In Praise of the Portland VA

On Nov 23, sitting at home after minor surgery on my nose at the Portland, Oregon VA Hospital, I began feeling pressure and pains in my chest. Dialing 911 saw a quick response by our Fire Department EMT’s and ambulance crew that transported me to the ER where it was confirmed by the level of traponin in my blood that I had indeed suffered a heart attack.

Contrary to horror stories heard, I was not left lying in a hallway or placed at the bottom of some long list, but was immediately admitted where treatment began to stabilize me.

Thanksgiving Day saw no less concern as I was constantly monitored, medications given and my needs tended to.

By Monday I was stable enough for an angiogram where a blocked artery was stented and I was placed in ICU overnight, then sent home Tuesday with a written regimen I needed to follow along with new prescriptions.

Wednesday saw me receive a phone call from my Primary Care Team at the Vancouver Clinic to check up how I was doing and offer assistance if needed as I recuperate.

I cannot say other regions have not experienced problems, but we are very fortunate to have such a first class Veteran’s Hospital and staff in the Pacific Northwest.

Trump Wins and Life Goes On

Yes, shocking to many but Donald Trump has won, maybe even eking out a small popular vote win as late arriving ballots are counted to go with the Electoral College win. His supporters are overjoyed and jubilant, much like we saw from Obama’s supporters in 2008 and 2012.

Hillary’s supporters are saddened and depressed, not unlike Republicans were 2008 and 2012.

The protests / riots seen around the country beginning the day after are far from the formation of the TEA Party rally’s seen in 2009. TEA Party rallies weren’t based on mayhem and destruction to stop Obama from taking office, though. That was over taxes and especially Obamacare.

Still, many were displeased and disappointed and expressed their displeasure then, but without the mayhem seen today. But, we survived only to deepen the divide among the Left and the Right as well as within both the Democrat and Republican Party’s.

Half of my day Tuesday, Nov 8 was spent in Portland at the VA Hospital attending a pre-op appointment preparing me for coming surgery to correct some nasal problems. That took precedence over the elections.

I woke up Wednesday morning, Nov 9 to news that Trump pulled it off and looked about me. I was still 68 years old, still married to my wife and still had to pour a cup of coffee to kick start me.

My house was still here with my little Red Dakota still sitting in the driveway.

Absolutely nothing in my life had changed nor do I really expect any earth shattering changes to come, other than I will continue getting older.

Trump made some very bold claims and promises along the way to his win that frankly, I see him having a very difficult time fulfilling. Not unlike many early promises made by Obama that remain unfulfilled, the complete closure of Guantanamo for example. If you didn’t know, it’s still down there and still in operation.

Campaign promises are easy to make, but often more difficult to keep. Especially when the candidate spared little effort smearing and belittling the very people he now must depend on to actually help him keep those promises made in the campaign.

Only days since the win and already we see Trump backpedalling somewhat on the full repeal of Obamacare, claiming he likes some of the key provisions and “may seek to amend the statute rather than repeal it.”

That wall along our Southern Border and making Mexico pay for it? We’ll see, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Such a wall has been approved since Reagan’s terms and other than sections of fence that are easily circumvented, the border remains open.

Funding is set by Congress, not any president.

Trump also claims he will “'immediately deport two to three million illegal immigrants with criminal records” and while that really does need to happen and sounds really good, I fully expect federal judges, the ACLU and pro-immigrate groups to fight it tooth and nail that will see that process linger on for several years and cost us untold amounts of tax dollars fighting to remove them.

Even illegal immigrants are entitled to due process and whether we agree or not, protection under our constitution as deemed so by our Supreme Court: Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886); Wong Win v. United States (1896) and subsequent rulings over the years.

I give him brownie points for trying, but suspect he is going to discover governing is much more difficult that campaigning.

In spite of earlier claims of “rarely leaving the White House,” we now hear the possibility of him “splitting time between DC and NY” as aides claim he “would like to spend his weekends either in his Trump Tower home, his New Jersey golf course or his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.”

Such a weekly travel schedule to those points, considering how large of an entourage president’s travel with and the security measures that would have to be installed in each and maintained, has the potential to make Obama’s extravagant vacation expenses look paltry.

I hope he reconsiders in that desire.

Along that line we also read of his desire in “continuing to hold large rallies as he did throughout the campaign for ‘the instant gratification and adulation that the cheering crowds provide’.”

Does he want to serve the nation or us serve and feed his massive ego?

All of the above remains to be seen. He won’t take office until January 20, 2017 and a lot will happen between now and then and with his selection of cabinet members as they must go through the Senate approval process.

But whatever he finally decides on, we are going to survive and I suspect our lives locally will see little to no actual difference as life goes on for each of us.

We have survived much worse.

Veterans Day

The latest from the wonderful children at Tussing Elementary School

http://www.restored.faithweb.com

Be sure to pause today and reach out and give thanks to any Veteran you know or come across. You live in a free country because of their sacrifices.

America’s Veterans, A Better Breed

Outrageous and Uncalled for

It's no secret that I did not support Donald Trump nor did I support Hillary Clinton. But what is seen in the following video must not be tolerated.

WARNING! GRAPHIC VIOLENCE

This reportedly happened in Chicago and it is reported that Police are investigating, but no arrests to date are reported. The elderly man is said to have been hospitalized and his car stolen by the thugs, that has not been recovered.

Unbelievably, Snopes tries a pitiful effort to "debunk" the obvious words spoken and heard in the video by claiming it was “due to a traffic altercation, not politics.”

Is this what is to come in our country after every election? Haven't we been hearing that it is the right that is the violent ones and creating so much mayhem?

I don't recall street protests and riots after the 2008 and 2012 elections nor would I condone them if they had occurred.

But we do have our fair share of gas bags and hotheads that firmly believe and practice that politics is “a cold-blooded, mentally violent business.”

That attitude feeds into such violence and it is only a matter of time before it is the fringe right acting out in such violence as well.

And I cannot claim that had Hillary Clinton won it wouldn't be pockets of Trump's alt-right hotheads committing such crimes.

Our country has survived perilous times and poor leaders. We are bigger than all of them and can survive again.

But not if we allow emotions to run wild and continue attacking each other.

A quote from President John F. Kennedy; “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

Many did not care for George W. Bush, but we survived.

Many did not care for Barack Obama, but we have survived.

We will no doubt survive Donald Trump by trusting our system that has served us well and kept us going.

But above all, we better begin toning it down and rejecting the calls from the fringe left and right.

They are only interested in self, not the country!

Sorry Republicans, It’s No Mandate

As we all know by now, acerbic Donald Trump came out ahead over Hillary Clinton to next occupy the office of the president. The win comes as no real surprise as one of the two was going to win and both were poor candidates, not what we need to heal our divided country.

Seeing now how the GOP claims to have a mandate and big win is most laughable as once again, we see the presidency won by electoral vote while coming in second in the popular vote.

I have no problem with that as that is the system our founders established. I do disagree with the ‘winner take all’ of 48 of our 50 states and believe each congressional district should have electors voting as did their district. But that is in the hands of the legislatures of each state.

Both the country and Republican Party remains bitterly divided and denying Trump the wholesale approval of his policy agenda he so often expressed on the campaign trail.

And while Republicans retained control of both the House and Senate, Democrats still have the filibuster as well as some strong, deeply entrenched politicians in office as well as Trump eagerly trashed several top Republicans during the campaign that also remain in office.

We’ll see how that works out over the next four years as this is not a reality TV show where Trump gets to just fire people he disagrees with.

We also must consider that Trump so far has amassed 59,704,886 votes. That is lower that Romney’s loss in 2012 with 60,933,504 votes and McCain’s loss in 2008 with 59,948,323 votes.

While Trump’s number may very well increase in the coming days as more straggling ballots come in and are counted, it is clear that many of the American people are not as supportive or embracing of Donald Trump’s agenda as being claimed.

Trump made a lot of claims and promises over the last year that should he moderate on, the fringe base he assembled will not be very happy.

But if he doesn’t moderate he will find he receives little cooperation from democrats or Republicans in Congress with more moderate views.

Both he and certain gas bags supporting him that believe it’s “a cold-blooded, mentally violent business” fail to realize the country was founded from the middle, compromise for what is best for all. We never have been an all or nothing nation and efforts of making us such has only served to bitterly divide us.

And, a house divided cannot stand.

So, while those gas bags and hotheads are gleefully looking forward to a wave of Trump’s magic wand to undo everything they disagree with, ultimately I doubt we will see a whole lot of changes coming.

They forget, as they fitfully try to compare Trump to Ronald Reagan, the latter realized early on the absolute must of compromise in governance as he said;

“When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it. ‘Compromise’ was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything.”

Trump made some pretty tall claims of what he intends to do as president that some of his most ardent brown shirt’s bought into.

He may soon come to realize it won’t be like on a TV show and is much more difficult that he expected.

He got the gig, so we will all see how he handles it.

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You can help a Vietnam Veteran fulfill a wish, Click Here

What’s Happened to the Republican Party?

I was born and raised in a strong Democrat family. No, not like today’s Democrats, far from it. A strong Southern Democrat family back when there actually was conservatives in the Democrat Party.

We know today that the Democrats have moved far to the left and if there are any conservatives left, they hide in the shadows.

It was the acts of Jimmy Carter that convinced me to become a Republican in 1977, seeing the Republicans were embracing conservative values, especially seen once Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in 1980.

It wasn’t until 2010 that I decided I’d be better off as an Independent, due to several acts by Republicans taken against a good conservative candidate to deny him a nomination to Congress in favor of a less qualified person.

But by and large, I still supported conservative Republicans while leaving my options open if ever a conservative Democrat ran again.

However, it is becoming more and more difficult to lend support to Republicans as I see fewer and fewer actual conservatives today.

Oh there are plenty telling you they are conservative, but from how I grew up and have practiced for so many years, they are not conservative but some strange blend of fringe Libertarian with a hint of anarchy, some say fascism, declaring that they are the “true conservatives.”

They will often quote Ronald Reagan from a 1975 interview saying,

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”

But they always leave out the rest,

“Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves.”

Over the years since Reagan left office we have seen a steady infiltration of the Republican Party by these people along with the more opportunistic GOP members latching onto their coattails for power or personal gain.

That in a nutshell is what we see and hear from these infiltrators, begging the question, how is seizing control and power over everybody “leaving them alone?”

And what lengths would they take to ensure they retained such power in a society of free people?

This brings me to the conduct of many witnessed at the recent Republican convention in Cleveland, particularly the speech given by Texas Senator Ted Cruz who was booed, jeered and degraded throughout and after for his words spoken, his wife Heidi needing to be escorted out by security due to those same jeers towards her on the floor of the convention.

Donald Trump, the next morning, seemed to be upset because Cruz added sentence to his speech that Trump did not see when he saw the full speech hours before it was given.

The sentence that set off Trump and his supporters? “I want to see the principles that our party stands for prevail in November.”

Do Trump and his supporters no longer stand for conservative Republican principles?

Have they replaced them with some as of yet unknown set of principles?

Other excerpts that gained jeers and boos for Cruz were;

“Did we live up to our values? Did we do all we could?” 

“We’re fighting, not for one particular candidate or one campaign, but because each of us wants to be able to tell our kids and grandkids, our own Carolines, that we did our best for their future, and for our country.” 

“There is a better vision for our future: A return to freedom.
On education, your freedom to choose your child’s education, even if you aren’t as rich as Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
On healthcare, your freedom to choose your own doctor, without Obamacare.
On taxes, your freedom to provide for your family without the IRS beating down your door.” 

“Freedom means free speech, not politically correct safe spaces.
Freedom means religious freedom, whether you are Christian or Jew, Muslim or atheist. Gay or straight, the Bill of Rights protects the rights of all of us to live according to our conscience.
Freedom means the right to keep and bear arms, and protect your family.
Freedom means Supreme Court Justices who don’t dictate policy, but instead follow the Constitution.” 

“We deserve leaders who stand for principle. Unite us all behind shared values. Cast aside anger for love. That is the standard we should expect, from everybody.”

And what seemed to anger Trump’s peoples the most,

“And to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November. Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”

When did any of that cease to represent conservative Republican values and principle?

And don’t tell me it still does because if it did, Trump and his supporters would have applauded such a speech, not booed and jeered all of the way through it.

Equally distressing now that Donald Trump is the official nominee for president from these new Republican’s is the tactics of supporters in demeaning, ridiculing, arguing and even threatening physical violence against people not jumping in to join their support of Trump.

Not to mention the fearmongering of “you only have two choices, Trump or Hillary and if you don’t vote Trump, then you support Hillary”

Balderdash!

In that I am reminded of the words of Alexander Hamilton,

“If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.”

I saw much the same nonsense during the past two elections coming out of the Ron Paul camps and apparently was erroneous in my belief it was him causing such splits.

It appears to me now that it was his supporters that want to seize control of the country to impose their will with the rest of us serving them, far from that “leave everybody alone” nonsense many of them spew.

And to do that they needed to take control of the Republican Party as they have been trying for a decade now.

This post barely scratches the surface of my concerns with this group and Donald Trump and more may be said in a future post.

But suffice it to say for now, You Wanted Trump, You’ve Got Him. How you get him elected is your problem.

I only pray that we will one day again before my time is up on this earth, we will see a true conservative Republican party rise up out of the ashes of this mess.

To lift a quote from Lloyd Bentsen’s 1988 Vice Presidential debate with Dan Quayle, “I knew conservative Republicans and y’all ain’t it!”

Trump: The Great Orange Hope?

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” 2 Timothy 4:3

By now we know that bombastic businessman Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for President as a Republican this election.

I am at a total loss as to how so many allowed themselves to be deluded by such a charlatan running what I can only call a “slash and trash” campaign, very reminiscent of the actions years past with Ron Paul supporters.

Interesting enough, now those same people that joined Trump in trashing any and every body not supportive of the poseur are now demanding we all get behind and support his bid, engaging in fear mongering of a Hillary Clinton win.

Sorry, but I have said all along that Trump was nothing more than a shill for Hillary, sort of a Ross Perot on steroids if you will.

Particularly curious to me now is that after the past seven years of complaints of no vetting for Barack Obama, no curiosity of his past stances or history, these same people either refuse to look at or just outright ignore Trumps record and history.

They ignore all evidence of his distancing himself from the Republican Party as early as 1999 when he was quoted in a New York Times article saying, “I really believe the Republicans are just too crazy right.”

But today, voters are to believe he is the true Republican running even further right than those he condemned back then?

His positions wander all over the board, not too long ago stating five different positions just on abortion alone!

Along with his trashing of Jeb Bush he claimed if elected, “you will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center. It wasn’t the Iraqis.”

Never mind that no one ever said it was the Iraqis or that Saddam Hussein had any hand in it.

Little wonder the Bush Presidents, both of them have stated they will remain on the sidelines this election and not endorse anyone.

He has even expressed support for a single payer healthcare system, the actual goal of Liberal Democrats with Obamacare. But wants you to believe he will repeal Obamacare?

And replace it with what, the Liberal Democrats actual end goal for healthcare?

That wall along the Southern Border we have been hearing about now for decades and he promises will be built? Not so fast, he has waffled there admitting how he even used immigrants, benefiting from low wage undocumented immigrants.

His list of flip flops just keeps growing and growing with no end in sight.

Will he one day flip flop on his support of the second amendment? He quickly flipped on an Assault Weapons ban as he progressed. How can anybody be certain he won’t flip back if elected?

Now we are to believe that he is “the Great Orange Hope” to save America from Hillary Clinton, after his many years of praising her and courting both her and other Democrats?

And now, mush as we saw with rabid, foaming at the mouth Paulbots in the past, devotees rely on fear mongering and actual threats to forcibly grow support for him?

I get that he said many things early on that conservatives have been saying and the Republican Party did not support in years past. But he never gave any solutions, just “trust me, I’ll fix it.”

He never explained just how he will gain any Congressional support for his plans, leading me to believe that he would rely on Executive orders, bypassing Congress.

I’m sure you recall Obama’s reliance on Executive orders that many complained about for years were violating the constitutional separation of powers.

I imagine that opposition would evaporate when their “Great Orange Hope” engaged in the practice.

He’s made a lot of noise on bringing jobs back to America, but somehow neglects to mention all of his profits made by outsourcing jobs to Bangladesh, China, Honduras and other low-wage countries for his line of apparel.

His devotees are now running around claiming if Hillary is elected president, the fault rests on the heads of those of us that have said we will not vote for Trump under circumstances.

They are wrong!

Any fault rests squarely on their own heads as for months we have tried to warn people of the close links between the Clinton’s and Trump. We have spoken of how he has portrayed the Republican Party in the vilest of light he could every time he spoke.

We have shown evidence of what I call draft dodging during the Vietnam War that I and many others without wealthy fathers were sent to, all ignored.

Although I never formally signed on, Ben Howe of #NeverTrump lays out my own views and feelings perfectly.

I can only add to his words, you Trump devotees wanted him, you got him. How you will get him elected is your problem, not mine.

You elected Hillary, not us.

As Paulbots of years past wanted with Ron Paul, get who they want nominated by hook or crook, just get him nominated, ignoring how many state no way ever would they vote for him. Trump devotees now carry the same disillusion that people will just blindly jump in behind their chosen poseur.

Y’all are about to be smacked square in the face with a huge dose of reality.

If only our own media were interested in vetting Trump.

Oh people in America, what you have done!

Who the Next President Should Be

It is no secret the country is bitterly divided now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee and likely will face Hillary Clinton in the November general election.

To say neither is qualified to occupy the Oval Office is a gross understatement, regardless of what either of their starry eyed devotees my claim.

Both are well known New York Liberals that care only about themselves and both would devastate our country if not plunge us into a bloody war.

But we have to have a president and we need a candidate worthy of our votes. And, given the choices the parties present us, I believe I have found the perfect man for the job.

He is well known and highly popular with people from both parties.

He has been seen frequently on television singing opera, directing orchestras and is an avid hunter, telling me he would defend our second amendment rights with his every being.

He’s not afraid of getting his hands dirty, having actually prospected for gold at one time.

He’s never been caught up in any sexual scandal or seen cavorting with women of questionable reputation.

He’s been a strong supporter of our Military throughout our wars doing what he could to sell war bonds.

Granted he has a slight speech impediment, but it does not stop anyone from clearly understanding him or how words and you have never heard foul language coming from his mouth either.

His bipartisan appeal is likely his strongest suit as his efforts over the years have pleased many, brought smiles to their faces and eased their souls during troubled times.

He’s never amassed a fortune, although others have amassed wealth due to his hard work for so many years.

In fact, given the poor choices we see before us this election, I can’t think of a better man for the job.

Forget Trump.

Forget Hillary.

Let’s put our efforts behind a true American that will really make America what it could be.

I'm proudly casting my vote for Elmer Fudd this year. He stands heads above either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Honoring Our First Responders

The children from Tussing Elementary School are known for the videos thanking and honoring the Military and Veterans. They now add one honoring First Responders.

Feel free to share with any Law Enforcement, Firefighter or Emergency Crews you may know.

FREE SHEET MUSIC! http://www.restored.faithweb.com

Tax Increases, Affordable Housing, What About Jobs?

We all realize there is a homeless population in our community. A population that for any number of reasons, seems to have grown over the last couple years. Along with that growth comes the problem of how do we deal with them.

Once was the time they were referred to as bums, ho bo’s, vagrants, derelicts, tramps and such and communities did their best to usher them away. A kinder term from years ago was a drifter. From what I have read it seemed to peak during the years of the Great Depression, but has been around for all time.

But times have changed and now they are seen as “homeless,” people simply down on their luck, pushed out of jobs by greedy corporations, landlords or just the economic times as we continue struggling to climb out of the Great Recession that started about 9 years ago.

Truth be known, the reasons are as varied as are the people. Some really are merely down on their luck due to the economy. Others are addicted to drugs or alcohol while still others are mentally ill. Some just choose to live such a lifestyle, unencumbered by the daily responsibilities of contributing to society.

This presents us with a very complex issue on who to help and just how as it is obvious a ‘one size fits all’ cannot possibly address all of the varied issues contributing to the problem.

Enter the Vancouver, Wa. City Council and their notion of raising property taxes on middle class homeowners in order to “make a dent in the community’s growing problem with housing instability and homelessness” by constructing “affordable housing” downtown.

A lofty and compassionate goal, but what about those homeowners, some that are struggling to make ends meet, care for their own families and avoid becoming homeless themselves?

Is it really fair to just expect them to keep paying more and more as they are faced with other taxes and fees increasing, the possibility of coming under the nation’s first ever carbon tax scheme, higher gasoline taxes and license fees to build and repair infrastructure, even the potential of a mileage tax as well?

We’re told this tax increase would only be “50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for up to 10 years.”

Left out of it is that is on top or in addition to all of the rest of the tax and fee increases coming at us. Gasoline, utilities, sales tax, the ongoing push to impose an income tax and more and each claims pretty close to the same, “it’s only X amount for this.”

Yes, but add them all together and it adds up quickly.

Ironic in all of this is this City Council is largely opposed to the proposed Tesoro Oil Terminal at the Port of Vancouver, even though it holds a promise of job creation that many of our homeless population could benefit from by returning to the workforce.

Vancouver Energy USA states,

Vancouver Energy will generate $2 billion in economic value to the local and regional economy of the City of Vancouver, Clark County and surrounding counties through labor income and tax revenues, as well as income and profits created as a result of the oil terminal’s direct, indirect and induced impacts.

Vancouver Energy will produce $1.6 billion in labor income during its construction and assumed first 15 years of terminal operation. It will also make a more than $22 million payment in state and local taxes during construction and generate more than $7.8 million in tax revenue annually that will go to state and local governments for public facilities and services.

Clark County and surrounding counties will benefit with approximately 320 full-time jobs during the construction of Vancouver Energy. Plus, 176 direct on-site jobs and 440 direct off-site operations jobs will be created to operate the facility.

More than 1,000 jobs will be supported by Vancouver Energy each year once the terminal is fully operational.

The claim has been made that those jobs would be going to existing personnel brought up from Texas and Oklahoma. While managers of the terminal already trained very well may be relocated, the bulk would go to local workers as it costs too much to relocate many workers.

And it also must be remembered, this is not a drilling or refining operation proposed, but storage and transfer facility to carry crude drilled in the Midwest up and down to west coast to existing refineries.

Some seem to fear the oil could be exported to other countries. While that is not slated at this time, would it be a bad thing if it were? Who would we rather foreign countries buy crude oil from, Middle Eastern Countries that support terrorists like ISIS and fund their warfare?

Or the good old United States of America that will use to funds to provide more jobs to our people, funnel revenues into social programs to help the needy and yes, some would go to pay to defend our way of life.

All of that would seem some of the current homeless population become employed, earn paychecks and contribute revenue into the system to help others, not just receive it.

The expansion of jobs outside of the terminal to provide newly employed people with tools, clothing, food, homes, cars, entertainment and more would also be of benefit to other homeless people wanting to work.

Our ancestors built this country into a superpower by working. They did not want handouts but wanted to earn their pay.

For those still wanting to work, we need these jobs to get them back in the workforce and get the country moving again.

I invite you to review many past articles this blogger has written on how the energy sector could be a major contributor to our economic recovery and freedom at Energy Post Archives.

All that is standing in the way is bleeding heart politicians that would rather increase taxes on struggling middle class families than see viable family wage jobs created.

Porous Borders, It’s Not “For the Children”

For many years many of us have protested and complained about what is seen as “porous borders,” illegal aliens essentially waltzing across our Southern Border for Mexico and parts further south. As we raised alarms, bleeding hearts would shoot us down with claims of bigotry against Hispanics and just being cold-hearted to the plight of the poor people struggling to better their lives by illegally sneaking into our country or the escape violence and poverty in theirs.

Somewhere along the line it was changed from “Illegal Alien” to “Undocumented Workers.”

We were assured there was no problem and that allowing such porous borders only enhanced our economy and the people were better off here instead of striving to improve conditions wherever they originated from.

We were accused of engaging in hyperbole and exaggerating the problems as a couple years ago, we saw masses of unaccompanied children flood over the border and instead of arranging their return to their parents, for the ones fortunate enough to reach our country and not be killed or slaughtered along the way, arrangements were made by Bureaucrats to house them with people or groups across the country.

Democrats, in their usual manner, vowed more tax dollars be directed to immigration while plans were being made to build more shelter for the influx of unaccompanied children.

All was well, they said, we can easily continue being the world’s welfare office and our own burgeoning federal debt was no consequence.

What they didn’t tell us was just exactly what was being down with these unaccompanied children they were having housed all over the country.

While we were arguing over a county councilor’s facebook page or rehashing old policies of being forced to accept light rail or raising taxes for schools or whatever else the legislature desired it for, it has now come to light that many of these unaccompanied children were being placed in pure hell by the Bureaucrats assigned to help them.

The Washington Post recently published, Obama administration placed children with human traffickers, report says.

“The Obama administration failed to protect thousands of Central American children who have flooded across the U.S. border since 2011, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers and to abuses at the hands of government-approved caretakers, a Senate investigation has found.”

“The Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, failed to do proper background checks of adults who claimed the children, allowed sponsors to take custody of multiple unrelated children, and regularly placed children in homes without visiting the locations, according to a 56-page investigative report released Thursday.”

“And once the children left federally funded shelters, the report said, the agency permitted their adult sponsors to prevent caseworkers from providing them post-release services.”

It is even more disturbing to read in their article, Overwhelmed federal officials released immigrant teens to traffickers in 2014 how Hispanic teens were held against their will in Ohio as slave labor working on an egg farm.

While we worried over being banned on facebook, these kids were being threatened with bodily harm and death if they tried to escape.

While Liberals were blasting us for being cold-hearted or of harboring hate against Hispanics, there were children being placed in slavery and handed over to human traffickers in the very manner we wanted prevented.

And no, it wasn’t every child I am sure. But that it happened to any is inexcusable.

Our immigration laws are not written out of greed or to be hateful to others. They are a protection, not only for our own people but for people from other countries that wish to be here.

And yes, not everybody is allowed in, never have been since all countries began immigration laws. Thousands arriving at Ellis Island were sent back for any number of reasons.

Many Illegal Aliens are good people; I agree and have known some. But not all are. The good people though, that merely want to improve their lives leave themselves vulnerable to unscrupulous traffickers or those seeking slave labor to work and make profits for them.

Open borders is not answer either as what is reported here shows. We simply do not have the facilities or resources to continue being the world’s welfare department.

How many adult or teen women are still out there in forced prostitution is unknown. We do know human trafficking is a problem, a big problem that law enforcement is fighting.

We do not help in that fight by throwing vulnerable people to the wolves as easy prey for human traffickers.

We must enforce our borders and immigration law for everybody’s well being.

As seen above, doing so actually would be “for the children.”