LIGHTFOOT CANCELED

 

                      By Florida Bill 

                  With the counting over in Chicago's mayoral primary, I confess to feeling elated that Lori Lightfoot, the city's first black, gay, female chief executive, is out after a four-year term. Using idioms so dear to the progressive, white-hating crowd to whom she played her "woke" violin, she has been "canceled."

                       The diminutive, 60-year-old mayor who was often pictured under a big cowboy hat and wrinkled clothes, was known locally and nationally for her disdain for white newsmen, and for white skinned citizens in general. She always looked the other way as shootings, killings, carjackings, gang violence and any other kind of violent crime you can imagine spiraled upward under her watch, more concerned with racial nonsense and the denigrating of hard working policemen trying to do their jobs. Frequently, Chicago's outrageous weekend shooting totals made headlines all over the country.

                        Now an octogenarian, I was, for most of my working years, a newspaper reporter for the Chicago Tribune and later was an attorney representing clients. I was a Chicagoan who saw the city as the greatest in the world and the conservative Tribune  as the "World's Greatest Newspaper," a description once carried on the masthead of the paper--which incidentally, is no longer conservative, but still did not endorse Lightfoot.  With this city's proud history in mind, Lightfoot is and was a disaster as mayor, and her exit is good news for me and based upon the vote against her, a satisfying day for the citizens of Chicago.  

                         Lightfoot has certainly claimed the title of the mayor with the dirtiest mouth.  At one meeting with park district lawyers,  Lightfoot lashed out at district attorneys and Italian lawyers who  had been critical of her for denigrating Christopher Columbus as a racist, and the statues in his honor. She accused the attorneys of stroking their private parts, and she used all the words for genitals normally heard in the barnyard or in the verbiage of porn movies, asserting that "my ....." is the biggest around. . 

                           There were nine candidates running in the February 28 primary.  After counting, Paul Valas, the white-skinned former schools CEO, received 34 per cent of the votes cast, and Brandon Johnson, a cook county commissioner, won 20 percent of the ballots.  The incumbent Lightfoot received 17 percent.  The rally eliminated Lightfoot from a second term, and Valas and Johnson, as the top vote getters in the field of nine candidates,  will face off in a  special election for mayor on April 4. 

                            Lightfoot became the first elected Chicago mayor to be denied reelection to a second four years since Jane Byrne was ousted in a Democratic primary in 1983 after her four year term in office. She was succeeded by Harold Washington, a Black U.S. Congressman, who died in office in 1987. Richard M. Daley followed Washington, and he served until 2011 when Rahm Emanuel was elected and served two terms as the city's chief executive.  Lightfoot replaced Emanuel in 2019.  

                           Reportedly, most aldermen on the 50-member city council declined a vote for Lightfoot because of her mismanagement and prejudicial policies and rulings detrimental to  policemen.  The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) had endorsed Valas for the job and had voted a "no confidence" resolution against Lightfoot and her Police Superintendent David Brown, appointed in 2020..

                          Alderman Sophia King who had eagerly supported Lightfoot when she was elected mayor in 2019, declined to support her for reelection, noting her incompetence and inability to deal with crime problems.  Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democratic member of the Chicago city council, asserted that Lightfoot was "incompetent" as mayor and draws the race card in the face of challenges to her often loony plans. 

                          Lightfoot who has a wife and an adopted daughter, had promised to focus on burgeoning crime and gang violence when she ran for mayor in 2019, and she won overwhelmingly in a run-off election against Toni Preckwinkle,  President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.  The progressive Lightfoot had been a federal prosecutor and had served as President of the Chicago Police Board and as Chairman of the Police Accountability Task Force.  

                            In the early days after taking office, she announced that there were too many white reporters in the city hall press corps and to fix that she said that she would only allow one-on-one interviews with reporters "of color."  Her recalcitrance and abhorrence of white-skinned newsmen in the Chicago City Hall became known nationally. One former Democratic congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, called for her resignation, and implored President Biden and Vice President Harris to join her in pushing for Lightfoot's exit. Tucker Carlson of Fox News described her as a "lunatic and a racist" who should not serve in  a public office.  

                               In another episode displaying her racial animus, she engineered the payment of $2.9 million dollars for a black woman whose home had been mistakenly targeted by police as the residence of a drug dealer.  Police obtained a legal warrant and stormed the residence and encountered the woman resident naked and preparing for bed.  She was without clothes for an estimated six seconds before she was given a blanket by a policemen.  Police and city lawyers apologized and recommended that the woman be given $50,000 as compensation for the embarrassment. 

                             But lightfoot arranged for the city council to approve payment of $2.9 million dollars to the 51-year-old woman and she noted that the raiding policemen were white, and the victim was black. Corporation Counsel Mark Flessner complained that the award of nearly $3 million was out of line and that the police were acting pursuant to a warrant and had done nothing wrong.   When  he persisted in resisting the huge award, Lightfoot fired him. 

                              After his discharge, Flessner slammed Lightfoot in an OpEd piece and said her tenure as mayor was a "disaster" for the city.  Pushing the huge settlement, said Flessner, was part of a deal she had made with the National Civil Rights Movement.

                               After the election in 2019, President Trump offered to send in federal officers to help in bringing down the crime and gang shootings on Chicago streets. Lightfoot refused and accused the President of being a "racist."

                               After the recent vote ending the Lightfoot years on the fifth floor of the City Hall in the Chicago Loop,   Lightfoot telephoned Vallas and congratulated him.  She later told supporters at a rally that serving as mayor was "her honor of a lifetime......we fought the right fight, and we put the city on a better path."

                                             XXX

                              

                                             

                   

       

WHERE IS THE SCOTUS "LEAKER ?"

 

                        By Florida Bill              

                                  After eight months of an investigation and a dramatic announcement that the leaker of a SCOTUS draft opinion would be found, identified and dealt with in accord with law, the chief investigator has come up empty handed.

                                 The unsuccessful gumshoe into this mystery was Col. Gail Curley, 53, who is Marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court.  She was directed by Chief Justice John Roberts to dig into the matter and find the person who betrayed his or her sacred trust and slipped the draft opinion of a decision in  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to the Politico News organization.

                                 The draft opinion, purloined last May, foretold that the Roe V. Wade decision of 75 years ago would be overturned, and that a woman's federal right to an abortion would be canceled. The explosive opinion proved to be accurate, and six weeks later the  historic Dobbs decision was formally handed down, and it mirrored the stolen opinion given to the media.

                                   In a 23-page written report, Marshal Curley said that there were 126 formal interviews of 97 employees.  The interviews were directed at all persons who had ability and opportunity to know about or see the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. 

                                Included were the four clerks to each of the nine Associate Justices; typists, runners, and members of the clean up crews.  Aside from the nine justices, all others who might have access to the chambers and courtrooms  signed statements under oath of their lack of involvement or knowledge of the source of the disclosure.  Apparently, use of polygraph examinations was never considered.  The nine justices were interviewed, said Curley, but were not invited to sign sworn affidavits as she said she did not see the necessity for that.  

                                   But the investigative team under Curley, according to a news story in the Wall Street Journal, actually narrowed the search to the bank of clerks, but were unable to land on the miscreant by a preponderance of the evidence.

                                    The integrity and thoroughness of the investigation, though unsuccessful in identifying the source of the shameful disclosure, was reviewed by an expert in the investigative field and found to be professional and that no stone was left unturned.  

                                    Nevertheless, some lawyers and other government groupies remain astounded that the guilty party or parties could not be found in view of all the modern and available investigative techniques. 

                                   Some hold onto the belief that the identity of the culpable person is known inside those SCOTUS walls and chambers, and has always been known to the clerks and even to the justices since the time that the opinion was misappropriated and given to the media where it went viral.  Perhaps the belief is that identification would generate unwanted publicity and embarrassment, and so it is best for all if the episode simply vanishes like the wind.    

                                     There has been  criticism of Col. Curley whose background as an army officer did  not provide her with the expertise and knowledge in dealing with  a "who done it" mystery. 

                                     Curley, a lawyer,  was appointed by the Chief Justice in June, 2021 as the court's 11th Court Marshal.  As such, she serves as the court's chief security officer,  facilities administrator and contracting executive.  As explained in press releases upon her appointment, she supervises approximately 260 employees including the Supreme Court Police Force which provides security for the  Justices, Court Staff, visitors, the building and surrounding grounds.  

                                     The Marshal's office was not constituted to conduct in-house investigations into sensitive leaks involving trusted employees in high level jobs.  Col. Curley has wide-ranging and impressive academic credentials, but getting down in the trenches and searching for political trouble makers, may not be the type of situation for which she is really qualified. 

                                      Somehow, the effort to find the SCOTUS leaker is in a way reminiscent of the tale of Naval Captain Philip Queeg and his investigation into some missing strawberries on the Caine Mutiny, a WW II  battleship. "The Caine Mutiny" is a  movie classic from the 1950s.  

                                      On  the enigmatic Capt. Queeg's orders, countless hours and days were spent in a search for the sailor who stole strawberries from the mess hall.  As it turned out, a lowly seaman had pilfered the berries, and Queeg knew about it, but ordered the search anyway to assert his concern and authority aboard the naval ship.     

                                       Still and all, Col. Curley's search for the man or woman who gave the explosive draft opinion to the media, may not be over.  In Col. Curley's closing report, she noted that "to the extent that additional investigation yields new evidence or leads, the investigators will pursue them."  In time, she wrote, "continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure."

                                       In the absence of any new evidence or a public and painful admission of responsibility for the disclosure,  it is doubtful that the court will entertain future discussions on the matter.  

                                                     xxx

                                           

                       

                             

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CNN AND ITS COMMENTATORS

                                                          

                                   BY BILL JUNEAU 

                                        CNN has become an enthusiastic receptacle for politicians and government employees who have been axed. It has also turned into a safe landing spot for TV "talking heads" who have found fresh comfort in a job  where they can promote a "woke" philosophy as well as push the theory that the United States is a systemically racist nation. 

                           The hiring of special contributors and commentators at CNN continues to grow even though the lame cable station created by Ted Turner in 1980 is in a popularity freefall, with viewership as low as it can be and still allow the cable station to exist.                                           The latest addition to the CNN staff is former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, 44, who has been hired as a Senior Political Commentator. 

                           The weasley-acting Kinzinger will be taking his CNN chair alongside contributors who include fired and disgraced FBI agents  Andrew "Andy" McCabe, and Peter Strzok;  and ex CIA Director John Brennan, the born-again Muslim who speaks fluent Arabic, and whose fealty to the United States has always drawn questions.   

                          Commentator Kinzinger and contributors have been given mikes to call for gun control, laud the LGBTQ movement and all things "woke;" promote socialism and open borders and to vilify  President Donald Trump, who is threatening to run for President in 2024.  

                             Kinzinger, from a downstate Illinois district, made the jump to television after 12 years as a congressman.  He garnered a  personal reputation as an ineffective politician, and he leaves the People's House with few accomplishments to point at.  

                          In recent months as a GOP Representative, Kinzinger, and the angry Liz Chaney, from Wyoming, were the lone Republican members invited to sit on the special January 6  Committee created as a vehicle by Democrats to blame President Trump for the riot in the Capitol. Chaney, daughter of a powerful former Republican Vice President,  was soundly defeated in her Wyoming primary bid for reelection principally because of her badmouthing of President Trump, and her submission to  Democratic Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

                              When exiting the chamber, Kinzinger delivered a dull  farewell  speech, which was devoid of recapping his good deeds since there were none to speak of.  He got misty-eyed for the cameras as he bid his goodbys. But there is good news ahead for him, so long as CNN stays around.  Reportedly, his salary will now be in the millions, dwarfing his annual $175,000 as a congressman. 

                              It is anyone's guess when he will start "commenting." Perhaps he is in seclusion these days, studying books and TED Talks on how to be commentator for liberal causes or pondering the meaning of "woke." 

                              Kinzinger is being welcomed onto the CNN team of liberals by the Caucasian-hating Don Lemon and the bearded wiseman, German-born Wolf Blitzer, whose comments are always pleasing to the Democratic Party.  For legal questions, Kinzinger can consult with Jeffrey Toobin who has been reinstated, following a six month suspension, to his place in the CNN sun after the station forgave him for being caught masterbating during a live zoom session to relieve tensions. 

                          Also applauding Kinzinger's coming aboard are Chris Wallace,75, and Shepard "Shep"  Smith, 58, former Fox News reporters who left the station in recent years to hang together with their left-wing brothers and sisters. Wallace and Smith have cast aside their conservative masks, and now follow the CNN mantra singing the praises of open borders, gender ambivalence  and the bumbling Joe Biden.                                                                                                                 Wallace,  like his late father, Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" fame, is a registered Democrat. Former President Trump has said that Chris is a "wannabe" of his late father, and is a "nasty and obnoxious reporter" delivering "fake" news.                                           Smith had been a reporter and anchor for Fox for 23 years when he left in 2019.  He was an impatient critic of President Trump and wanted more room to make his far-left voice heard.  At CNN, reporters are encouraged to inject their opinions into political news stories. 

                                    Yet for some reason, hiring disgraced politicians and lying former government employees has not improved CNN's sagging ratings, down to 21 among all basic cable groups in 2022. Meanwhile, arch nemesis Fox News was the top rated cable news network in 2022 for the seventh consecutive year, more than doubling CNN's viewership numbers. 

                                 Obviously, CNN needs some fresher faces. How about Hunter Biden, he always seems to need a job, 
or maybe Sam Bankman-Fried, the deposed crypto king who seems to be out of work and in need of a big infusion of cash. 

                                                XXX

                                     

              

JOE BIDEN: WHERE DID I LEAVE THOSE PAPERS?

                                                         

                                   BY BILL JUNEAU                    

                              It really isn't all that surprising to learn that President  Biden had "classified" documents in his home library, and in beat-up cardboard  boxes in his oily- smelling garage in Wilmington, in his home state of Delaware.  Secret documents were also discovered in Biden's so called "think tank" center he opened in DC after his eight years as Vice President came to an end.

                               Yet, reportedly, still unchecked for classified government papers, is the $2.7 million dollar Biden lakeside home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the Biden clan, including his pipe-loving son, Hunter and daughter Ashley and friends, are known to assemble for beach parties and political get-togethers; and, some say, smoking the good stuff. 

                            FBI agents will want to take a look in the corners of that fancy  pad where his brother James, and son, Hunter, like to hang out. No worries though, as a fence-like wall is currently under construction on the perimeter at a cost of $455,000, complements of  American taxpayers. This overpriced fence will supposedly provide added security for the Biden residence--not to mention any purloined top-secret documents stashed there.  

                      The President's lackadaisical handling of classified and top secret documents is further indication of his all-around incompetence as he stumbles and bumbles about in the most powerful office on the planet. One former White House doctor, appointed by President Obama, has said that Joe Biden "does not know what he is doing....and is dangerous." 

                               After the classified papers were discovered in his possession, Biden said he was "surprised."  His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that the President has absolutely no idea what is on the papers, which may not be the positive statement she thinks it is. He is cooperating in the "process," she explained, and is dedicated to being "transparent." 

                               When quizzed by reporters about his careless handling of the nation's secrets, President Biden said, rest assured that I take "classified documents" very seriously. His response raised questions in the minds of many observers who doubt his acuity.  They are wondering where he might have dumped the nation's secrets if he did not take the red stamped papers "very seriously."  

                                 According to reports, some classified papers are from the Obama administration era and deal with Ukraine, Iran and Great Britain.  As Vice President, Biden had been President Obama's point man to the Ukraine. He has been accused by President Trump and by Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, of being "stone corrupt" in dealing with the troubled European country which borders Russia.  In Ukraine, Biden had his cocaine-addicted son, Hunter, placed in a job on a gas company board without any discernible duties, and paid a salary of $83,333 per month. 

                                    The revelation that President Biden had been fast and loose with the nation's classified documents came on January 8, 2023,  with an announcement from the Department of Justice that classified documents had been discovered on November 2, 2022, some 60 days earlier, by Biden lawyers rummaging through documents stashed in the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The center had been opened by Biden in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania in February, 2018.  

                                 A few days later, following the report of secret papers found in the Penn-Biden "think tank,"  the additional  classified papers were found in the President's Wilmington home.  

                                  Atty Gen Merrick Garland, who is known to be protective of the President and all Democrats, elected to put the lid on any publication about the classified docs in the Penn-Biden center until  after the midterm elections of  November 8. It was strictly a political decision since news of the Biden mishandling of classified documents in violation of the law and its threat to national security could not bode well for Democratic candidates running for election or reelection. As was democratic party protocol in the past, news damaging to Democrats would need to be contained until after an election.  

                            Garland has appointed  special prosecutor  Robert Hur to investigate Biden's misuse of documents.  Hur is a former United States attorney who had been appointed by President Trump.  Garland said that Hur's background will insure that politics do not play a role in this special investigation. 

                             Last year, Biden's Justice department ganged up on former President Trump and raided his Florida home and office in  Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach county. Armed FBI agents "tossed" the property and carted off boxes which allegedly contained classified documents which belonged in the hands of the office of National Archives. The raiders even raked over the private closets and drawers of the first lady while seeking so-called "hidden" documents. 

                             The former 45th President said that he had declassified documents as was his right and authority while still in the Oval office. On November 18,  Atty. Gen Garland announced that he was appointing Jack Smith a former federal prosecutor and loyal democrat, to investigate the President's possession of documents he should not have, for possible criminal conduct. Biden, as vice president, had no such power to declassify.

                             In another example of his shifty handling of public  documents, in 2011, then Vice President Biden decided that he would sequester all of his papers, memorabilia and keepsakes which he had  accumulated during his 36 years as a senator from Delaware, and have them stored in untouchable boxes at the University of Delaware. The contents, packed into 1,850 boxes, included assorted government papers, tapes, video recordings, complaints and awards.

                              Biden says that the contents, pursuant to written contract, cannot be seen by anyone until two years after his final exit as an office holder. That contract is being challenged by Judicial Watch, an independent government watchdog organization, which contends the papers are public documents and may contain information pertaining to Iran, Ukraine and Russia and of conversations which Biden had with President Putin.   

                             Also, Judicial Watch believes that the contents in the boxes will reveal evidence of a complaint against Biden in 1993 by Ms.Tara Reade who was then an employee in his senatorial office.  Ms. Reade has charged that Sen. Biden pushed her into a dark corner in the capitol one evening and pawed her like a lion in heat, while whispering, "Hey man, I thought that you liked me."

                             Ms. Reade revealed the story of the attack in 2020 when Biden was a candidate for President. She was one of nine women who came forward with stories of Biden's hair smelling and gushing behavior which made them feel uncomfortable. Biden has claimed that Ms. Reade is a "liar," and that the incident never occurred. There was no investigation of Ms. Reade's complaint, and the past Democratic guideline that "all women are to be believed," was simply ignored. 

                             Reade believes that the records of her complaints to Senate authorities over these events  can be found in the papers which Biden has loaded into boxes and hidden from public scrutiny.                        

                                                     xxx

                       

IS THAT YOU, JUDGE MOORE?

 

                                                        BY BILL JUNEAU

                                      I was always of the opinion that Judge Roy Moore of Alabama had been pummeled by Democrats and kicked aside as a whipped dog whose barking had gotten under their skin.  That dog of course had been and still remains a hero to a myriad of christians and conservative Republicans who saw sense in Judge Moore's denunciation of the gay lifestyle and its influence on small children; and the crushing need for Christian views in the news.  

                                      When Moore ran for the United States Senate in 2017 to replace Jeff Sessions who had resigned after being appointed Attorney General by President Trump, he was heavily favored to win election over an unpopular democratic candidate.

 

                                     But as the campaign rolled forward, the twice elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was made into a sexual predator, who, 40 years ago, as an assistant district attorney, had been hitting upon teen agers, and had been barred from visiting a local shopping mall because teens feared his presence.

    

                                    Moore said that the accusations were lies and exaggerations, and pure political garbage.  But, no one believed him.  The attack on his character was so devastating that he was defeated in the race for U.S. Senator by Democrat Doug Jones who won a narrow victory on the back of the bitter attack on Moore's character. 

                                     Moore, 74, had twice served partial terms as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme court and had generated national attention when he declined to recognize same sex marriage licenses and fought to display a stone tablet containing the Ten Commandments in his courtrooms and in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial building.  For his stubbornness in favor of decency and christian tenets, he was removed as the state's highest legal officer. 

                                     After he was defeated in his race to be a United States Senator, and despite the schellacking he took by the democratic controlled main street media, he vowed that he will never fold his tent.  "I'm not going away," Moore has said, promising that he will eventually set the record straight.  "Allegations that I sexually hounded teen aged girls 40 years ago are political lies sold by frantic Democrats. They were garbage then and are garbage now." 

                             His so-called journey for redemption as a viable leader got a push start last summer when a jury in U.S District court awarded him $8.2 million in damages finding that a  Democratic aligned super PAC defamed him in a TV ad by recounting lies about him during his failed 2017 bid for U.S. Senator. 

                                       Alabama today is one of the nation's strongest Republican or Red states.  The 2017 election of a Democrat to Congress in Alabama  was surprising and Democrat Jones went on to serve two years in the office, functioning as a  rubber stamp for Democrats.  He was easily defeated for election to a full six year term in 2020 by Republican Tommy Tuberville, a popular ex-football coach, with the backing of President Trump. 

                                       Roy Moore was graduated from the United States Military academy at West Point  and went on to serve as an army officer with service in Viet Nam.  Following his active duty as a soldier, Moore enrolled as a student in the University of  Alabama law school and was graduated with a Juris Doctor degree. 

                                       He was an assistant district attorney in   Etowah county in  Alabama from 1977 to 1982. Then, almost 40 years later, in 2017, several women were highlighted by the Democrat-controlled media as having been hit upon sexually by Moore; and that his presence had been barred from a shopping center at which large numbers of young women would normally be present.  

                                     The  women magically came forward during the senatorial campaign, complaining of the conduct of Moore.  It was never explained why the women had been silent for four decades and during more than a half dozen other elections in which Moore had been both a successful and unsuccessful candidate in the intervening years. 

                                       In 1992, Moore was appointed a Circuit Judge by Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt to fill a vacancy; and  subsequently was elected to the office.  In 2001, he was elected Chief Justice of the state's highest court, and in 2003, he  was removed from the office for ignoring a federal court order to remove a marble monument of the Ten Commandments that he had placed in the rotunda of the Alabama judicial building. 

                                       His heart has always been in the right places, and to him, the Ten Commandments were a positive way to live.  Moore always kept those writings on his courtroom walls and when he became Chief Justice, he had a marble carving display of the commandments placed on courthouse grounds.  Woke and LBGTQ supporters and the ACLU  complained that the location of the  commandments violated rules calling for separation of  church and state, but Moore disagreed and declined to remove them on principle.  Eventually he was made to leave office because his christian beliefs conflicted with allegations that religion and government must not be intertwined.  

                                          In 2013, Moore was elected for a second time as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme court,and he took a position that marriage was a sacred union between one man and one  woman.  He declined to allow the issuances of same sex marriage licenses, and eventually was made to resign given his religious positions. 

                                         Same sex coupling is a "union" of two men or of two women.  Such twosomes can be endorsed by federal and state laws and can be spelled out in legislation; and those benefits of a same sex union can be tailored so as to mirror benefits allowed men and women in traditional marriages.  

                                          But, says Moore, "Marriage" is and always has been for hundreds of years and should remain as a sacred union of one man and one woman.  That is the definition of "marriage."  Same sex unions of two moms and two dads is not a "marriage," and never will be.

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BACK HOME FOR GRINER

 

                                              BY BILL JUNEAU

                                                                 Busted in Russia as a "pot head" who hid illegal drugs in her luggage, Brittney Griner is back home in the USA.  The six-foot, nine-inch WNBA super star was released December 8 from a Russian jail  after spending some 294 days there for violating Russia's law against use and possession of happy drugs, many of which are legal in the United States. 

                                           Griner was deplaning in Russia last February 17 with plans to rejoin a team with whom she plays during the WNBA off-season when she was arrested.  A sniffer dog alerted Russian security that illegal drugs were in her suitcase. Search revealed a vape cartridge containing hashish oil. Subsequently, she was tried in a court, found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison.   

                                          There has been both applause and criticism of the Biden deal by which Russia released the 32-year- old basketball star and two-time Olympic gold medal winner, in an exchange deal. For Griner, the USA sent back to the Kremlin, Viktor Bout, a high level criminal and operative for Vladimir Putin, known as the "Merchant of Death." 

                                           GOP leader in the House,  Kevin McCarthy, who will become speaker next month, criticized the exchange as a "gift" to President Putin.  Sen. Rick Scott of Florida characterized the Biden promoted deal as “weak & disgusting” ....and a "bitter pill to swallow." 

                                           Former President Trump weighed in on the exchange: "What kind of a deal is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly hates our country, for the man known as ‘The Merchant of Death,'" Trump posted.  "The Biden deal will forever be known as a stupid and unpatriotic embarrassment for the United States." 

                                         In prison for nearly 20 years, Bout was serving a 25-year sentence for weapon trafficking and conspiratorial activity aimed at murdering Americans. He has been described by Pentagon officials as one of the "most dangerous men on the planet." 

                                          Russia continues to hold inside its grimy  gulags an ex-Marine, Paul Whelan, who has served four years of a 16 year sentence for "espionage."  President Biden has been under enormous pressure from African American women to make a deal which would bring the gay Griner home to her wife, it was reported.

                                         Illegal drug possession in Russia is a crime enumerated in its criminal code.  While Griner's nine year sentence appears to Americans to be excessive, Russians apparently do not think so.  They regard illegal drug use as serious offenses, much in the same way that the United States once dealt with the sale and use of illegal "get happy" drugs.  The allegations of "espionage" lodged and prosecuted against the 52-year-old Whelan, are deemed by Whelan and American officials to be Russian fiction.  "I  have no idea why I am in prison," says Whelan. "I am not a spy and I  committed no crime in Russia where I had gone for a wedding."    

                                        Whelan was arrested in December, 2018, in a Moscow hotel room.  He was employed as corporate security director at Borg Warner, a Michigan automotive parts supplier. 

                                          A spokesman for President Biden has said that America pressed for a deal by which both the towering basketball star and the ex-marine would be repatriated and brought home in exchange for Viktor Bout.  Russian officials said that both could be returned to the USA, but only so long as the USA arranged for the additional release of Col. Vadim Krasikov from a German prison where he is serving a life sentence for murder. Otherwise, only one American prisoner would be released in exchange for Viktor Bout.  

                                          Germany declined to release Col. Krasikov and President Biden said that he  had no authority over the German prisoner.  In the end, the Biden preference for release of the African American Griner, who in the past has upbraided the USA as an uncaring racist nation, overshadowed the concern to bring home the marine veteran falsely accused of being a spy. Whelan, who had served tours in Iraq,  has been behind bars for four years in a Russian prison.    

                                         Griner has complained of the  social injustices and racism in the USA.  At WNBA games, the super star has declined to appear on the court while the national anthem was being played.  In interviews she has said that the anthem has no meaning since it originated at a time when the country was intense in its disdain for people of color.  Griner  takes her cues from the former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick who called for kneeling at the playing of the national anthem as a demonstration of the mistreatment of blacks by racist America.                                           

                                         Stupid deals are not uncommon when orchestrated by Obama and the confused Joe Biden.  In 2014,  President Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden, now President Biden, inked an exchange deal with the bloodthirsty Taliban regime which brought home army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban for five years following his surrender to it during war with Afghanistan. Former President Trump had called Bergdahl a traitor.

                                        In exchange for Bergdahl, Obama and Biden approved the release of five Islamic terrorists from their cells in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The five notorious killers of Americans promptly returned to the battlefield in Afghanistan.  Following the inept American pullout from that country last year, the five were placed in high positions in the "new" Taliban government.   

     

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MAYORKAS' DAYS MAY BE NUMBERED

\                                   BY BILL JUNEAU

                      Alejandro Mayorkas, the 63-year-old Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the United States, maintains a stone face as he asserts that "Yes, the southern border of the United States is secure."  

                      "We are working day-in and day-out to enhance that security," he told Rep. Daniel Bishop during a recent congressional  hearing.  The North Carolina Republican advised Mayorkas that he  is a sure-fire candidate for impeachment in the coming year.  

                       Speaking with noticeable pride and aplomb, the shiny-headed and slow-speaking Cuban- born Mayorkas told a congressional committee that, in addition to providing security at the Tex-Mexican border, we have scrubbed the word "alien" from all Homeland Security and government paperwork.  Immigrants, he said, are now referred to as "non-citizens."   Canceling of the word "alien," he explained, was done in an effort to demonstrate our respect for the new residents.  

                       In the nearly two full years of the Biden and Mayorkas leadership, some 2.4 million aliens or "non citizens" have taken up residence in the United States. In the ranks of the "non-citizens" are criminals and drug pushers who have brought huge amounts of fentanyl, heroin and other illegal narcotics onto American shores.  Fentanyl deaths in the USA have hit a staggering number, as constitutional mandates are being ignored. 

                      After fording the Rio Grande and dodging agents on horseback, or sneaking in through dense bushes and around rocks, and after being driven to the border by Mexican cartels, the interlopers are put up in upscale hotels and army barracks, and subsequently  bused or flown to requested destinations in various states--all at government expense.  

                       Abortions are arranged for pregnant women desiring them.  Others wishing to keep their babies are taken to hospitals for deliveries.  Newborns immediately become American citizens, and are given shelter and all necessary care. Parents and relatives of the new citizen are tethered to the infant, and government assistance is provided to the burgeoning families.  

                        No question but that Mayorkas takes his cues from President Biden who appointed him to head Homeland Security and to be his mastermind over its 340,000 employees, and the nation's borders; and to be on guard in detecting foreign and domestic threats.  

                        President Biden recently visited the border state of Arizona, but told reporters that he saw no reason to take a first hand look at the roaring border waters of the Rio Grande river as thousands pour daily on to American soil.  Asked why he has never visited the busy border to see for himself what is going on there, the stuttering and bumbling President was dismissive of the idea.  "Other things are more important," he responded.  

                         An Arizona sheriff commented that Biden's conduct was a disgrace, noting that recently it has been calculated that  18,000 immigrants are entering the USA on a daily basis.

                        Mayorkas' under-oath testimony before Congress is incredible.  Politics aside, is he operating under a Biden-induced fog, or is he simply obtuse and incompetent? Or

 is he just a complete liar?  Does he meet with the president who appointed him, and do they chat about the Homeland Security department's mission, or do they just lick their ice cream cones and discuss climate change.  

                         In the November midterm elections, Republicans became the majority in the People's House in Congress, while Democrats retained their control of the Senate.  

                         Kevin McCarthy, a California congressman with the GOP, is slated to become the speaker of the 435 member House of Representatives and he has given notice that removing Mayorkas from office via an impeachment is on his to- do list. 

                        "I’m calling on Secretary Mayorkas to resign,” McCarthy said at an appearance in El Paso, Texas, on Nov. 22.   “He cannot and must not remain in that position. If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure" for impeachment action. 

                          Mayorkas has been a go-to Democrat for many years, having served as a United States attorney from California under President Clinton; and Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services,  and deputy director of Homeland Security under President Obama.  He came to America with his parents after the Cuban revolution.  He is a graduate of the Loyola law school in Los Angeles.  

                           In September of last year, Mayorkas pushed the idea of creating a "Disinformation Working Group," which would assist the department in banning rhetoric which it judged to be improper and threatening to the United States.  The plan was said to please President Biden. Nevertheless, three weeks after the proposal went public, it was  identified as a "violation of free speech" and quietly scrapped.  

                           In 2021, Mayorkas  promoted the allegation that  border agents on horseback had whipped Haitians crossing the Rio Grande while trying to climb onto the American shore. President Biden promised that the cruel agents "will pay" for their "outrageous" conduct.  Following a  ten month investigation, the agents were cleared of misconduct after it was determined that the horse riders were simply maneuvering in the water using the reins on their horses. 

                           Though cleared of all wrongdoing, Mayorkas had the agents disciplined finding that they had used "harsh rhetoric,"  in deterring entry into the United States. Mayorkas' department found that use of the rhetoric constituted "unnecessary force" and merited punishment. The non-citizens were offended, according to the Homeland report, because a horsemen  told a Haitian that "he should go back to his 'shit' of a country."

                          One observer of  how "non-citizens" are being treated to luxuries which most Americans cannot afford, has noted that it is kind of an incentive to leave the country, sneak back in and take the gifts.  For sure, there would be no worry of ever getting caught.  

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