Reagan Democrat, who turned Republican in 1985 but remained an immigration liberal, Lincoln Diaz-Balart has died of cancer at 70

Former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart dead at 70: Former south Florida congressman fought Fidel Castro regime

 

... The Diaz-Balart brothers hail from a prominent family of prerevolutionary politicians who fled Cuba when Fidel Castro took power.

Their grandfather, father and uncle served in Cuba’s House before the family fled to the United States in 1959, the year of the revolution, when Lincoln was 5.

His father’s sister was married to Castro in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but they divorced and a falling-out between the families ensued. ...

May he rest in peace.

Illegal aliens invited by Democrat scoundrels as reported by US Customs and Border Protection has been an historic invasion: ~ 14 million

 Biden-Harris have let in at the very least 4 million of these, counting the minimum estimate of gotaways who have overwhelmed the ridiculous system and the known parolees. The largest standing army in the world is China's at 2 million.

 

 Nearly three million foreign nationals illegally entered or attempted entry into the U.S. in fiscal 2024, according to data published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The total reported nationwide was 2,901,142, with 198,929 reported at the northern border and 2,135,005 reported at the southwest border.

The data includes Border Patrol apprehensions between ports of entry, CBP encounters at ports of entry, and Office of Field Operations apprehensions nationwide.

CBP’s fiscal 2024 data, which covers Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 1, 2024, is the second highest reported under the Biden-Harris administration and second highest in U.S. history.

The highest total reported in U.S. history was more than 3.2 million in fiscal 2023, followed by fiscal 2024, fiscal 2022’s more than 2.76 million and fiscal 2021’s 1.95 million.

When subtracting the first three months of fiscal 2021, which occurred during the Trump administration, the number drops to 1,684,116.

No other administration has reported totals as high as these.

Combined, CBP apprehension/encounter data under the Biden-Harris administration totals 10,552,984.

This total excludes more than 2 million who illegally entered and evaded capture, known as gotaways.

CBP does not publicly report gotaway data.

The Center Square first reported gotaway data in 2021 after receiving it from a Border Patrol agent.

Retired CBP officials say the number is higher because gotaway data is underreported by about 20%.

The total also excludes 1,383,000 inadmissables released into the U.S. through two parole programs created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

This includes more than 852,000 illegal foreign nationals processed and released into the country through the CBP One App and more than 531,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans deemed inadmissible and released into the country through the CHNV parole program, according to CBP data. ...

The parole total also excludes the number of illegal foreign nationals released into the country through at least another 10 programs Mayorkas created. Federal judges ruled the parole programs are illegal; House Republicans cited them as examples of illegal actions for which they impeached Mayorkas in February. ...

Under the Biden-Harris administration, a record 518,524 illegal border crossers were reported at the northern border, excluding gotaways, the highest in U.S. history.

-- Bethany Blankley, "Nearly 3 million illegal border crossers reported in fiscal 2024: Roughly 14 million under Biden-Harris administration, most in US history"

Biden tailpipe rule will turn America into a Cuba of old cars

New York Post here:

Biden’s goals will push internal-combustion-vehicle prices into the stratosphere, and likely still not get consumers to play along; the 2032 mandate is beyond impossible to meet. 

Instead, Americans will keep older cars on the road far longer; even paying through the nose for clunkers and repairs will be the better bet.

 

May 2023: Average age of a car on the road in the US hit a record 12.5 years, up 3 months from 2022.

I have two cars for my family. One is 27 years old, the other 17. 

Remember Cash For Clunkers under Obama?

Yeah, I skipped that.

Four gold bars in possession of Senator Bob Menendez traced to 2013 armed robbery of Fred Daibes, who is accused of bribing Menendez

  That's on top of the cash in Menendez' possession which has also been traced to Daibes, but which the senator says he took out of the bank:

Menendez has denied taking payoffs from Daibes even though prosecutors allege testing shows Daibes’ fingerprints and DNA are on some of the tens of thousands of dollars in cash found in Menendez’s home.

“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” Menendez said.

Looks like they'll finally get this guy.

Story.

JFK was assassinated by a pro-Cuban communist nut job, Lee Harvey Oswald

 If you still believe otherwise after reading James Piereson's "Martyr of the Cold War", there's no hope for you.

If this keeps up America will be just like Cuba

The average age of a car on U.S. roads rose to 12.1 years in 2021, according to IHS Markit. The average age had been 11.9 years in 2020. In 2002, the average age was 9.6 years. ... Car shopping site iSeeCars publishes a list of the longest-lasting cars on the road. Recently, it found that 16% of the Toyota Land Cruisers on the road have at least 200,000 miles on them. Meanwhile, at least 2.5% of several other models — from car makers including Toyota, Honda and General Motors — also have at least 200,000 miles on their odometers.

The story never mentions that a declining middle class finds it increasingly difficult to afford newer vehicles.

More.

 

Kamala Harris stands for equity and justice

 

Equity is forcing you to work for the health of the regime. Justice is executing you if you refuse.

Biden was forever the US Senate's resident clown, and as president he has now brought his clown show to immigration policy

Illegal immigration in the first six months of the Biden administration has EXPLODED. The news is out that there have been ONE MILLION apprehensions at the US border with Mexico just in the first six months of 2021, affectionately spelled "boarder" by the MAGA idiots.

What the news reports don't tell you is that most of this is "catch and release". They aren't deported. Biden is presiding over an invasion of his own making. It's intentional.

Meanwhile in Cubar (h/t Rush), the people are fed up with the free medical care under Castroism, which can't seem to cope with COVID-19. Cuba ranks EIGHTH in the world RIGHT NOW for cases per million, two spots below number six United Kingdom, which also has socialized medicine. The difference is the UK has vaccines which don't work vs. Cubar which has no vaccines which don't work.

Anywho, people want out of Cuba, but BIDEN doesn't want them. Only with the Cubans does he get tough on immigration. The reason, obviously, is that Cubans with the good sense to try to get the hell out of there hate communism and make unreliable future Democrat voters.

The DHS Secretary under Biden is the son of a Cuban refugee, but there he is telling the Cubans fleeing the island that they will not reach the US. It reminds one of nothing so much as the infamous case of Elian Gonzalez in 2000, who was forcibly repatriated to Cuba by another Democrat administration.

Biden is a joke alright, but no one is laughing at the punchline.

Black Georgia pot callin' the Cuban kettle black: black female legislator told the white guy to go back where he came from, not the other way around

Governor Stacey Abrams really should do something about this.

Cuban American Republican Loser in FL-27 Maria Salazar to Sean Hannity: "We are more American than you are"

About 245,000 votes were cast in the 2018 contest lost by Salazar. It was a supposedly safe Republican seat, but about 43,000 fewer votes were cast than in 2016. There seems to have been a distinct lack of enthusiasm all around. Neither Salazar nor the winner Shalala got anywhere near the votes the retiring incumbent received in 2016. The 73% Hispanic district ended up picking a 77 year old Lebanese dwarf instead of one of their own. Must've been something really wrong with Salazar. I wonder what it could have been.

Salazar made the remark on Friday's Sean Hannity Radio Program.

US Chamber of Commerce strategist predicts Republicans keep US House 222-213

The current US House is controlled by Republicans 236-193.

Blue wave hope ebbs as GOP rebounds:

To galvanize their voters, Republicans are airing attack ads that argue Democrats would target Trump and Kavanaugh, unleash mob rule and threaten cultural values. "Closing with a little fear," said Scott Reed, senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, describing the GOP approach. Reed predicted that Republicans would keep their losses to 20 House seats, just under the 23 Democrats need to return to power. Republicans are favored to hold their majority in the Senate, which stands at 51-49. 

The WaPo typist of this article for the Democrat Party leads off with some amusing fantasies:

Underscoring the fast-changing political fortunes are the cold calculations by both parties in the final days.

 

The GOP is redirecting $1 million from a suburban district in Colorado to Florida, bailing on incumbent Rep. Mike Coffman to try to hold an open seat in Miami. Democrat Donna Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary in the Clinton administration, is struggling to break away from Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American and former television anchor, in a district Hillary Clinton won by nearly 20 points.

Republicans have also pulled back in a Democratic-held open seat in Nevada that includes some of the suburbs of Las Vegas. Clinton won there, as well.

Democrats, meanwhile, are cutting funds in a GOP-held district in Nebraska and a Democratic-held district in northern Minnesota, two places Trump won. The latter represents one of the GOP's best chances to flip a seat from blue to red.

Start with Coffman's Republican seat in CO-6.

It was slated to go Democrat already over a month ago at Real Clear Politics when I checked on September 17th. And it had been a toss-up on September 10th. Whatever's happening with the money there, CO-6's shift toward the Democrat is not part of "fast-changing political fortunes . . . in the final days". The shift occurred much earlier.

As for Donna Shalala in FL-27 (Clinton retread!), she isn't "struggling to break away from Maria Elvira Salazar". Her support there has been ERODING, from likely Democrat in early September to leans Democrat in mid-September to toss-up in mid-October. The Republican Salazar is actually ahead there in the only poll available. The recent movement is all toward the Republican.

Same thing with the open Democrat seat in NV-3. Whatever the parties are doing with their money, the seat has been in the Democrat column for well over a month, since September 10th. But today it's a toss-up. The movement has been toward the Republican, but you would never know that from this propaganda piece.

And why mention Democrats shifting money out of Nebraska? Oooh Mable, look at that! Nebraska doesn't even have a seat on anybody's radar because there isn't one, but saying so makes it seem like there is, deep in the heart of Republican flyover country. The mission is to demoralize Republicans with this stuff, made up out of whole cloth. The Republican Bacon in NE-2 is ahead by nine points.

MN-8 is also instructive. It's not just that Republicans have there "a chance to flip a seat". The Democrat candidate there was +1 to begin September in the NYTimes poll. By mid-October the same poll has the Republican +15. Again, the direction is (massively in this instance) toward the Republican.

Of ten specific races identified in the story, I put six in the Republican column (NE-2, FL-27, MN-8, MI-6 [the Democrats' own latest poll there has Upton up by three], MN-1 and TX-23), one in the Democrat column (CO-6), and three in the toss-ups (NV-3, KY-6, PA-1).

60-40.

Looks more like a Republican wave, not an ebbing Democrat wave.

What Charlie said

Obama can negotiate with Iranian terrorists and visit the communist police state of Cuba . . .

. . . but Trump can't talk to the president of independence-minded Taiwan or invite the pusher-killing president of the Philippines to visit the White House.

Got it.

To get Colin Kaepernick to stand today they played the communist national anthem of Cuba

Ha ha.

Here.

CNN's asking softball Cuba questions to help boost Rubio

Rubio has the right attitude toward Cuba.

The Miami audience ate it up.

"Miami teen": Michigan headlines never tell you gas pump skimmers are Cubans illegally present in the US

They come here out of love, right?

Illegal aliens from Marco Rubio's beloved Cuba are being sentenced this week for crimes committed in a gas pump skimming operation in Michigan last year.

Marco Rubio was in the tank for illegal immigrants before he became the junior senator from Florida

From a Politico story in March 2010 here which should have put off Republicans on his candidacy but didn't:

A leader for a progressive group that used to heap praise on Rubio says there’s been a clear change in his approach to complex issues. Arturo Vargas, the executive director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles born in Miami, blocked “scorched-earth” legislation that sought to clamp down on illegal immigration. “He, as speaker, kept many of those from coming up to a vote,” Vargas said. “We were very proud of his work as speaker of the House.” In 2006, Rubio even voted for a bill that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition rates at Florida colleges as residents.

Vargas now says Rubio, the candidate, takes a more pointed, less nuanced tone as he stresses border enforcement and his opposition to amnesty. “He’s become your typical candidate in terms of playing to his primary election base,” Vargas said, acknowledging he’s more disappointed than surprised.

Marco Rubio's official biography misrepresents his parents as exiles from Castro's Cuba

Castro took over Cuba in 1959 after a guerrilla insurgency begun in December 1956. Marco Rubio's parents left Cuba in 1956, according to this story in the Tampa Bay Times:

'To press their case, birthers dug up Rubio’s parents' immigration papers. While the eligibility question is unresolved, in some eyes, the file (which the Times independently obtained) confirmed his parents were given citizenship in 1975. Rubio at the time said he did not know why his parents waited, though experts told the Times that it wasn’t uncommon for some immigrants to wait.

'The immigration dossier broke some news: It showed Rubio’s parents came to the United States in 1956, not after Fidel Castro took over, as Rubio’s ... official biography noted and he repeatedly implied when talking about his “exile” parents.'

In yesterday's Republican debate in South Carolina, Rubio similarly misrepresented himself on a number of issues.

Mark Levin is behind the 8-ball on "natural born citizen"

Mark Levin tonight doesn't want to entertain if Ted Cruz is ineligible for the presidency because Ted's not a natural born citizen. To Levin the matter was never in question: "it is a settled constitutional and statutory matter." As far as Levin is concerned, Cruz is a natural born citizen.

Like hell.

Levin must consider that his position must mean that Article II is being superfluous when it makes a distinction between natural born citizen and citizen:

"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

As John Marshall, I believe, said, none of the language of the constitution can be considered superfluous. Or as Newt Gingrich once observed, even the commas carry meaning.

The main phrase is "No Person except a natural born Citizen shall be eligible to the Office of President".

Subordinate to this is the clause "or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution". This clause was for the practical reason having to do with the start-up of the new nation. To wit: the founders knew that many of themselves would run for the presidency to guide the young American republic, and would need to, but that none of themselves were "natural born" citizens. They were citizens, as is Ted Cruz, but not "natural born". The language of Article II was specifically designed to permit them to serve as president, but not Ted Cruz or any other not naturally born citizen person for the simple reason that in the case of Ted Cruz he was not a citizen at the time of the constitution's adoption.

The founders adopted the distinction between citizen and natural born citizen because they wanted the future of the country to rest more securely in the hands of leadership which was not divided in its loyalties. The chief loyalty to be wary of at the time was that of Loyalists, those "Americans" who were not in agreement with the break with Great Britain. They were quite numerous, and constituted an ongoing impediment to the success of the revolution. The founders imagined it possible that one of these might secure the presidency, and undo what they with enormous sacrifice had achieved. Hence the language making this less likely, if not impossible. With time, the danger passed, and only individuals born to a pair of citizens could rise to the presidency.

Fast forward to today. The whole argument over citizenship now falsely puts the priority on place of birth when lineage was meant to be paramount. The discussion suffers from amnesia. John McCain was eligible for the presidency in 2008 not because he was born in a US territory but because both his parents were US citizens. That he says otherwise is immaterial. He knows as little about it as the rest. Unfortunately, Barack Obama did not meet the requirement of Article II, but because the priority was falsely placed on his place of origin, a terrible precedent has been set. Frankly, his entire presidency is illegitimate because one of his parents was not a citizen. And after almost seven years in office, he has amply proven that his loyalties lie elsewhere than with the constitution and the American republic as we've known it.

Neither does Ted Cruz meet the requirement of Article II. It is immaterial where he was born. What is material is that one of his parents wasn't a citizen at the time of his birth. He is ineligible to be president, though otherwise well qualified he may be.

Same for Marco Rubio, who was born to Cuban immigrants before they became citizens.

It is assumed that Donald Trump's mother, a Scottish immigrant, was a citizen by the time of Donald's birth in 1946, but maybe The Donald should look into it.

German Americans still the largest ethnic group in 2013 at 46 million

The Economist reported here in February:

German-Americans are America’s largest single ethnic group (if you divide Hispanics into Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, etc). In 2013, according to the Census bureau, 46m Americans claimed German ancestry: more than the number who traced their roots to Ireland (33m) or England (25m). In whole swathes of the northern United States, German-Americans outnumber any other group (see map). Some 41% of the people in Wisconsin are of Teutonic stock.

That figure is down from 51 million before 2009 and from 50 million in 2009, so evidently the German American population is declining by about 1 million per year.