Tag Archives: California

News

Illegal immigrant deported 5 times, returns to cause $61 million in forest fire damage

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Forest fires really harm the environment
Forest fires really harm the environment

This story comes from the Washington Times.

Excerpt:

Angel Gilberto Garcia-Avalos had been deported five times in just the past four years, yet each time he has managed to sneak from Mexicoback into the U.S., where he ended up in more mischief: driving without a license, attempted burglary and felony weapons charges.

In August, he graduated to full-fledged mayhem, sparking a fire in the Sequoia National Forest that has already cost the government $61 million and left some of the country’s most beautiful landscape scarred for years to come.

Garcia, who pleaded guilty last month and faces 13 months in prison, had only recently been released from the Kern County Jail. He likely would have been deported again, but local authorities were unable to report him to immigration authorities because of California’s new sanctuary city law, which prohibited the sheriff from communicating with federal agents.

Federal agents now say they will kick Garcia out of the country once he serves his latest sentence, but the damage has already been done.

[…]Of the 29,000 acres that were touched by fire, more than half sustained moderate or high-intensity burns. Communities were evacuated in two counties, and a handful of cabins and outbuildings were scorched.

It took six weeks to fully contain the fire. Officials warned at the beginning of October that hot spots could persist until the first snows blanket the area and snuff out the last vestiges.

[…][I]t took more than $60 million to contain and extinguish the blaze. Mr. Chatel submitted an emergency restoration plan at a cost of $500,000. That doesn’t include long-term restoration of campsites, cattle-grazing areas and long-term revegetation.

[…]Garcia has admitted to his role in the fire but shows little remorse.

Now, I have a friend who is an evangelical Christian ex-Democrat, now moderate Republican, and he is a strong backer of amnesty for illegal immigrants, and bringing in more Muslim refugees. And the first question he asks me when I send him illegal immigrant crime / refugee Islamic terrorism news stories is this: “how do we know that illegal immigrants / refugees are more likely to commit crimes or terrorism than natural born Americans and skilled legal immigrants?”

Good question, here’s the answer from the article:

Fires sparked by illegal immigrants are more common — and more controversial — along the border.

[…]GAO [Government Accountability Office] investigators reviewed 77 human-caused fires along the Arizona border and concluded that 30 of them were caused by illegal border crossers.

Worse yet, the presence of the illegal immigrants made fighting the fires even tougher. One investigator told The Washington Times that armed agents had to accompany firefighters.

In California, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the problems go beyond fire. He said marijuana grows are becoming more frequent on federal lands. When they are raided, the grows are usually found to be manned by illegal immigrants — some of them forced into the labor. State and local law enforcement have become engaged in shootouts at the grows.

“They’re destroying the landscape of our national forest,” the sheriff told The Washington Times.

Democrats are responsible for passing the laws that make it easy for illegal immigrants to continue to re-enter the United States:

Garcia has a long criminal record that includes auto theft, burglary and firearms charges. Nabbed last year after failing to appear in court to face felony charges, he was sentenced to more than a year in jail and was released for good behavior after serving 194 days.

In the past, Kern County would have reported him to federal immigration agents and his criminal record and repeated deportations would have made him a priority case. But California’s Trust Act, signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, put an end to that cooperation.

“We didn’t hold him because he did not meet the Trust Act,” Sheriff Youngblood said.

I think this story is interesting, because the people who are in favor of illegal immigration also tend to be environmentalists. So it’s kind of a funny situation where their support for open borders is actually having a negative impact on the environment. The far left Washington Post says that forest fires make global warming even worse. And the California Democrats who claim to love nature are the ones who voted for this “Trust Act”. They caused the forest fire because of their “compassion”.

Now, I’m no global warming alarmist, but I am very supportive of conservation and nature preserves. I like trees and animals, and I think we should be careful so that we don’t harm them. I’m all for skilled immigration, but also for protecting and conserving nature. But the people on the left have a dilemma – illegal immigration, or protecting nature?

News

Scott Walker endorses Ted Cruz for President, Cruz trails Trump by 1 in California

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorses Texas Senator Ted Cruz
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorses Texas Senator Ted Cruz

The big news, which was reported everywhere, is that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who was my first choice in the primary early on, has endorsed my current first choice in the Republican primary: Ted Cruz.

The Washington Times reports:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for president Tuesday, giving Mr. Cruz a major boost ahead of the April 5 GOP primary in the Badger State.

“I am proud to endorse Ted Cruz,” Mr. Walker said on WTMJ radio. “After a lot of time looking at speeches, looking at the records, looking at what the candidates not only say but what they have done in the past, it was an easy call for me to support Ted Cruz.”

Many Republicans in recent weeks who have endorsed or supported Mr. Cruz have cited stopping GOP front-runner Donald Trump as part of their calculus. But Mr. Walker said he wanted to make sure he was supporting someone and that he wasn’t against something or someone.

Mr. Walker, who called Mr. Cruz a “constitutional conservative” capable of taking on special interests, said the Texas senator is best positioned both to win the GOP nomination and defeat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the fall.

Mr. Walker said he got to know Mr. Cruz a bit better during the campaign.

“He is a decent man, he loves his family, he loves his wife — he adores his children,” Mr. Walker said. “He loves his country. He and I are both preacher’s kids, so I certainly can appreciate and feel strongly about the impact that his father had on him as a minister.”

[…]In a statement, Mr. Cruz said Mr. Walker has been “an outstanding leader in the conservative movement.”

“Gov. Walker courageously stood up to special interests and won in a bitter fight in Wisconsin,” Mr. Cruz said. “His leadership has made a profound impact on the people of Wisconsin and I welcome his advice on how we can unite the Republican party and defeat Hillary Clinton in November.”

Mr. Cruz, along with Mr. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are in Wisconsin this week trying to build support ahead of the state’s primary next Tuesday.

Mr. Walker said he does anticipate campaigning with Mr. Cruz ahead of the primary next week.

Here’s the actual radio recording of Walker endorsing Cruz (4 minutes):

This endorsement will help Cruz a ton in Wisconsin, because Walker has a very high approval rating among Wisconsin Republicans:

“While Walker’s approval numbers have hovered below 40 percent statewide in polling after his exit from the 2016 race, his rating among Republicans is 85 percent, according to a Marquette University Law School poll taken last month. And his actions still attract attention from conservatives across the country.”

And more:

Walker was viewed favorably by 88% of all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (a total of 9,725 voters) surveyed by Marquette between 2012 and 2014 — and unfavorably by just 10%. His popularity is highest on the right, but his negatives are low among almost all Republican groups:

  • he has a 95% favorability rating among “very conservative” Republicans, a 91% favorability rating among “conservative” Republicans and a 78% favorability rating among “moderate” Republicans (pooling Marquette’ s 27 surveys since 2012).
  • he has a 96% favorability rating among Republicans who like the tea party and a 75% favorability rating among Republicans who don’t like the tea party.
  • he has a 90% favorability rating among Republicans who are frequent churchgoers (Walker is the son of a minister and an evangelical Christian) and an 85% favorability rating among Republicans who seldom or never go to church.
  • he has a 92% favorability rating among Republicans who are opposed to abortion (Walker is staunchly “pro-life”) and an 86% rating among Republicans who favor abortion rights.

“It does bolster his claim to unify the party and appeal across lines,” says Marquette pollster Charles Franklin, who provided the polling data. While moderates and tea party opponents give Walker his lowest ratings among Wisconsin Republicans, “even they are three-quarters favorable,’ says Franklin. “They’re just not at 95%.”

Cruz is doing well in other state polls, too. In a poll of likely voters in deep blue California, conducted by the radically leftist Los Angeles Times, Cruz trails Trump by 1 point.

The Hill reports:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump holds a razor-thin lead over rival Ted Cruz in California, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times statewide poll.

Among likely June primary voters, Trump leads Cruz by just 1 point, 36 to 35 percent. John Kasich falls far behind, at 14 percent.

In all, about 75 percent of voters who were surveyed in California had an unfavorable view of Trump. Among Republicans, 43 percent had an unfavorable impression, while 51 percent had a favorable view of the front-runner.

Why is Cruz surging in the polls? Well, I think part of it is that people are realizing that Donald Trump is in no way, shape or form a conservative – not in his personal life, not in his political record. He’s been a Democrat all his life, and he’s a Democrat playing a Republican now. But I think the change in poll numbers has something to do with Trump’s constant stream of abuse against women, and in particular, against Heidi Cruz, as I blogged about before. Women voters are turning away from Trump.

But what can Ted Cruz do to convince those women voters who won’t vote for Trump to vote for him instead? That question was asked of Cruz in a town hall forum last night on CNN.

Watch Cruz respond to her:

There is a lot about his family background described in his bookI do think that you can look at a person’s family history and choice of spouse to find out more about them. Ted Cruz married a skilled, accomplished, hard-working woman – Heidi Cruz. And his mother studied math and then got a degree in computer science from Rice University.

Obviously, I think that women should stay home with young children when they arrive – that’s what is best for the children and for the marriage. But it helps a man a lot when the woman who makes that decision to put family first has a good education, good experience and maybe even some savings to help with the downpayment on the first home. And I have to say that Heidi Cruz is doing a great job of helping her husband with this election. Her education and skills are assets, not liabilities.

News

Democrat governor of California signs bill to register non-citizens to vote

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Map of sanctuary cities
Map of sanctuary cities and states

Story from the Washington Times.

Excerpt:

A bill signed Saturday by California Gov. Jerry Brown aimed at improving voter turnout has critics predicting that it will ramp up voter fraud by making it easier for noncitizens to cast ballots.

The New Motor Voter Act automatically registers to vote all eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles instead of requiring them to fill out a form. Those eligible may opt out of voter registration.

The goal is to ease barriers to voting, but election-integrity advocates warn that the measure could inadvertently add millions of illegal voters to the rolls given that California allows undocumented aliens to obtain driver’s licenses.

Anti-fraud groups True the Vote and the Election Integrity Project of California had urged Mr. Brown, a Democrat, to veto the bill, saying it would lead to “‘state sanctioned’ voter fraud” and pointing out that the legislation exempts from penalties ineligible voters who wind up being registered.

“This bill is terrible. It makes an already bad situation much, much worse,” True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement.

Ms. Engelbrecht said California’s registration databases “lack the necessary safeguards to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls.”

[…]In California… state officials “specifically chose not to make noncitizen license holders searchable in their DMV database,” said True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell, who called the newly signed bill “unprecedented.”

The measure, Assembly Bill 1461, “will effectively change the form of governance in California from a Republic whose elected officials are determined by United States citizens and will guarantee that noncitizens will participate in all California elections going forward,” Election Integrity Project of California President Linda Paine said in a statement.

True the Vote was one of the organizations persecuted by the IRS  while Obama was President. In addition, the Department of Justice sued Texas for passing laws designed to curb voter fraud. So this is something that Democrats really go to the mat for. This is a big deal to them.

Some of my readers in other countries often ask me – “if Obama is such a bad President, then how come the majority of Americans voted for him?”

Well, first of all, a lot of these people are simply voting for Obama in order to get a share of what their working neighbors earn. They aren’t voting for the good of the country, or for principles of liberty, limited government, etc. They want the government to give them someone else’s money, in short.

But voter fraud is important to them as well. People voting twice in two different states, dead people’s names being used by fraudulent voters, etc. Voter fraud is a Democrat specialty. In fact, our current President did work for ACORN – an organization that specialized in promoting voter fraud. That’s how mainstream this is in the Democrat party.