There’s been a dangerous new development in the left’s assault on public safety.
October 31, 2019
ITEM #1: As you likely recall, during the 2019 Nevada Legislative Session, Democrat lawmakers tried to push a bill that would have turned Nevada into a sanctuary state. Thanks largely to your efforts — and Morning in Nevada PAC’s grassroots public-information campaign that you helped fuel — they failed.
But of course, the Left’s attacks on public safety didn’t stop there. They never do.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Victor Joecks, in a column titled, “Las Vegas is now a sanctuary city,” shares the alarming news that:
“Late last month, [a federal judge in California] issued an injunction preventing state and local law enforcement agencies from holding suspected illegal aliens for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The order didn’t include states that expressly allow civil immigration arrests. Nevada, however, hasn’t passed such a law. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Department announced that, because of the ruling, it was ending its participation in the 287(g) program. The city of Las Vegas issued a similar statement Thursday.
“Translation: Clark County and Las Vegas now have ‘sanctuary city’ policies in place.”
The first key takeaway is that this news constitutes a reckless and dangerous assault on public safety. Southern Nevadans are less safe today as a result of this step. Period. So … whom to blame, and what can and should be done next?
As we all work to understand who is really to blame and what the solution is, you can be sure we'll update you on that soon.
ITEM #2: On Saturday, President Trump gave the green light to take out the most notorious terrorist on the planet. He announced the mission’s success on Sunday morning. That night, he attended a World Series game in Washington, D.C.
At the end of the third inning, the stadium’s video screen showed a tribute to U.S. service members, followed by a live shot of the Commander in Chief who gave the order to wipe ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghadi from the face of the planet.
And the crowd booed.
But they don’t get it. Being jeered by denizens of the nation’s “swamp” is a badge of honor for this president, and yet another rallying cry for Trump supporters in America’s flyover country.
ITEM #3: President Trump did not notify House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — the Impeachment Queen — prior to launching the raid to bag Baghdadi. The reason, Trump told reporters, is “because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before.” True that.
In a huff after the Baghadi announcement, Pelosi tweeted that “@realDonaldTrump must present the American people with a clear strategy to confront ISIS.”
Seriously?
After President Obama sat by and watched ISIS become a murderous deadly threat to humanity across the globe, President Trump unshackled and unleashed America’s military and wiped it out. He followed up this weekend by wiping out the terror organization’s top dog.
But of course, don’t expect the biased media to call Pelosi out on her hypocrisy.
ITEM #4: The Way They Were, Part I
Nancy Pelosi in 2011…
“The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaeda. I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment.”
Nancy Pelosi in 2019…
“Americans salute the heroism, dedication and skill of our military and our intelligence professionals and acknowledge the work of our partners in the region.”
Trump Derangement Syndrome is strong with this one.
ITEM #5: The Way They Were, Part II
Elizabeth Warren in 2004…
“Fully funded vouchers would relieve parents from the terrible choice of leaving their kids in lousy schools or bankrupting themselves to escape those schools."
Elizabeth Warren in 2019…
“My administration will end federal funding for the expansion of charter schools, ban for-profit charter schools, and ensure existing charter schools are held to the same level of transparency and accountability as public schools.”
For the record, charter schools ARE public schools.
ITEM #6: “Those who cannot remember the past,” George Santayana warned more than 100 years ago, “are condemned to repeat it.”
It’s a quote that comes to mind often these days, as the Democrats’ presidential aspirants compete to see who can promise to throw the most money at America’s problems.
Writing at National Review, Lindsey M. Burke and Jonathan Butcher offer a helpful reminder of the folly behind this spend-our-way-to-prosperity mindset, with an in-depth look at the failure that was (and is) President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. What hits hardest about the piece is the authors’ description of how Americans still suffer today under the ill-conceived, big-government system Johnson created, particularly in the realm of education.
Their verdict: “Johnson’s programs and their legacy have proved to be a curse on taxpayers and low-income families.”
There’s a lesson in there for Senators Warren, Sanders, et al. — one they’ll no doubt insist on missing.
ITEM #7: There are many noxious features of today’s radical green movement, but at the top of the list has got to be its increasingly brazen authoritarianism.
Joel Kotkin, the presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, has written a thorough piece for City Journal looking at the greenies’ anti-democratic (and, really, anti-human) agenda. Kotkin writes:
“Ever more convinced of their role as planetary saviors, radical greens are increasingly intolerant of dissent or any questioning of their policy agenda. They embrace a sort of ‘soft Stalinism,’ driven by a determination to remake society, whether people want it or not — and their draconian views are penetrating the mainstream. ‘Democracy,’ a writer for Foreign Policy suggests, constitutes ‘the planet’s biggest enemy.’”
As Kotkin explains, one of the main reasons these environmentalists are resorting to anti-democratic measures is that the public isn’t buying what they’re selling. "Today’s working and middle classes are skeptical about policies that undermine their livelihoods in the promise of distant policy goals," he writes, adding: "Simply put, once the current green agenda is understood in terms of its impact on jobs and energy prices, it does not play well."
Organizing human society would be so much easier without those pesky humans, wouldn’t it?
ITEM #8: The level of hostility to the Nevada Department of Transportation’s (NDOT) new HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes on Interstate 15 and Highway 93-95 in Las Vegas is about as high as any local issue has generated in a long time.
The HOV lanes themselves were already a flash point with motorists who paid for them with their tax dollars while being banned from using them. But then NDOT switched the lane restrictions from weekday rush hours to 24/7.
In response to the furious backlash, NDOT officials blamed the federal government. They claimed the 24/7 restrictions were a condition for getting federal highway funds for the project. But an editorial in Sunday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal exposed that excuse as pure bull.
“NDOT’s decision to convert all HOV lanes to 24/7 enforcement was made arbitrarily,” the editorial noted. “Nothing in federal law requires carpool lanes outside of peak traffic hours.”
NOTABLE QUOTE
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” – Washington Post obituary