Left-wing Lunacy

 
If you need another example of the lunacy of the left, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf would be Exhibit A. 
 
Saturday night, Mayor Schaaf warned Oakland residents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be conducting operations "within the next 24 hours."  Schaaf also warned local business owners that California was a sanctuary state and it was illegal under state law for them to assist federal immigration authorities.
 
ICE agents did conduct sweeps through Oakland and arrested 150 illegal immigrants.  But more than 850 targets of the operation escaped, likely because Mayor Schaaf tipped them off. 
 
Schaaf is unapologetic.  She claimed that it was her "duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning."
 
Sorry, Madame Mayor, but your obligation is to enforce the law and guarantee public safety.  Illegal immigration is ILLEGAL.  And the vast majority of ICE targets are wanted criminals. 
 
Schaaf's actions violated her duty and ensured that criminal illegal immigrants will remain on the streets and will continue to prey on the very community that the mayor thought she was helping.  The Justice Department should prosecute Mayor Schaaf for aiding and abetting known fugitives.
 
ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan blasted Mayor Schaaf's warning as "reckless" and "irresponsible."  In a statement, Homan noted that because of California's sanctuary policies, ICE agents cannot arrest illegal immigrants "in the secure confines of a jail," and are forced to conduct public sweeps, which increase the risks to agents and to citizens in the community. 
 
Homan also blamed the mayor for the fact that more than 850 individuals escaped arrest.  One of those suspects who remains at large has several arrests for drug possession, probation violations and sex with a minor.
 
By the way, if the FBI was conducting raids of native-born gang members, would the mayor warn them too?  Or does she only give "fair warning" to illegal immigrants? 
 
Whether it's granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants at the expense of native-born students or tipping off illegal immigrant criminals, the left always puts Americans last. 
 
 
 
Sanity On School Shootings
 
The left's lunacy is not limited to its open borders ideology.  As we have seen in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, the left is totally irrational when it comes to the Second Amendment.
 
But here is an important fact you probably have not heard: According to researchers at Northeastern University (not the NRA) mass school shootings are "extremely rare."  They also found that "four times as many children were killed in schools in the 1990s than today." 
 
In other words, schools are safer today than they were 20 years ago.  Nevertheless, left-wing politicians and their media allies are in a frenzy to limit Second Amendment rights based on the idea that our children are not safe. 
 
But James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor of criminology, says, "There is not an epidemic of school shootings."  Of the dozens of mass murders that take place every year, only one on average occurs at a school.
 
While it is tragic that even a single child would die in school, Professor Fox notes that more children die each year from pool drownings or bicycle accidents.
 
Meanwhile, a new Politico poll finds that 50% of voters support arming teachers and school staff, just like we armed pilots after 9/11.  Forty-two percent of voters oppose the idea.  The poll also found that corporate NRA boycotts are backfiring with the public.
 
 
 
Honoring Billy Graham
 
The body of Reverend Billy Graham arrived on Capitol Hill this morning.  Graham will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor granted to only three other American citizens. 
 
President Trump addressed the service this morning in the Capitol Rotunda.  He recalled that his father, Fred, was "a big fan" and took the Trump family to hear Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium in 1957.  Below are some excerpts of the president's remarks.
 
"We can only imagine the number of lives touched by the preaching and the prayers of Billy Graham; the hearts he changed, the sorrows he eased, and the joy he brought to so many.  The testimony is endless.
 
"Today, we give thanks for this extraordinary life.  And it's very fitting that we do so right here in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, where the memory of the American people is enshrined.
 
"Here in this room, we are reminded that America is a nation sustained by prayer.  The painting to my left is of the Pilgrims as they embark for America, holding fast to the Bible, and bowing their heads in prayer.
 
"Along these walls, we see the faces of Americans who prayed as they stood on the Lexington Green, who prayed as they headed west, prayed as they headed into battle, and prayed as they marched for justice, and always marched for victory.
 
"Around us stand the statues of heroes who led the nation in prayer during the great and difficult times, from Washington to Lincoln to Eisenhower to King.  And today, in the center of this great chamber, lies legendary Billy Graham, an ambassador for Christ who reminded the world of the power of prayer and the gift of God's grace."
 
 
 
Purim
 
Tonight, Jews all over the world will celebrate Purim.  It is the story of Queen Esther, who broke protocol and saved the Jewish people in Persia from a plot to annihilate them, or what was essentially a potential holocaust.
 
Just as it did so many centuries ago, Israel is once again facing an existential threat from modern day Persia.  Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, routinely promises a second Holocaust and the annihilation of Israel.  
 
His regime is working feverishly to develop ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction, while his terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, encircle the Jewish state from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
 
So long as God gives me breath, I promise to fight the ancient evil of anti-Semitism and to always stand with Israel and its people, the apple of God's eye.
 
To all of our Jewish friends and supporters, Chag Purim Sameach!

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