Yesterday’s headline from the son of a mailman

art credit: politicalclownparade.blogspot.com

The headline from Gov. John Kasich appearance on CNN’s “Newsroom” via Breitbart:

Kasich: ‘The Lord Doesn’t Want’ 

Americans Opposing the Migrant Caravan

How does he know this?

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Optics and the mid-tern election

art credit: foxandhoundsdaily.com

[and yes, that's Janet Leigh in Psycho]

Here’s the inimitable Victor Davis Hanson on “Midterm Optics Are Bad for Progressives”:

For progressives, the looming midterm elections apparently should not hinge on a booming economy, a near-record-low unemployment rate, a strong stock market and unprecedented energy production. Instead, progressives hope that race and gender questions overshadow pocketbook issues.

. . .

The new caravan appears strangely well organized. The marchers, many of them young men, do not appear destitute. They do not seem to fit the profile of desperate refugees whose lives were in immediate danger in their homeland.

For many Americans, the would-be refugees may seem presumptuous in assuming that they have the right to barge into someone else’s country. Most Americans realize that if an organized caravan of foreigners can simply announce in advance plans to crash into the U.S. illegally, then the concepts of a border, citizenship, sovereignty or even a country itself no longer exist.

Then he considers the feeding frenzy around the Senate hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh:

Many Americans finally concluded that there was no reason to deny Kavanaugh’s nomination to the court. To find Kavanaugh guilty of Ford’s charges, Americans were asked to suspend the very ideas of due process and Western jurisprudence.

The furious demonstrations that followed Kavanaugh’s confirmation only made the optics worse.

Hanson concludes:

Every country requires a border and the rule of law. Due process cannot so easily be thrown out in a moment. There can be no Senate without safety and calm inside its halls. Powerful, privileged Washington officials should be the last to game a system designed to help the underprivileged.

Many are speculating that yesterday’s pipe bomb scares were yet another stunt - even a false flag hoax -- to change the subject, stifle reasoned debate, blame President Trump, and prompt another round of media hysteria. DC Whispers asks:

Who would send out these fake bombs and why? Who might have anything political to gain two weeks out from the Midterm Elections by staging a fake bomb hoax against noted Democrat politicians that then generates Establishment Media hysteria? 

Already the bomb reports has shoved the caravan story to the sidelines, at least for now. At any rate, the Progressives have overplayed their hand. I just hope independent and liberal voters see that.

UPDATE Oct 26:  FBI Arrest made in “Package Bomb” Scare; Fox News Source – 56 Yr. Old Male with Prior Arrests - and a Trump supporter.

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Chuckle of the day

pumpkin pi

Cartoon credit: chucklebros.com at Bronnian Comics 

via powerlineblog.com

(The Week In Pictures: 1,024th% Edition)

click to embiggen or go here and scroll down

Preparing to vote / judicial candidates

With just over 2 weeks to go before the Nov 6 election, time to prepare to vote. You can find your sample ballot for Cuyahoga County here. You should have your Cuyahoga County voter registration postcard at hand with your precinct details. (For Lake County voters, go here. For Geauga County voters, go here.)

Most of the candidate lists with recommendations are focused on the top of the ticket races. But I’ve been researching judicial candidates and found some ratings, endorsements, and report cards. One source was the <Judge4yourself> website, which collects ratings from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associationm the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association, and the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.

But it also specifies which candidates receive an endorsement from the Editorial Board of the PD / cleveland.com. Since there will be some Tea Party readers who would not consider a cleveland.com endorsement as a positive, I searched further.  

The <Ohio.ivoteconservative> website represents the collective recommendations of its signatories, many of which Tea Party members will recognize. If you visit their home page and fill in three boxes of info, you will get a list of recommended candidates who will appear on your ballot. It prints out on one page, so you can take it with you when you go to vote. Below is the list of recommended judicial candidates in a downtown Cleveland precinct (if you vote elsewhere, including in another county, you’ll want to go the website and enter your details to get your list of recommended candidates.):

Oh Supreme Court (1/1/19)

  Craig Baldwin

Oh Supreme Court (1/2/19)

  Mary Degenaro

  

Ohio Court Of Appeals #8

  Raymond Headen

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Jeffrery C. Sindelar Jr

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/2/19)

  Bradley Hull IV

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/3/19)

  Lorraine Coyne

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/5/19)

  Lon Cherie D. Billingsley

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/6/19)

  Wanda C. Jones

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/7/19)

  Kathleen Ann Sutula

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/8/19)

  Jarrett J. Northup

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/9/19)

  Brian Darling

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/11/19)

  Lori Anne Dyke

Cuyahoga Cnty Cmn Pleas Court (1/1/19)

  Denise Nancy Rini

I’ll re-post this information shortly before Election Day.

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And the censorship goes on

Four headlines reporting censorship on social media and at movie theaters -- just in the last week:

From Newsbusters:

Twitter Locks Conservative Site Outfor ‘Hate’ Citing Facts About STDs

From Steve Green at PJ Media:

Twitter Permanently Bans 'GayPatriot' Bruce Carroll, Cites Kafka for Precedent

From Beth Baumann at Townhall:

Suppression: Theaters Drop 'Gosnell' Movie Despite It Being a Top-Grossing Film

From John Stossel at NWF Daily News:

            Shut up, they explain

UPDATED 5pm

From Scott McKay at American Spectator:

           A Letter From Facebook Jail: The casualties of Big Tech’sassault on free expression

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We Tea Party people

photo credit: historynewsnetwork.org

The unhyphenated American Lloyd Marcus posts at American Thinker. Here’s the last two paragraphs of his article titled “Not Guilty: The Tea Party and Violence”:

We Tea Party people never beat up our opposition. Desiring the best for all our fellow Americans, we reach out to Democrats/leftists trying to educate them. Democrats/leftists have become super-hostile to facts and truth. They now seek to silence, punish and jail anyone daring to disagree with their agenda. Tea Party people are the opposite. We highly respect our constitutional right of free speech. So don't tell me that Tea Party people are just as guilty of incivility as Democrats/leftists. That is a lie.

Trump's swift dismantlement of Obama's anti-America agenda and successfully placing another conservative on the Supreme Court has caused Democrats and the fake news media to suspend any pretense of civility, honesty, and respect for the law. The Democratic Party has morphed into an angry insane mob. Their enforcers, joined by fake news media, are determined to beat the American people into submission. The Democrats' Trump resistance mob bears no resemblance to the Tea Party which is dignified, patriotic, and good. The Democratic Party has become the home of pure evil and must never be allowed back into power, controlling the house, senate or White House.

It’s a good article to keep in mind as we head into November. The entire article is here.

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Caravan crossing the U.S.-Mexico border

From today’s NumbersUSA newsletter:

Thousands of Central Americans joined a caravan this week, originating in Honduras, with hopes of reaching the U.S.-Mexico border where they plan to claim asylum, illegally enter the country, or both.

Pres. Trump has already issued warnings to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and has threatened to back out of the USMCA trade pact with Mexico if the country doesn't do its part to prevent the caravan from reaching the U.S. border. There are reports that Mexico is willing to cooperate.

The President has also said that he plans to move troops to the border to help prevent the caravan from entering the country.

So far, the Administration has responded well. But how it responds if, and when, the caravan reaches the U.S.-Mexico border remains to be seen.

If there's one thing that we've learned from past caravans and border surges, should any of the more than 4,000 economic migrants successfully make it into the United States, they'll be released to the interior of the country and never be heard from again.

Therefore, the best action the Trump Administration can take is to prevent anyone from the caravan from actually entering the country. Pres. Trump could even use his executive authority to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent the caravan from entering the U.S.

Handling Asylum Claims

Many in the caravan have told reporters that they plan on claiming asylum once they reach the United States, hoping to take advantage of loopholes within the process. 

They've said they'll claim asylum because of the criminal violence throughout Central America and/or the lack of decent paying jobs. But under federal law, those are not reasons for claiming asylum.

Under both U.S. and international law, an asylee is someone who claims that they fear persecution from their government if returned to their home country because of the their "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."

If the caravan was actually fleeing persecution, they would apply for asylum in Mexico.

The U.S. should take all legitimate asylum claims seriously. But it is critical to deny the caravan admission into the United States while their claims are being considered. Again, once anyone from the caravan steps foot in the United States, they're here for good. DHS is already running short on detention space, so there will be no way to detain illegal border crossers and asylum seekers while their cases move through the process.

Preventing caravans and surges

The Trump Administration has already taken steps to strengthen the asylum process. Earlier this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a ruling that moved the adjudication of credible fear claims more in line with federal asylum law. DHS implemented the policy this summer. However, if the Administration does not take the necessary steps to prevent this caravan from reaching U.S. soil, this dangerous and unlawful migration will be the new norm.

But Congress also needs to act. The House Judiciary Committee has already marked up and passed H.R. 391, the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act. House Leadership should bring the bill to the floor during the lame-duck session.

H.R. 391 would close the asylum loopholes by requiring that asylum adjudicators only approve credible fear claims when "it is more probable than not that the statements made by the alien in support of the alien's claim are true" and the alien is likely to be granted asylum in the U.S.

[The NumbersUSA website is here. You can sign up to access their Congressional Alert boards.]

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