, her 30 year older lover and political heavy weight. That was “Headboard Harris”.
The other I like the best is “Cackling Kamala”. I swear when she gets into that hysterical laughing, she looks much like the Joker in the Batman series.
So, now we have what appears to be the chosen one, but not elected, Democrat running for President of the United States in the coming 2024 November election. Harris has not yet been crowned with the official nomination of the Democrat Party, but she is headed in that direction with the Democrat Party Convention coming soon. To secure the nomination, she will need to steal the delegates that were pledged to Joe Biden through primary elections in the states. Harris has not a single vote from anyone in any state in an election for the nominee for President. That does not matter though. The Democrat Party bosses will see her through.
Actually, it is not clear if there will be any Democrat Convention physically in Chicago. They have talked about doing the Convention virtually with no one showing up in town. Whatever the case, Kamala Harris for President is a total sham. Joe Biden was sidelined by his own party against his will, clearly. Yes, Joe should not have run for another term, but he should have gracefully bowed out long before he did leaving the nomination field open for others with a nomination to be completed the legitimate and legal way. Did not happen. What has happened is clearly a coup.
The record shows there is no one farther left politically than Kamala Harris. When she was in the US Senate representing California, she was named the most liberal (Socialist/Communist) person in the Senate. Before that, she was a nightmare of a District Attorney in San Francisco and as California Attorney General. Check her record beginning as a D.A. in California through her time in the US Senate and lastly as Vice President. Now it appears there is an ongoing attempt to remake her image into a moderate Democrat, but her record is clear and scary.
In her campaign, Harris has already pulled the race card. She went directly to a traditionally black sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, in Indianapolis at their biennial convention to ask for support from black women. This was her second speaking stop as the Democrat presumptive Presidential candidate. She shunned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the joint session of Congress on the same day. This as Vice President of the United States and President of the US Senate. This was a clear message to Israel who is in a fight for their very existence.
The next months are going to define the course of the United States of America. Get informed and make the right choice. Are you better off now than you were four years ago under President Donald J Trump?
The Biden Question
Where is President Joe Biden? Supposedly from his Delaware home he wrote a letter of withdrawal from the campaign to be the Democrat Party nominee for President of the United States for the November 2024 election. Yet Biden has not been seen for many days.
The letter itself is suspect. It was not on official White House letterhead. The letter head said only “Joseph R Biden Jr”. There was no Presidential seal. The signature is in question and there was no “President of the United States of America” under the signature. Finally, the grammar in the letter appears to have been language written by someone other that President Biden.
So, what the hell is going on? There was a phone call to VP Harris from Biden it is claimed to be. It was supposedly a message of endorsement for Kamala Harris to become the Democrat nominee for President. What a disaster for this country she would be for this country if ever elected. She is dumb as a bag of rocks and has never received a vote by a single person to be either the presidential nominee nor for the vice president nominee and Vice President before. The votes of those who voted for President Biden to the be nominee would simply be tossed out by the Democrat Party bosses.
Supposedly, Biden has “released” his Democrat Party convention delegates. There is a question about whether this is even legal at least for the first ballot at the convention. And even if the convention comes out with Harris as the presidential nominee and someone else as the VP nominee, there are all sorts of questions about whether state ballots can be changed at this point. Expect law suits.
Finally, there is speculation that Joseph Biden is already dead. This is one way out. Of course, if that is the case, there would be a huge state funeral and laying in State in the Capitol Rotunda. This would certainly capture the news cycle for days even after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and put Republicans in a bit of a spot when deciding what to do about and how to continue campaigning.
So, as President Donald J Trump always says, “We will see what happens.”
Assassination
It has been only days now since the attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump. This on a bright, sunny day at a fair ground field in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attempt failed by millimeters when Trump turned his head ever so slightly to view a graph on a large video screen. The bullet grazed the right side of his head and wounded part of his right ear. Had he not turned that very small degree, the bullet would have shattered the right rear of his skull causing instant death. The course of the world would have changed.
As I write, the Republican National Convention has just ended. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are now the official Republican nominees for President and Vice President of the United States of America.
We were watching on TV the rally at Butler. We saw everything. I literally could not write anything until now. The shock and resulting anxiety took over. We came within fractions of an inch of watching in real time the murder of Donald Trump.
And now there remains scores of questions about how this attempt on Trump’s life was allowed to happen. Clearly, the Secret Service had catastrophic failure. The agents immediately around Trump did their job in shielding Trump, then getting him off the stage and into a vehicle off to a hospital. But even with those actions, there were failures clearly evident to anyone.
The video shows the Secret Service is as victim to DEI (Diversity/Equity/Inclusion) as any federal agency. In particular, there were two female agents who, at best, were not qualified to be part of the immediate presidential protection unit. There was one who could not get her handgun back in to the holster. She, too, was clearly significantly overweight. There was a second that seemed more concerned about losing her sunglasses, but that is not the worst of it. She looked to be about 5’4” tall. There is no way she could shield Trump who is over 6’ tall. Anyone with brains would conclude body guards protecting anyone need to be at least as big and tall as the one being protected. In Trump’s case, this says men.
So, many, many questions are unanswered. Congress has said there will be an aggressive investigation of the whole assassination attempt incident. Those responsible for the inexcusable failure must be held accountable. This includes the Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle; the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas; and even the President himself, President Joe Biden. And there can be no place for DEI when it comes to security protection the responsibility of the Secret Service. The stakes are simply too high.
Joe
The next few weeks or even days are going to be interesting to watch how Democrats deal with demented President Joe Biden as their candidate for President. They are already squirming. And Joe has taken the position he is not stepping aside.
The fact is, it is already too late in many states for a different name — or absent Joe, any name — to be on the ballot as a Democrat in November for the office of the presidency assuming Joe is still alive or is not declared incompetent by a court. Even removal from office under the 24th Amendment would not get the job done. And impeachment is certainly not going to happen in a Republican House nor would that even affect who is on the ballot in the fall. The Democrats are stuck with ole Joe unless he voluntarily or involuntarily steps aside, it seems.
Even if Joe did step aside or be removed, there are barriers. For example, all the funds sitting in the Biden campaign war chest would have to be returned to donors. They could not be simply transferred to a different candidate. This involves millions of dollars.
And how would a replacement for Joe be chosen if he does voluntarily or involuntarily step aside? It could not be by a vote of citizens in a primary election. Too late for that. It would have to be at the Democrat National Convention where delegates are locked into a vote on the first ballot for Joe Biden. The fight would then begin. The Democrat Party is not homogeneous. There are factions who would want their candidate to prevail. And who would that be? Gavin Newsom, Hillary Clinton, Michele Obama, Kamala Harris, or someone else. All seem to be pathetic. My guess is that Hillary Clinton would emerge. She has been seething ever since her defeat in 2016. Crooked Hillary.
The world saw what some are calling the walking cadaver in the debate on CNN. It is crystal clear Joe Biden is demented to the point of being dangerous as the “leader” of the free world. Before the CNN debate there were millions who were ignorant of how bad the situation really is. Those were the CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, WP and others who watched and/or read the liberal media only. Now they know. They saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears. Shock hit them.
On top of all of about Biden, the US Supreme Court has ruled the J6 Congressional Committee was not legitimate. This likely will mean that most of those being held in prison resulting from J6 court actions will be freed. And the Court has yet to rule on the question of presidential immunity. The prediction is this will favor Trump and will blow away all or most of the politically motivated indictments he has had to deal with. And last, it is likely the Florida court will decide Special Counsel Jack Smith was not appointed legally. The case about Classified documents will disappear.
So, Democrats can mourn. They have tried to destroy our country in so many ways. The chickens are coming home to roost. The people have awakened.
Biden Attempts Failing
Now we learn President Biden and his Justice Department authorized the use of deadly force in the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump and his family’s Florida home. Court documents show there was a medic with the heavily armed agents and that a triage unit had been set up some miles away; a practice not normally initiated. Further, FBI agents were instructed to wear unmarked polo or collard shirts and to keep enforcement equipment concealed. Why?
This was a non-standard, unprecedented operation with significant potential for confusion resulting in blue on blue armed conflict: FBI agents verses Secret Service agents. This set up competing equities between federal agencies (FBI & United States Secret Service) with equal statutory claims to interrupt the other’s activities. Again, why? It is reported there was no prior coordination between agencies. Was this an attempt to heighten the possibility of gunfire?
This all was to retrieve so-called “federal classified documents” Trump had taken from Washington DC at the end of his presidency to which he allegedly was not entitled. This all for documents Trump had securely stored at Mar-a-Lago and for which he had been negotiating with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Was this raid really a veiled assassination attempt? Fortunately, President Trump and family were not at Mar-a-Lago when the raid took place.
And we learn, too, there were documents planted by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago and that evidence presented to Judge Aileen Cannon in the Jack Smith Florida court case dealing with the papers case was tampered with. The papers were scrambled — not in original order — and the covers seen in photos were later added by the FBI agents.
All of this is coming out as the days go on. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against President Trump is falling apart. And their remains the root question as to whether Smith is legitimate in the first place having never been approved by the US Senate to occupy such a special counsel position. This is yet to be resolved.
What appears it will come down to ultimately is whether Trump took papers originally classified. As then President, he had absolute authority to declassify anything he wished and take them with him when leaving office. Clearly, he took something or somethings likely related to “Crossfire Hurricane” (the illegal spying on the Trump campaign for the 2016 election and papers he had formally declassified) that scares Democrats. I have to wonder if those papers finger Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Joe Biden, specifically.
Very interesting, too, that President Joe Biden took classified papers from Washington when he was a Senator and Vice President. These showed up in Biden’s garage and at his homes and at the University of Pennsylvania. He had absolutely no authority to have any classified papers in his possession. Him having them then is a federal crime. Biden should be held accountable for these actions, but don’t expect that from the Biden Justice Department.
We all need to thank God for Florida Federal Judge Aileen Cannon. It appears she is putting up with no nonsense or manipulation attempted by Jack Smith. She is after the truth. Her current position is there are many pretrial questions to be answered before any potential trial could take place. There is even a chance she will dismiss the Smith case entirely. Now, that would really enrage Biden Democrats. Or maybe it is really Obama Democrats and RINOs.
U.S. Census
We have a problem that must be fixed and fixed quickly. In 2010, the question asking whether a person is a United States of America citizen was removed from the decennial census questionnaire. The result has been that all people — citizen and non-citizen — have been counted. This has resulted in a distortion of representation under the U.S. Constitution for Congress and for the Electoral College that selects our President and Vice President.
The Equal Representation Act (S. 3659/H.R. 7109), introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Reps. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), requires the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question on all future decennial censuses and subsequently prohibits all non-citizens from being counted toward congressional district and Electoral College apportionment. The bill also requires that the Census Bureau publicly report on citizenship status data obtained from the census questionnaire. This bill has passed in the House of Representatives. It is on to the Senate.
A central purpose of the Census is to provide an accurate and fair count of the U.S. population – including the number of citizens and non-citizens. But the Census should not be used to take resources and representation away from American citizens in favor of illegal immigrants. Because the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives is a fixed 435, districts that have a large population not legally allowed to vote allots a disproportionate weight to the legal voters in those districts. Counting non-citizens rewards states with extra congressional districts – and representation in Congress – they do not deserve. Similarly, it unfairly skews presidential elections because electoral votes are allocated based on the number of congressional representatives in each state.
Congress must address the influence of a growing non-citizen population that is unfairly altering representation in the House, Electoral College votes, and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to blue states with sanctuary cities. These allocations should be based solely on the needs of American citizens. In fact, Thomas Jefferson understood this more than 200 years ago when acknowledging a complete Census – with a citizenship question – was critical to preserving America’s representative democracy.
And, as an aside, non-citizens must not be allowed to vote in any election, local/state/or national. This privilege is for citizens only. Proof of citizenship and voter ID are a must in all future elections.