U.S. Officials Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants Using Fake Documents to Secure Legal Status

The U.S. is seizing documents of so-called "citizens" along the U.S.-Mexico border. It turns out that loads of illegals are claiming dual citizenship --- citizenship in Mexico, where they were born, and citizenship in the U.S. --- where they're using fraudulent papers to scam U.S. taxpayers and help Democrats win office.

The Other McCain has the story, "Fake News, Real Hate":

Fake News, Real Hate: https://t.co/kJoWUFvkyd via @PatriarchTree pic.twitter.com/PhGYbG1b2v

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 3, 2018

When President Trump attacks the liberal media as “fake news,” this is treated by the media as a threat to freedom of the press. However, it is the press itself which, by its deliberately one-sided partisan approach to news, is destroying its own credibility. The transparent biases of the media — e.g., CNN’s role as the “Clinton News Network” in 2016 — are not merely harmful to their own journalistic integrity; they are a threat to democracy itself. “Fake news” is bad for America.

Consider the case of a Washington Post article about efforts by U.S. immigration officials to prevent illegal entry into the country by those using fraudulent documents. This article by Kevin Sieff claims that “U.S. citizens are increasingly being swept up by immigration enforcement agencies.” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denounced the Post article as “dishonest,” and declared: “This is an irresponsible attempt to create division and stoke fear among American citizens while attempting to inflame tensions over immigration.”

The central claim of Sieff’s article — that there is a “surging” number of people being denied U.S. passports as part of a Trump administration “crackdown” — is false. According to State Department figures, the approval rate for passport applications involving disputed birth certificates has actually increased, from 64.1% in 2014 to 74.2% so far in 2018. Obviously, passport denials cannot be “surging,” if the approval rate is increasing; Seiff’s article is therefore “fake news” — partisan propaganda, an anti-Trump hit job disguised as journalism.

Sieff constructed a textbook example of fraudulent “reporting.” For example, he treats as authoritative the claims of two immigration lawyers in Texas, one of whom says that cases of denied passports are “skyrocketing,” and another who asserts that he is aware of “probably 20 people” who are U.S. citizens that have been sent to “detention centers” by the Trump administration. These anecdotal claims were accepted as fact by Sieff, who nevertheless was unable to identify even one such case by name, so it is impossible to verify if any such cases actually exist.

What is the truth? State Department spokeswoman Nauert explained...

Keep reading.

Expect Big Economic Lift-Off from President Trump's 'Space Force' (VIDEO)

Hey, leftists even like Trump's plan for a "space force."

And while we're at it, perhaps we could launch a few members of the anti-Trump "resistance" into outer space. They'd be good target practice for the all-American intergalactic Air Force, lol.

Trump's "space force" could propel Southern California's aerospace industry https://t.co/uAIub478ij pic.twitter.com/CwTGejOwyh

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 2, 2018

At LAT, "Trump's 'space force' could propel Southern California's aerospace industry":

One of the big winners from President Trump’s push for a new military service called “space force” may be one of his least favorite places — California.

Once the launchpad of the nation’s aerospace industry, Southern California stands to see a surge in government and industry jobs and billions of dollars in contracts for satellites and other technology if Congress approves the space force when it takes up the proposal next year, industry experts and former military officials said.

“You can’t just go out in the middle of Iowa and try to create a center for space,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), a retired Air Force officer. “So Southern California is very well situated” to get substantial benefits.

The extent of the benefits would depend on where the headquarters is located, how much is spent on new satellites and other space systems, and how many people and programs now in the Air Force and other existing armed services might be shifted to the new force.

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis said Tuesday that planners have just begun preparing cost estimates. “We’ve already commenced the effort, but I don’t want to give you an off-the-cuff number,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

The biggest uncertainty is whether Trump or Congress would try to direct the rewards to other states. The president has visited California only once since taking office, and his administration has warred with Sacramento on fuel efficiency standards, clean air regulations, firefighting techniques and more.

“Southern California remains the largest concentration of space technology, including military space technology, in the United States,” said Loren Thompson, aerospace analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank, which receives money from major industry players, including Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

“But when you set up a new military service, you increase the impact of politics in ways that might not necessarily be good for California,” he added.

Colorado and Florida, which also boast extensive civilian and military aerospace facilities, could be big winners too.

The White House says it will unveil its plan for a space force early next year. For now, the Pentagon is taking interim steps, including creation of a Space Command in the Air Force to centralize planning for war fighting in space.

Congressional approval of Trump’s idea for a futuristic armed force for space is by no means certain. Key lawmakers, some Pentagon officials and senior commanders, especially in the Air Force, fear losing responsibility and budgetary authority for space...

More.

Jennifer Delacruz's Labor Day Forecast

Enjoy your holiday everybody. It's going to be glorious today.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Meghan McCain's Sneering Contempt

That was my first reaction when I saw this brief video, and my goodness the look on her face is shocking. She's an angry old woman (as someone snarked on Twitter at the time), and she's not even old yet. Bitter and angry.

"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," Meghan McCain says to applause at her father's memorial. https://t.co/2YcKzM6pnb pic.twitter.com/TF5Yovu6eK

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 1, 2018

Damn, the sneering contempt on her face. Damn.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 1, 2018

Lila Rose on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' (VIDEO)

She's the sweetest lady.

Selena Zito Under Attack

This is American politics encapsulated.

When you don't like the findings or conclusions, destroy the messenger. And that's what leftists are trying to do to Salena Zito.

This HuffPost hit piece, from scuzzy young leftist (who can't shine Salena's shoes), embeds the anonymous troll twitter attack that got this whole thing going. Ms. Salena was on Face the Nation today and was able respond.

i tried to talk to salena zito about her reporting https://t.co/NCMxUPRFtp

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) August 30, 2018

My editors "stand behind my work and so do I," @SalenaZito tells @margbrennan, following an article calling into question a lot of Zito's work pic.twitter.com/MlSIVTltxQ

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 2, 2018

The 'Diversity' Racket at UCLA

At great piece, from Heather Mac Donald, at the Los Angeles Times (surprisingly), "UCLA's infatuation with diversity is a costly diversion from its true mission":

UCLA's infatuation with diversity is a costly diversion from its true mission. https://t.co/18cp5KhBJ8 pic.twitter.com/Fl6E67j1mu

— L.A. Times Opinion (@latimesopinion) September 2, 2018

If Albert Einstein applied for a professorship at UCLA today, would he be hired? The answer is not clear. Starting this fall, all faculty applicants to UCLA must document their contributions to “equity, diversity and inclusion.” (Next year, existing UCLA faculty will also have to submit an “equity, diversity and inclusion statement” in order to be considered for promotion, following the lead of five other UC campuses.) The mandatory statements will be credited in the same manner as the rest of an applicant’s portfolio, according to UCLA’s equity, diversity and inclusion office.

A contemporary Einstein may not meet the suggested evaluation criteria. Would his “job talk” — a presentation of one’s scholarly accomplishments — reflect his contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion? Unlikely. Would his research show, in the words of the evaluation template, the “potential to understand the barriers facing women and racial/ethnic minorities?” Also unlikely. Would he have participated in “service that applies up-to-date knowledge to problems, issues and concerns of groups historically underrepresented in higher education?” Sadly, he may have been focusing on the theory of general relativity instead. What about “utilizing pedagogies addressing different learning styles” or demonstrating the ability to “effectively teach and attract students from underrepresented communities”? Again, not at all guaranteed.

As the new mandate suggests, UCLA and the rest of the University of California have been engulfed by the diversity obsession. The campuses are infatuated with group identity and difference. Science and the empirical method, however, transcend just those trivialities of identity that UC now deems so crucial: “race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and socioeconomic status,” to quote from the university’s Diversity Statement. The results of that transcendence speak for themselves: an astounding conquest of disease and an ever-increasing understanding of the physical environment. Unlocking the secrets of nature is challenge enough; scientists (and other faculty) should not also be tasked with a “social justice” mission.

But such a confusion of realms currently pervades American universities, and UC in particular. UCLA’s Intergroup Relations Office offers credit courses and “co-curricular dialogues” that encourage students to, you guessed it, “explore their own social identities (i.e. gender, race, nationality, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, social class, etc.) and associated positions within the campus community.” Even if exploring your social identity were the purpose of a college education (which it is not), it would be more fruitful to define that identity around accomplishments and intellectual passions — “budding mathematician,” say, or “history fanatic” — rather than gender and race.

Intergroup Relations is just the tip of the bureaucratic diversity iceberg. In 2015, UCLA created a vice chancellorship for equity, diversity and inclusion, funded at $4.3 million, according to figures published by the Millennial Review in 2017. (The EDI vice chancellor’s office did not have its current budget “at the ready,” a UCLA spokesman said, nor did Intergroup Relations.) Over the last two years, according to the Sacramento Bee’s state salary database, the diversity vice chancellor’s total pay, including benefits, has averaged $414,000, more than four times many faculty salaries. Besides his own staff, the vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion presides over the Discrimination Prevention Office; BruinX, the “research and development arm of EDI”; faculty “equity advisors”; UCLA’s Title IX office; and a student advisory board. Various schools at UCLA, including medicine and dentistry, have their own diversity deans, whose job includes making sure that the faculty avoid “implicit bias in the hiring process,” in the words of the engineering school’s diversity dean.

These bureaucratic sinecures are premised on the idea that UCLA is rife with discrimination, from which an ever-growing number of victim groups need protection...

 Keep reading.

Time for Truth

From VDH, at RCP, "The Truth Will Set Us All Free."

Read this now. https://t.co/bQ7Ghjcag8

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 31, 2018

Ariana Grande 'Groped' at Aretha Franklin Memorial

It does look like this "bishop" grabbed a little tittie there.

At the BBC:

Aretha Franklin bishop sorry after 'groping' Ariana Grande https://t.co/QA3FyDYand

— deray (@deray) September 1, 2018

Also, at the Sun U.K., "OOOH ARI! Ariana Grande goes topless in nothing but body paint for cover of new single God Is A Woman: The pop star shed her clothes for a sexy new shoot to promote her new music."

Jean-Francois Revel, How Democracies Perish

*BUMPED.*

A classic book, with lessons for the current era.

Inexpensive used copies available at Amazon, Jean-Francois Revel, How Democracies Perish.

Alyson Michalka Playing Miniature Golf

At Taxi Driver, "Aly Michalka Mini Golfing."

Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From

I'm posting this FWIW, because I fear that leftists and center-leftists continue to "not get it" about the rise of populist nationalism.

At Amazon, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy.

'Social media, metrics, bad faith readers, columnists, instant and bad takes, blogosphere nostalgia, and online abuse have created an op-ed internet culture...'

At n + 1, "The New Reading Environment":

Grouchy / interesting piece in @nplusonemag on the op-ed's post-Trump renaissance and the weird longevity of op-ed pages — "Everything is an op-ed now. The op-edization of all writing should have rendered its traditional purveyors redundant....."https://t.co/VDWCg246of pic.twitter.com/2Kr1hG26Hr

— james crabtree (@jamescrabtree) August 28, 2018

Since Donald Trump’s election, new prominence has been given to an otherwise deranged and degraded form: the op-ed. The Times op-ed page — along with its basic best friend, the Washington Post op-ed page, and its evil, basement-dwelling older brother, the Wall Street Journal op-ed page — should have gone the way of the classifieds section. Instead it exerts a malevolent gravitational pull, delivering with punishing regularity an endless stream of annoying and offensive provocations.

The irony of the op-ed’s depressing reemergence is that everything is an op-ed now. The op-edization of all writing should have rendered its traditional purveyors redundant. Why read a Times columnist when you can read the same opinion delivered with more style and energy almost anywhere else? But even as internet writers refine and defend and reiterate their opinions — an archipelago of converging takes — so-called traditional outlets have consolidated their influence...

RTWT.

In-N-Out Boycott

The stupidest thing ever.

At LAT, "Democratic leader's call for In-N-Out Burger boycott meets its own resistance."

And on Twitter:

In-N-Out Burger responds to #BoycottInNOut. The Executive VP says In-N-Out donated to both political parties not just the California Republican Party. Here’s the official statement. @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/r3eejM5B8N

— Mary Lee (@MaryKPIX) August 30, 2018

Boycott of #California's iconic burger is another colossal #Democrat fail.#InNOutBurger #InNout #BoycottInNOut #MAGA #Burger pic.twitter.com/ttG5zRSzCN

— Deborah Pauly (@YnotDebPauly) September 1, 2018

Abolish ICE.
Coddle Antifa.
Defend MS-13.
Demonize cops.
Ban Straws.
Boycott In-N-Out.#WinningDemocratPartyPlatform !

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) August 30, 2018

Accusations of Emotional Abuse Against Keith Ellison

I just can't stand that guy, and I seriously hope the allegations derail his political career.

He's a jihadist. He's vile.

At NYT, "A Broken Relationship and Accusations of Emotional Abuse: The Case of Keith Ellison":

Karen Monahan's allegations against Representative Keith Ellison are turning into a test among many liberals for where to draw the line between a messy relationship and an emotionally abusive one https://t.co/lKYJUGkYJb

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 30, 2018

MINNEAPOLIS — When Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, it made him an instant national star: a charismatic young black leader who was now a symbol of the Democratic Party’s commitment to diversity and equal rights.

Back home in Minneapolis, Mr. Ellison was revered in a close-knit circle of progressive activists. He began a romantic relationship with one of them, an environmental organizer named Karen Monahan, who later moved in with him in 2015.

Ms. Monahan posted happy photos on social media of the two of them hiking, traveling and even attending a party at the White House with President Barack Obama and the first lady.

Behind the scenes, though, their relationship was rocky. Ms. Monahan often accused Mr. Ellison of cheating on her, leading to blowout arguments, according to more than a dozen people who knew the couple.

Now, as Mr. Ellison runs for attorney general in Minnesota, Ms. Monahan has accused her former boyfriend of emotional abuse and says he once shouted profanities at her, while trying to drag her off a bed.

Mr. Ellison denies abusing Ms. Monahan and said in a statement after the allegations emerged that he cares “deeply for her well-being.” Democratic Party leaders in Minnesota have asked a lawyer to look into Ms. Monahan’s allegations, but continue to support Mr. Ellison’s bid to become attorney general.

RTWT.

Gregg Jarrett, The Russia Hoax

This is well done.

 At Amazon, Gregg Jarrett, The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump.

Grifters and Candace Owens

This is great.

From Melissa Mackenzie, at the American Spectator:

My thoughts on @RealCandaceO 's activism: https://t.co/25A1wJAOPQ

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) August 28, 2018

'And I don't want the world to see me...'

My fall semester started yesterday, and I should be posting some drive-time music entries in the weeks to come.

Meanwhile, I heard the Goo Goo Dolls sometime over the summer, and I've had this song on my mind. When I looked it up I found this amazing live performance from July 4th, 2004, in Buffalo, New York. As noted at the Wikipedia page, "Over 60,000 fans attended the performance, braving a torrential downpour. The rain cleared in time for the Goo Goo Dolls to start the show, but during their performance of "January Friend", the rain began pouring down again, harder than before. The band played on, finishing the set, despite being pulled off stage briefly for a safety precaution and skipping three songs* that were on the original set list."

Pretty amazing:

Shop Amazon

Here's my generic Amazon link.

I'll post more specialized deals later.

Meanwhile, see Margaret Walker, Jubilee (50th Anniversary Edition).

'It does not behoove us to celebrate defeat and losers are not generally regarded as heroes in politics. John McCain was a loser, and the particular way he went about losing deserves to be studied as an example of what not to do in politics...'

John McCain was Robert Stacy McCain's very distant cousin, and those who've been reading the Other McCain for years probably remember some of the latter's musings on the "crazy" Arizona senator from time to time.

But with his passing it behooves us to take a a fresh and critical look at the "Maverick's" political legacy. Why, for example, is the grief and outpouring so profound among leftists, who during the campaign in 2008 demonized Senator McCain as a racist warmonger?

Well, check the long and compelling entry at the Other McCain, "Every Liberal’s Favorite Republican, and the Problem With ‘Bipartisan Reform’."

All that is necessary for any Republican to win praise from the liberal media is for him to endorse their negative opinion of the GOP, and this is how John McCain became every liberal’s favorite Republican.

This is not how winners play the game. Nor can the kind of “bipartisan reform” agenda with which John McCain made his name synonymous ever do anything to help elect Republicans. There are three basic problems with “bipartisan reform,” first, that GOP officials who support such efforts are always doing so to curry favor with the liberal media; second, that these “reform” schemes always have the political effect of alienating the Republican Party’s conservative grassroots; and third, that Democrats will never support any “reform” unless they believe it will help them win elections (and thus obtain greater power) in the future...

RTWT.