This week in Washington, the Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held our first hearing.
There is one thing I wanted to make clear to everyone around the world: the Chinese Communist Party is a threat to the United States. It is the threat of our lifetime.
The Chinese Communist Party seeks to undermine us at home and abroad: they actively threaten us militarily, they exploit our financial systems, and they insidiously attempt to shape the thoughts and viewpoints of our children through their use of media.
I will not stand for that.
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March 3, 2023
Targeting Conservatives
FBI whistleblower Garret O'Boyle told the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the FBI created a special threat tag called "Threats To SCOTUS 2022" after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
There were certainly plenty of threats against the justices after the Dobbs decision. Angry mobs formed outside the court and outside the justices' homes. A would-be assassin even flew across the country with the intention of killing Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In addition, violent groups like "Jane's Revenge" attacked dozens of churches and pregnancy resource centers all over the country.
But what O'Boyle found really odd is that his superiors told him to focus on pro-life activists – not the violent pro-abortion left. This is more evidence of the Biden Administration's politicization of the Justice Department and weaponization of law enforcement.
In 2021, only four pro-life activists were prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances ACT (FACE Act). But last year, after Roe was overturned, 26 people were prosecuted under the FACE Act, and Biden's harassment of pro-life activists continues.
So, what have we learned about the Biden/Garland/Wray FBI?
They created threat tags to go after concerned parents at school board meetings who were upset over their kids being exposed to sexually explicit material or Marxist indoctrination.
They created threat tags to go after pro-life activists.
They targeted conservative Catholics.
I don't recall hearing a word during the Trump Administration from any career person at the Justice Department or the FBI about the need for an Antifa threat tag or for other violent radicals beating up conservatives with MAGA hats.
Did the FBI create threat tags for the BLM Marxists and the violent rioters they supported?
Not surprisingly, liberal politicians are now trying to demonize and discredit these FBI whistleblowers as "right-wing conspiracy theorists," which is exactly what they said about anyone who questioned the Russian collusion hoax, reported on Hunter Biden's laptop or said COVID came from the Wuhan lab.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
As we have repeatedly warned, communist China is preparing for war with the United States. Beijing is not a trading partner or even a competitor. The brutal, genocidal communist regime is an enemy of freedom.
They're late to the game, but it's good that Democrats and Republicans, at least in the House of Representatives, are finally starting to seriously address the threats from communist China.
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth made a shocking statement this week that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, Wormuth said:
"If we got into a major war with China, the United States homeland would be at risk as well with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks — whether it's cyberattacks on the power grid or on pipelines. . . They are going to go after the will of the United States public. They're going to try to erode support for a conflict."
Or they just might release a deadly virus from a "weather balloon" that flies across our country. If that sounds far-fetched to you, think again. Communist China is already waging chemical warfare against us. But don't take my word for it.
Testifying before the United States Senate this morning, Attorney General Merrick Garland was asked about the fentanyl crisis, and he said this:
"It's a horrible epidemic, but it's an epidemic that's been unleashed on purpose by the Sinaloa and the new generation Jalisco cartels."
Garland is only half right. Yes, it's being done on purpose, but there's an even bigger threat behind the cartels.
Last year, Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram told ABC News:
"What we know is that China is providing chemicals to Mexico, to the criminal drug networks that are then mass-producing these fake prescription pills. . . But there's no Xanax, no Oxy, no Percocet in them. They're fentanyl."
The Biden Administration knows that record numbers of Americans are being deliberately poisoned by communist China, and yet it is doing nothing to secure our borders or to seriously confront communist China for this act of aggression.
Angel Mom Rebecca Kiessling, who lost her two sons to fentanyl poisoning, told members of Congress yesterday, "This is a war! Act like it! Do something!"
She's absolutely right. And for this reason alone, Joe Biden deserves to be impeached.
Compromised By Communists
Secretary Wormuth's comments about communist China trying to "erode American support" for any conflict against China were particularly interesting.
As I noted yesterday, Beijing has many "allies" in the United States because it has been working for decades to exploit our openness and freedoms in order to compromise key individuals.
We just got one high-profile example of how communist China compromises people.
Over the weekend, Elon Musk tweeted his belief that COVID-19 came out of the Wuhan lab. The Global Times (an official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party) immediately fired back, posting on social media, "Elon Musk, are you breaking the pot of China?"
That might seem like an odd phrase to most Americans, but to the Chinese it's an idiom similar to "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." In other words, Musk has been officially warned by the Chinese Communist Party that his considerable business interests in China are now at risk.
This is nothing unusual. It's exactly what every American CEO who invests in China is subjected to on a regular basis. You cannot do business in China without dealing with the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese have bragged about their influence over "the people at the top of America's core inner circle."
Beijing got U.S. social media "influencers" to parrot communist propaganda during the latest Olympic Games.
Knowing that liberals are soft on socialism, the communist Chinese have infiltrated our college campuses for decades with Confucius Centers. Republicans were susceptible on free trade, and multinational corporations wanted bigger profits.
They launched elaborate influence operations compromising politicians from mayors to congressmen, and even the president's family.
Some Christian leaders have been weak on this issue, and I really don't know why, given communist China's persecution of Christians.
When Dr. James Dobson and I fought efforts to give communist China special trade status, we were attacked by the "good capitalists" at the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Dr. Dobson and I – not communist China – were the problem. A prominent pastor wrote a guest editorial in the Wall Street Journal attacking me by name.
Here's the bottom line: Isolating Russia in its conflict with Ukraine was easy because Russia didn't have many allies here in America. But isolating China will be far more difficult because far too many American capitalists have been compromised by the Chinese communists.
If our government tried to march all dissenters to jail — or hang them all — it probably couldn't get away with it. Too many Americans still have enough sense of fair play and concern for individual rights to make such ugly expedients untenable.
Also, the First Amendment hasn't been repealed yet. Oh, no! So the non-crime of uttering "misinformation," "disinformation," "hate speech" — that is, uttering disagreement — can only be thwarted indirectly.
One way is for government officials to get chummy with compliant social media companies and point them to utterances (posted comments, videos) to censor.
Another is to fund organizations with missions of defunding wrongthinkers.
The Washington Examiner's Gabe Kaminsky reports on the taxpayer-bankrolled conspiracy.
Congress funds the State Department and "two State Department-backed entities," including National Endowment for Democracy; which has in turn been funding a British organization called the Global Disinformation; which has a group called the AN Foundation that is also called Disinformation Index Foundation; which is sending blacklists of websites that supposedly purvey disinformation to American ad companies like Microsoft-owned Xandr.
The State Department, not constitutionally authorized to censor our speech, gave over $300 million (three tenths of a billion) to the Endowment in 2021.
Websites to be deprived — and that probably have already been deprived — of advertising dollars as ad distributors seek to avoid "risks that arise from funding disinformation" include the New York Post, Reason, Newsmax, The Federalist, American Spectator.
No commie egalitarians; no woke websites.
All very roundabout and mostly under the radar. As intended.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
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We wrapped up the 2023 Session this past week and so I am back in the Valley and ready for an exciting year.
Over the past two weeks, an unprecedented number of General Assembly retirements have been announced. The time has come for me to announce that… I am NOT retiring! I AM RUNNING FOR REELECTION TO THE VIRGINIA STATE SENATE!
Virginia is one of the few states in the country that has elections in odd numbered years so I don't exaggerate when I say that all eyes will be on Virginia this year.
All 100 House of Delegate districts and 40 State Senate districts are up for grabs and we must keep our Republican majority in the House of Delegates and win back majority in the State Senate. There are going to be a lot of new faces in Richmond. It looks like nearly one third of the members of the General Assembly will be new.
Every 10 years, Virginia is required to draw new State Senate districts as a result of the census. In 2021, the Supreme Court of Virginia did just that and as a result, I will now be running to represent Senate District 2. Although the district number is different, the communities I hope to represent and my resolve to stand up for our conservative values in Richmond remains unwavering.
To learn more about Senate District 2, visit my website MarkObenshain.com/redistricting.
I'm running for reelection because the work I started when I was first elected in 2003 is not finished. When I was first elected I promised to fight for Virginia's taxpayers. Right now we are engaged in a budget stalemate in which we have a $3.6 billion budget surplus, but many in Richmond fail to recognize that this is money that belongs to the taxpayers and they deserve to have at least a portion of it returned to them. I plan to continue to fight against undisciplined government growth and the efforts of those who believe we are taxed too little.
I promised that I would fight for safer communities in Virginia. Too many Virginians are suffering the effects of the opioid, meth and fentanyl epidemics that are killing young people, ruining lives, breaking up families and devastating our communities. We need commonsense public safety reforms that will return us to a trajectory in which we have safer communities and neighborhoods.
I promised that I would stand strong for the protection of innocent human life. I have fought to defend our parental consent laws and fought against radical legislation that would legalize abortion up to the moment of birth. With the decision of the Supreme Court this year overturning the wrongly decided Roe v. Wade decision, I stand with Governor Youngkin and others in the General Assembly to pass laws that further a culture that values and protects innocent human life, especially including the unborn.
When I first ran, I promised to fight to protect our Second Amendment rights. During the short period of time when Democrats controlled the Executive Branch and both chambers of the General Assembly, unnecessary and burdensome restrictions were imposed upon the constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. Many so-called civil libertarians seek to pick and choose those parts of the Bill of Rights they deem to be relevant, while ignoring the Second Amendment and the right to free speech – when it involves speech with which they disagree. I will continue to stand up for the entire Bill of Rights – Second Amendment included.
I promise you this: liberal elites and Democrats around the country are looking at Virginia and ready to pour millions of dollars to take back the House of Delegates and maintain their majority in the Senate. If that happens, they will be able to block legislation that we know to be necessary to ensure we leave the Commonwealth a better place for future generations.
I hope you'll consider a donation today to my campaign to help fight against liberal attempts to take over Virginia. Click here to donate today.
Over the next eight months, I look forward to getting out on the campaign trail and meeting you, whether it be at your doorstep, at the diner where you eat lunch, or at the church you attend on Sundays.
It has been my distinct honor and privilege to represent the people of Shenandoah, Warren and Rappahannock Counties in the Senate for the past 20 years, but redistricting forces me to bid farewell to these counties and the many friends that Suzanne and I have made during that time. While I will not be representing you in the future, I know that our friendships will endure and that those friends will continue to call me if I can ever be of service.
The new legislative district maps have given me the opportunity to spend more time in Eastern Rockingham County, Augusta, Highland and Bath Counties. I have already made many friends and I look forward to making many more and look forward to serving the citizens of those counties (along with those of Page, Rockingham and Harrisonburg) in the coming days, weeks and years
Suzanne and I are deeply grateful for the support I have received in my political endeavors and that our family has received. We do not lightly embark on this endeavor and I hope that I have or will earn your support in this important campaign for reelection to the Virginia State Senate.
Thank you for your friendship and support.
Best,
Mark
February 27, 2023 |
IRLI shows immigration court that working illegally is a continuing offense |
WASHINGTON—Today, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) at the Executive Office for Immigration Review, in a case that will decide whether illegal aliens who work in this country using fraudulent documents violate the law not just one time, when they are hired based on these documents, but continuously during the whole course of their employment.
The statute governing this question penalizes illegal aliens for using a fraudulent document to "obtain a benefit under this chapter." As IRLI shows in its brief, a "benefit under this chapter" is not only getting a job, but working in that job for some period of time and getting paid; there is no benefit to getting a job but never working in it. And the same statutory scheme imposes a duty on employers to terminate aliens who they discover are not eligible to work in this country. Thus, the fraudulent document the employer has on file is continuously used by the alien to keep his job, and obtain the benefit of working in this country for pay.
"This case matters because illegal work by illegal aliens is not a victimless offense," said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. "Not only do aliens commit identity theft to obtain employment, but they take jobs from Americans, and also swamp the labor market so that wages for millions of our fellow citizens are lower than they would otherwise be. That is why Congress made it an offense to work illegally, and we hope OCAHO does not hobble this protection for American workers with a specious interpretation urged by illegal aliens and their attorneys."
The case is Amicus Invitation No. 23-15-02 (OCAHO). |
February 28, 2023 |
IRLI investigation exposes the radical legal group behind the scheme |
WASHINGTON – An investigation by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has revealed that public officials in a number of large jurisdictions are collaborating with progressive, anti-borders activists from the Vera Institute of Justice to provide free lawyers to illegals, criminal aliens and visa overstayers – and taxpayers are footing the bill.
In the U.S., in criminal court, indigent defendants are entitled to a free lawyer. However, litigants in civil proceedings – like evictions, divorces and debt recovery actions – must pay for their own counsel. Immigration proceedings are civil – essentially the U.S. is evicting a foreign national who has no right to be in the United States. Therefore, the United States has no legal obligation to provide any foreign lawbreakers with a free attorney.
Nevertheless, the Vera Institute of Justice, frequently described as an "overtly political leftwing nonprofit organization" that is hostile toward any form of immigration enforcement, has teamed up with public officials in order to fulfill its objective of publicly-funded "universal representation" for all aliens who go to Immigration Court. Approximately 50 jurisdictions have bought into Vera's scheme to transfer hard-earned taxpayer dollars to foreign lawbreakers – all at a time when the U.S. is facing unprecedented levels of illegal immigration.
As IRLI's report notes, "The cost to U.S. taxpayers is staggering. Cash-strapped American families are laying out roughly $66,145,000 for lawyers to try and keep illegal aliens, foreign criminals and other immigration violators in the United States. What's worse, is the longer those immigration violators remain in America, the more they tend to cost us – placing a fiscal burden on public schools, the criminal justice system and our transportation infrastructure."
At present, there are approximately 1.6 million cases pending before the Immigration Court. And cities, counties and states that sign on to Vera's crazy scheme may find themselves going bankrupt, providing foreign nationals with a free service that similarly situated Americans (i.e., citizens in civil litigation) don't get.
"The findings of this report are indicative of how dysfunctional our immigration system really is today," said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. "On one hand we are purportedly enforcing our border and deporting illegal aliens. One the other, we are using limited taxpayer-funded resources to thwart the enforcement effort and keep illegal aliens here. The chaotic results speak for themselves."
"This entire program is absurd," said Matt O'Brien, IRLI's director of investigations, whose department produced the report. "In essence, Vera and its collaborators are asking Americans to put up their hard-earned cash in order to allow foreign nationals to keep breaking our immigration laws. And it's beyond criminal that U.S. officials will spend taxpayer funds on this kind of foolishness when they can't fill potholes, buy computers for public schools or keep public transportation running on time."
The full text of the report can be viewed here. |
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