“If they cut it, we will replace it,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared about the razor wire along the Texas border with Mexico, after Biden won a 5-4 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court authorizing him to cut it. Patrick holds an unusually powerful office because it commands the state senate, and his comments join the chorus of other top Texas officials taking a strong stand against Biden’s open border.
“We are putting up wire … everywhere we can. We will continue. We will not stop,” Patrick told Fox News after visiting the border on January 26th to be on hand in case Biden’s Border Patrol showed up with wire cutters. “Wisely, they did not,” Patrick added.
Biden apparently did retaliate against Texas that same day in a different way by abruptly blocking all pending approvals for permission to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). Texas is America’s largest producer of clean-burning natural gas, which is essential to its economy and that of our entire nation.
The Texas Land Commissioner, Dr. Dawn Buckingham, observed that Biden’s unexpected order looks “more like retaliation than a sound policy decision,” coming as it did the day after “Texas took a bold stand in defending our border against foreign invaders.” The Land Commissioner oversees the oldest public agency in Texas, with authority over Texas’s immense natural resources and public lands.
In her article for the Daily Caller, Dr. Buckingham “calls on all Americans to stand up for our country.
Politicians should put the interests of Americans in their hearts and send a loud and clear message to leaders in a far-off capitol in Washington, DC — keep your hands off the Texas National Guard.”
The Oklahoma GOP rebuked its U.S. Senator James Lankford for caving to the D.C. uniparty on a bill that would grant new authority to Biden, after he has opened our southern border for three years. Lankford and Democrats have hidden the details, but enough has leaked out for House Speaker Mike Johnson to declare the bill to be dead on arrival in the House.
Biden promised that he would close part of the border if given new authority by Congress, but he already has that power as he refuses to enforce existing immigration laws. Giving Biden new authority over the border is like giving an alcoholic the keys to the liquor cabinet.
Elon Musk piped up on January 26th with his remarkably pointed criticism of Biden’s open border. “No laws need to be passed. All that is needed is an executive order to require proof before granting an asylum hearing,” Musk tweeted on his platform X.
“That is how it used to be,” Musk added. He could have included the words “under Trump,” and highlighted how Trump’s reelection would rescue us from this border crisis.
Biden is suing Texas for its newly enacted SB 4, which authorizes state officials to arrest and deport illegal aliens found in that state. The U.S. Border Patrol should already be doing that, but instead Biden and his minions are trying to block Texas from protecting its own residents.
There has been a staggering increase in crimes of all types by illegal aliens since Biden took office three years ago. Reported encounters for illegal drug possession and trafficking had declined each year of the Trump administration, but then skyrocketed to more than five times Trump’s 2020 level for every year of the Biden administration.
Biden’s henchmen may be rethinking their strategy after 25 Republican governors – everyone except from the ultra-liberal state of Vermont – stated their full support for Texas officials in resisting the demands by Biden to cut the wire fencing. The governors sided with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for “stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem even offered to personally drive to Texas with more wire for concertina fencing if needed. Texas should consider closing its entire border with this barbed fencing now.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the globalist Minority Leader in the Senate, has been obsessed with sending another $60 billion to Ukraine, in exchange for allocating a small fraction of that sum to border security. He complains now about Trump’s influence over members of Congress, but it was Biden who defiantly allowed a record number of migrants to cross into Texas in December and repeatedly sued Texas, making any potential compromise a non-starter.
Biden has had three years to prove that he can secure our borders, but instead he has done the opposite, with devastating effects on Texas and our entire country. After rejecting many opportunities to protect our southern border throughout his administration, it is insulting for Biden and Democrats to pretend that they will finally reverse their open border policies on the eve of the presidential election.
SCOTUS Worsens Migrant Crisis by Violating Texas Sovereignty
Texans have never liked tyranny from D.C., and January 22nd’s 5-4 emergency ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the Lone Star State tosses fuel on a smoldering fire. Without explanation, five justices in D.C. authorized the Biden administration to destroy Texas-owned concertina fencing that stemmed the flow of illegal aliens near the border town of Eagle Pass.
Texas officials videoed federal agents cutting holes in the fencing last year on 20 occasions for no apparent reason other than to allow illegal aliens to enter our country. By authorizing the Biden administration to completely destroy this border fence now, this is the ninth time that the Supreme Court has granted an emergency application by Biden.
It is appalling how the Supreme Court dodges other issues to hurriedly accommodate Biden’s open-border agenda. Texas erected this barbed fencing to establish order against an overwhelming flood of illegal aliens, and the Fifth Circuit had sided with Texas pending its review.
More illegal migrants entered the United States in December than any other month in history, according to data obtained by CBS News from the Biden administration. Texas is bearing the brunt of this invasion, and merely a tiny fraction of these illegals have overwhelmed New York City where they leave their urine and poop on sidewalks, doorsteps, and near parked cars.
While paying lip service to private property and state sovereignty in other cases, two Republican appointees, John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, switched sides to join the 3-justice liberal voting bloc to rule for Biden. Chief Justice Roberts always sides with the liberal media in high-profile close votes, so this was no surprise, but Justice Barrett’s vote against Texans’ self-defense remains unexplained.
The recent promotion of fake news about Texas officials supposedly causing children to drown in the Rio Grande by blocking access by federal agents may have been intended to influence the pro-family Justice Barrett. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has explained that the drownings occurred on the Mexican side, and in a court filing the Biden administration admitted that the drownings occurred before the feds sought access.
Paxton, the finest Attorney General in our country, emphasizes that Biden’s open-border policy causes these tragedies, yet the Supreme Court unwisely opens the door to more of these catastrophes by deferring to Biden. Paxton responded last week to the Biden administration’s assertion that the U.S. Constitution confers authority on the federal government to secure our borders: “When were you planning to start?”
The Biden administration has repeatedly “claimed authority to destroy property that belongs to someone else based on their assurance that doing so is necessary to enforce federal immigration laws,” Paxton told the Supreme Court. The evidence “amply demonstrates the utter failure of the Defendants to deter, prevent, and halt unlawful entry into the United States.”
In June 2022 and 2023, the Supreme Court held in favor of Biden’s refusal to enforce federal immigration laws in Texas. The high court allows Biden to violate immigration laws, but then blocks Texas from protecting its residents.
The failure of the majority on the Supreme Court to explain their most recent capitulation to Biden is divisive, harmful, and insulting to Texas. Biden is also suing Texas to remove its orange buoys in the Rio Grande, which the Fifth Circuit agreed to hear en banc probably to rule against Biden, but then he will also appeal that issue to the same Supreme Court that just ruled for him.
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America,” Attorney General Paxton responded to the Court’s latest ruling. “The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
Paxton is right amid the escalating interference by the D.C. elite with local efforts to maintain law and order in Texas. In mid-January there was a conflict between armed Texas officials and federal agents when the Texans properly denied access by the feds to a border park.
Biden wrongly invokes federal power over the border not to implement law and order, but rather to open it to illegality that includes drug smuggling. A majority of the Supreme Court recognizes the individual right of self-defense to be armed under the Second Amendment, and they should likewise acknowledge state authority to protect itself against the lawless immigration with drugs that Biden is allowing.
Many Texans feel compelled to arm themselves in self-defense for routine trips to the grocery store, in fear of the hordes of illegals let in by Biden. Fortunately, the reelection of Trump would peacefully end this growing conflict between Texas and the D.C. elite, as Trump agrees with Texas in closing the border.
Trump’s Blowout Win Shows the Way
Donald Trump more than doubled the tally of the runner-up in the Iowa caucuses, despite frigid temperatures 15 degrees colder than its prior record. Trump proved his mastery of grassroots politics better than his rivals, and this bodes well for him in the general election.
Trump won Iowa outright with 51% of the vote, which was really 59% when combined with the votes for Vivek Ramaswamy who promptly endorsed Trump. The globalist candidate Nikki Haley garnered a meager 19%, a pathetic voter showing for the Never-Trumpers despite nearly unlimited funding for their America Last agenda.
Trump has a far stronger campaign operation than in 2016, as his opponents begrudgingly concede now. To win Iowa so decisively, Trump developed a formidable boots-on-the-ground army of volunteers who are essential to winning elections today by getting out the vote.
Trump overcame both the popular Iowa Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, and the king of the evangelical grassroots there, Bob Vander Plaats, both of whom endorsed Ron DeSantis as he campaigned hard in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties. Trump triumphed against the relentless barrage of Leftist lawfare, which has failed to deter anyone from voting for Trump.
Iowa was the Waterloo for the Never-Trumpers, who have failed miserably in their vindictive attempts to stop Trump. Liz Cheney, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, and their comrades should accept their crushing defeat not only in Waterloo, Iowa, but virtually everywhere in this bellwether midwestern state.
Trump’s spectacular victory was also a triumph for grassroots politics against the overpaid political consultants who wasted millions of dollars on television ads and so-called messaging. Trump built a crackerjack ground game that enlisted precinct captains who could identify at least ten Trump supporters promising to show up and vote at the caucuses.
The Trump campaign provided training to his precinct captains, which other Republican candidates typically fail to do, with the honor of receiving gold-and-white “Trump Caucus Captain” hats. These volunteers were offered the opportunity to be invited to a special Trump event at the upcoming Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July.
Joe Biden’s approval rating has fallen to 33% in the recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, the lowest recorded in 15 years. Like an aging athlete whose performance sharply declines near retirement, there is no viable way for the 81-year-old Biden to improve and no incumbent would ordinarily be reelected with such a low rating.
But Biden Democrats are counting on exploiting early and mail-in voting to reelect him no matter how low his approval rating plummets along with his mental capacity. In his victory speech on January 15th, Trump vowed to end the easily corrupted early voting and more than half the state legislatures could do this prior to the general election this fall.
A Democrat-appointed federal judge in Ohio recently upheld election integrity reforms enacted a year ago by that state’s legislature. On January 8, Judge Donald Nugent ruled in favor of a photo identification requirement, a reduction in the number of drop-boxes for ballot dumps, and a tightening of rules for in-person and mail-in voting, in Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless v. LaRose.
“That the State accommodates some voters by permitting (not requiring) the casting of absentee or provisional ballots, is an indulgence — not a constitutional imperative,” declared this federal judge while quoting the words of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from the seminal decision upholding voter ID. Nothing requires states to allow the vast periods of early and mail-in voting and the use of numerous drop-boxes for ballot dumps, which blight elections.
“Maintaining confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy,” the federal Judge Nugent emphasized, again quoting precedent by the Supreme Court. States have a compelling “interest in deterring, preventing, and identifying voter fraud,” and proof of the occurrence of voter fraud is not necessary before a state legislature acts to prevent it.
Relying on a 6-3 Supreme Court decision from less than three years ago, the federal court noted that “Supreme Court precedent also instructs that States are not required to wait for voter fraud — and the ensuing damage to public confidence in the electoral process — to occur before taking efforts to protect their elections. States are permitted to regulate prophylactically to prevent voter fraud before it occurs, or public confidence in elections is damaged by it.”
All states should make their elections more like the just-concluded Iowa caucuses: in-person voting on the day of the election, with all ballots counted at the polling place so that results can be announced by 9 p.m. the same evening. Republican state legislators should act swiftly in their new sessions, many of which have just begun, to adopt voter integrity laws to safeguard the upcoming presidential election against fraud.
Sports Gambling Addiction Invades Super Sunday
Sports gambling took center stage with the Super Bowl being televised from Las Vegas on February 11th. Apps available on everyone’s phones made betting during this game more accessible and convenient than ever before.
A small initial bet then goes into an internet surveillance system that exploits this information to target the bettor with a barrage of ads enticing him to gamble further. This is a gold mine for the online gambling companies, led by FanDuels and DraftKings, both of which aired expensive Super Bowl ads this year as did BetMGM.
Calls to gambling addiction hotlines have already spiked in the 38 states where sports betting has been legalized. When Ohio authorized sports gambling last year, calls to the state’s gamblers’ hotline tripled in the very first month.
The New York Times recently quoted the former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), who sponsored a federal ban on sports gambling as a retired professional basketball star. Some pretend that sports gambling “can now be controlled,” Bradley said, “and I just don’t think it will be controlled. I think it will pervade the culture.”
The U.S. Supreme Court regrettably struck down Bradley’s federal ban on sports gambling in Murphy v. NCAA (2018), and all but 12 states have since legalized betting on these games. Gambling addiction has risen to an all-time high.
An employee of one NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, stole $22 million from the team in order to lose virtually all of it on sports gambling. The team is attempting to recover that stolen money from the online gambling companies, but they refuse.
At the end of January a federal district court in New Jersey dismissed a lawsuit by another victim of gambling, declaring that casinos have no legal duty to stop taking bets by a compulsive gambler. New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act is supposed to shield against unconscionable acts by companies, yet gamblers as consumers are not protected as other consumers are.
More than half of college and even high school students gamble now, and one out every five college students admits to spending some of his student loans or financial aid on sports betting according to a survey by Intelligent.com. Many college athletic departments even partner with sportsbooks to promote more gambling to students at the college.
The highest percentage of victims are young men and their families. But wait, this year bookies took bets concerning Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl, on what she will wear and whether Travis Kelce will propose to her, and 20% of women aged 18 to 49 are online sports gamblers.
Known as “prop bets,” these are wagers on issues unrelated to the game, such as what shade of lipstick Taylor Swift will be wearing. Offshore gambling sites are processing bets on this and as many as 89 aspects of Swift and the Super Bowl, for all the Swifties who tuned in, although prop bets are illegal in some states.
Until recently, the NFL strictly kept gambling out of football, but now it has partnered with online gambling companies to tap into the profits and boost television ratings. On February 5th NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the NFL seeks to ensure “the action on the field is genuine and without any outside influence,” but three dozen players and league officials have already been found in violation of the rules.
Holding the Super Bowl in Las Vegas this year injects more gambling into the sport. While players are told not to place any bets while there, it is impossible not to walk past a “one-armed bandit,” the ubiquitous slot machine, in that city.
Fourteen out of 15 experienced oddsmakers told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they felt Las Vegas would never host the Super Bowl. This is like holding a fireworks competition in a dry, flammable forest despite warnings about the high risk of fire.
Studies show that 16% of gambling addicts attempt suicide, more than 20 times the rate in the general population and the highest of any addiction. Today young adults are compulsively betting through apps on their phones, including while in the shower, while driving, and in the middle of the night.
Microbetting entices sports fans to bet live on the next play, but they are competing against predictive AI tools that know the odds far better than a fan can. Scientific evidence shows that young adults do not have a fully developed ability to assess risk-benefit until age 25.
A pagan holiday was long celebrated on December 25 until Christianity displaced that with Christmas. As gambling promoters take over Super Sunday and some call for a national holiday the following Monday, it is time to rein this in by urging everyone to delete their gambling apps on their phones instead.
