53percenter's Blog

You know the narrative: The border between Mexico and the U.S. is tranquil and calm, while the president’s calls for improved border security are just fear-mongering.

That’s what the media and the left have been insisting, with outlets like MSNBC mocking President Donald Trump’s use of the word “crisis” and CNN’s Jim Acosta pretending that nobody ever tries to cross the border illegally.

But an incident at the border this week underscored exactly why more security is needed, and destroyed the left’s strange claim that everything is just peachy in the border zone.

“Border Patrol agents said they confiscated more than 700 lbs. of cocaine on Thursday just miles from the Rio Grande river,” reported Eddie Scarry of The Washington Examiner.

“Customs and Border Protection said the suspects were seen loading ‘bundles of narcotics’ into an off-road-style utility vehicle outside of Garciasville, a city in Texas up against the river,” he explained. “The suspects, apparently aware they had been seen, were able to ‘abruptly’ drive the vehicle into the river and escape into Mexico.”

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In other words, illegal border crossers and smugglers appear to be able to cross the border at will, with nothing impeding them. When CBP does stumble upon them, the smugglers beat a hasty retreat — again, running back toward Mexico with seemingly nothing in the way.

Gee, it’s almost like some sort of wall or fence might be a really good idea.

“(T)his particular portion of the border is especially high in illegal crossing, including by drug smugglers, due to a lack of physical infrastructure to act as a barrier on the border,” Scarry, who has been in the area talking directly with border agents, explained.

“705 lbs. of cocaine, caltrops, evidence of sophisticated counter surveillance and a splashdown in one encounter are an obvious reminder of the need for more personnel, technology, and infrastructure in the Rio Grande Valley,” reiterated acting Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz.

“Transnational Criminal Organizations continue to exploit areas along our western corridor that accounts for more than 90 percent of our traffic,” the law enforcement expert continued.

Officials believe that the most recent drug haul is valued at around $22.5 million, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. Over 62,000 pounds of cocaine was seized by CBP in 2017 alone.

And remember, that’s just the contraband that officials were actually able to stop. The widespread illegal use of cocaine, not to mention the alarming rise of deadly fentanyl, makes it clear that vast quantities of drugs are still flowing into the U.S.

Even the Obama administration admitted that the Central American corridor, which includes Mexico, is major entry point for illicit cocaine to enter the United States.

“According to seizure data of cocaine destined for U.S. markets, an estimated 86 percent transited through the Central American corridor,” a 2016 report from the Department of State explained.

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While the left has insisted that official ports of entry are being used to move drugs, the latest smuggling apprehension — and information from law enforcement experts on the ground — confirms that the under-protected areas away from official border crossings are routinely used for smuggling.

“Those designated border crossings account for roughly 2.5 percent of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border,” the Associated Press recently reported. That means 97.5 percent of the border remains largely unprotected — yet Democrats like Rep. Nancy Pelosi strangely continue to declare that physical barriers are “immoral.”

Here’s the bottom line: America’s southern border is porous and routinely breached by illegal immigrants and dangerous smugglers alike. Nobody is saying that a wall or barrier is perfect, but it will go a long way in impeding the routes that those lawbreakers constantly use.

Whether you call it a wall, fence, or barrier, that structure could be part of a larger strategy to limit the options that criminals use, and allow Border Patrol to then focus on other weak points, such as tunnels and ports of entry. It just makes sense — and anyone pretending otherwise clearly has an agenda.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a video supporting the 2019 March for Life, where Americans gather across the country in support of pro-life policies at all levels of government.

Cruz criticized Roe v. Wade, saying the decision has “has not only denied the most basic rights for those in the womb, but it’s also left the mother suffering, often with tremendous guilt and pain.”

The senator then praised March for Life, saying it is for the “unborn of our generation and generations to come.”

Transcript as follows:

This week millions of Americans are mourning the 46th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, but also celebrating the incredible progress we have made since then fighting to restore the God-given rights of every American of every age.

Under Roe, over 60 million precious lives have been violently lost to abortion, generations of sons and daughters lost. For far too long abortion has not only denied the most basic rights for those in the womb, but it’s also left the mother suffering, often with tremendous guilt and pain.

Today, millions of Americans are marching in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the nation. Why do we march? We march for the unborn of our generation and generations to come. We march in prayerful protest of the horrific injustice against the unborn and their mothers. We march in celebration of life.

To all those women and men marching at home and in our nation’s capital, thank you. Thank you for being true champions of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I’m proud to stand with you and I’m committed to working side-by-side with you to restoring a culture of life in America where every human life is respected and protected as a precious gift from God.

Thank you and God bless you.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

WASHINGTON, DC – The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) launched a $1.5 million ad buy on Friday calling on Senate Democrats to stop bullying President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees over their religious faith. Federal judges will be a top issue over the next two years for the 2020 election.

President Trump broke records during his first two years in office, confirming 85 federal judges. In addition to two Supreme Court appointments, this number includes 30 judges to the U.S. courts of appeals, leaving in the dust the previous record of 23.

However, there are a record number of judicial vacancies – almost 100 – providing the president and Senate Republicans with a historic opportunity to reshape the third branch of government as one of President Trump’s greatest accomplishments going into 2020.

JCN’s ad campaign is jumpstarting that process, now that Republicans have a working majority in the Senate for the first time since President Trump took office. Senate Democrats seem committed to continuing their blind opposition to the president’s judicial nominees.

“Democrats are taking their obstruction to disgraceful new lows,” declares the narrator — showing images of Democrat Sens. Chuck Schumer (NY), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Patrick Leahy (VT), and likely presidential candidate Kamala Harris (CA) — “shamefully bullying nominees, attacking them just because of their faith.”

Video during these words shows Feinstein and Dick Durbin (D-IL) going after Judge Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Feinstein infamously told Barrett in Yoda-ish prose, “The dogma lives loudly in you,” a reference to Barrett’s being a faithful Catholic committed to the teachings of her church. (As a Roman Catholic, Barrett is hardly an adherent of a marginal faith. There are roughly 70 million Catholics in the United States.)

The ad even quotes Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, who said these anti-Catholic statements “foment bigotry, fears and suspicions.” Gabbard was responding to attacks from her fellow Hawaii Senator, Mazie Hirono, and Harris, for signaling that they would vote against Brian Buesher’s nomination to be a federal trial judge because Buescher is a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic charity organization.

The Religious Test Clause of Article VI of the Constitution commands that no person can be disqualified from federal service because of that person’s religious faith.

The ad urges viewers: “Tell your senator. Stand up to the bullying. Confirm the judges.”

“Because of Democrats’ obstruction of judicial nominees we now have significantly more vacancies than when President Trump took office,” JCN Chief Counsel Carrie Severino said in a statement accompanying the ad’s release. “Sen. McConnell has restated his commitment to filling the vacancies and has maintained that this is a Senate priority.”

“It’s time for Democrats to end the bullying and smear campaigns and confirm the judges,” Severino concluded.

Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

When Heidi Mann and her husband Karam took a leap of faith 15 years ago and purchased a Subway franchise in Seattle, they had no idea that one day their dreams could be shattered by the city’s required increases in the minimum wage.

Nine years later, the Manns bought a second Subway sandwich shop in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle.

But now their businesses are struggling as a direct result of the steady rise of the minimum wage in Seattle, now up to $16 an hour.  

The couple predict they will be forced to close their Seattle location by March 2020.

“Labor costs are too high, our profit margin is too tight, and there is no relief for small business owners like us,” Heidi Mann said.

Mann, 34, spoke Wednesday at a private event held by The Heritage Foundation and the Employment Policies Institute to examine firsthand effects that she and her husband, 38, experienced from government-mandated hikes in the minimum wage.

The Manns’ Subway shop in Seattle is situated right on the edge of the city in a middle-class neighborhood, but is stuck in a high-wage market that includes major companies such as  Amazon.

The Seattle City Council passed legislation mandating that the minimum wage rise to $11 an hour in 2015, then $13 in 2016. For companies such as Subway with 500 employees or more, the minimum wage is now $16.

It has been a slow, painful process for Heidi and Karam Mann, their business plans, and their employees. They also have three children, ages 4, 6, and 15.

During the Heritage event, Heidi Mann said:

We started this business believing in the essential truth of the American dream. But our dreams of being our own boss, earning a living wage for our family, and helping others through meaningful employment is slowly becoming a pipe dream and less and less reality as each piece of legislation is passed.

As the minimum wage began to climb, the Manns faced tough decisions.

First, they were forced to cut expenses, which meant letting go four of seven employees at the Seattle shop. They had to raise prices, and sales fell. They cut store hours as a result of having fewer employees.

The Manns’ two remaining employees are ages 35 and 60, Heidi Mann said, because the couple has been forced to hire more experienced workers.

They can’t afford to hire and train entry-level high school and college students, something she lamented.

When she was 16, she worked at a Taco Bell in Federal Way, Washington, for a much lower minimum wage.

She worked her way up to management, learning important skills along the way such as customer service, handling money, and conflict resolution.

“Small business owners are what make America strong,” Mann said. “They are the heart of the economy and are a front line of defense, taking on the brunt of raising a solid workforce as employees navigate into careers and higher-paying positions.”

(CNSNews.com) – Louisiana state Rep. Katrina Jackson (D) told attendees at the 46th annual March for Life on Friday that when people ask her why she, as a black female Democrat, is pro-life, she says it’s because she’s a Christian first.

“I tell people in my state when they ask me why are you a black female Democrat fighting for life. I say, because I’m a Christian first, and then I tell them that Proverbs say God hates the shedding of innocent blood,” she said. 

“There’s no blood more innocent than an unborn child who’s never sinned, who never knew sin, and so for them we will continue to together regardless of being Democrat, Republican, black, white, male or female, we will fight (for life),” Jackson said.

 

“Louisiana is the number one pro-life state in the nation and mainly because in Louisiana, it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat, Republican, black or white, we fight for life,” she said.

The lawmaker led the crowd in a call and response.

“So my Louisianians know this. Anytime you hear me say, ‘We fight.’ You should say, ‘for life.’ So what do we do? We fight–”

“For life,” the crowd shouted.

“We don’t do it for ourselves, because someone has already chosen our life. We fight (for life) for those who cannot speak for themselves. We fight (for life), because it’s the right thing to do, and we fight (for life), because we know that for everyone who doesn’t speak out, their silence means consent,” Jackson said.

“So we speak out, and we fight (for life) so that we’re never silent on the shedding of innocent blood,” she said.

Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reports that Vice President Mike Pence took aim at the “mainstream media” today and their reporting that his wife Karen Pence took a job teaching art at an elementary Christian school that — horrors — bars employees from engaging in “homosexual activity” and does not condone “transgender identity.” 

On the show Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, the host asked “are you concerned about this effort to marginalize people of faith” by reporters? Pence said the attacks did not surprise him, but he did condemn the media for stigmatizing Christian education.

“Karen and I have been in and around public life for almost two decades, and so to be honest with you we’re used to the criticism,” the vice president said. “But the attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media have got to stop.”

“We cherish the freedom of religion in this country. This administration stands four-square for the freedom of religion of people of all faiths, and to see the mainstream media criticize my wife because she’s choosing to return to the classroom of an elementary Christian school is wrong,” Pence declared.

“Again, the attacks on Christian education must end,” he repeated.

The “moderate” take on this controversy comes today from Washington Post culture blogger Alyssa Rosenberg in an article titled “Karen Pence’s worldview horrifies me. Her return to work is still a feminist victory.” It’s a “ludicrous relic of a former age” that the wives of presidents and vice presidents can’t hold jobs. (The Post especially likes liberal First Ladies given the task of reinventing the health care system, for example.) 

I feel awful for students at Immanuel Christian who might grow up to gay or bisexual, and who might face expulsion and harassment as a result. And Pence’s choice to teach there reaffirms my deep opposition to the Pences’ worldview and their efforts to make their values a reality.

Schools that “believe the Bible,” as Perkins describes it, enforce “values I find abhorrent,” writes Rosenberg. It’s easy to put those two concepts together. The Bible….is abhorrent. That’s the “mainstream” media consensus. 

This was her second trip over the shutdown, her first was to Hawaii to a luxury resort.

Via Daily Caller:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday for even considering traveling abroad during the fourth week of the partial government shutdown.

Pelosi was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon for a trip to Belgium, Egypt and Afghanistan, but President Donald Trump sent a letter to the speaker informing her that she would not be allowed to use military aircraft for her trip. Trump’s decision to ground Pelosi appeared to be in retaliation for her announcement that she was postponing the State of the Union address because of the government shutdown.

House Minority Leader McCarthy responded to the decision by questioning why Pelosi was planning the trip in the first place.

“Why would she want to go overseas with government shut down, with people missing their paychecks? And if we don’t get this back open they could miss their paycheck again by next week, so I think it’s appropriate that we would get back together. It would not take long, and we could solve this problem,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Keep reading…

Facebook’s popular “10 Year Challenge” could potentially be a data mining ploy under the guise of a harmless Internet meme. The data could be used to train machines to better recognize age-progression characteristics, according to Wired magazine.

If you’ve scrolled through your social media feeds recently, you may have noticed a popular new Facebook trend known as the “10 Year Challenge,” in which users upload two photos of themselves side-by-side, one current photo alongside one photo from a decade ago.

The hat was cool back then, still is.#10YearChallenge ✅ pic.twitter.com/J5U8i17Sqa

— Brendan Murray (@brendan_m96) January 17, 2019

At first, the trend may seem like an innocent Facebook meme, but social media users may actually be unknowingly aiding potential data mining to train machines for facial recognition, specifically having to do with aging, as first speculated in a Wired op-ed by Katie O’Neill.

“Imagine that you wanted to train a facial recognition algorithm on age-related characteristics and, more specifically, on age progression,” says O’Neill in her op-ed, “You’d want a broad and rigorous dataset with lots of people’s pictures. It would help if you knew they were taken a fixed number of years apart.”

The writer notes that critics of this speculation could say that it wouldn’t matter, because the company already has decade-old photos of its users, as they have already uploaded them to Facebook.

While that may be true, photos uploaded ten years ago could be of anything. They could be pets, memes, sunsets, or even “throwbacks.”

Not every individual on Facebook uses the platform in the same way — unless they’re participating in a popular trend — so by joining in on the 10 Year Challenge, social media users are already doing the work for the tech giant themselves, clearly labeling which photos are of them, and how many years apart they were taken.

O’Neill says a Facebook spokesperson insists that the photo challenge was not started by the social media company, and was “a user-generated meme that went viral on its own.”

“Facebook gains nothing from this meme,” says the spokesperson, “As a reminder, Facebook users can choose to turn facial recognition on or off at any time.”

Despite the company insisting that its users have autonomy, many have not yet forgotten about last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, when Facebook was scrutinized for allegedly allowing the data mining company to misuse data for 50 million of its users.

“Regardless of the origin or intent behind this meme, we must all become savvier about the data we create and share, the access we grant to it, and the implications for its use,” writes O’Neill, “humans are the richest data sources for most of the technology emerging in the world.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.