Reality Check

Littlechild@emperorsnuclothes.com/ January 9, 2019/ Uncategorized

Finally. It’s finally happened. President Trump has finally spoken out about border security in a venue worthy of gravity of the crisis at hand. This evening President Trump, from the Oval Office, laid out the inconvenient truth about the crisis on our southern border. He did so in a manner that was concise, clear and, above all, common sensical. It was nothing short of a “reality check”.

His first order of business was to establish that the situation on our southern border is, indeed, a crisis. He broke up his analysis into two parts.

The first part is that of an humanitarian crisis. He pointed out, correctly, that the migrants, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful and non criminal hopefuls, are subjected to predation, robbery and violence by those who are not. Human trafficking for prostitution and sexual slavery is not uncommon. Neither is sexual assault. One watchdog agency agency estimates that ONE THIRD of the women on the journey have been raped. Exposure to epidemic levels of disease (tuberculosis, meningitis, hepatitis, venereal disease, AIDS and other maladies) is extreme. The human suffering our porous border has caused is immense. (Please see my essay titled “The Compassionate Wall” from April 27, 2018, for more on this subject.)

The second part is that of security. To focus on this, Mr. Trump presented a number of shocking statistics. In the past TWO years, for example, four THOUSAND Americans have been killed by illegal aliens. Although the main stream media is generally indifferent to the plight of these victims, some of these deaths have made it into the news. Some of the victims were murdered. One murder, that of California Police Officer Ronil Singh, was as recent as December 27. Another victim that some might recall is jogger Mollie Tibetts, murdered by illegal alien Christhian Rivera. Some are shot “accidentally”. Young Kathryn Steinle, you may recall, was fatally shot by illegal alien Jose Zarrate while she walked on San Francisco’s Pier 14 with her father. Many others are victims of drunken driving by illegal aliens. Twenty two year old Pierce Corcoran of Knoxville, Tennessee was killed by drunk driver Franco Francisco-Eduardo, just 3 DAYS ago. Many may also recall the NFL Colts football player, Edwin Jackson, that was killed by a drunken illegal alien Manuel Orrego-Savala. Many victims, however, receive little media attention. Our government does track them, however. There have been FOUR THOUSAND such deaths in 2017 and 2018 combined. Add to those horrible statistics non fatal violence, rape and robbery, and the extent of this crisis becomes very clear. No sensible person could believe that Mr. Trump is “making this crisis up”, as is claimed by the Democrats. And no sensible person could plausibly contend that a border wall won’t make a difference. That this is so, is demonstrated by the fact that many of the illegal criminals have been deported MULTIPLE TIMES. Prior to killing Ms. Steinle, Jose Zarrate, for example, had been DEPORTED FIVE TIMES. Mr. Zarrate, apparently, found ways to cross our border with EASE. By the way, these statistics are NOT fabricated. They are reported by both the Department Of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, and are updated quarterly.

Mr. Trump then went on to cite other ramifications of our porous border that impact our society adversely. These include drug addiction with its immense cost to society for addict medical care, as well as the costs of robbery and crime that drug addiction causes. NINETY FIVE PERCENT of US heroin comes in through our southern border. Then there is the fact that illegal aliens take jobs away from the low income Americans who desperately need them, driving down salaries in the process. And there are other ramifications such as the immense costs of immigrant housing, education and medical care. As a friend of mine once remarked: “you can have open borders, or you can have a welfare state, but you can’t have both” (Thanks JM).

Mr. Trump then called the Democrats out for their ethical posturing, saying, simply, that if the wall is “so immoral”, why did Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and even Barack Obama, vote FOR past versions of the wall, that were proposed in 2006 and 2013?

And, since “fake news” claims are made by both sides of any contemporary American debate, I decided to review a number of “fact check” sites with this in mind. Sites I checked included the New York Times and ABC. What I found were some minor and even picayune points here and there, but no substantiative refutation of the President’s data. (Which is why, I suspect, that Schumer and Pelosi didn’t challenge the President’s figures in their “rebuttal”).

What Pelosi and Schumer did do, however, was something of an embarrassment. They kept claiming (with nothing to back it up, I might add) that the crisis was “made up”. Maybe they felt that if they just repeat the phrase often enough, people will believe it. They kept claiming, also, that President Trump was “playing on fear”, as if 4,000 innocent American deaths in two years is not something to be afraid of. Further, they kept claiming, implausibly, that although they are FOR border security, they want only “effective” measures, saying that the wall “won’t work”. How they can keep repeating this trope with such conviction is beyond me. Everyone KNOWS that walls work. The Qin dynasty of China knew that walls work (and built one 13 THOUSAND miles long). East Germany knew that walls work (and erected the Berlin Wall). The citizens of Israel today know that walls work. The citizens of El Paso Texas today know that walls work. The Border Patrol and the Homeland Security experts also know that walls work, and are very clear that they need physical barriers along with other tools in order to do their job. Then, without any plausible arguments to be made, Chuck and Nancy then tried to play upon sympathy for the hardship of the furloughed federal employees. Now, it IS true that these employees will miss their FIRST paycheck this coming Friday, and that is without question unfortunate. But, as regrettable as this is, the security of our nation must take precedence. And, if the Democrats are so concerned about the welfare of the federal employees, they can show true sympathy for the them by returning, at once, to the negotiating table.

Mr. Trump was elected in ORDER to, among several things, increase our border security. The Democrats have NOT provided any cogent argument why our country should not do so. It’s just common sense. Tonight’s speech, America, is a nothing less than a reality check. It’s time to pay heed.