The crisis reveals yet more media hypocrisy.
June 24, 2021
ITEM #1: The mainstream media’s approach to covering — or, more accurately, not covering — the ongoing humanitarian crisis at our Southern border is nothing short of repugnant. As is the Democrats’ continued refusal to take any responsibility for what’s occurring there.
And it’s all made even more outrageous by the shameless, opportunistic and dishonest way that both groups relentlessly went after President Trump for his handling of immigration policy.
Well, keep this week’s first item in mind the next time Democrats and their media friends try to downplay what’s going on at the border, and the next time they try to claim the moral high ground in this policy area …
“Fox News contributor and investigative reporter Sara Carter joined ‘Hannity’ Thursday in an exclusive report to discuss how sex trafficking operations have exploited migrant women at the U.S. southern border.
"‘We're talking about children as young as eight years old, sold into prostitution. It's just horrific,’ Carter said.
"‘Across the globe, more than 25 million people are subjected to human trafficking and slavery. In the United States, it's tens of thousands,’ she continued. ‘When you think about the number of people coming across the border and flooding into our cities, those that we don't even know … even those that have been apprehended. Women and children who are being released and Border Patrol agents … I've reported on this in the past, have said we release them and we don't even know if these are their real families.’"
Believe it or not, it gets worse:
“Carter also spoke to Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Craig Cummings, who shared details of horrifying situations he had seen.
"'We had a human trafficking operation that was going on and we had some women that would become pregnant in this particular case. … One of them was actually eight months pregnant and being forced to engage in sex for money here,' Cummings said.
"Cummings noted that many women were forced into the sex trade in order to pay back the traffickers for their entry into the United States.
"'They were trafficked into the U.S. to engage in this sex trafficking,' he continued. 'The sad part is, they were required to work six days a week to pay off their debt. And if they did not get to work all six days, whatever money that they would have made that would have went to pay that debt is erased for that week.'
"'A lot of the women that are engaged in sex trafficking, you know, are younger than eighteen up to about twenty-five or so. They're coming here looking for a dream and find a nightmare in places like this,' said Cummings."
The article’s author, Joshua Comins, reminds us that, “President Joe Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to spearhead the issue of illegal immigration at the southern border nearly three months ago, but Harris has no plans to visit the border.”
Read more and watch Carter’s interview with Hannity here.
ITEM #2: Sadly, Bradford Betz has some additional chilling news on this front:
"Texas Border Patrol agents busted yet another human smuggling operation, this time involving 33 illegal immigrants packed inside a 100-degree U-Haul van with zero ventilation.
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents made the discovery over the weekend outside a McDonald's restaurant in the west Texas town of Van Horn.
"The immigrants inside the U-Haul truck were suffering from heat-related maladies and around a dozen needed medical treatment, but none died, according to a local station.
"'Had our heroic agents not been able to free these trapped undocumented migrants, we could have seen 33 miserable deaths in this event,' Border Patrol's Big Bend Sector Chief Sean McGoffin told KVIA. 'Smugglers do not care what type of misery they put people through as they take their money.'"
Good thing Vice President Harris is on top of the situation, huh?
ITEM #3: What would be the impact of President Biden’s economic agenda?
The editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently highlighted an analysis from a leading national tax-policy group, and the findings are … not pretty.
Here are the RJ’s editors:
“The nonpartisan Tax Foundation analyzed the ramifications of Mr. Biden’s spending plans on the economy. It studied the American Jobs Plan, which is his ‘infrastructure’ bill, the American Families Plan and his budget blueprint for next year. Those proposals would increase spending by more than $4 trillion from the current baseline. Some of the spending would occur over several years.
“To pay for this, Mr. Biden has proposed a series of tax increases. That includes an increase in the corporate income tax from 21 percent to 28 percent. High-income earners would face several tax hikes, including an increase in the top tax rate, higher taxes on long-term capital gains and an increase in the death tax for unrealized capital gains. The Tax Foundation estimates these changes would increase net revenues by $1.3 trillion over 10 years. The Biden administration also claims it will collect around $700 billion through increased tax enforcement.
“The Tax Foundation finds that Mr. Biden’s spending binge ‘would increase long-run GDP by 0.3 percent, due to enhanced public infrastructure.’ But that small positive would be overwhelmed by the downside of higher taxes.
“Combined, Mr. Biden’s plan ‘reduces GDP by 0.9 percent in the long run, reduces wages by 0.8 percent and eliminates 165,000 full-time equivalent jobs.’”
Hey, Democrats … tell us again about how you’re the party of the American worker?
ITEM #4: Of course, that’s hardly the only example of how Democrats consistently undermine the interests of a constituency they claim to speak for.
A National Review editorial informs us:
"President Joe Biden’s Department of Education has issued guidance declaring that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination also prohibits discrimination — or so-called discrimination — on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."
The administration's position is line with that of the Obama administration, which, the editors remind us, "proceeded to mandate that federally funded schools use students’ preferred pronouns and permit students to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and accommodations, and participate in athletics, on the basis of self-identified gender rather than biological sex." The policy had been reversed by the Trump administration.
As National Review points out, the Biden administration’s move rests on a tortured interpretation of a Supreme Court Title IX decision.
Furthermore:
“In several key contexts, this redefinition will put girls’ privacy and safety at risk, permitting a biological male to enter any female-only space without anything more than an assurance that he identifies as female. One need not be a critic of gender theory to understand why such a situation poses unique risks to female students.”
In related news, Fox News’ Edmund DeMarche reports that, “A New Zealand weightlifter — who has competed in men’s events in the past — will become the first transgender competitor to qualify to be on the country’s women’s weightlifting team for Tokyo 2020.”
Just another day in the left’s war on women, science, and common sense.
ITEM #5: Oh, and let’s not forget the children! Democrats never tire of telling us how much they care about “the children.”
Yeah, about that …
The Washington Examiner’s Kevin Mooney reports:
“President Joe Biden is for the children.
“At least, that's what he says in his ‘plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice’ and in his executive order on ‘Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.’
“Climate change activists have said much the same. But by their own metrics, there are a few problems.
“Biden’s proposal to transition away from hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal involves significant logistical, environmental, and economic challenges that flow from the acquisition, chemical processing, and refining of rare earth minerals that are essential for green energy. Moreover, the mining techniques used to obtain the minerals used in wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles could put the children Biden champions in a compromising position.
“Those are just some of the major takeaways from a 287-page report from the International Energy Agency titled ‘The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions’ that calls attention to the massive costs and environmental impact of green energy materials. It is the climate change policies advanced through the Biden White House, as opposed to climate change per se, that jeopardize the health, wellness, and safety of the most vulnerable populations.”
Mooney continues:
"The switch from fossil fuels to green energy makes no sense, either economically or environmentally. But what about the children?
"Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., has some insight into that question. 'The clean, green future envisioned by the Biden administration for our children will not be possible without cobalt, which is used in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and as backup power for wind turbines and solar arrays,' Cohen told the Washington Examiner. 'Sixty percent of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where child labor is used in the mining of cobalt. Children there are sent into the mines as young as age seven. What about these children? Their lives are being sacrificed so that Wall Street investment houses and purveyors of green energy can make out like bandits from an industry already awash in taxpayer subsidies.'"
Bet that’s one detail that you won’t read about in Biden’s much-ballyhooed “plan.”
ITEM #6: You probably thought the purpose of NASA was to engage in space research, didn’t you?
Fox News’ Julia Musto reports:
"NASA announced the launch of a new diversity initiative this week called 'Mission Equity.'
"It's a move the agency said would aid in the effort to assess expansion and modification of its programs, grants, procurements and policies in addition to scrutinizing potential barriers and challenges for communities that are 'historically underrepresented and underserved.'"
The agency explained further that:
"[I]n this case, underserved and underrepresented communities were wide-ranging, including Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color, members of religious minorities, LBGTQIA+ persons, persons with disabilities, persons who live in rural areas and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality."
What, no little green men?
ITEM #7: See if you can follow any of the logic in this…
“Macy Gray is facing criticism over her call for a new American flag.
“On Thursday, the Grammy-winning singer shared an op-ed on MarketWatch that said the current flag serves as a ‘replacement’ to the Confederate flag, which she called ‘a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery.’
“She continued, calling the flag ‘tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect’ and claiming that ‘it no longer represents democracy and freedom.’
“Gray called into question the symbolism of the colors on the current American flag and the number of stars, suggesting that 62 years after it was designed, it's time to ‘reset’ the flag.”
A number of folks have responded to Gray’s idea with ridicule, including one Twitter user who suggested that, “Macy Gray should recognize that the Flag she wants to replace was the Flag that these soldiers died under while trying to free African-American slaves from Democrats.”
We suppose that if you’re a professional singer who hasn’t had a hit song in 22 years, this is one way to get attention.
ITEM #8:
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