elpasospeak

Students at George Washington University have petitioned to change their nickname.

Evidently they feel that being called “colonials” is offensive and oppressive.

Understanding history might be inconvenient to these students.

During the revolutionary war we were in fact colonies of England.  Our citizens fought for our freedom from monarchy and the right to establish our own government.

The “colonials” did something that has changed the course of history to the immense good of mankind.

We deserve better

Brutus

Recently the president of Mexico was quoted as saying ““If your recent declarations are due to frustration over issues to do with internal policy, your laws, or your Congress, direct yourself to them, not to Mexicans” in response to the United States president announcing plans to send national guard troops to help patrol our border with Mexico.

Personally I think that the Mexican president would have a point if President Trump’s actions were based on frustrations over internal American policies.

Instead, the administration is telling us that the moves are designed to stop the illegal immigration that is occurring.

According to a U.S. News and World Report the United States arrested 39,000 people crossing the border illegally in November 2017.

The Epoch Times reported “More than 50,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by Border Patrol agents along the U.S.–Mexico border in March.” (2018).

That’s the number that were caught.  Who knows how many made it through?

The guard will not actually be patrolling the border.  “These service members will provide mission-enhancing capabilities that allow Customs and Border Protection personnel to provide more law enforcement officers to the field,” said an Arizona National Guard statement.”

This is not the first time that guard troops have been used.  According to an ABC News report:

In 2006 the Bush administration deployed 6,000 Guardsmen as part of the border support mission known as Operation Jump Start.

President Barack Obama deployed 1,200 guardsmen in 2010 as part of a similar mission called Operation Phalanx.

Shouldn’t we fix our immigration system?

We deserve better

Brutus

I unfortunately had reason to try to sign on to the internal revenue site the other day.

This is what they suggested the experience would be like:

I chuckled when I read that they think fast is 15 minutes.

Two hours later I still was not able to get it done.

We deserve better

Brutus

Charlie Reese is retiring after 49 years as a journalist.

This is evidently his last column.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House now? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan …

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

We deserve better

Brutus

The writing portion of the naturalization test requires the applicant to successfully write one of three sentences.

Those sentences may contain these words:

To sufficiently demonstrate the ability to write in English, the applicant must write one sentence out of three sentences in a manner that the officer understands. The officer dictates the sentence to the applicant using standardized writing test forms. An applicant must not abbreviate any of the words. Once the applicant writes one of the three sentences in a manner that the officer understands, the officer stops the writing test.

An applicant does not fail the writing test because of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation errors, unless the errors interfere with the meaning of the sentence and the officer is unable to understand the sentence.

Passing the Writing Test

The applicant passes the writing test if the applicant is able to convey the meaning of one of the three sentences to the officer. The applicant’s writing sample may have the following:

•Some grammatical, spelling, or capitalization errors;
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•Omitted short words that do not interfere with meaning; or
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•Numbers spelled out or written as digits.

We deserve better

Brutus