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During the campaign, we often heard that the Biden approach was going to be more humanitarian. That was then, and this is now, or another story about people found in a truck or train. This is the story:
Two undocumented immigrants [sic] died Friday afternoon after being trapped inside of a train car a few miles east of Knippa.
There were 15 people trapped inside the car in need of immediate medical attention, according to a statement from the Uvalde Police Department. Five of those individuals were flown to San Antonio hospitals, while five others were sent to area hospitals for treatment.
U.S. Border Patrol was able to reach the group after receiving a call at 3:50 p.m. notifying them that people traveling by rail were "suffocating" inside of a train car
"911 got a call — don't know if it was from a family member or one of the migrants who were locked in the shipping container," Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told Texas Public Radio.
McLaughlin said that the train was locked and baking in the sun on the tracks for three hours.
The initial reports are reminiscent of a tragedy that occurred June 27 in which 53 people died in an abandoned tractor trailer near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
The incident was the single deadliest migrant smuggling case in U.S. history, claiming victims who were citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
What an outrage to say the least.
This is what happens when you create an incentive for people to come north unconditionally. The poor people in that train car probably heard that there was a window to get into the U.S. So jump on the train because the U.S. is the next stop.
As someone who came here legally with my parents, I find this appalling and as inhumane as it can get. What is humanitarian about encouraging people to get into trucks and trains and die along the way?
Bring back "Remain in Mexico," because that was the real humanitarian policy.
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This week, Secretary Antony Blinken went before the Congress and answered a question about Mexico. It went like this:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed Wednesday that he believed parts of Mexico are controlled by the drug cartels and not by the Mexican government.
Blinken was being questioned by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who held a press conference earlier this month and said he wanted cartels to be labeled terrorist organizations and pressed Congress to authorize the use of military force to destroy Mexican drug labs.
Graham then asked Blinken if he believed 'that fentanyl coming from Mexico is killing Americans by the tens of thousands.'
'It is. And it’s also killing Mexicans,' Blinken replied.
And then you heard a nuclear bomb go off in Mexico.
By coincidence or because he had prior warning of Blinken's remarks, President Lopez-Obrador unleashed an attack on the Biden administration. As reported by Keith Dillon of Pulse News Mexico:
“If you see the report of the little department of the Department of State, it’s a ‘bodrio;’ you’ll have to check the dictionary,” said AMLO on his Wednesday morning conference. According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, “bodrio” means something of very poor quality or badly made.
“It says: According to experts, it is presumed, it is pointed out that there are serious human rights violations,” said López Obrador. “But there is no evidence; the little department of the State Department is slanderous.”
“In Mexico, there is no torture, there are no massacres,” added the federal executive, completely contradicting the fact that massacres are rising under his administration and that the AMLO presidency is well on track to become the most violent administration in Mexico’s recent history. According to data from the daily Mexican newspaper Reforma, there were 306 homicide victims from 42 massacres perpetrated in the first semester of 2022 alone, and 318 pending investigations of human rights violations purportedly committed by members of Mexico’s Armed Forces...
“The Mexican state has ceased to be the main violator of human rights. In Mexico, freedom of expression is guaranteed, no one is persecuted, no one is repressed, let them not be confused,” concluded López Obrador, ignoring the fact that his administration recently passed a law to fine journalists who criticize the president, that his “Who’s Who in Lies of the Week” segment has continually launched vitriol against members of the press who speak out against AMLO’s initiatives, and that Mexico is consistently one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to operate in.
…AMLO then went on to comment on the case of U.S. company Vulcan Materials, whose ship was supposedly forcibly entered by rival company Cemex alongside elements of the Mexican Armed Forces at the Maritime Terminal in Playa del Carmen without notifying Vulcan Materials on March 14 -- actions Blinken and Republican senators alike characterized as having the potential to “very negatively impact” investment from the United States into Mexico.
But from López Obrador’s perspective, Vulcan Materials and its subsidiaries have been committing “ecocide” through their operations, and subsequently called the U.S. outcry against the March 14 port situation as full of “double standards,” alleging U.S. lawmakers only support the environment when it is convenient for them.
Who knew that Mexico was concerned about "ecocide"? That's a new one for me.
Nevertheless, talk about Blinken hitting a nerve. AMLO did not like it one bit.
Back in the days of President Trump, we had a better relationship between the presidents. Maybe it's because # 45 got some concessions from AMLO, such as "Remain in Mexico," but kept human rights off the front pages.
We move forward remembering all that stuff from the campaign about Joe Biden's experience and how it would facilitate our relations with our neighbors.
Mean tweets vs sober experience was the word.
So far it's not working. AMLO is not working with us and doesn't look like he is in the mood to do anything.
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For some time, I've asked the question: Where are the adults in college administration? Why are brats running our universities? Cancelling speakers they disagree with? Graduating with meaningless degrees that won't translate into a decent career? A mess, to say the least.
Hello West Texas A&M University president Walter Wendler. This is the story:
West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler is drawing ire for canceling a student drag show, arguing that such performances degrade women and are “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny.”
Students and First Amendment lawyers reject those assertions, calling his comments a mischaracterization of the art form. They also argue that the cancellation violates students’ constitutional rights and a state law that broadly protects free speech on college campuses, potentially setting the university up for a lawsuit.
“Not only is this a gross and abhorrent comparison of two completely different topics, but it is also an extremely distorted and incorrect definition of drag as a culture and form of performance art,” students wrote in an online petition condemning Wendler’s letter and urging him to reinstate the show.
Cheers for Mr. Wendler. I had no idea that anyone out there regarded a "drag show" as some kind of "performance art." It's one thing to have a good laugh about "Mrs. Doubtfire", the story of a recently divorced father who dresses up as a female housekeeper to interact with his children. Funny, and no one is offended. Drag shows are different, especially when they perform in front of innocent children, By the way, the Texas legislature is debating a law or a $10,000 fine on business owners who host drag shows in front of children.
Mr. Wendler will get it from every direction: the race card, the homophobic card, the anti-LGBTQ card, etc. They may even tell us that he was part of the January 6th insurrection. In the end, he will win because he is right. It's a shame that we don't have more Wendlers out there.
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As a colleague once told me about a friend's divorce, the marriage reached a point where it could not be saved and the couple could no longer live in peace together. They call it "irreconcilable differences" and it was obvious to anyone watching that the couple had reached such a point.
Are we there as a country? I wonder, reading what goes on every day.
Over in Los Angeles, a teen is arrested with two stolen guns after threatening the school but DA George Gascon declines to charge. In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has a terrible case of Trump Derangement Syndrome but 'bodegas" are under siege from street criminals. Who keeps these criminals terrorizing "bodegas"? The name starts with B and ends G, i.e. Bragg. Disney, the same one that made classics like Old Yeller and Swiss Family Robinson now goes woke with Strange World. In school after school, parents learn that their kids are being indoctrinated without their consent.
It's scary for anyone who remembers a different past when we argued with liberals about the minimum wage, not transgenderism. Or they said that abortion should be rare and legal, but not in the late terms of the pregnancy.
It sure looks like two nations with irreconcilable differences, or the early stages of a divorce. Is there any hope to save this union? I found this post by Athena Thorne rather good:
By late last fall, my colleague Mark Tapscott reported that polls showed the relocations are expected to gain momentum: “the trend is going to be accelerating in coming years, and that means the alignments of national politics may well be about to shift big-time.”
As Athena points out, we are not going to see a civil war with a 21st century Gettysburg. What we will see is a gradual realignment instead or people moving to red states looking for more freedom, such as low taxes and school choice. They will leave behind states and cities decaying and drowning in their excessive taxation, lawless streets, and schools that benefit no one.
President Biden's ESG veto is the latest example that will drive more states to reclaim their sovereignty from Washington. The veto of a bipartisan bill was met by governors who will not sit idle and tolerate this kind of executive overreach.
Can we avoid a divorce? Let's hope that we can by having people move to other parts of the country where they recognize the America that they love.
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THURSDAY: The story of World War I, part 2, with Barry Jacobsen.....
We just learned that Mexico is going to bring in more Cuban doctors. So is Mexico facing a doctor shortage, or does Cuba more dollars by renting its medical personnel? This is the AP story:
The system also will seek to double the approximately 600 Cuban doctors who have been offered jobs in Mexico.
While many Mexican hospitals lack specialized doctors -- especially in rural or violence-plagued areas -- the country’s health care system has even starker deficits of medicines, hospitals and equipment.
Patients’ relatives often have to go and search for medications, surgical supplies and donated blood in order to get the care their loved ones need.
That is largely the result of decades of under-investment in the health care system.
Underinvestment in health care? Never heard that before. However, we know that Cuba uses these "doctors" to promote a larger agenda. This is from Senator Marco Rubio's letter to the Secretary of State:
The U.S. Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) and annual Human Rights Report finds that Cuba’s international medical missions are a form of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. According to the Department’s 2022 reporting, Cuba’s Unidad Central de Cooperación Médica, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment manage a system whereby Cuban doctors and medical personnel are forced to work overseas under opaque contracts. Not only does the Cuban regime confiscate the passports, professional credentials, and salaries of the victims of these programs, they also threaten these professionals and their families should they attempt to leave.
Yes, these doctors can't defect because their families would be punished. Senator Rubio also points out that this is a violation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that prohibits "forced or compulsory labor." How is sending someone to another country to work not considered forced labor? It's a clear-cut example.
Why is President Lopez-Obrador doing this? Why Cuba? Aren't there doctors in other countries? The answer is that AMLO, as they call him south of the border, is a leftist who wants to help the corrupt and abusive communist regime in Cuba. He also believes in "hugs rather than bullets" in dealing with criminal organizations. He also believes that our fentanyl crisis is a family problem in the U.S., or that we are not hugging enough, or something like that.
In the meantime, Mexico is participating in human trafficking of Cuban medical personnel, people who go to Mexico at the service of a Cuban dictatorship desperately looking for dollars any way they can.
AMLO friend or foe? I’m starting to wonder.
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A show from 2014 with Leslie Eastman & Barry Jacobsen....
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Team USA beat Cuba rather easily to move to the WBC Title game. It was over when the Cuban team could not score with the bases loaded. They got a run on a walk, but nothing more.
Once upon a time, communist Cuba dominated amateur baseball in much the same way that the old USSR beat up college kids in hockey. "No mas"!
This weekend’s game may have been the clearest example that this is not much a rivalry at all, as Tom Verducci explained:
By a 14–2 score that understates the talent gap, Team USA waxed a Cuban team loaded with cast-offs, 30-something Mexican League hangers-on and post-glory-days veterans who filled their all-red uniforms the way burly Boog Powell did those similarly monochromatic 1975 Cleveland unis, which were so bad the players back then offered to buy blue jerseys themselves.
It's funny, but I had the same thought about Boog Powell and those horrible uniforms. The only good thing about those uniforms is that they were still called Indians rather than this silly "woke" Guardians.
Another point made by Verducci:
The Cuban offense was no better. The starting lineup included two players released by the Dodgers -- five and seven years ago -- a right fielder who hit .225 in indy ball last year and Boog-like 36-year-old Alfredo Despaigne, playing in his 20th season. The Cubans made it to the semifinal largely by getting through an easy pool as a runner-up, squeaking by Australia by one run.
The contest brought home some realities.
First, wonder how many guys were left in Cuba for fear of losing them in Miami? It has happened before.
Second, the Cuban batters looked confused against all the major league breaking pitches. They never saw balls break like that when they were beating up amateurs, from the U.S. to Taiwan to Mexico. Back in the 1980s, I saw the Cuban national team in Mexico for a weekend exhibition series against a local team. It was a mismatch, like all those Pan American Games that they'd win year after year.
Last, but not least, I could imagine all the cheering going on in that anti-communist Cuban corner up in heaven. They love Cuba, as my late parents would always say, but they hate the regime that team represents.
My late parents grew up cheering the pre-Castro winter league that saw a young Brooks Robinson and many other major leaguers who knew that a good winter season would enhance their major league résumé. I recall showing my father a major league card and often hear that "he played in Cuba." I would ask how many played in Cuba? His answer was always "muchos."
Yes, I am delighted that the U.S. beat the crap out of Cuba. It was a battle of freedom vs tyranny and the good guys won, especially Nolan Arenado, son of a Cuban immigrant
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