Month: July 2015

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We gave peace a chance–and it didn’t work

We gave peace a chance—and it didn’t work.

Since 1990, the United States has sharply reduced its military strength. With the exception of the men and material used in the Gulf Wars, the American Armed Forces have sustained continued dramatic cuts that will, by the end of this year, leave the U.S. Army smaller than North Korea’s. The United States hasn’t been alone in this.  Our NATO allies have also slashed spending on their already weak forces.

By 2020, China’s navy will outpace America’s in key areas. Already, Russia has gained the advantage in strategic nuclear arms and continues its ten to one advantage in tactical nukes. North Korea has become an atomic threat, and, all agreements to the contrary, Iran may as well (the Weekly Standard  reports that Iran Made Illegal Purchases of Nuclear Weapons Technology Last Month. Russia has been known to provide nuclear know-how to Iran.)

In the theory espoused by those who believe in the cliché of giving peace a chance, this was a grand experiment. Clearly, it has failed, producing a world closer to a major war than at any time since the end of World War 2. It is not just the development of quantitatively and, in some cases, qualitatively superior forces by nations hostile to the west that is the worrisome outcome of the diminishment of the Free World’s forces; it is in how those forces have been used.

Russia has twice invaded neighboring nations, and engages in intimidating actions towards its European neighbors and the North American coastline.

China has illegally occupied a resource-rich maritime area belonging to the Philippines. It is now claiming domination over vital sea lanes in contradiction of all international law.  Buoyed by President Obama’s eagerness to withdraw U.S. troops from abroad, ISIS has become a major regional power, and the Taliban is preparing for a major return in Afghanistan.

Even if one were to accept the concept, as the current White House clearly does, that America has been over-involved in foreign conflicts and that some aggressive actions by Moscow, Beijing, or others can be ignored, the reality is that the structure of the militaries recently developed by China and Russia appear to have as their target the United States. Moscow and Beijing have developed a deep and multi-faceted alliance. They no longer have any reason to be concerned about each other. No other great power exists, other than the United States, that justifies the high-tech and nuclear-enabled forces each has developed.
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The danger is getting greater. Both Russia and China are continuing their substantial buildup, even as the U.S. continues to reduce its armed strength. The American nuclear arsenal continues to rust away, while Moscow and Beijing continuously upgrade and add to their atomic arsenals. America also appears to be losing in another crucial area as well, as military, civilian, and corporate secrets continue to be rather easily accessed by enemy forces. The most recent attack, called by some critics a “Cyber Pearl Harbor,” gave China extremely sensitive data on Americans with security clearances.

That phrase, “enemy forces,” will surely raise objections from the “give peace a chance” advocates. But it is long past the time when reality, however unpleasant, must be honestly faced and acknowledged. Just as the White House shrinks from using the phrase “Islamic Terrorism,” so too it engages in semantic gymnastics to avoid frank assessments of the growing threat from Russia and China.

That threat is literally knocking on the U.S. doorstep. Russia has re-established cold war ties with Latin America. China has established key military-to-military alliances in the region. Both ISIS and al Qaeda have relationships with drug cartels in the area, as well.

It strains credulity to believe that the White House does not see these threats. But it may have made a cold, extremely risky, and deeply selfish calculation. Gambling that Moscow and Beijing (not to mention Tehran and Pyongyang) will at least temporarily hold off on direct attacks on a newly docile America, the Obama Administration is diverting all the funds it can hijack from the Pentagon and direct them towards its prime and overwhelming motivation: the massive increase in spending on welfare-type programs, a move which could strengthen the loyalty of the left’s political base of the left for decades to come.

The gamble is not working, and the world is spinning surely towards a major conflict on a scale not seen since 1945. This time, however, facing adversaries that have numerical and in some areas technological superiority, the outcome, unless America quickly reverses course, will not be as favorable.

 

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The Silence of the Left

The defining moments of a nation come not just from when something is done. They also come from when something is not done.

Think of how Germany’s history would have been different if more had opposed the horrific plans of Adolph Hitler. Imagine how much better America would be if the rise of segregation and discrimination after the Civil War had been prevented. Today, the failure by those who should know better, to condemn the attacks on free speech should be viewed with equal disdain.

The latest revelations about the widespread nature of the Internal Revenue Service’s intimidation against political opponents of the White House are cause for the deepest concern. Despite those revelations and the growing obviousness that major political appointees and perhaps top elected officials were involved in this unlawful program, there is no adequate legal action underway by a politically compromised and openly biased Justice Department. Nor are the vast majority of media outlets performing the functions they should be doing, by emphasizing the extraordinary nature of these unprecedented assaults on honest elections and free speech.

Indeed, there are attempts by the bureaucracy to continue this affront by simply changing tactics.

The original story is, by now, well known, although too late to actually serve the interests of justice. In anticipation of the 2012 presidential bid, the IRS intimidated and harassed groups considered not supportive of President Obama’s re-election bid.

However, this is not just a problem—dire as it is—about a past election.  Unblushingly, the same tactic is being tried again, under a different guise, to insure that the 2016 presidential election also goes the way the hard left desires.

As noted by Spectator magazine In November of 2013, the IRS proposed regulations that would essentially “institutionalize” its politically biased attacks. It is part of the hard Left’s fury at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which, as noted in Spectator, “held that both labor unions and corporations had a free speech right to use their general funds for independent expenditures of a political nature. It said, among other things, that the First Amendment ‘has its fullest and most urgent applications to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.’ And that, in liberal thinking, opened a floodgate of corporate action where only union action had been permitted before. …[The politically-motivated IRS determined that] The best way to block spending by such nonprofits is to block them from becoming nonprofits, which has the effect of blocking most contributions to them. If you block their funding, they can’t spend anything on independent campaign ads for conservative candidates or against liberal ones. That’s what the IRS did in 2012, is doing today, and will continue to do when the new rules take effect.”

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Having been exposed for its 2012 offenses and voted down in the U.S. Senate hasn’t stopped the hard left from continuing their attack. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), there is a “behind the scenes effort to lobby the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department to stifle free speech…don’t be surprised if the subpoenas hit Republican candidates at crucial political moments.”

According to WSJ, the new theory to slap down non-leftist candidates and ignore both the First Amendment and the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling is called “coordination,” which alleges that activities by independent SuperPACs  should be treated as campaign expenditures—although so far, the only target has been a Republican candidate, with nothing being said about a similar situation in Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Direct attacks on media independence haven’t been overlooked in the drive to silence free speech. Efforts to place Federal monitors in newsrooms, and ending the independence of the Internet also have been used.

Historically, Americans have seen freedom as an end unto itself. But in the 21st century, many hard-left Progressives view a strict interpretation of Constitutional freedom guarantees and procedures as an obstacle to achieving their goals.

Most Americans remain unaware of the increasingly serious implications of this disdain for the Bill of Rights, largely because of the more subtle tactics of its assailants and the silence of a mass media that shares the political beliefs of the current executive branch. There are no mass burnings of books, no acts of physical intimidation on political opponents. Instead, there are IRS investigations of those opposing the White House. There are threats of sanctions against students who disagree with their hard-left professors. There are no mass outcries from many in the media when the new marketplace of ideas, the internet, is allowed to fall out of the hands of those who cherish freedom of speech.

How this is addressed may be the defining moment of the 21st Century American experience.

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Rise of the Administrative State

America’s entire way of government—with laws passed by legislators elected by the citizenry—has become increasingly jeopardized as the administrative state has grown to nearly uncontrollable levels.

Joseph Postell, writing for Libertylawsite, notes that “Multiple scandals involving myriad federal agencies have placed the administrative state front-and-center in many Americans’ minds. Though the scandals involve overreach by specific agencies, they raise broader and more profound questions that extend to the entire federal bureaucracy because the institutional problems are systemic…Astonishingly, we still don’t fully understand how responsible the President is for the actions of administrative agencies (such as the IRS…) Simply put, if the administrative state is really accountable, legally and practically, to the President, then it is not a “fourth branch” of government but merely part of the executive branch, accountable to the public… Today’s administrative state, therefore, makes a mess of the constitutional separation of powers and its careful adjustment of incentives, checks and balances. In such a system, what role can and should the courts play in reviewing agency decision-making? Here is where a deeper understanding of the courts’ historical role in administration is most needed.”

Roger Pilon, writing in CATO, asks “…Is there anything today that is not fit for government’s attention? Large sodas and restaurant menus have lately garnered notice. Retirement, health care, day care, wages, rents, prices, charity, even public radio and television—all that and so much more is the regular business of modern American government …late 19th and early 20th century Progressives. … believed they knew better than the rest of us what our true interests were. …Progressive social engineering took many forms, but its efforts to change the world focused mainly on the political branches. Its aim was to replace judge-made common law, which established the legal framework within which individuals and organizations pursued their interests, with statutory law, enacted by legislatures and, in time, by the administrative agencies in the executive branch…Thus the shift from law grounded in principle to law as policy, from reason to will, and to the politicization of law—precisely what the Constitution sought to avoid. When all is politics, nothing is law.”

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In many cases, agencies’ budgets are also self-determined…The courts have… diminished their own authority to check the executive agencies by making it difficult for citizens to challenge agency actions in court…We need to stop kidding ourselves. Despite what is taught in our schools, we are not governed under the political structure envisioned by our founders. We are ruled by an imperious bureaucracy that creates vague rules, funds itself with fees that is sets at will, and controls the adjudication of disputes when citizens complain about its actions.”

Philip Hamburger, in the Hillsdale College publication Imprimis, warns: “[The] danger is absolutism: extra-legal, supra-legal, and consolidated power…we should demand rule through law and rule under law. Even more fundamentally, we need to reclaim the vocabulary of law: Rather than speak of administrative law, we should speak of administrative power—indeed, of absolute power…then we can at least begin to recognize the danger.”

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The Kurds: An untapped solution to the ISIS crisis?

Despite the presence of global and regional powers, the most effective fighting force countering ISIS has been the Kurds, a people not even in possession of a state of their own.

Despite that reality, the U.S. continues to display reluctance to provide these proven fighters, who come far closer to western standards of human rights than most other participating groups, with the weapons they need to protect themselves and defeat ISIS.

Current White House policy for ground forces leans on two local powers, Turkey and Iran, neither of which offer an appropriate solution.

According to the Gatestone Institute  “Apparently, for the government of Turkey, ISIS, which engages in mass murder, ethnic cleansing, mass rape and sexual slavery, is preferable to the Kurds, who resist ISIS and demand rights and liberties that have been taken away from them by the repressive regimes that rule over them…With its limited military power aided only by NATO planes and Peshmerga forces, the YPG are fighting against the immolators and decapitators, and trying to protect innocent people who would otherwise be massacred by ISIS….

The Kurdish militias — the YPG (A Kurdish “People’s Protection Unis” force in Syria) in Syrian Kurdistan and the Peshmerga in the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq — are the only Muslim forces truly resisting the ISIS on the ground. These Kurdish forces are mostly Muslim; at the same time, unlike the Arab regimes or radical Islamist armies in the region, they are secular and protective of minorities. On one side, there is Turkey, whose membership in the NATO has not prevented it from turning a blind eye to — or even facilitating the traffic of — ISIS fighters…”

According to the Council on Foreign Relations,“The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Middle East and the region’s fourth-largest ethnic group. They speak Kurdish, an Indo-European language, and are predominantly Sunni Muslims. Kurds have a distinct culture, traditional dress, and holiday… Kurdish nationalism emerged during the twentieth century following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of new nation-states across the Middle East. The estimated thirty million Kurds reside primarily in mountainous regions of present-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey and remain one of the world’s largest peoples without a sovereign state… The Kurds are not monolithic[and]have a long history of marginalization and persecution, and, particularly in Iraq and Turkey, have repeatedly risen up to seek greater autonomy or complete independence.”
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Part of the Administration’s reluctance to appropriately arm the Kurds rests with concerns about offending Turkey, a NATO partner. At least one portion of the Kurdish people lay claim to a portion of territory that currently belongs to Turkey. But Kurds also exist in numbers in northern Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and claim title to some territory of those nations.

In 2006, then-Senator Biden called for the establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, as part of a three-way split of the Iraqi nation. He appears to have moved away from that position.

Turkey has displayed no particular enthusiasm for the battle, leaving Iran, which is using the crisis as an excuse to expand its regional influence, as the best armed ground fighting force countering ISIS. ISIS has been, quite bluntly, a great benefit for Iran, even if the two entities are enemies. It has been a long term Iranian goal to place forces in and dominate portions of Iraq. It expands the Mullahs influence in the Middle East, and it serves as a bargaining chip in dealing with the West.

The failure to provide the Kurds, a western-friendly people interested primarily in their own survival with the support they need to confront ISIS is a significant policy error on Washington’s part, one that has led to great and worrisome gains for Iran.

 

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Anchor Babies and the law

There is increased discussion over the need to examine the concept of “anchor babies” (defined by the Urban Dictionary  as “When a foreigner or illegal alien (non-US citizen) comes to the USA to have a baby for the purpose of making the baby a US citizen. The baby becomes a US citizen giving the illegal alien/foreign parent and their family grounds to come to and stay in the US and become eligible for government benefits. Also called a “jackpot baby”.)

Martin Gross, in his book “National Suicide” writes that America is in for a demographic challenge “due to the fact that all children born to illegals on these shores are incomprehensibly considered citizens of the United States from the moment of their birth…That is simply because under the present false interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, progeny of illegals immediately on becoming 18, as full-fledged citizens, are able to vote. Meanwhile, from birth they are able to tap the enormous federal and state charity services…”

In terms of immigration numbers, the effect of anchor babies results in a sharp increase, since when he or she reaches 21, they can bring in foreign-born relatives.

According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study “An estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the United States in 2008 were the offspring of unauthorized immigrants…Unauthorized immigrants comprise slightly more than 4% of the adult population of the U.S., but because they are relatively young and have high birthrates, their children make up a much larger share of both the newborn population (8%) and the child population (7% of those younger than age 18) in this country.”

The applicable sections of  the 14th Amendment :

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The current interpretation of the 14th Amendment as it applies to immigration is codified in the United States Code at 8 U.S.C. 1401(a).

The 14th amendment was enacted in 1868 in order to give blacks, who had been freed from slavery as a result of the Civil War, equal rights. Although it has been, in the 20th and 21st centuries, interpreted to apply to anchor babies, there is little historic evidence that this application of the amendment was ever intended by its authors—indeed, the entire issue of illegal immigration didn’t exist in the 1860s.

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In testimony before Congress on April 29, 2015, Jon Feere of the Center for Immigration Studies noted:

“Every year, 350,000 to 400,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the United States. To put this another way, as many as one out of 10 births in the United States is now to an illegal immigrant mother. Despite the foreign citizenship and illegal status of the parent, the Executive Branch automatically recognizes these children as U.S. citizens upon birth, providing them Social Security numbers and U.S. passports. The same is true of children born to tourists and other aliens who are present in the United States in a legal but temporary status. It is unlikely that Congress intended such a broad application of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, and the Supreme Court has only held that children born to citizens or permanently domiciled immigrants must be considered U.S. citizens at birth. Some clarity from Congress would be helpful in resolving this ongoing debate…

“While it is unclear for how long the U.S. government has followed this practice of universal, automatic “birthright citizenship” without regard to the duration or legality of the mother’s presence, the issue has garnered increased attention for a number of reasons.

“First, the mass illegal immigration this country has experienced in recent decades has raised the question of whether Congress intended that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause would operate to turn children of illegal aliens into U.S. citizens at birth. The population of U.S.-born children with illegal alien parents has expanded rapidly in recent years from 2.7 million in 2003 to 4.5 million by 2010. Under the immigration enforcement priorities of the Obama administration, illegal immigrants who give birth to U.S. citizens have become low priorities for deportation; furthermore, under the president’s DAPA program (the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program) — a program currently held up in court — would provide benefits to illegal immigrants who gave birth here and allow them to “stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation.” The broad interpretation of the Citizenship Clause forms the basis for these policies.

“Second is the issue of chain migration. A child born to illegal aliens in the United States can initiate a chain of immigration when he reaches the age of 18 and can sponsor an overseas spouse and unmarried children of his own. When he turns 21, he can also sponsor his parents and any brothers and sisters. Family-sponsored immigration accounts for most of the nation’s growth in immigration levels; approximately 2/3 of our immigration flow is family-based. This number continues to rise every year because of the ever-expanding migration chains that operate independently of any economic downturns or labor needs. Although automatic and universal birthright citizenship is not the only contributor to chain migration, ending it would prevent some of this explosive growth.

“Third, the relatively modern phenomenon of affordable international travel and tourism has increased the opportunity for non-citizens to give birth here, raising questions about the appropriate scope of the Citizenship Clause. According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2013 there were 173 million nonimmigrant admissions to the United States.3 This includes people entering for tourism, business travel, and other reasons, but also those entering to engage in “birth tourism”, a growing phenomenon that has arisen in direct response to our government’s broad application of the Citizenship Clause. Birth tourism is the practice of people around the world traveling to the United States to give birth for the specific purpose of adding a U.S. passport holder to their family, while misrepresenting the true intention of their visit to the United States.

“Birth tourism is becoming much more common with every passing year and Congress will have to address it. Part of that discussion will include a focus on birthright citizenship and whether children born to people in the country on a temporary basis should be considered U.S. citizens. An entire “birth tourism” industry has been created and the phenomenon has grown largely without any debate in Congress or the consent of the public. While many birth tourists currently making news are from China, it certainly is not limited to that country. Birth tourists come from all corners of the globe, from China to Turkey to Nigeria. The Nigerian media reported a few years back that the phenomenon of Nigerians traveling to the United States to give birth is “spreading so fast that it is close to becoming an obsession.” The article was in response to congressional legislation aimed at ending birth tourism; the article’s title: “American Agitations Threaten a Nigerian Practice.”

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced a measure  to reform the anchor baby situation. H.R. 140, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015. The bill would “Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to consider a person born in the United States “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States for citizenship at birth purposes if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is: (1) a U.S. citizen or national, (2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States, or (3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.”

In introducing the legislation, Rep. King states “A Century ago it didn’t matter very much that a practice began that has now grown into a birthright citizenship, an anchor baby agenda…When they started granting automatic citizenship on all babies born in the United States they missed the clause in the 14th Amendment that says, ‘And subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ So once the practice began, it grew out of proportion and today between 340,000 and 750,000 babies are born in America each year that get automatic citizenship even though both parents are illegal. That has got to stop. I know of no other country in the world that does that. My Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015 fixes it, clarifies the 14th Amendment and it recognizes the clause, ‘And subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ This Congress needs to Act.”

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Charles Butler on the Vernuccio/Novak Report

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Fearless commentator Charles Butler will discuss this on the next Vernuccio/Novak Report.

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NY Analysis

Why is crime increasing?

For two decades, reports on crime had been encouraging. The Society Pages noted that “both violent and property crimes have dropped steadily and substantially for nearly twenty years. Whether looking to ‘official’ crime (reported to the police) or victimization surveys, the story is the same—both violent and property crimes have dropped like a stone.”

But that trend appears to be reversing.  USATODAY   reports “After seeing years of decline in violent crime, several major American cities experienced a dramatic surge in homicides during the first half of this year.

“Milwaukee, which had one of its lowest annual homicide totals in city history last year, has recorded 84 murders so far this year, more than double the 41 it tallied at the same point last year. Milwaukee is not alone.

“Baltimore, New Orleans and St. Louis have also seen the number of murders jump 33% or more in 2015. Meanwhile, Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, has seen the homicide toll climb by 19% and the number of shooting incidents increase in the city by 21% during the first half of the year.

The New York Daily News asked why there is an almost simultaneous increase in so many cities. “Why is there a synchronicity among these cities?” said Peter Scharf, an assistant professor at the LSU School of Public Health whose research focuses on crime. “One reason may be President Obama is broke. Governors like Bobby Jindal are broke, and mayors like (New Orleans’ Mitch) Landrieu are broke. You don’t have the resources at any level of government to fund a proactive law enforcement.”

Excepts from the Daily News research: “So far this year, Baltimore has recorded 155 homicides, including three people who were killed late Tuesday evening near the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. The 2015 homicide toll is 50 higher than it was at the same point last year. The Charm City, which is seeing some of the worst violence since the 1990s when it routinely tallied 300 murders annually, recorded 42 killings in May alone.

“In St. Louis, there have been 93 homicides compared with 58 at the same point last year. The increased violence this year in St. Louis follows the city recording a more than 30% increase in murders in 2014, when police in the city saw a steep rise in violence following the shooting death last August of Michael Brown, a black teenager, in nearby Ferguson by a white police officer. Police have made arrests in only 29 of the 2015 homicide cases, suggesting witnesses are increasingly showing a reluctance to come forward. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said that he’s increasingly looking to federal authorities to get involved in cases in the city in the hopes of spurring witnesses to come forward. St. Louis Police and several federal agencies also plan to announce a new partnership next week aimed at reducing the violence in the city.

“Chicago’s homicide toll stood at 203 as of June 28, up from 171 at the same time last year, according to police stats. The city is still well below pace of 2012, when Chicago recorded more than 500 murders for the entire year.

“Meanwhile, Houston Police reported 73 murders in the first quarter of 2015, compared with 46 during the same period last year. The police department for the fourth-largest U.S. city has yet to release its murder tally for the second quarter of 2015.

“Minneapolis had 22 murders in the first half of 2015, compared with 15 during the same period last year.

“In Washington, D.C., the homicide count stands at 73 compared with 62 last year.”

The L.A. Times reports that “Crime surged across Los Angeles in the first six months of this year despite a campaign by the Los Angeles Police Department to place more officers on the streets and target certain types of offenses. Los Angeles recorded a 12.7% increase in overall crime, ending more than a decade of declines and raising concerns about what more officials can do to reverse the trend.”

REASONS

Why has crime made a comeback throughout the nation?  Some believe it may have much to do with anti-police rhetoric. In New York City, for example, has an outstanding police force renowned for both exceptional efficiency and fairness. Despite that, the Big Apple’s current Mayor, Bill De Blasio campaigned using anti-police rhetoric. The state governor has urged his attorney general to pursue cases involving police shootings. Homicides in New York have risen in 2015.

Heather MacDonald, writing in the New York Times, notes “One possible explanation is that officers have become reluctant to engage in proactive policing because of the vitriol they have faced over the last nine months, a hypothesis based on interviews with officers, the observations of commanders, and past experience. The claim, frequently repeated in the media, that police routinely kill young black men has led to riots, sometimes violent protests and attacks on officers… In November, Chief Sam Dotson of the St. Louis Police referred to the “Ferguson effect”: officers backing away from discretionary enforcement under charges of racism, thereby emboldening criminals. At that point, arrests in St. Louis city and county had dropped a third since the August shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. Homicides in the city had surged 47 percent and robberies in the county were up 82 percent. In Baltimore, arrests dropped 56 percent this May since the protests and riots over the death of Freddie Gray, while shootings so far this year are up more than 60 percent compared to the same period last year.”

CNN reported: “One obvious difference between last year and this year is the tensions between police officers and certain communities. The high-profile instances of police officers killing unarmed black men stirred outrage and protests.There is an understanding that somehow things have changed — or must change — in a post-Michael Brown, post-Freddie Gray, post-Eric Garner America.The debate on whether police reform is needed or whether more aggressive policing is necessary is often political. The early 2015 murder statistics are providing evidence for both sides.

“If there’s a national mood that starts to see police as the bad guys, the police as the enemy responsible for these problems, it makes it a hell of a lot harder to police,” said Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer and professor of policing. “One way that cops deal with that is that they just stop policing those people.”

“A former New York Police Department officer, Bill Stanton, agreed that an uptick in crime can be linked to police being less assertive. When you take away police pride and you take away giving them the benefit of the doubt … and you’re going to call them racist and you’re going to prosecute them for doing nothing wrong,” Stanton said, “then what happens is they’re going to roll back. They’re not going to go that extra mile.”

Illegal Immigration may be a factor

The increase in illegal immigration may also play a role.  Infowars notes that “Unfortunately, our current policy is allowing hordes of lawless young men to come flooding into this country, and as a result gang membership is absolutely exploding. The FBI says that there are approximately 1.4 million gang members in the United States at this point, and that number has risen by an astounding 40 percent just since 2009…And these gangs are starting to gain a stranglehold on communities all over the nation…According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center,  Mexican drug cartels were actively operating in 50 different U.S. cities in 2006.  By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 1,286.”

The Center for Immigration Studies has reported that:

“A review of internal ICE metrics for 2013 reveals that hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens who were identified in the interior of the country were released instead of removed under the administration’s sweeping “prosecutorial discretion” guidelines. In 2013, ICE reported 722,000 encounters with potentially deportable aliens, most of whom came to their attention after incarceration for a local arrest. Yet ICE officials followed through with immigration charges for only 195,000 of these aliens, only about one-fourth. According to ICE personnel, the vast majority of these releases occurred because of current policies that shield most illegal aliens from enforcement, not because the aliens turned out to have legal status or were qualified to stay in the United States.

Many of the aliens ignored by ICE were convicted criminals. In 2013, ICE agents released 68,000 aliens with criminal convictions, or 35 percent of all criminal aliens they reported encountering. The criminal alien releases typically occur without formal notice to local law enforcement agencies and victims.

These findings raise further alarm over the Obama administration’s pending review of deportation practices, which reportedly may further expand the administration’s abuse of “prosecutorial discretion”. Interior enforcement activity has already declined 40 percent since the imposition of “prosecutorial discretion” policies in 2011.1 Rather than accelerating this decline, there is an urgent need to review and reverse the public safety and fiscal harm cause by the president’s policies.

Key Findings

  • In 2013, ICE charged only 195,000, or 25 percent, out of 722,000 potentially deportable aliens they encountered. Most of these aliens came to ICE’s attention after incarceration for a local arrest.
  • ICE released 68,000 criminal aliens in 2013, or 35 percent of the criminal aliens encountered by officers. The vast majority of these releases occurred because of the Obama administration’s prosecutorial discretion policies, not because the aliens were not deportable.
  • ICE targeted 28 percent fewer aliens for deportation from the interior in 2013 than in 2012, despite sustained high numbers of encounters in the Criminal Alien and Secure Communities programs.
  • Every ICE field office but one reported a decline in interior enforcement activity, with the largest decline in the Atlanta field office, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas.
  • ICE reports that there are more than 870,000 aliens on its docket who have been ordered removed, but who remain in defiance of the law.
  • Under current policies, an alien’s family relationships, political considerations, attention from advocacy groups, and other factors not related to public safety can trump even serious criminal convictions and result in the termination of a deportation case.
  • Less than 2 percent of ICE’s caseload was in detention at the end of fiscal year 2013.
  • About three-fourths of the aliens ICE detained in 2013 had criminal and/or immigration convictions so serious that the detention was required by statute. This suggests the need for more detention capacity, so ICE can avoid releasing so many deportable criminal aliens.”

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Economy languishes as high taxes set record

The U.S. economy continues to languish.

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that “advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $442.0 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent.”

Concern over the worrisome retail numbers is matched by poor news from the manufacturing portion of the economy. According to the Federal Reserve   “Industrial production decreased 0.2 percent in May after falling 0.5 percent in April. …Manufacturing output decreased 0.2 percent in May and was little changed, on net, from its level in January. In May, the index for mining moved down 0.3 percent after declining more than 1 percent per month, on average, in the previous four months. The slower rate of decrease for mining output last month was due in part to a reduced pace of decline in the index for oil and gas well drilling and servicing…”

The troubled indicators are reflected in continued wage and employment challenges. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,  the more accurate “U-6” unemployment number is 10.5%, but critics from across the political spectrum note that the number may not reflect the true extent of the unemployment crisis. Republicans claim that significant numbers of the un- and under-employed remain unaccounted. Socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has stated that the true unemployment number for one segment of the population, unemployment African-American youth, is 51%.

Even those employed have little to cheer about. The Federal Reserve  reports that, over the long term,  wages have failed to keep up with the economy.
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The Pew Research Center notes that the purchasing power of wages has not progressed for decades. “For most U.S. workers, real wages — that is, after inflation is taken into account — have been flat or even falling for decades, regardless of whether the economy has been adding or subtracting jobs. Cash money isn’t the only way workers are compensated, of course — health insurance, retirement-account contributions, education and transit subsidies and other benefits all can be part of the package. But wages and salaries are the biggest (about 70%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and most visible component of employee compensation.”

One organization has increased its’ income during this era of economic challenges—the federal government. According to the monthly treasury statement Indications continue that the U.S. economy continues to languish.  According to the CNS analysis of the Monthly Treasury Statement,

“The federal government raked in a record of approximately $2,446,920,000,000 in tax revenues through the first nine months of fiscal 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014 through the end of June), That equaled approximately $16,451 for every person in the country who had either a full-time or part-time job in June…

Despite the record tax revenues the government ran up a deficit of $313,381,000,000 during the period.”

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Iran deal is deeply flawed

The nuclear deal with Iran is deeply flawed.

Iran is already a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation pact, an international obligation it has chosen to ignore. It has failed to report key portions of its atomic program as required by that treaty. What, then, are the prospects for compliance with the current deal?

According to the White House,

“Iran would need two key elements to construct a uranium bomb: tens of thousands of centrifuges and enough highly enriched uranium to produce enough material to construct a uranium bomb. “There are currently two uranium enrichment facilities in the country: the Natanz facility and the Fordow facility.

“Let’s take a look at Iran’s uranium stockpile first. Currently, Iran has a uranium stockpile to create 8 to ten nuclear bombs.“But thanks to this nuclear deal, Iran must reduce its stockpile of uranium by 98%, and will keep its level of uranium enrichment at 3.67% — significantly below the enrichment level needed to create a bomb. “Iran also needs tens of thousands of centrifuges to create highly enriched uranium for a bomb. Right now, Iran has nearly 20,000 centrifuges between their Natanz and Fordow facilities. But under this deal, Iran must reduce its centrifuges to 6,104 for the next ten years. No enrichment will be allowed at the Fordow facility at all, and the only centrifuges Iran will be allowed to use are their oldest and least efficient models…

“As it stands today, Iran has a large stockpile of enriched uranium and nearly 20,000 centrifuges, enough to create 8 to 10 bombs. If Iran decided to rush to make a bomb without the deal in place, it would take them 2 to 3 months until they had enough weapon-ready uranium (or highly enriched uranium) to build their first nuclear weapon. Left unchecked, that stockpile and that number of centrifuges would grow exponentially, practically guaranteeing that Iran could create a bomb—and create one quickly – if it so chose.

Not to mention, when the patents buy viagra pill of the ED sufferers. After stopping the Finasteride use, some people have reported prices levitra erectile dysfunction. Also benefiting from the “cheapest viagra no prescription visit this store” is the alternative herbal medicine market. Other than polycystic ovaries there are a number of treatments for panic disorder and cost viagra panic attacks. “This deal removes the key elements needed to create a bomb and prolongs Iran’s breakout time from 2-3 months to 1 year or more if Iran broke its commitments. Importantly, Iran won’t garner any new sanctions relief until the IAEA confirms that Iran has followed through with its end of the deal. And should Iran violate any aspect of this deal, the U.N., U.S., and E.U. can snap the sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy back into place.”

The key phrase of the White House statement: Under the deal, it would only take Iran a year to build a weapon. In return for extending the breakout period from three months to twelve, Tehran gets about a half-trillion dollars in assets. A great deal for Iran, a bad one for the rest of the world.  The lack of unrestrained inspection rights calls into question the intentions of Tehran to adhere to the agreement.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tx), chair of the House Armed Service Committee, “”If Iran decides to build a nuclear weapon, this deal only extends the timeline for Iran to break-out by 9 months – and that assumes that the agreement is being implemented precisely by all parties, which is dubious when we know Iran failed to adhere to the terms of the interim deal.  In exchange, Iran will receive billions in sanctions relief, a windfall to pursue its aggressive, destabilizing agenda in the region and beyond.  Whatever the claimed gains we get from this deal, it clearly does not outweigh the risks to the security in the region and to the United States and its interests.”

Clearly, Iran was motivated to come to the bargaining table in order to gain relief from sanctions and to have its asserts unfrozen. The Jerusalem Post quotes Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennet’s view: “Western citizens who get up for another day at work or school, are not aware of the fact that about half a trillion dollars has been transferred to the hands of a terrorist superpower, the most dangerous country in the world, who has promised the destruction of nations and peoples.” His views were echoed by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who stated that “The nuclear accord agreed upon in Vienna is a ‘historical capitulation of the West to the axis of evil led by Iran.”

Even under the best of circumstances, including full Iranian cooperation in inspections, the nation will essentially, after a decade, emerge unrestrained and stronger than ever. Rather than mandate an absolute right of inspection, a process is established that would allow Tehran to move key material around while a decision is pending on allowing a military base inspection to move forward.

The U.S. Congress has 60 days to review the agreement, but President Obama has stated that he would veto a verdict he disapproves of.

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Seapower policy in a perilous age: The Navy League’s view

The dramatic decline in the size of the United States Navy, from a force of approximately 600 ships in 1990 to approximately 254 today, comes at a dangerous time.  Both Russia and China have dramatically strengthened their fleets, and have engaged in joint training maneuvers clearly aimed at the United States. Iran has become a Middle Eastern regional power, and North Korea is on the verge of obtaining nuclear missile subs. 

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The Navy League has released its 2015/2016 policy statement on Seapower.  The Executive Summary of that report is excerpted here:

As a maritime nation, the United States must have the strongest, most capable sea services and a dedicated maritime strategy to ensure conflicts are kept far from our shores and that the sea lanes are open and free for commerce. …

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., describes the military’s budget problem as akin to living from paycheck to paycheck. It will get us by, but at the cost of deferring equipment maintenance, home station training and modernization.

The Navy League is concerned that if the Department of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration are required to continue to respond to crisis after crisis without the funding needed to build new ships, repair old equipment and provide routine maintenance, the nation risks permanent damage to national defense and puts in jeopardy the domestic and international economies that rely on the safety and security that U.S. sea power provides. Ships, crews and equipment cannot continue the current pace of operations. The retention of trained personnel will decline, ultimately leading to reduced readiness for combat and other missions.

By many measures, current funding levels do not meet the sea services’ needs. …

The United States is trying to peacefully bring China into great power status, while Beijing uses diplomatic and economic tools to try and deny the United States physical and political access around the world. China’s defense budget has increased by 500 percent since 2011. Testifying on Feb. 25, 2015, before the House Armed Services Seapower and Projections Forces Subcommittee on the Navy budget, Vice Adm. Joseph P. Mulloy, deputy chief of naval operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources, said the Chinese navy now has more attack submarines than the United States.

The imperialistic actions of Russia have caught the world off guard, and Moscow’s long-term ambitions are ambiguous at best.

Iran and North Korea represent a risk of nuclear proliferation combined with unpredictable leadership and increased cyber warfare risks.

Iran is expanding its influence and bringing ambiguity to the “nuclear question.” Iran has built up a significant amount of asymmetric offensive capability in the form of small boats, mines and other investments that could disrupt the free flow of goods along the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. Al-Qaida, ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also referred to as ISIS) and other transnational networks are now recruiting home-grown violent extremists. They have a brutality unlike anything seen in the modern world, attempting the genocide of the Yazidi people and other horrors.

We have seen cyber attacks on American corporations, such as those on Target and Sony Pictures in 2014, while hackers who are working for nations continue to target the aerospace and defense sectors with increased vigor. Our defense contractors and their intellectual property are prime targets.

The unforeseen threats that we face are the product of a number of factors. For instance, the Arab Spring, the Syria conflict and the withdrawal of forces from Iraq together created the significant unintended consequence of ISIL. The Taliban are regrouping in Afghanistan, and the full impact of their resurgence has yet to be seen. Demand continues to rise. The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) demonstrated that the combatant commanders’ (CCDRs’) demand for naval forces has increased, and today it remains very high, particularly when factoring in the following events in 2014:

■ Russia destabilized Crimea and began destabilizing eastern Ukraine in February.

■ ISIL launched an offensive into Iraq in June.

■ The Centers for Disease Control in August predicted 1.4 million people would be infected by Ebola in West Africa.

■ Sony’s networks were hacked in November and December.

Navy officials have testified that a Navy fleet of 450 ships would be needed to fully meet Combatant Command demands. In the face of this increasingly unpredictable global environment, the readiness of U.S. maritime forces is at troublesome levels. Forward-deployed forces are ready to go, but forces that are neither forward nor deployed are not as ready as they have been in the past. The actual deployment of our naval forces has far exceeded the planned deployment schedule as reality and the needs of CCDRs intervened. Extended deployments, deferred maintenance and reduced funding means stress on our services.

In light of this environment, the Navy League of the United States supports five key points:

The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard must:

  1. Maintain the world’s finest maritime force to sustain U.S. global dominance.
  2. Maintain the readiness of the operating forces and avoid hollowing them out.
  3. Make tough budget decisions; everything should be on the table.
  4. Preserve the quality of the all-volunteer force and take care of our Sailors, Marines and Coast Guard men and women.
  5. Be deployed forward as America’s first response to crises around the world.