The Cuba crisis reveals deep Democrat hypocrisy

The Biden administration is suddenly giving migrants the cold shoulder.

July 22, 2021

ITEM #1: How does the left feel about migrants and asylum?

It would seem the answer is … it depends.

As vast numbers of Cubans continue to flee the island nation in the midst of increased government crackdowns on human rights — seeking freedom and safety in the United States — we’ve been provided a teachable moment as to Democrats’ real priorities.

Jenny Goldsberry reports on the Biden administration’s not-so-warm welcome to these Cubans — and notes the stark contrast with how it has approached would-be migrants from elsewhere:

"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the department’s official statement on Cuba, discouraging Cubans from fleeing to the U.S. despite the Biden Administration’s lenient position on the thousands of migrants pouring across the southern border with Mexico daily.

"The growing crisis and uprising in Cuba began last week when citizens of the communist country began pouring into the streets, shouting for liberty and protesting the meager conditions that have left most of the population without food, medicine or hospital care.

"Mayorkas’ said Tuesday in a statement 'we also stand in solidarity with the Cuban people & their call for freedom from the repression & economic suffering that Cuba’s authoritarian regime is causing.'

"But, he reminded Cubans that officials 'are monitoring any activity that may indicate increases in unsafe and irregular maritime migration in the Florida straits' as to discourage immigration.

“'The time is never right to attempt migration by sea.' the DHS secretary tweeted “To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking. Allow me to be clear: if you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.'”

What’s going on here? Why is the party of open borders suddenly putting up the do-not-enter sign for those seeking to come to the U.S. in pursuit of a better life? Sure, migration by sea is dangerous, but the abhorrent safety conditions at our southern border have been extensively documented as well.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks has a theory:

“[T]his might explain the double standard: Cuban-American voters are almost twice as likely to be Republicans as non-Cuban Hispanics. Those voters are also concentrated in politically important Florida.

“Biden loves amnesty. But he’s far less welcoming of those he thinks will one day join his political opposition.”

Democrats playing politics with people’s lives? Never!

ITEM #2:  While we’re on the subject of Cuba …

Colin Kaepernick — failed NFL quarterback turned darling of the radical, anti-police left — is fond of expressing his admiration for Fidel Castro. Of course, it’s much easier to do so when you live in a free society and have never had to experience the horrors of a brutal dictatorship yourself.

Enter Jorge Masvidal.

Ryan Gaydos reports:

"UFC star Jorge Masvidal called Colin Kaepernick a 'coward' on social media on Friday.

"Masvidal commented on a post from Turning Point USA via his Instagram Stories. The post showed Kaepernick from 2016 wearing a Fidel Castro shirt adjacent to a picture of the protests in Cuba.

"'Know ur history and facts cowards like this fool should be sent to live in Cuba see what they say after a day there,' he wrote. ...

"Masvidal shed some light on his family’s history escaping from the Cuban regime. He described the Cuban government as a 'killing machine.'

""My father escaped Cuba when he was 14 years old,' Masvidal said in a video. 'And I’ve only heard the horror stories since I could process thoughts of how s--- this communist regime, killing machine is. So I just want to shed some light on Cuba — big SOS signal for them.

"'This oppression has been going on for 61 years. It’s not just because of the pandemic, or it’s not just because they ran out of medicine, because they’ve been out of medicine, they’ve been out of resources and food. Because of the corrupt government, the extreme corruption over there where only a few at the top eat and everybody else has to suffer — those days have to come to an end.'”

ITEM #3: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — known for consistently churning out batty left-wing opinions — is always a frequent target for U.S. Supreme Court reversals.

You may recall that in early 2020, Nevada’s own Lawrence VanDyke — who had served as Nevada’s Solicitor General when Adam Laxalt was Attorney General — was sworn in as the newest 9th Circuit judge, part of a wave of constitutional conservative jurists added to the bench by President Trump.

Now, the evidence is mounting that this new infusion of originalist thinking has helped lead to an increasing number of the 9th Circuit’s misguided opinions being thrown out. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, David Savage and Maura Dolan explain:

"The Supreme Court’s favorite target again this year was the California-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which saw 15 of 16 rulings overturned on review.

"For decades, the high court’s conservatives have trained a skeptical eye on the historically liberal appeals court and regularly reversed its rulings, particularly on criminal law and the death penalty.

"But by some estimates, this year saw the most Supreme Court reversals of 9th Circuit decisions since 1985. And the range of issues was broad, including immigration, religion, voting rights, property rights and class-action lawsuits.

"In four years, President Trump appointed 10 judges to the appeals court, a sprawling Western jurisdiction that includes nine states and two U.S. territories."

And here's where the influence of VanDyke and the other conservative appointees comes in:

"Trump’s 9th Circuit picks appeared to have played a significant role this year by pressing for internal review of rulings they didn’t like and joining sharp dissents that drew the interest of the Supreme Court.

“'The more people who join the dissents, the more it gets the attention of the conservatives,' said one 9th Circuit judge, speaking on the condition of not being identified by name."

It’s great to see an old friend making Nevada proud.

ITEM #4:  "Minnesota police released bodycam footage taken during a traffic stop with state Rep. John Thompson that raises questions over his claim that he was pulled over for 'driving while Black,'" Emma Colton reports.

She elaborates:

"‘Why in such a hurry?’ an officer asks Thompson, a Democrat, in the video filmed July 4 and released Tuesday by the St. Paul Police Department.

"‘I don't think I took off like a bat out of hell, I just drove off,’ Thompson replies.

“The officer asks Thompson for proof of insurance in the video, which the politician says is on his phone and notes that he is a state representative in the district. The officer asks about his Wisconsin driver’s license and returns to his vehicle for roughly 14 minutes.

"‘You're suspended in Minnesota,’ the officer says after returning to Thompson’s car.

“The state legislator shakes his head no, prompting the officer to say, ‘That's what the computer says. If it's wrong, you'll have to deal with DVS [the Department of Vehicle Services].’

“Thompson has reportedly never held a Minnesota license, according to documents reviewed by local outlets, and the officer cited him for driving with a suspended Wisconsin license.

“His license was suspended in 2019 for failure to pay child support in Ramsey County Minn., outlet WCCO reported.”

Cue the accusation of racism:

“Thompson then asks in the video why he was pulled over, which the officer said was due to his car having ‘No front plate, and the way you took off from the light back there.’

"’I'm too old to run from the police, man,’ Thompson says. ‘You profiled me because you looked me dead in the face and I got a ticket for driving while Black. You pulled me over because you saw a Black face in this car, brother. There's no way in hell I'm taking off with you behind me. ... You looked in this car and busted a U-turn and got behind my car, and that's the reason —’

“The officer then tells the state representative that the interaction is being recorded on a bodycam.

"‘I know. But what I'm saying is, what you're doing is wrong, to Black men,’ he says. ‘And you need to stop that. Thank you so much, but this ticket means nothing to me ... What I'm saying to you is stop racially profiling Black men in their cars sir. Stop doing that.’

“The officer argues he was not racially profiling him, and eventually tells Thompson to have a good night and walks away.”

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell was spot-on with his response to all this: "The driver, an elected official who does not dispute driving without a front license plate, owes our sergeant an apology."

As the story notes, Thompson is a Democrat, which means he belongs to a party that’s shown it’s perfectly comfortable smearing and disrespecting our brave men and women in law enforcement. We’re not holding our breaths on that apology.

ITEM #5:  To be sure, some politically panic-stricken Democrats are indeed trying to walk back their reckless actions to undermine and defund law-enforcement agencies around the country. Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute who has been surveying the carnage the left has caused, has some strong words about their latest attempts at duplicity.

In a recent interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Mac Donald said:

“Consistency is not the Democrats’ strong point. It’s too late. [President] Biden and [Chicago Mayor] Lori Lightfoot can try to refund the police all they want. They’re not going to be able to do it. We are in a recruiting crisis. People have been leaving —officers have been leaving — in droves. Retirements are up 45%, resignations are up 18% and police officers are telling everyone they know: Don’t even think of joining this profession.

“Ambush assaults on officers is up 91% this year, officers are cursed at … resisted arrests … every time that they get out of their cars now on a regular basis. And so the Democrats are furiously backpedaling to try and present themselves as the pro-police party. It’s not going to work. It’s not going to fool the American public. And it’s not going to bring real substance and law and order back to the city unless they start retracting their long history of anti-cop statements.”

Watch the clip here.

ITEM #6:  And speaking of walk-backs … 

From CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger:

“President Biden walked back some of his criticism of Facebook, saying Monday he meant to accuse a dozen users, but not the social media platform itself, of spreading deadly lies about Covid vaccines.

"‘Facebook isn't killing people,’ Biden said.

“Biden added that he hopes Facebook will do more to fight ‘the outrageous misinformation’ about coronavirus vaccines being spread on its platform ‘instead of taking it personally that somehow I'm saying Facebook is killing people.’

“Last week, Biden appeared to say just that: Asked outside the White House what his message was to platforms like Facebook regarding Covid disinformation, Biden said, ‘They're killing people.’

"‘I mean they really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that's — they're killing people,’ Biden said Friday.”

Yeah, can’t imagine why Facebook might have taken that personally.

ITEM #7:  Well-intentioned people can debate all day long about politics. But the decent among us know that no matter how strongly we may disagree with one another, it crosses an unacceptable line to start wishing harm on our adversaries.

Then there’s Michelle Leete of the NAACP.

Fox News’ Sam Dorman reports:

"A leader of the NAACP was seen outside a middle school in Fairfax County, Virginia on Thursday denouncing individuals she said were 'anti-equity' and even stating, 'Let them die.'

"While speaking outside of a middle school where anti-critical race theory demonstrators were, NAACP Vice President Michelle Leete said: 'Let's deny this off-key band of people that are anti-education, anti-teacher, anti-equity, anti-history, anti-racial … anti-opportunities, anti-help people, anti-diversity, [inaudible], anti-science, anti-change agent, anti-social justice, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-children, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-admissions policy change, anti-inclusion, anti-live and let live — let them die!'"

She reportedly received a round of applause after making her remarks.

As if that weren’t disturbing enough, Dorman additionally informs us that, “Leete also helps lead the Fairfax County PTA and appears to have worked for the state PTA as well.”

The word “sick” somehow doesn’t seem strong enough.

ITEM #8:  By the way, here’s where reckless border policies get you:

“There were nearly 190,000 migrant encounters at the southern border in June, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Friday — yet another rise in what were already sky-high border numbers, and bringing the total of encounters in fiscal year (FY) 2021 to more than 1 million.

“CBP said that 188,829 migrants were encountered at the southern border, an increase from the 180,034 encountered in May. It is also a sharp rise since when President Biden took office — there were 78,442 encounters in January.

“Compared to 2020, the numbers are staggeringly higher. Just 33,049 migrants were encountered in June 2020. It is even higher than the numbers in June 2019, when the border was in the midst of what was then a historic crisis at the border — 104,311 were encountered two years ago.”

More from that story by Adam Shaw here.

ITEM #9:  We thought we’d wrap up this week with an item that’s likely to make you smile.

The New York Post’s Hannah Sparks reports on an effort to give sharks — yes, sharks — a P.C. image makeover:

"Marine experts and advocates in Australia are urging the public to refrain from using the word 'attack' in reference to sharks, declaring that the majestic predatory fish has been unfairly stigmatized as a deliberate killer.

"Instead, officials have suggested that violent run-ins with sharks be dubbed with more neutral words — such as 'interactions.'"

A University of Sydney language researcher named Christopher Pepin-Neff is quoted in the story as saying that the term “shark attack” is a “lie,” and argues, in Sparks' words, that "a majority of what people call ‘attacks’ are merely nips and minor injuries from smaller sharks."

And with that, we’ll simply leave you with this response on Twitter from Steven Law of the Senate Leadership Fund: