Democrats Allow Communists to Infiltrate Their
Party Across the Nation
“Obama’s new home in Washington has been described
as the “nerve center” of the anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney
general Eric Holder has said that Obama is “ready to roll” and has
aligned himself with the “resistance.” Former high-level Obama
campaign staffers now work with a variety of groups organizing direct
action against Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for
example, features lectures by former campaign executive
Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
*
“Professor Paul Kengor has extensively researched the
Chicago communists whose progeny include David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and
Barack Hussein Obama. Add the openly Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and
you have many of the key players who put Obama into power.”
*
We
are all victims of the Obama cabal’s collusion with Russia – President Trump’s
voters and all Americans who believe in our free and fair election process.
///
DESTABILIZE AMERICA TO LAY GROUNDS FOR A MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP
*
“Obama’s new home in Washington has
been described as the “nerve center” of the anti-Trump opposition.
Former attorney general Eric Holder has said that Obama is “ready to roll”
and has aligned himself with the “resistance.” Former
high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a variety of groups
organizing direct action against Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,”
for example, features lectures by former campaign executive
Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
///
BARACK OBAMA:
Was he America’s first closet Communist president?
Obama choose Communists and Marxists for the highest,
most powerful positions in our land, including his closest political advisors,
and his head of the CIA. These facts are not in dispute. Most are
openly admitted by the people in question, as necessary damage control.
Our press chooses not to report them.
*
Professor Paul
Kengor has extensively researched the Chicago communists whose progeny include
David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Barack Hussein Obama. Add the openly
Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and you have many of the key players who put
Obama into power.
(OBAMA
THIRD TERM)
WAS THE RUSSIAN
HOAX ONLY OBAMA’S ATTEMPT TO PUT ASIDE TRUMP FOR AN OBAMA THIRD TERM FOR
LIFE???
*
*
They Destroyed Our Country
“They knew Obama was an unqualified crook; yet they
promoted him. They knew Obama was a train wreck waiting to happen; yet they
made him president, to the great injury of America and the world. They
understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac, and a liar; yet they made him
king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps irreparable.)”
*
These people were engaged in a massive political conspiracy. The
Democrats made a decision from the outset—beginning with the election campaign
of the favored candidate of Wall Street and the CIA, Hillary Clinton—that they
would not oppose Trump on his anti-working-class social policy or his
authoritarian hostility to democratic rights and promotion of anti-immigrant
racism, but on issues of imperialist foreign policy.
*
“Obama’s
new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the
anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said
that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the
“resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
///
Barack Obama’s plot for a third term for life
A Muslim dictatorship like his crony paymasters, the 9-11
invading Saudis who have financed him for decades.
“Obama has the totalitarian impulse.
After all, he went around saying he didn't have Constitutional authority to
legalize the illegals, and then he tried anyway. The courts stopped him.”
*
What was
Obama’s motive? Simple, he knew if he did that for Hillary, he’d own the next
President of the United States, and could blackmail her with the truth till the
end of time. It literally would have given him a 3rd and 4th term.
///
THE OBAMA – CLINTON RUSSIAN CONNECTION
*
WITH THESE
TRAITORS, JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY!
*
How President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aided
Russia’s quest for global nuclear dominance.
///
OBAMA’S WAR ON THE JEWS
The Democrats are now
officially the party of Jew-hatred. This is largely due to the disastrous
presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. PAMELA GELLER
*
*
Abunimah’s piece -- and Obama’s numerous
anti-Semitic associations -- got little attention. Throughout his life Barack
Obama has been close friends with numerous virulent anti-Semites: Jeremiah
Wright, Bill Ayers, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi and others. PAMELA GELLER
(HARVARD –
SAUDIS)
OBAMA AND HIS SAUDIS
PAYMASTERS… Did he serve them well?
*
Michelle was the next to attend Harvard, in her case Harvard
Law School. “Told by counselors that her SAT scores and her grades weren’t good
enough for an Ivy League school,” writes Christopher Andersen in Barack and
Michelle, “Michelle applied to Princeton and Harvard anyway.”
*
Barack Obama’s back door, however, was unique to him. Before
prosecutors send some of the dimmer Hollywood stars to the slammer for their
dimness, they might want to ask just how much influence a Saudi billionaire
peddled to get Obama into Harvard.
///
CRONY CAPITALISM
Barack
Obama created more debt for the middle class than any president in US
history,
and also had the only huge QE programs: $4.2 Trillion.
OXFAM reported that during
Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created went to
the top 1% of the world’s wealthy.
GET THIS BOOK!
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs , GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special
interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting
handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small
businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics , investigative reporter
Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White
House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering
corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate
America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s OBAMANOMICS TO
SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
PATHOLOGICAL LIAR BARACK OBAMA MOCKS TRUMP
Obama orchestrated the greatest transfer of wealth to
the rich in U.S. history!
THE WALL STREET BOUGHT AND OWNED DEMOCRAT PARTY
SERVING BANKSTERS, BILLIONAIRES and INVADING ILLEGALS
THE CRONY CLASS:
Income inequality grows FOUR TIMES FASTER under
Obama than Bush.
“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election
in 1992, the Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with
the reforms of the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare
programs to provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW
MEANS OPEN BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black
capitalists, and passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three
strikes” provision that has helped create the largest prison population in the
world.”
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You
Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs , GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same
“special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are
profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers,
small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics , investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
OBAMANOMICS TO SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA AND HIS WALL STREET CRONIES (THERE'S A REASON WHY GEORGE S OROS RUNS OBAMA'S BID FOR A
THIRD TERM FOR LIFE).
///
MICHELLE OBAMA ANNOUNCES SHE WILL RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE AND
BE BARACK’S THIRD TERM FOR LIFE.
MEXICO WILL ELECT HER!
https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2019/01/michelle-obama-ill-be-baracks-third.html
The main objective of “political animals”
like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to fix a broken
America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there are people
who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at the huge
Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing that
Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people who
have brought it down.
“Of course, one of the main reasons the nation is now “divided, resentful
and angry” is because race-baiting, Islamist,
class warrior Barack Hussein Obama was president for eight
long years. MATTHEW VADUM
Editorial Reviews: Obama
Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE,
Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was
supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big
Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.
In Obamanomics , investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up
the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t
see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to
America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate
welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics. TIMOTHY P CARNEY
*
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You
Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs , GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same
“special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are
profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers,
small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics , investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
OBAMANOMICS TO SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
BARACK Hussein OBAMA: THE CLOSET MUSLIM
PSYCHOPATH WHO HATED AMERICA!
"But the Obamas are the center of the most delusional cult of
personality that the media has yet spawned. And so we get bizarre
pieces like these."
The mullahs rolled in cash as a result of rolling
Obama and his gullible team over the deal, knowing that Obama was desperate for
some sort of legacy. MONICA SHOWALTER
MUSLIM DICTATORS, INCLUDING THE 9-11 INVADING SAUDIS,
FUNDED THE PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES OF BUSH, CLINTON and OBAMA!
(FARRAKHAN MUSLIM)
ISLAMIST BARACK OBAMA
*
“Of
course, one of the main reasons the nation is now “divided, resentful and angry” is because
race-baiting, Islamist, class warrior Barack Hussein Obama was
president for eight long years." MATTHEW VADUM
*
"But the Obamas are the center of the most delusional
cult of personality that the media has yet spawned. And so we get bizarre
pieces like these." MONICA SHOWALTER
*
"Along with Obama, Pelosi and
Schumer are responsible for incalculable damage done to this country over the
eight years of that administration." PATRICIA McCARTHY
GLOBALIST BARACK OBAMA
AND NANCY PELOSI’S CONSPIRACY TO SABOTAGE HOMELAND SECURITY AND KEEP AMERICA FLOODED
WITH DEM VOTING ILLEGALS
"Along with Obama, Pelosi and
Schumer are responsible for incalculable damage done to this country over the
eight years of that administration." PATRICIA McCARTHY
One of the most disgusting things to come out of the
Obama administration was "Operation Fast and Furious," where members
of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed
illegal gun sales to go through – commonly referred to as "gun
walking" – in order to track buyers and sellers they believed were
connected to the Mexican drug cartels. Nearly 2,000 firearms were sold and were
eventually found throughout the United States and Mexico. Two of them were used
to k ill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. BETH BAUMANN
*
The Democrat Party’s secret agenda for wider open borders,
more welfare for invading illegals, more jobs and free anything they illegally
vote for…. All to destroy the two-party system and build the GLOBALISTS’
DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED.
Demonstrably and irrefutably the Democrat Party became the
party whose principle objective is to thoroughly transform the nature of the
American electorate by means of open borders and the mass, unchecked
importation of illiterate third world peasants who will vote in overwhelming
numbers for Democrats and their La Raza welfare state. FRONTPAGE MAG
(JEWISH – ANTI-SEMITICISM)
Anti-Semitic, open borders for cheaper labor and
funded by criminal banksters… and these pols are making vast fortunes sucking
the blood of America!
We must not let them cheat their way to power
over the rest of us. Their ongoing vote fraud must be stopped and
the Democrats need to take a look at themselves and at what they have become.
It's not a pretty picture. What they have become threatens to
destroy the greatest nation on the planet and they are doing it on purpose. They
have nothing but contempt for the US as founded and for those of us who love
this country. PATRICIA McCARTHY – AMERICAN THINKER
“Then we suffered
the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-,
Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the
electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of
his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no
secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was
out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world.” ALAN BERGSTEIN
“There is a deep
racist and anti-Semitic disease in the leadership of the Democrats. As Senator
Cory Booker brings his hatred for the Jewish State to the Senate, he should be
asked whether he agrees with his hero, “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist
we must take a lesson from Hitler”. DANIEL GREENFIELD
February
16, 2016
The United States at the Point of No Return
There
is an unquestioned disconnect between the vast majority of the American people
and the so-called elites or ruling class. Whenever I am in the company of
those that are members of this exclusive fraternity, and when the conversation
inevitably turns to the subject of the irascible mood of the electorate, I
offer what I consider to be a valid theory as to one of the primary reasons
why. That is: a plurality of the populace, myself included, firmly
believe the United States is approaching the point of no return to its founding
as a nation of individual freedom and opportunity, and that the 2016 election
is the most significant in 150 years insofar as determining the long term fate
of the country.
More
often than not these acquaintances react as if Chicken Little had just escaped
the asylum and was running amok claiming the sky is falling.
However, in an effort to be kind to the loon in their midst, I have been
told, as a figurative pat on the head, because of my personal background as
displaced war orphan from World War II that I am hypersensitive and what is
going on in America really isn’t as bad as I claim.
Not
as bad as I claim?
Not
since the presidential election of 1932 has the American electorate been so
mired in discontent. Despite the best efforts of the media to portray
this discontentment as limited to the Republican base, a variety of polls have
confirmed a vast majority of the populace shares this same sense of disgruntlement.
Innumerable polls taken over the past seven years are consistent in showing
nearly 7 in 10 Americans believing the nation is headed in the wrong
direction.
Further,
nearly 60% think that the next generation will be worse off than they are. And
few have any faith that the economic outlook for the country will improve in
the near or distant future.
Beginning
in the late 1980’s, the cognoscenti declared that expansive government
spending, globalization and free trade, combined with a comprehensive and
overarching regulatory regime determined to root out so-called corruption and
inequality as well as save the planet from the over blown evils of global
warming, would be the course the nation should pursue. The result of this
foolhardy and myopic scheme:
1.
In 1988 the national debt of the United States stood at $2.6
Trillion, today it is over $19.0 Trillion-- an increase of 635% (and projected
to reach $29.0 Trillion by 2026). On the other hand the debt of all the
nations on earth has grown by only 135% since 1988.
2.
Since November of 2008 the working age population has increased by
over 18 million. However, the number of those employed has increased just 5.5
million. Meanwhile those unemployed or no longer in the work force has
ballooned by 12.4 million to a staggering total of 102 million or 40.4% of the working age population .
3.
Another factor impacting on the economic health of the American
people is immigration. In 1988 there were 16 million immigrants (including
less than a million illegal aliens) living in the United States. Today
that number has skyrocketed to 42.4 million (including an
estimated 12 million illegal aliens). This enormous increase (165%) in
the immigrant population has not only put pressure on a stagnant job market but
it has also been a major factor in the decline of median income in the country.
4.
The upshot of all the above is that since 1988 the income of the
top 5% has risen 39.3% (adjusted for inflation) and the income of the bottom 50% has fallen by 1.9% .
5.
Since 2008 the Obama cabal has added
over 18,000 pages to the Code of Federal Regulations. It is estimated that
complying with federal regulations costs the economy nearly $2 Trillion per
year and is, along with taxes and innumerable mandates, one of the principle
reasons for the lack of new business start-ups and loss of jobs to other
countries.
One
of the primary hallmarks of the United States had been that of a classless
society wherein economic factors allowed the citizenry to take advantage of the
marketplace in order to move up or down based on their efforts and willingness
to work. However, this scenario is disappearing as the opportunities for
upward mobility cease to exist. In its place a class driven society,
similar to all other quasi-socialist nations past and present, is now becoming
inevitable as even the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits that the level of
Americans working and in the labor force will continue to decrease over the next 8 years.
Another
of the primary factors in the decline of the United States is that the nation’s
elites, rather than view education as the means for the people to attain
success in a competitive world, have recast it into a vehicle for their pet
theories and political views. Whether it is the promulgation of faux
self-esteem, the obsession with the so-called evils of capitalism and the
nation’s past, and the theoretical joys of socialism among other inane
curricula, the education establishment has assured that the American people are
rapidly becoming among the least well-educated populations in the world.
In
2013 American 15 year olds ranked 32nd among
industrialized countries in math, 20th in reading and 24th in
science. In 1988 this same age group ranked among the top 5-10 nations in
the world in these same categories. Further, recent polls have indicated that
as a byproduct of the radicalized education establishment, nearly 7 out of 10 between the ages of
18 and 29 would vote for an avowed socialist. Thus it is clear that the
future of the country is on very shaky ground.
As
for the issue of freedom: in a recent analysis it was determined that the
United States now ranks 12th among the nations of the world in
economic freedom (6th in 2008) but a dismal 31st in
personal freedom (17th in 2008). The authors of the study commented:
The
decline reflects the long-term drop in every category of economic freedom and
its rule of law indicators. The US performance is worrisome and shows that the
US can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world.
In addition to the expansion of the regulatory state and drop in economic
freedom, the war on terror, the war on drugs and the erosion of property rights
due to a greater use of eminent domain all likely contributed to the US
decline.
Using
the cudgel of the mainstream media, the entertainment complex and the education
establishment, the Left and its surrogate, the Democratic Party, have
successfully inculcated into a plurality of the American people a belief that
there are no moral absolutes and that the state can grant any rights that it so
chooses to whomever it chooses. Further, the nation’s founding documents
are arcane, racially insensitive, and unsuitable for today. Thus
religious liberty, property rights and freedom of speech are under aggressive
assault. The Judiciary is now almost under the complete control of these
same statists, and with the death of Justice Scalia the last line of defense,
the Supreme Court, is in peril.
The
vast majority of the American people sense that the future of the nation and
that of their progeny is in serious jeopardy. However, one of the most
troubling aspects of the current unease and angst among the general public is
what this portends: when anger and frustration evolve into deep seated passion,
reason is too often a casualty. As Thomas Sowell recently wrote:
Too
many nations, in desperate times, especially after the authorities have
discredited themselves and forfeited the trust of the people, have turned to
some new and charismatic leader, who ended up turning a dire situation into an
utter catastrophe,
This
has been true throughout history whether in England in the 1650’s, France in
the 1790’s, or Russia, Italy and Germany in the 20th century.
In
the current campaign for the next president, there are candidates attempting to
tap into the ire of the citizenry by either promising that a purer form of
socialism will magically solve the problems or by claiming that they, by sheer
force of their will and personality, will part the seas and save the
nation. Unfortunately, due to the ill-education of the populace as well
as their angst, far too many seeds of this demagoguery are falling on fertile
ground. The election of any of these candidates will only exacerbate and
make permanent the nations woes.
So
to my ruling class friends safely ensconced in Washington, New York and other
enclaves among the like-minded and wealthy, this nation is at the point of no
return to the country of freedom and opportunity that allowed you to be where
you are. The folks in fly-over country know it and so should you.
*
AMERICA AT THE POINT OF NO RETURN
THE LEGACY OF CORRUPTION OF BARACK OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON
Inequality, class and life expectancy in America
15 February
2016
A study by Brookings
Institution economists released Friday documents a sharp increase in life span
divergences between the rich and the poor in America. The report, based on an
analysis of Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data, concludes
that for men born in 1950, the gap in life expectancy between the top 10
percent of wage earners and the bottom 10 percent is more than double the gap
for their counterparts born in 1920.
For those born in 1920, there was a six-year differential between rich and poor.
For those born in 1950, that difference had reached 14 years. For women, the
gap grew from 4.7 years to 13 years, almost tripling.
Overall, life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent improved by just 3 percent
for men born in 1950 over those born in 1920. For the top 10 percent, it soared
by about 28 percent.
Life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent of male wage earners born in 1950
rose by less than one year compared to that for male workers born 40 years
earlier—to 73.6 from 72.9. But for the top 10 percent, life expectancy leapt to
87.2 from 79.1.
The United States ranks among the worst so-called rich countries when it comes
to life expectancy. But its low ranking is entirely due to the poor health and
high mortality of low-income Americans. According to the Social Security
Administration, life expectancy for the wealthiest US men at age 60 was just
below the rates for Iceland and Japan, two countries with the highest levels.
Americans in the bottom quarter of the wage scale, on the other hand, ranked
just above Poland and the Czech Republic.
Life-expectancy is the most basic indicator of social well-being. The minimal
increase for low-income workers and the widening disparity between the poor and
the rich is a stark commentary on the immense growth of social inequality and
class polarization in the United States. It underscores the fact that
socioeconomic class is the fundamental category of social life under
capitalism—one that conditions every aspect of life, including its length.
The Brookings Institution findings shed further light on the catastrophic
decline in the social position of the American working class. They follow
recent reports showing a sharp rise in death rates for both young and
middle-aged white workers, primarily due to drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide.
Other recent reports have shown a dramatic decline in life expectancy for
poorer middle-aged Americans and a reversal of decades of declining infant
mortality.
It is no mystery what is behind this vast social retrogression. It is the
product of the decay of American capitalism and a four-decade-long offensive by
the ruling elite against the working class. From Reagan to the Obama
administration, Democrats and Republicans alike have overseen a
corporate-government assault on the jobs, wages, pensions and health benefits
of working people.
The ruling elite has dismantled the bulk of the country’s industrial
infrastructure, destroying decent-paying jobs by the millions, and turned to
the most parasitic and criminal forms of financial speculation as the main
source of its profit and private wealth. Untold trillions have been squandered
to finance perpetual war and the maniacal self-enrichment of the top 1 percent
and 0.1 percent.
The basic infrastructure of the country has been starved of funds and left to
rot, to the point where uncounted millions of people are being poisoned with
lead and other toxins from corroded water systems. Flint, Michigan is just the
tip of the iceberg.
Under Obama, this social counterrevolution has been intensified. The financial
meltdown of 2008 has been utilized by the same forces that precipitated the
crash to carry through a reordering of social relations aimed at reversing
every social gain won by the working class in the course of a century of
struggle. A central target of the attack is health care for working people.
Obamacare is the spearhead of a worked-out strategy to reduce the quantity and
quality of health care available to workers and reorganize the health care
system directly on a class basis. Corporate and government costs are to be
slashed by gutting employer-paid health care, forcing workers individually to
buy expensive, bare-bones plans from the insurance monopolies, and rationing
drugs, tests and medical procedures to make them inaccessible to workers.
The rise in mortality for workers and the widening of the life span gap between
rich and poor are not simply the outcome of impersonal economic forces. In
corporate boardrooms, think tanks and state agencies, the ruling class is
working to lower working class life expectancy. In late 2013, the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank with the closest
ties to the Pentagon and the CIA, published two policy papers decrying the
“waste” of money on health care for the elderly. The clear message was that
ordinary people were living much too long and diverting resources needed by the
military to wage war around the world.
The social and economic chasm in America finds a political expression in the
vast disconnect between the entire political establishment and the masses of
working people. Neither party nor any of their presidential candidates, the
self-described “socialist” Bernie Sanders included, can seriously address the
real state of social conditions or offer a serious program to address the
crisis.
In his final State of the Union Address last month, Obama presented an absurd
picture of a resurgent economy. “The United States of America, right now,” he
declared, “has the strongest, most durable economy in the world… Anyone
claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and
Sanders are seeking to outdo one another in seizing the mantle of the Obama
administration and praising its supposed social and economic achievements.
They cannot address the real conditions facing the masses of working people
because they defend the capitalist system, which is the source of the social
disaster. The remedy must be based on an understanding of the disease. It is
the building of an independent socialist and revolutionary movement uniting the
entire working class, in the US and around the world.
Barry Grey
February 13, 2016
More 'legacy lies' from
outgoing Obama on economy
Here is what President
Obama said on the Ellen show on Abe Lincoln's birthday:
Since I came into office,
we reduced the deficit by two-thirds, but if you ask the average person,
they're sure that spending has shot up. And the reason is because there are a
bunch of folks who say that we're wildly overspending, even though we aren't.
Here are some actual
numbers: in FY 2007, the last year President Bush and Republicans had 100%
control of Congress, federal spending including both wars was $2.7 trillion.
The budget President Obama just submitted is $4.1 trillion. That is
up over 50% despite record-low interest rates and his continually bragging that
he has ended the wars. Median family income around the country is
actually down or flat, so I do not understand how the president could pretend
that they aren't overspending and taxing.
The deficit
was down to $161 billion in FY 2007, including the spending on the wars and
because of President Bush's across-the-board tax cuts in the summer of 2003.
In FY 2003, federal income tax receipts had decreased to around $900
billion prior to the tax cuts, due to a recession and a collapsed stock market.
By FY 2007, due to the stimulus of the tax cuts, the economy rebounded,
economic growth was substantial, unemployment was way down (not because of a
lower labor participation rate), and income tax receipts had climbed to over $1.5
trillion. The tax rate cuts did not cause receipts to go down, as
Democrats and CBO had projected; they actually skyrocketed by over 60%.
The tax cuts obviously did not cause the deficit.
The
projected deficit for FY 2016 is projected to be over $500 billion. Think
how high it would be if the Federal Reserve weren't keeping the interest rates
artificially low.
Despite the
record-low interest rates and massive increases in federal spending, economic
growth has been some of the slowest on record after a recession.
Keynesian economics is obviously not that stimulating.
The
president also continually says that his policies brought us out
of the great recession. The recession actually ended by June 2009,
four months and ten days after he took office. This is obviously before
any of his policies could have had any effect.
On February
10, in Springfield, Illinois, he gave a speech where he said his opponents are
not entitled to their own facts. It would be nice if he paid attention to
that lecture, and it would be great if the media would call him out on his many
false statements.
February 2, 2016
The ‘Right Stuff’ for the
Presidency
By Jon N. Hall
An old joke
I heard during my brief time in the opera business went something like this:
There are four types of tenors: leggiero, lyric, spinto, and heldentenor. The
leggiero tenor has no balls. The lyric tenor has one ball. The spinto tenor has
two balls. And the heldentenor has two balls, and he’s standing on one of them.
The joke might be funny
only to opera goers, especially those who attend the Bayreuth Festival. But
allow me to add that the recently-departed Canadian heldentenor Jon Vickers had
three or four balls and never needed to stand on any of them. (As you might
guess, I’m a fan of that late, great singer.)
In any
event, balls bring us to Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the U.K.
Some might think it rude to say that the “Iron Lady” had more balls than the
men of her day leading other European nations -- rude, that is, to Lady
Thatcher, who was every inch a woman. However, it could be said that compared
to some of her male counterparts, Mrs. Thatcher certainly had no fewer balls.
What is
meant by “balls” is: guts, grit, courage, will, determination, and resolve. But
those attributes can also work in the service of evil; Hitler certainly had
“will,” didn’t he? So there must be other qualities that are needed in the
leader of a nation besides balls. Just what are those other qualities that make
a person fit to be the prime minister or the president of a great nation?
At a recent
rally in New Hampshire, former president Clinton spoke of his wife Hillary: “I
spent a lot of time thinking about this. I do not believe in my lifetime
anybody has run for this job at a moment of great importance who was better
qualified by knowledge, experience, and temperament to do what
needs to be done now to restore prosperity, to deal with these human issues, to
make us as safe as possible. Thank you very much [ short video ].”
Okay, but
why believe him? After all, the former president has a record of lying, even
under oath in a grand jury. Perhaps Bill’s just trying to get himself back in
the White House. And I’d like to remind the former president that he was alive
in 1946. So his “lifetime” includes the runs for president of Truman,
Eisenhower, JFK, and Reagan. Hillary’s more qualified than those guys? C’mon,
Bill.
“ Going the Distance ,” a January 2014 article
in The New Yorker , is often cited for Pres. Obama’s reference to
ISIS as a junior varsity basketball team: “The analogy we use around here
sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms
that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” (And getting elected president doesn’t
mean one is fit to be president, Mr. President.)
Another
Obama quote from that same article is germane to our issue of what are the
essentials, the “right stuff,” for being president: “I have strengths and I
have weaknesses, like every president, like every person. I do think one of my
strengths is temperament.”
Is that a
fact? Does Obama have the correct temperament for the presidency? When Bill
Clinton spoke in New Hampshire about his wife, he stressed the word
“temperament.” So, what exactly is the ideal presidential
temperament ?
One
important aspect of temperament is the ability and willingness to be collegial.
“ Collegiality ” involves respecting
one’s colleagues and listening to their ideas; it involves being open to
others’ input. So many of the monumental achievements of the modern age, like
going to the Moon, were massive collegial efforts, where folks pool their
knowledge and expertise. Together, we’re smarter.
Barack Obama
demonstrated a lack of collegiality at the Healthcare Summit in 2010. Senator
McCain had just presented a very respectful call to revisit certain issues in
the healthcare legislation that would become ObamaCare, and finished his
comments saying, “I thank you, Mr. President.” Obama responded thus: “Let me
just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore; the election’s
over.” Some might have wished that McCain had responded in kind: Yes, Barry, I
know, and I can’t explain the electorate’s bad judgment.
Fortunately,
Sen. McCain was a gentleman and refrained from payback. Had he done so, it
would have further poisoned the summit, (and he would have lowered himself to
Obama’s level). There was nothing in Sen. McCain’s comments that was
unreasonable, but the president couldn’t resist putting McCain in his place.
What would possess someone to be so rude to a genuine American patriot? Was it
that Sen. McCain wouldn’t let Obama cut him off: “Can I just finish, please?”
Maybe that ticked off our little princeling. (You can watch McCain’s entire
presentation by starting at the 2:21:10 mark of this C-SPAN video , or you can watch just the end , or this split-screen version positioned at Obama’s snark .)
Throughout
his presidency, Obama has demonstrated a singular deficiency at collegiality.
When Obama encounters questions he doesn’t like, he tries to shut down the
questioner and end the discussion. When asked if the healthcare bill’s “individual
mandate” were actually a tax, Obama would have none of it, and laughed at his
questioner dismissively. Obama’s belief in his own pet ideas is so absolute
that he is even comfortable overriding the best advice of his generals. Obama
seems not to have an ability to work with others; it’s all “my way or the
highway.” But there’s no need for collegiality if you already know everything.
In “ The Confident Ignorance
of Barack Obama ,” Thomas Sowell writes:
As Professor Richard
Epstein of the University of Chicago Law School has pointed out, Obama
made no effort to take part in the marketplace of ideas with other
faculty members when he was teaching a law course there. What would be the
point, if he already knew the truth and knew that they were wrong? [Italics
added.]
The main objective of
“political animals” like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to
fix a broken America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there
are people who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at
the huge Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing
that Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people
who have brought it down.
America is
so beaten up and broken right now that she needs a “savior,” like a Lincoln. If
Obama doesn’t do the right thing and proceed with an indictment of Mrs.
Clinton, then Republicans should “ fight fire with oil ” and nominate a woman.
And they should also insist on a minority for running mate. Just to be sure,
they probably ought to do those two things anyway. Carly Fiorina might just
have the right temperament to be president, but there are other terrific
conservative women that convention delegates could draft.
America
needs a collegial president, not a “lyrical” one.
House Appropriations Boss Initiates
Crackdown on Sanctuaries
Today the chairman of the
House appropriations subcommittee in charge of funding the Department of
Justice, John Culberson (R-Texas), put the Obama administration on notice that
it must take steps to rein in sanctuary jurisdictions or risk problems getting
approval for its own budget requests. In addition, Culberson announced that he
will begin requiring local jurisdictions to follow federal law and stop
obstructing communication with immigration agencies as a condition for
receiving certain federal law enforcement funding.
BLOG: LIKE ALL OF OBAMA'S CABINET, ONE MUST FIRST BE CONNECTED
TO THE BANKSTER SECTOR AND SECONDLY BE AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS, SABOTAGE
E-VERIFY AND PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF LA RAZA ABOVE LEGALS. THAT IS EXACTLY
WHAT LORETTA LYNCH HAS AND WILL DO.
In a sternly
worded letter to
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Culberson said that he has a responsibility to
ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies are following federal law
before they can get federal grants. He said that sanctuary policies restricting
communication between local and federal officials are a clear violation
of Section
1373 of
the Immigration and Nationality Act. Among the jurisdictions that have imposed
such policies are San Francisco, Cook County, Ill., and New York City. In
addition to prohibiting local officers from communicating with immigration authorities,
these jurisdictions bar federal officers from coming into jails to interview or
arrest deportable criminals.
State and local sanctuary policies obstruct immigration
enforcement and cause the release of criminal aliens back to the streets of
American communities. According to ICE records that the Center obtained in a
FOIA request, in 2014 more than 9,000 criminal aliens that ICE was seeking to
deport were instead released. More than 2,300 of these criminal aliens went on
to commit additional crimes within just a few months.
The three law enforcement funding programs that could become off-limits to
sanctuaries currently dispense more than $1 billion a year to state and local
agencies.
Mr. Culberson contacted the Center shortly after the publication of this information in July, saying that
he had long sought concrete information on the extent of this problem and that
he was determined to use his authority to address it. The Center has compiled a
list of over 300 cities, counties, and states that have laws, ordinances,
regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that protect criminal
aliens from deportation — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from
complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer
acceptance, or otherwise impeding open communication and information exchanges
between their employees or officers and federal immigration officers. These
jurisdictions are noted
on a map here .
Culberson's letter outlines several steps he expects the Justice Department to
take:
1.
Beginning this year, amend the grant application forms for the
Byrne/Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS) grants, and State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)
reimbursement program to require agencies seeking these funds to swear that
they do not have policies that violate Section 1373; and
2.
Work with sanctuary jurisdictions to change their policies, and
if they do not, take legal action to compel their compliance with federal law;
3.
Deny funding to any non-compliant sanctuary jurisdictions.
In addition, he
asks the attorney general to look at whether jurisdictions that release
criminal aliens sought by ICE are in violation of 8 USC 1324 , the federal felony statute
that prohibits anyone from shielding illegal aliens from detection. After all,
these jurisdictions have been notified in writing by the detainers (federal
Form I-247) that the aliens' identities and status have been confirmed by
biometric fingerprint matching, and that federal agents wish to take custody of
the aliens, and/or to be notified of the date, time, and place of release — so
the sanctuaries are knowingly releasing deportable aliens sought by ICE. He
said that he will consider applying this section of the law next year to block
funding to jurisdictions that release criminal aliens sought by ICE. This
action could affect the hundreds of agencies that fail to comply with or accept
ICE detainers, for example.
Culberson warned that if the administration stubbornly continues to tolerate
sanctuaries, he will find it hard to look favorably on any spending requests
from DOJ in the coming appropriations season: "I hope the attorney general
will do the right thing here so that I am not compelled to object to relevant
portions of the Department's spending plan and reprogramming requests. Any
refusal by the Department to comply with these reasonable and timely requests
will factor heavily in my consideration of their 2017 budget requests."
Even following public outcry over a series of cases of murders committed by
criminal aliens after release by sanctuaries, including the killing of Kate
Steinle in San Francisco, the Obama administration has resisted calls for
action to discourage or punish the jurisdictions that obstruct immigration
enforcement. Instead, it has pressed ahead in implementing the so-called
Priority Enforcement Program, which explicitly allows sanctuary policies that
violate federal law. It's clear that the administration is more interested in
protecting criminal aliens than in protecting the public from their acts; now
we'll see if the Department of Justice is willing to jeopardize its own funding
to spare sanctuaries from being sanctioned, and if the sanctuaries are willing
to sacrifice federal funding in order to protect criminal aliens.
Surge in Illegal Aliens,
500% Increase in Some U.S. Ports of Entry
Judicial Watch
Corruption Chronicles, December 30, 2015
The agency’s own statistics certainly contradict that, showing
that the southern border region is as porous and vulnerable as ever. Other
entry ports that saw large hikes in Central American illegal immigrants during
the first two months of this fiscal year include Del Rio, Texas (269%), El
Centro, California (216%) and Rio Grande Valley, Texas (154%). The Border
Patrol breaks the stats down by “family unit” and illegal immigrants under the
age of 18, referred to as “Unaccompanied Alien Children” or UAC. The Rio Grande
Valley port of entry topped the list in both categories with 8,537 family units
and 6,465 UACs during the two-month period. In all, the nation’s nine southern
border crossings saw an average of 173% increase in family units and a 106%
increase in minors during the short period considered.
Some of the illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals, but the overwhelming
majority comes from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The government records
show that somehow 4,450 family units from El Salvador evaded our topnotch
border security and entered the United States in a period of only two months.
Guatemala and Honduras had 3,934 and 3,203 respectively. Mexico had 538 family
units. Of interesting note is that, during this period, the Border Patrol
reports 35,234 apprehensions in the region of foreigners labeled by the
government as “Other Than Mexican” or OTM. This is a term used by federal authorities
to refer to nationals of countries that represent a terrorist threat to the
U.S.
. . .
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/12/surge-in-illegal-aliens-500-increase-in-some-u-s-ports-of-entry/
Houston Slayings Fueled
Border Security Debate
·
Jan. 31, 2016
Dan Golvach, father of Spencer Golvach, at his son's grave in Houston
Tuesday, October 20, 2015.
The Texas Tribune is taking a
yearlong look at the issues of border security and immigration, reporting on
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alerts.
HOUSTON — Julie Golvach remembers that something felt “off” the
night she lost her only child.
It was exactly one year ago today, a few minutes before 1 a.m. Standing in the
driveway of her Houston home, waving goodbye to her sister under a clear winter
sky, something didn't feel right. The stars didn’t look the same.
Golvach tossed and turned in bed for a while but was sound asleep when a knock
on the door came at 6 a.m.
“I jumped up and I knew,” she said.
She stopped by her son’s boyhood bedroom, the one with the window looking out
onto the driveway. He’d slept there a week earlier, the evening they went to
see "American Sniper" together. She slipped past the picture of him
and his best childhood friend on the wall, skirting the bed with the stuffed
toy lamb — a baby shower relic — lying on top.
Out the window, Golvach saw three people — two uniformed police officers and a
woman wearing a shirt that read “chaplain.” Her chest pounded as she made her
way to the front door and opened it.
“Is it Spencer?” she asked.
The second those words tumbled out of her mouth, she knew the answer, just as
she had known when she uttered that exact phrase the day he was born, before
anyone told her if the baby was a boy or a girl. She just knew.
It was Spencer.
One night off
Spencer Golvach grew up in the sprawl of northwest Houston, surrounded by
guitars and destined for a career in music, his father’s passion.
When he turned 16 in 2005 and got his driver’s license, the easygoing musician
started working at a local guitar store in a strip mall not far from Jersey
Village High School, where he excelled in shop class and anything he could do
with his hands.
He had always fiddled with his dad’s guitars, and he developed a knack for
fixing and rebuilding them at the store. A few years later, when the shop owner
announced his retirement, Spencer decided to buy the Cy-Fair area business.
Enlarge Photo courtesy of Golvach family
Spencer Golvach, at the age of three, pictured with a guitar.
Authorities say Golvach was killed by Victor Reyes, an undocumented immigrant,
during a random shooting spree in January 2015 .
With nine employees and a soft economy, life as an entrepreneur
proved tough sledding. He struggled to turn a profit, and he took a second
full-time job as a receiving lead and forklift operator at a local warehouse.
Even that wasn’t enough to cover the bills. By early 2015, Spencer was
preparing to move into a smaller — and cheaper — space in the same shopping
mall. He could hardly wait for Saturday, Jan. 31 to arrive, the day the
slimmed-down version of Spencer’s Guitar Shop was set to open. Between giving
guitar lessons, working an 8-to-5 day job, building out the new store and
playing bass in his band — The Dead Revolt — Spencer needed a break.
“The guy was burning the candle at both ends for a long time,” recalled Dan
Golvach, his father. “He takes one night off, to go take his girlfriend out for
her birthday. That was Jan. 30. And he drops her off ... and 15 minutes later
he pulls up to that red light.”
Less than a mile from his apartment, Spencer steered into the left turn lane at
18th Street and Mangum Road and waited for the green light. The details of what
happened next are captured in the records of two police agencies, more than a
dozen news articles and the unceasing nightmares of Spencer’s parents and loved
ones.
An undocumented Mexican national named Victor Reyes, a native of Reynosa along
the Texas-Mexico border, pulled up next to Spencer's beloved white Toyota
pickup. He pointed a pistol at Spencer’s head and pulled the trigger.
The bullet went through the passenger side window and into Spencer’s skull, at
the top of his right ear.
“I choose to believe it killed him instantly,” his father said in an interview
months later. “I think he was just there and then it’s like someone turned the
lights off. I don’t think he suffered.”
But the Golvach family’s suffering — compounded by the feeling that Spencer’s
death could have been prevented — was just beginning.
Houston police, their report indicates, found 25-year-old Spencer dead in his
truck at 12:56 a.m. — right around the moment Julie Golvach, waving goodbye to
her sister, couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
A few hours later, she was phoning her ex-husband to break the news.
“I couldn’t make out
what she was saying and I finally just said, ‘is my son dead?’” — Dan Golvach
“She was just inconsolable,”
he recalled. “I couldn’t make out what she was saying and I finally just said,
‘is my son dead?’ She said, ‘yes.’ Then of course I started. I joined the
chorus.”
More than a thousand people attended Spencer’s memorial service, a tribute to
his fun-loving nature and penchant for making friends across generational,
ethnic and gender lines.
Those who knew Spencer universally describe him as fun-loving and strikingly
calm. After he died, a family friend ordered up a batch of commemorative rubber
bracelets emblazoned with his laid-back motto: “Chill Don’t Freeze."
A bloody rampage
More than once since the funeral, Julie Golvach has found herself wishing that
her son’s attacker had gotten to know Spencer. She’s convinced he never would
have pulled the trigger. But the official evidence of the crime, while scant,
suggests Spencer was chosen randomly. And he wasn’t the only victim.
Police say Reyes shot a man in the face, wounding him, in the suburban city of
Jersey Village minutes before killing Spencer, and they connected him to at
least two more random shootings shortly thereafter. All told, Reyes shot two
dead and wounded three others before a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy took him
down after a violent shootout, officials say.
John Weston, 67, says he’s lucky to be alive after encountering Reyes on the
Hempstead Highway near Pinemont, about 10 minutes north of where Spencer had
just been killed. He remembers seeing a big, dark truck driving aggressively
behind him. When he got to the stoplight, it pulled up alongside him.
“All of a sudden I hear this ungodly noise,” Weston recalled. “I don’t know if
you can imagine how fast your mind works, but I saw a shattered window and I
saw a bullet hole in my window. My mind is thinking, ‘Oh my goodness,
somebody’s shooting at me and this guy at this light.’”
He pressed his foot to the accelerator to get out of the line of fire, but not
soon enough. He heard the second shot, and its impact felt like someone “hauled
off and hit you upside the head,” he said.
Weston realized the truck's driver was the gunman. “I saw blood everywhere,” he
said. His hands were covered in it, so he could only manage to re-dial on his
cell phone. He finally reached his wife, who told him to go to the nearest toll
booth. An ambulance was called. Doctors found that a bullet had entered his
left cheek and stuck in the other side of his mouth.
A year later, after reconstructive surgery to replace a badly shattered jaw,
his mouth remains completely numb below the tongue. With his health woes and
lost time at work, he’s struggling to keep his printing business afloat.
“Everything I do now is a little more difficult, but considering I’m here
talking, I’m blessed to be here,” Weston said. “It’s scarred me forever. I
don’t break down and cry, but I think about it all the time.”
Had Reyes been a homegrown criminal, the story might have ended in the empty
field where the deputy shot him — chalked up as another random act of violence
in a city and nation all too used to them.
But as word spread about Reyes’ long criminal record and multiple deportations,
the case was thrust into the volatile debate over illegal immigration and
control of the southern border: first in local news stories, then at the
Capitol in Austin and most recently on the presidential campaign trail — on
a stage in mid-November with GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Beaumont,
where Dan Golvach spoke out and held up a poster of Spencer along with others
killed by undocumented immigrants.
Gunman's long record
According to the Houston office of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, Reyes had been removed from the country four times between 2003
and 2010, but little is publicly known about what he was doing in Houston prior
to terrorizing its northwest environs — or why he did it.
His criminal and illegal entry records stretch back at least to
2002 when, at age 18, he was convicted of burglarizing a building in Hidalgo
County, across the border from Reynosa, which he told police was his place of
birth. He spent a month and a half in jail before a state court sentenced him
to three years' probation, ordered him to pay an $850 fine and mandated 120
hours of community service.
Enlarge Photo courtesy of Hidalgo County
Victor Reyes,
shown in 2001 jail mug shot from Hidalgo County. Authorities say Reyes, an
undocumented immigrant, went on a January 2015 shooting spree in Harris County
that killed two and wounded three .
A year later, he
was back in the Hidalgo County Jail for breaking a beer bottle over a man’s
head at the Tejano Saloon in Pharr. He was sent back to Mexico after serving
about a month in the local jail, but he came back. By then, his previous
probation had been revoked, and he served several months in a state jail in
Raymondville.
Deported again on Jan. 20, 2004, Reyes was caught trying to cross
the border the next day, triggering a 90-day sentence in federal prison and yet
another deportation — his third.
A few months later, on Aug. 10, he was caught again, in McAllen,
and received a one-year federal prison sentence for his fourth known illegal
re-entry. His crimes didn’t end there. A few weeks before his prison release
date, Reyes beat up a fellow inmate — described by his lawyer as a rival gang
member — cutting and fracturing his face, according to federal court records.
Two new assault charges made Reyes eligible for 20 years behind
bars. Despite his history of violence, burglary and repeat illegal crossings,
federal prosecutors offered Reyes a deal: In exchange for a guilty plea on one
of the counts, and in recognition of his “truthful testimony” and “acceptance
of responsibility,” they promised to give him a sentence “at the lowest end of
the applicable guidelines” on a single charge, court papers show. Under the
plea bargain, Reyes' sentence was 63 months, a quarter of the maximum he faced
under the two counts.
That’s a few more spoonfuls of salt in the wound for Dan and Julie
Golvach. Had Reyes been given even half of his possible sentence on the two
assault counts, he would have been in prison instead of at that traffic light
killing their son.
“The people who agreed to this deal need to be held accountable,” Julie Golvach
said. “The result was the horrific murder of my son.”
The prosecutor who signed the plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim
Hammer, declined to talk about the case, referring questions to U.S. Justice
Department spokeswoman Angela Dodge in Houston.
Dodge sent The Texas Tribune a boilerplate description of plea deals, saying
they “ensure a resolution of the case and that someone is convicted of the
crime(s) we believe they committed without going through the time and expense
of a trial,” while providing “justice for all.” She declined to say whether
prosecutors took Reyes' previous crimes into account, or if they frequently
offer plea deals to convicted criminals who commit additional crimes behind
bars.
It’s another official secret in a case with no shortage of them.
Family still seeking answers
The Houston Police Department, using its own discretion under the Public
Information Act, blocked release of all but a few details on the Golvach and
Weston shootings. The department cited a provision allowing it to withhold
criminal records absent a final disposition, such as a conviction or deferred
adjudication. Since Reyes is dead and the city’s case is otherwise closed, that
means Houston police likely can withhold the information indefinitely.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office declined to release its investigative files,
but for an entirely different reason: After every officer-involved shooting —
in this case, a deputy ended Reyes’ deadly rampage — the Harris County district
attorney’s office presents the case to a grand jury even if no one complains.
That happened last week, just days before the one-year anniversary of the
shooting spree.
The federal government holds onto its files with a tight grip, too, citing
the 1974 U.S. Privacy Act. The act covers only U.S. citizens and lawful
permanent residents, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decreed that its
protections apply to federal immigration detention records, even those related
to undocumented immigrants convicted of horrific crimes. The agency voluntarily
released a narrative of its multiple encounters with Reyes, but the Tribune has
not yet heard back from ICE or U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services on
its written request for his entire immigration file.
The secrecy across local and federal agencies that came into contact with Reyes
confounded and frustrated the people touched by his violence. Weston said his
wife became “very disillusioned” about their quest for even the simplest
answers.
Dan Golvach, father of Spencer Golvach, in Houston Tuesday,
October 20, 2015 at the intersection where his son was killed by an
undocumented immigrant in January.
“I mean, we asked them, ‘Who was the guy?’” Weston said. “We had
to fill out paperwork and all that kind of stuff, but we never got any
satisfactory answer. It was almost like it was top secret information.”
Hoping to break through the bureaucratic walls and get some answers about who
killed their son and why, the Golvaches eventually hired a former investigative
reporter, ex-KTRK-TV newsman Wayne Dolcefino. In a letter last year to
then-Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Dolcefino said the sheriff’s office
was “doing a disservice to this crime victim by not responding to this request
in a proper manner.” The local investigative files remained sealed as of late
last week, but the Harris County Sheriff's Office asked the Tribune to resubmit
its request for the records and promised a quick turnaround.
Even with new information beginning to trickle out, the victims and their
families still don't know where Reyes lived or if he had a job, who owned the
truck he was driving that night or — least of all — the motive for his deadly
rampage.
According to Harris County Assistant District Attorney Heyward Carter, some
elements of the senseless crime may never be known.
Carter, who handled a single aspect of the case — the officer-involved shooting
— was able to speak about the case for the first time last week. He revealed
that Reyes was "extremely intoxicated" and had a "significant
amount of cocaine" in his system. He also identified the weapon, a .380
caliber pistol, that he said was legally purchased at one point, but
authorities haven't determined how a convicted felon and undocumented
immigrant, barred from buying or possessing firearms, obtained it.
“We live in an age of mass shootings,
and even though this one didn’t get a whole lot of publicity, that’s what this
is."
— Heyward Carter, Harris County Assistant District Attorney
Carter also provided details
about the actions of the Harris County deputy sheriff, Javier Rojas, who
finally put an end to the deadly rampage. By chance, Rojas was patrolling the
area and heard shots being fired. He saw the truck of Reyes' final victim,
identified by police as Juan Garcia, in obvious distress, weaving randomly at
an intersection. Garcia later died from his wounds, and a woman in the car with
him was slightly injured from the broken glass.
Rojas chased after Reyes, who crashed his truck through a barrier at the end of
a dead end street and went another 200 yards or so into an empty field. Rojas
continued the pursuit on foot and found Reyes crouching behind the truck. He
ordered the suspect to drop his weapon but Reyes stood and fired at the officer
instead. Rojas returned fire and struck him in the chest. When authorities
photographed the body his hand was still gripping the pistol "with his
finger on the trigger," Carter said.
In terms of a motive, authorities can only speculate based on a conversation
Reyes had with a supposed girlfriend about three hours before the shooting
spree began. He wanted her to go out to a bar or nightclub with him, and she
turned him down. Authorities speculate he may have been taking out his rage on
couples: It's possible he saw Spencer Golvach dropping off his girlfriend
shortly before shooting him at the red light and then targeted Garcia after
seeing he had a woman in his vehicle.
But it's just a theory.
“We live in an age of mass shootings, and even though this one didn’t get a
whole lot of publicity, that’s what this is," Carter said. "I don’t
understand why he was doing it.”
Carter did confirm what the families had learned from detectives in the
immediate aftermath of the shootings: Reyes still had plenty of ammunition left
in his truck — suggesting that he was planning a more extensive shooting spree.
There were at least 20 live rounds left in the vehicle, and he appeared to be
reloading while driving near the scene of his final attack.
“Had this officer not been there just coincidentally ... there were plenty of
roads for him to go down. He had plenty of ammo, and it didn't seem like he was
stopping, that's for sure," Carter said. "As horrible as this
situation was, it could have been way worse.”
After the facts were presented to grand jury last Wednesday, the panel decided
not to proceed with any further action related to the incident. The Golvach
family calls Rojas' response heroic.
"Why was he allowed to be here?"
Julie Golvach burst out into tears again last week after hearing for the first
time some of the details of the crime that took her son's life.
“I really feel I deserve to know what brought them together at that point in
time, what caused him to shoot my son,” she said. “I think we deserve to know
why he was even here — why he was allowed to be here.”
It’s a common refrain among those who have been victimized by people in the
country illegally. They weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, and the
government's inability to keep them from crossing the southern border after
they’ve been deported — and prevent them from committing crimes — provokes a
unique brand of helplessness and outrage.
Even Weston, a lifelong Democrat who attended both of Barack Obama’s
inaugurations and favors allowing otherwise law-abiding immigrants into the
United States to work and seek a better life, said he had to fight the urge to
call Donald Trump and tell him he was “dead-on” with his focus on foreigners
who commit crimes here.
“Somebody’s got to do something about it,” he said. In the same breath, Weston
emphasized that he doesn’t support Trump for president and said keeping
dangerous felons from crossing the border or entering the vast illegal
workforce defied simplistic solutions.
“If there’s some way to filter out the ones that intend to harm people, I would
be in support of that,” he said. “It may prevent something like this from
happening to somebody else.”
Dan Golvach is more blunt and outspoken. A few weeks after his son’s murder, he
was at the state Capitol testifying in favor of 2015 state legislation —
ultimately doomed — that would have prohibited local law enforcement
authorities in Texas from adopting “sanctuary” policies that keep police out of
immigration matters.
Then late last year, he appeared with Trump at a campaign rally in Beaumont,
saying his son died as “the result of politically correct politics” — namely,
bipartisan policies that he believes go too easy on undocumented immigrants and
the people who hire them.
“When you lose the thing you love the most, you’re not that worried about being
PC,” Golvach said in an interview. “If you’re going to come here, you need to
do it legally on our terms, not your terms.”
Golvach readily admits that anger over his son’s killing sometimes hits “toxic”
levels. He says he’s still haunted by the image of Spencer in a hastily chosen
coffin, still upset he was killed right next to the stadium where he used to
watch baseball as a kid, still mad as hell that the government won’t cough up
the records they have on his son’s killer.
It would be worse without all the good memories of his son, and without the
certainty that if Spencer were alive today he would say to him: “chill don’t
freeze.”
“He’d tell me, ‘Don’t have a heart attack. You know, clear your mind and keep
it cool,'” he said. “He would tell me not to hate anybody.”
Concrete Evidence of the Continuing Plunge in Both Civil and
Criminal Immigration Enforcement
By Dan Cadman
CIS Immigration Blog, January 23, 2016
Two recent reports from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse (TRAC) reflect the continued erosion of immigration enforcement
under the Obama administration.
On January 20, TRAC reported that criminal prosecution for immigration offenses
fell 22.3 percent from November 2014 to November 2015, and more than 36 percent
over the course of five years, excluding magistrate court (which deals
exclusively with petty offenses).
The following day, TRAC announced that "ICE [Immigration and Customs
Enforcement] Detainer Use Stabilizes Under Priority Enforcement Program".
The Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) is the replacement to the Secure
Communities Program mandated by Homeland Security Security Jeh Johnson as a
part of the president's "executive actions" on immigration. It
significantly restricts the ability of immigration agents to file detainers
against aliens arrested by police on criminal charges.
I have no idea what TRAC means by "stabilizes". A quick look at
Figure 1a of their report shows a more accurate state of affairs, if one
considers the number of detainers being filed over the course of five years,
from a high in April 2011, when Secure Communities became fully effective
nationwide and kicked into high gear, versus October 2015. I would use other
phrases: "plummeted" or "Dropped like a stone". Or, as my
colleague Jessica Vaughan has noted, particularly in relation to detainers
filed at county jails, where the lion's share of criminals of any stripes are
held after being booked for offenses small and large: "a stunning free
fall".
http://www.cis.org/cadman/concrete-evidence-continuing-plunge-both-civil-and-criminal-immigration-enforcement
BARACK OBAMA and his SAUDIS PAYMASTERS: Did they build his Muslim tower
in Chicago?
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS:
STILL SUCKING THE BLOOD OUT OF AMERICA
This manufactured crisis has, in turn, been exploited by the Obama
administration and both big business parties to hand over trillions in pension
funds and other public assets to the financial kleptocracy that rules America.
“Our
entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become
a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This
is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen
McQuillan THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
“This was not because of
difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the contrary, Attorney
General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013 that the Obama
administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their CEOs because to do
so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
OBAMANOMICS
TO SERVE BANKSTERS
AND
GLOBAL BILLIONAIRES
"One of the premier institutions of big business,
JP Morgan Chase, issued an internal report on the eve of the
10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, which warned that
another “great liquidity crisis” was possible, and that a
government bailout on the scale of that effected by Bush and Obama will
produce social unrest, “in light of the potential impact of central
bank actions in driving inequality between asset owners
and labor."
CLOSET MUSLIM BARACK OBAMA’S CONSPIRACY FOR A THIRD TERM FOR LIFE
First, destroy Trump and put Hillary away if she doesn’t end up in
jail.
HE PARTNERS WITH ZUCKERBERG, SOROS AND LOUIS FARRAKHAN
“Obama would declare himself president for life with Soros
really running the show, as he did for the entire Obama presidency.”
“Hillary was always
small potatoes, a placeholder as it were. Her health was always suspect. And do
you think the plotters would have let a doofus like Tim Kaine take office in
the event that Hillary became disabled?”
“Obama has the
totalitarian impulse. After all, he went around saying he didn't have
Constitutional authority to legalize the illegals, and then he tried anyway.
The courts stopped him.”
“The bottom line 2 is
this: Barack Obama is a Communist. This was all an Obama operation. Why is
anyone surprised that a communist (Obama) tried to subvert an election. That is
what Communists do. It is Barack Obama and his people like Brennan and Clapper
behaving to type. That's what Maduro does in Venezuela. That's what the Castro
brothers did. That's what every communist and socialist nation does. THEY FIX ELECTIONS!!”
“ Hillary
kept a secret server overflowing with national security info which, more than
likely, was hacked. June 28, 2016, on a Phoenix tarmac, Bill Clinton met with
Attorney General Loretta Lynch to seal a deal insuring Hillary would not be
prosecuted.”
“ Obama, of course, covered
up his own role, depicting his presidency as eight years of heroic
efforts to repair the damage caused by the 2008 financial crash. At
the end of those eight years, however, Wall Street and the financial
oligarchy were fully recovered, enjoying record wealth, while
working people were poorer than before, a widening social chasm that
made possible the election of the billionaire con man and Demagogue in November
2016.”
David Bernstein & The Heritage Foundation - “Lawless: The
Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule
of Law.”
“The Lawlessness of the Obama Administration: A
never-ending story.” Michael
Barone
– American Historian – Washington
Examiner
*
Obama Quietly Erasing Borders (Article)
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews: Obama
Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE,
Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was
supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big
Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.
In Obamanomics , investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up
the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t
see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to
America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate
welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
*
OBOMB for
BRIBES:
BARACK OBAMA
AGAIN TALKS THIRD TERM.
President Barack
Obama: During his
presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and
transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President
has delivered corruption and secrecy
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