Bonkers, Blather, Blunders, and Buffoons #26

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has recently embarrassed our country, and themselves, on the world stage (FIFA World Cup), by standing silent while failing to sing America’s stirring National Anthem, when aired for the world, before their matches.  To be fair, pictures indicated that at least a couple of our team members did, in fact, place hand over heart and seemed to be quietly singing, but much or most of the team just stood there, as if struck dumb, which in this case, would seem to be a very appropriate reference.  Just another regrettable illustration, in front of the world, of a few seemingly spoiled young Americans caught up in the swirl of back home’s elitist wokieness, which continues to poison the minds of too many of our college-age-and-after young men and women, being taught, it appears, to dislike our allegedly ‘unfair’ or ‘bad’ nation and, with it, to disrespect our anthem and flag.  Standing their silent in front of the cameras as most were, these unthankful, self-centered young American women embarrassed themselves, while dismissing their nation, as the teams of their opponents appropriately sang along with their own respective anthems. This display of foolishness has happened before, with other of our sports, featuring talented, but self-centered, athletes old enough to know better. Seems like the solution here is a simple one.  If you can’t display at least respect, if not patriotism, for the nation and the prideful citizenry supporting you, then, no matter your talent, you don’t get to play on our national team.  Period.  In the bigger picture, it would seem to be far better to lose with trying-their-best respectful players, than to win with immature ego-centric ones, who clearly demonstrate far more love for themselves than for their country.

Illegal immigration continues to be a major financial and social problem for America, as individuals continue to penetrate our essentially open southern border. Our inundated border patrol agents “apprehended” almost one-hundred-thousand individuals in June of this year, which is about the number coming in every month.  And that only includes those “apprehended.”  It does not account for the tens of thousands of “get-aways” sneaking in (along with the illegal, often fatal, drugs).  The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) issued this statement: “When it come to illegal immigration, the Biden administration’s strategy is to make it less visible to the American public, not to rein in the unprecedented flow of migrants.  Their strategy entails redirecting migrants away from crossing between ports of entry, by allowing them to enter through land ports of entry or to fly directly to the United States.  They have done so through the blatant abuse of parole authority and by encouraging a growing number of illegal migrants to use the CBP ‘One’ phone app.”  That’s right.  There is a phone app that permits illegals to apply for pre-processed entry with less hassle when they arrive!  So, come on in. Welcome to the land of free stuff.  Oh, and one day, don’t forget to vote for Democrats.  Which, as we all know, is exactly what this open border ‘business’ is ultimately all about.  The Democrat Party uber alles.

And speaking of border crossers, the Democrat governor of Massachusetts is now actually asking residents of her state, who might have spare bedrooms, to consider taking illegal migrants into their homes, since the illegals are apparently contributing to the number of homeless persons in the state. It seems Massachusetts is now paying, at taxpayer expense, for rooms to house their regular homeless in about 30 hotels and motels throughout the state!  A Boston newspaper columnist noted that the governor was not sending illegal migrants to any of the “millionaire destinations” in Massachusetts, such as Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, etc.  And one does wonder how many of these homeless folks from other nations will be bedding down in the governor’s mansion!  Without money or employment, one also wonders how many of those illegals, who might be taken in by well-meaning residents, will of necessity become long-term or almost permanent occupants, in those ‘spare’ bedrooms. Rather than suggesting a potentially unfair or unending imposition on residents with room, the governor would be doing better for her residents by finding more hotels or motels to shelter the homeless, whether foreign or domestic. Or better yet, but it’ll never happen, bring pressure on the administration to slow or end the flow by closing the darn southern border, a condition that should never have been allowed to happen in the first place!

And continuing to speak about just one of the endless downsides of the illegal migrant invasion, a 25-year-old Mexican migrant is in police custody accused of murdering three women in Dallas, Texas and dumping their bodies along a nearby river.  While all illegal migrants are certainly not criminals, even heinous ones, we don’t know how many, who are allowed to enter our nation, may have criminal backgrounds or current intent, because our processing and subsequent location tracking abilities are far from perfect, due to the shear number of illegals flooding across our border each month, at the well-known but unspoken invitation of the White House.  We’re pretty good, we’re told, at identifying potential or proven terror suspects, those on international watch lists, but unless there is a lengthy record of prior crimes, we have very little way of identifying and/or stopping entry of actual or potential criminals.  If convicted, this foreign national, charged with killing three U.S. women, needs to be put securely away, if not eventually executed.

And speaking of executions, Oklahoma recently executed a male death row inmate, who was convicted of killing a 20-year-old woman, a mother of two, with a butcher knife.  As happens all too often with convicted murderers, this individual had been in an Oklahoma prison for too many years while the seemingly endless appeals were allowed to play out. While appeals are necessary, especially if there is even a hint that the convict may be innocent, but they are, in the majority of cases, allowed to go on for far too many years, to no end other than to cause taxpayers to foot the bill for way too many years of room, board, and medical.  Death row appeals need to be limited in both number and years taken.  If a convicted murderer is sentenced to death, after a reasonable amount of time allowing for realistic appeals, both the kin of the deceased and the state’s taxpayers are owed a more time-sensitive execution.  There are simply too many convicted murders who are still existing on death rows after twenty or more years.  That amount of time is unreasonable and unfair to anyone involved, including the convict.

And on the subject of crime, sometimes government actions seem to favor the accused criminals at the expense of citizen safety. Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed a bill making Illinois the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail!  Critics of this move, which clearly favors accused criminals over the suffering of their victims, were quick to respond. The chair of the Illinois Republican Party stated that this law “will significantly undermine public safety by releasing from custody dangerous, violent criminals at a time when police are under attack, and Illinois families and crime victims already fear for their personal safety.” Said a state supreme court justice in support of the new law: “Our constitution creates a balance between the individual rights of defendants and the individual rights of crime victims.”  Well, fine, but it seems like the clear advantage here should come down on the side of the crime victims.  Significant cash bail, at some level, provides that sought after “balance” due the crime creators, while potentially offering at least some safety protection for his/her victim(s).  Said one Illinois sheriff in opposition: “It’s an experiment on the backs of victims of crime. Folks who live here are extremely concerned.” And said a suburban mayor: “It’s the most dangerous law I’ve ever seen.”  There are recorded cases of a person arrested for a violent crime, then released from custody, and within a day or two, has gone on to commit yet another violent crime.  Residents are understandably concerned about their personal safety.  And law enforcement departments are concerned, as well, about losing still more officers in an area that openly does not strongly support the police, whether through defunding departmental budgets and/or negative political activist attitudes and actions. There is every reason to believe that this seeming pro-criminal “balancing” law will not turn out well for the citizens of Chicago and other Illinois metropolitan areas.

(Fact Sources: Disrespect for our Anthem via americanthinker.com, Silvio Canto, Jr., 7-24-23; Illegal immigration entry assistance via breitbart.com, Neil Munro, 7-19-23; Housing migrants in Massachusetts via breitbart.com, John Binder, 7-17-23; Mexican national arrested for a triple murder via breitbart.com, Amy Furr, 7-21-23; Oklahoma death row inmate executed via foxnews.com, Associated Press, 7-20-23; Illinois law eliminates cash bail via dailymail.com, Lewis Pennock, 7-20-23, and Nikki Schwab/Reuters, 7-19-23).