Category Archives: ethics

Mayorkas’ Closed Border

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Recall that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly said that our southern border is closed, for instance, on the occasion of the end of Title 42. Here are some data just from the CBP app that DHS personnel have foisted off on the CBP, an app with which would-be entrants to the United States may schedule appointments to appear at US ports of entry.

Between January 12, 2023, and September 30, 2023, more than 278,431 appointments were made through the app, with roughly 95.8% of individuals securing parole into the US interior.

That’s just in general. It gets…more so…particularly regarding illegal aliens from nations that are inimical to us.

  • 94% of 20,948 Russians who scheduled appointments through CBP One secured parole
  • 93% of 246 Afghan applicants secured entry
  • 97% of 57,381 Venezuelans secured admission
  • 98% of 801 Belarusians were allowed in
  • 88% of 18 Iranians were allowed in
  • 88% of 36 Chinese were allowed in
  • 82% of 2,279 Uzbeks were allowed in

This is Mayorkas (and Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden, who hired him) using their Newspeak Dictionary definition of “closed border.”

Mandating Supply in the Absence of Demand

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What could go wrong? Look at Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden’s mandate, through his Energy Department (run by the Secretary who thought it hilarious that we should—or could—produce more oil), that American automakers—Ford, GM, and Stellantis—make only battery cars by 2032. Along the way, look at his Energy Department’s proposed new rule:

The Energy Department in the spring proposed to eliminate the 6.67 multiplier….
Detroit auto makers would be slammed harder than foreign competitors by the regulatory changes because pick-ups and SUVs make up a larger share of their fleet sales. “The average projected compliance cost per vehicle for the D3 is $2,151, while non-D3 auto manufacturers only see an increase of $546 per vehicle,” the Big Three recently told the Energy Department.

That multiplier was an early regulation that made it possible to impute (however accurately or inaccurately) the miles per gallon achieved by internal combustion engines—itself subject to increasingly higher requirements under successive ED regulations—to the “mileage” achieved by battery cars. ED’s proposed rule change—under that D3 regime—essentially eliminates the mileage equivalent multiplier.

Combined with Biden’s requirement that our automakers make only battery cars by 10 (now 9) years from now, results in this outcome:

[U]nder the Energy Department’s proposal, it could make more sense to pay the government penalties than to increase production of EVs that don’t sell. This may be why GM is now throttling EV production, as Ford has also done.

It’s cheaper for the manufacturers to non-comply and pay the vig than it is for them to produce and pay the even bigger cost of not selling a government-required product the buyers—us ordinary Americans—don’t want and won’t buy.

And what does that preference for violating a law say about a culture of routine law-breaking?

Biden and his Progressive-Democratic Party syndicate can’t even get Rule by Law right, much less live within the dreary and inconvenient process of operating within the law—Rule of Law. And we Americans pay the price of that.

A Plea Deal and Testimony

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Sydney Powell, former Donald Trump legal adviser, and one of a plethora of indictees in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ sweepingly excessive run at the former President, has agreed to a plea deal. Powell had been looking at as many as seven serious felony charges, including racketeering and conspiracy to commit election fraud, had she gone to trial.

Instead, she pled to misdemeanors and sentencing limited to six years of probation, a $6,000 fine, an apology letter to the state of Georgia, and $2,700 in restitution payable to the State.

Oh, and she agreed to testify for the prosecution in the remaining indictees’ trials.

Therein lies a very serious rub. Powell sold her testimony in return for the light charge and wrist-slap penalties (yes, yes, the apology letter will be personally embarrassing. She’ll get over that). Alternatively, she was brow-beaten by the Willis team’s threat to go all the way on her if she didn’t agree to testify, with the lightness of the deal just cover for the threat.

Either way, Powell can have no credibility on the witness stand: she won’t be the one testifying, for all that it’ll be her mouth reciting the words. It’ll be Willis and her team speaking through Powell.

Some Things Must Go Both Ways

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The opening of the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt remains a sometime thing.

A deal to open the border crossing has been held up…by Egyptian concerns that Israel hadn’t given assurances it would pause airstrikes and by Israeli insistence that trucks entering via Egypt be thoroughly searched, Egyptian officials said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, in particular:

Unfortunately, Israel has not yet allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza[.]

Israel has a big enough problem from its practice of telling Gazans where and when (if on short notice) Israel will strike. The idea is to let Gaza’s civilians in the target zone leave before the strike goes in. Those warnings, though, also let the terrorists alternatively trap the civilians there in order to run up the body count of innocents or, with longer term risk to Israel, let the terrorists escape among the evacuating civilians.

The other problem, though, is Egypt’s reluctance to let the trucks, allegedly carrying humanitarian-related supplies, to be searched before being allowed into Gaza. It’s very likely that the vast majority of those trucks would be carrying only humanitarian-related supplies, but some likely would be smuggling supplies for the terrorists in Gaza, also. It wouldn’t take very much of those latter to sustain the terrorists and to support their continued attacks on Israel.

Israeli reluctance is entirely justified. Israel is acting to not allow terrorist supplies to enter Gaza; the humanitarian aid is collateral to Egypt’s refusal to allow the trucks to be searched.

Because Of Course

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The State Department, finally, is beginning to work on arranging charter flights for those Americans and their families currently trapped in Israel by American airlines’ timidity in flying into that nation.

But. But, but, but.

US law requires billing Americans for evacuations.

One of the first duties of government is to protect the citizens for whom it is responsible. But our government will send a bill to those for whom its exercising that responsibility. I’ll come back to this in a bit.

Meanwhile, illegal immigrants collect free assistance.

That’s actually illegal aliens; it’s disappointing that Just the News still acts like it doesn’t understand that. Anyway….

[T]he Biden administration’s generous financial support for the accommodation and relocation of illegal [aliens] to the United States.

Bill Americans, but pay the illegal aliens.

The law mandating requiring Americans to pay for their own evacuation needs to be changed. Americans who traveled in good faith—e.g., to Israel—should not have to pay to be saved from the dire circumstances that get inflicted on them by exogenous forces; that should be on the governments (yes, on us taxpayers’) nickel. Only those who foolishly, willfully travel to known danger zones—e.g., to Gaza, or Iran, or (today) the People’s Republic of China—should be required to pay for their ride out of the trouble they got themselves into. That’s long-term, though.

In the near-term, the Biden administration needs to stop flying—or transporting by any means—or providing any other form of financial support to illegal aliens. The only thing they should get at no further cost (they’ve already paid a high price to enter our nation illegally) is a ride back to their North American home countries or simply back into Mexico for non-New World illegal aliens. And that free ride should occur immediately on apprehension.

Full stop.