The Border & Illegal Aliens, And What We Are Doing About It.

[Bullheaded Texan]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.

“We are not going to let this country be invaded!

We will not be stampeded!

We will not capitulate to lawlessness!

This is NOT business as usual.

This is the Trump era!," the Attorney General said.
 

[Bullheaded Texan]

Anti-Trump FBI Agent Displayed 'Willingness' to Alter Election.
  6/14/18  by: AAN Staff

The Justice Department's internal watchdog released a much-anticipated 400-page report on the FBI's investigation of killary clinton's use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.
  Among the bombshells finally coming to light is the revelation that anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok showed a "willingness to take official action" to impact the presidential election, according to Inspector General Michael Horowitz. (The Daily Caller)
 “Trump’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” asked another anti-Trump FBI agent, Lisa Page. “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it,” Strzok replied.  Strzok’s text “is not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects,” the report said.
  Other bombshells that we've been able to corroborate include:
1.) That the Bureau sat on further clinton emails discovered on a laptop belonging to convicted sexual predator Anthony Weiner for over a month without taking any action.
2.) Agents prioritized the Russia investigation over the clinton emails. It's not clear if this was due to a political bias, although we should note that anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok was intimately involved in the decision-making process.
 The IG report "did not identify a consistent or persuasive explanation for the FBI’s failure to act for almost a month after learning of potential clinton investigation-related emails on the Weiner laptop."
3.) comey flagrantly ignored the rules to the detriment of the FBI's long-standing reputation. The former FBI Director "engaged in ad hoc decision-making based on his personal views, even if it meant rejecting longstanding Department policy or practice."
 comey – like killary – also used a personal email for official government business in violation of DOJ policy.

[Bullheaded Texan]

New York City Liberals Give the Shaft to Children of Legal Immigrants.

 6/13/18  Michelle Malkin

“I also have a dream.”

This rallying cry, handwritten on a simple white placard held up by an Asian-American mom at a protest this week against liberal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to radically transform New York City’s public schools, says it all.

 A new civil rights struggle in education has exploded—yet the national media and the usual celebrity voices for equality and justice are nowhere to be found.

 While student “Dreamers” here illegally from south of the border garner bleeding-heart front-page stories and nightly news dispatches, the high-achieving sons and daughters of legal immigrants from Asia are getting shafted by far-left Democrats.

 And it’s all in the perverted name of “diversity.”

De Blasio is hell-bent on destroying equal opportunity and merit-based admissions because the results are not equally distributed according to his social-engineering agenda.

 The Big Apple’s famed specialized schools, such as the Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, and High School for Math, Science, and Engineering at City College, require an academic entrance exam. It’s a highly competitive process in which tens of thousands of students vie for a total of about 5,000 slots.

 So what’s the problem? According to the bean-counting extremists, too many Asian-Americans have aced the test and are “overrepresented!”

 It’s not enough for the social justice crowd to settle for a 20% minority set-aside. They want to scrap the test altogether.

 A bill to eliminate the exams passed the state Assembly education committee last week. Though it may die this year, the toxic principles underlying the legislation have infected the left for decades.

 Dullard de Blasio falsely argues that white privilege and class privilege are to blame for the lack of black and mexicano student representation at the elite schools.

 The two groups account for 67% of public school students but only made up 10% of elite school admissions offers last year. By contrast, Asian-Americans, who make up 16 % of public school students, received 52% of offers in the past year.

 So are Asian-Americans classified as “white” now? And how does de Blasio get away with the lie that these best and brightest Asian-American students are economically privileged?

 Fact: The city’s own poverty assessment shows that Asians are the poorest demographic group, with 24.1 percent living at or below poverty—vs. 19.5% citywide.

 The New York Post reports that overall, 45% of students at the “elite eight” schools qualify for free lunch.

As I’ve observed for years, liberal race-fixers believe that “too many” Asian-American students winning school admissions on their own merits is a bad, bad thing. In our case, overcoming the supposed encumbrances of ethnicity and skin color is viewed not as a proud accomplishment but as a political liability.

 This is classic crab-in-the-bucket syndrome. If you put a single crab in an uncovered bucket, it will find a way to climb up and out on its own. But if you put a dozen crabs in a bucket, eleven will fight with all their might to pull down the independent striver who attempts to escape. And so it is with the identity politics mob and the equality of outcome cult. They can’t stand high achievers and freethinkers who escape their iron grip.

 A sad irony of the battle over racial preferences in education is that many of the very leaders who have lobbied hardest to re-jigger the numbers on college campuses to fit a politically correct, proportional ideal are supposedly “progressive” Asian-Americans.

 I personally endured attacks from many of them who labeled me and other conservative minority leaders “sellouts” for opposing government-imposed diversity policies that sabotaged color-blindness and punished academic excellence.

 Now, those same quota champions are seeing those same policies blow up in their faces in New York City’s high schools.

  “Diversity” at all costs, means taking the hardest-working, top-scoring students who earned their seats on the bus—and tossing them under the wheels.

Tell me again who the real sellouts are?

[Bullheaded Texan]

*** AND THE REST OF THE STORY *** ----->

 David Brinkley, reporter and commentator whose NBC broadcasts from 1956-70 helped define and popularize television news in America. Brinkley hosted one of the earliest television news magazines, David Brinkley's Journal, in the early 1960s, died on this day in 2003.  --"Good night, Chet"....

[Bullheaded Texan]

Ted Cruz Says He’s Not Angling for Supreme Court Seat.

 6/14/18   Kevin Daley

 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says he is concentrating on winning re-election, not being named to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says he is not interested right now in serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. He “reveres the institution,” Cruz says, but prefers to stay engaged in politics.

 “I don’t want to stay out of political and policy fights,” Cruz told The Hill news organization Wednesday. “I want to be right in the middle of them. The Senate is the battleground for just about every big policy fight right now.”

 Cruz is running for reelection in Texas. He faces Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, D-Texas, in the November election.

 Cruz’s name has frequently been mentioned in connection with the Supreme Court, though.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—a Supreme Court training ground during the George W. Bush administration—as well as for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

 Cruz went on to practice at Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, an elite conservative litigation boutique, and the U.S. Justice Department.

  On leaving Washington, he became solicitor general of Texas, representing the state in all appeals court matters.   Cruz has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court.

 One of Cruz’s closest congressional allies, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, appears on President Donald Trump’s list of possible Supreme Court nominees. Lee also practiced law before his election to the Senate and clerked for Justice Samuel Alito. His brother, Utah Supreme Court Justice Thomas Lee, is also a contender for the next high court nomination.

 Speculation abounds in Washington about the future of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the 81-year-old anchoring the high court’s center. Some observers speculate that the court’s recent actions and thin docket for the coming term suggest a retirement is imminent. The justice himself has been cagey as to his plans.

 Recent Supreme Court retirements have been announced in April and May, suggesting that Kennedy already would have made clear his intentions were he actually departing. Still, the justice will remain under close scrutiny until the court adjourns at the end of June.

[Bullheaded Texan]

These Mexifornia Rebels Are Working With Trump, Not Against Him.  

 5/25/18   Jarrett Stepman

The resistance is growing in Mexifornia.

 The Golden State has set itself up as the stridently progressive thorn in the side of the Trump administration. Mexifornia has not just become a sanctuary state in an attempt to undermine federal immigration enforcement, but has gone a step further.

 Recently, Mexifornia lawmakers proposed giving health care to illegal aliens, which would make it the first state to do so. The plan would cost state taxpayers billions of dollars.

 However, as the state, which is under nearly one-party rule, doubles down on its left-wing drift, there is bubbling discontent among residents who are outraged by Mexifornia’s increasing lawlessness and wild spending.

 “Each of you has bravely resisted Mexifornia’s deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state laws,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “You’ve gone through a lot, too, although it’s become quite popular what you do.”

 Cities such as Carlsbad and Los Alamitos use a similar rationale to resist the state as the state does in resisting the federal government. It turns out that although Mexifornia is verging on one-party rule at the state level, significant dissent to sanctuary policies exists in wide swaths of the state.

 The common thread from this growing movement is that the state’s policies are reckless, put the lives of citizens in danger, and  promote criminality!

 “We are not anti-immigrant—there is no one on this council that’s anti-immigrant,” said Hesperia City Councilman Paul Russ, according to the Desert Dispatch. “But for aliens, we’d like to see it done legally. I can also say without a doubt that we are anti-criminal. It’s not about the aliens; it’s about the criminals in the community.”

 The movement has touched on an important element of the debate about immigration, sovereignty, and what it means to be a citizen.

 America has had many differing immigration policies over the years. Sometimes they are restrictive, sometimes they are more liberal, and sometimes we’ve decided to vet immigrants with extreme caution.

 Not every immigration policy has been good, but regardless, they ultimately were created by the American people.

 The message that sanctuary laws such as Mexifornia’s send, is that Americans have no right, as a nation, to determine who comes into their country.

 If there is an attack on “democracy,” this surely is it.

Sanctuary policies erode the concept that the people rule, and that both duties and rights come with citizenship, and they damage the concept that America is about upholding the rule of law.

As The Heritage Foundation’s David Azerrad wrote:

The Changes That Made California Become a Left-Wing Fiasco

A growing list of cities and counties have chosen to take action against California’s sanctuary policies intended to undermine federal immigration law. They are resisting the resistance.

These localities are taking aim at the California Values Act, which, according to the Orange County Register, states that “local and state law enforcement authorities may not use resources, including personnel or facilities, to investigate or arrest people for federal immigration enforcement purposes.”

The latest city to rebel is Carlsbad, which is close to San Diego in Southern California.

The Carlsbad City Council voted 4-1 Monday to join the federal government’s lawsuit against California’s sanctuary state status, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

“I cannot see the difference between a sanctuary state and a secessionist state,” Glenn Bernard, a retired Marine and former teacher, told the council, according to the Union-Tribune.

The council’s criticism of California’s sanctuary status echoed that of others around the state.

Other cities have taken additional measures to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

The Los Alamitos City Council voted to exempt itself from the state sanctuary law, saying the measure is unconstitutional. This prompted a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

This is the “rebellion” President Donald Trump referred to when he visited California in mid-May.

The media, dishonestly, mischaracterized some of Trump’s comments at the event, insinuating that he called “some” illegal immigrants “animals” when the context shows he was referring to members of the violent MS-13 gang.

  

 

People set up governments to ensure ‘their Safety and Happiness’ and provide ‘for their future security.’ Immigration policy, like all other policy, should therefore serve the interests and well-being of the American people. One should not confuse the universal duty not to infringe upon the rights of man with the duty of each government to secure the rights of its people only.

In other words, Americans may choose whom we let in and whom we don’t, for good or ill.

California’s leaders may be enthusiastically pursuing a fight over immigration law with the federal government, but they will face a growing wave of discontent from citizens who are sick of lawmakers in the state capital fueling lawlessness and ignoring their concerns.

    

[Bullheaded Texan]

The Importance of Dads in an Increasingly Fatherless America.

 6/14/18

There is a growing split taking place among American fathers today.

 On the one hand, more and more children are growing up without a dad in their lives. But on the other hand, fathers who are involved in their kids’ lives have actually become even more active.

 The Pew Research Center reports that fathers who live in the same home as their children have become increasingly engaged in the lives of their kids over the past half-century.

 In 2015, fathers reported spending an average of 7 hours a week interacting with their children, compared with 2.5 hours in 1965.

 Today, 57% of dads say they see parenting as a central part of their identity.

This encouraging shift in fatherhood involvement could be owing, at... Focus on the Family have championed the role of fathers and have promoted well-research... 

 

While it’s true more fathers are taking the time to come home from work and throw the football around with their kid, an increasing number of children find themselves without an active paternal presence in their lives.

Pew reports that only 11 percent of American children lived apart from their dads in 1960. Today, that number has grown to 27 percent. One in every three American children are now growing up in a home without their biological father.

There is a “father absence crisis in America,” according to National Fatherhood Initiative, and the results are sobering.

Studies have found that children raised without a father are:

*At a higher risk of having behavioral problems.

*Four times more likely to live in poverty.

*More likely to be incarcerated in their lifetime.

*Twice as likely to never graduate high school.

*At a seven times higher risk of teen pregnancy.

*More vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

*More likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.

*Twice as likely to be obese.

 From education to personal health to career success, children who lack a father find themselves at a disadvantage to their peers raised in a two-parent household.

 A 2017 Heritage Foundation article reported that “routine family bonding activities like reading bedtime stories and eating meals together have a profound effect on children’s educational development and psychological well-being.”

 Simply put: Dads, we need you.

As I reflect back upon my own childhood and the role my dad played, and is still playing in my life, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude. My father is far from perfect, but he was present.

 School was challenging for me as a kid, so my dad often took time to help me with my homework after he got home from work. I remember sitting on our living room couch struggling to understand my math homework with my dad’s instruction.

 To be honest, I’m not sure he was much of a help—but he was there. I have always known that my dad was there for me, not just because he told me he was, but because he showed me. The greatest gift my father has ever given me was his time.

 So to the fathers who have sacrificed for their children, who have worked to be involved in each day of their child’s life, thank you. Your children will always remember your involvement in their lives.

 And to the fathers who would like to do more, remember the importance of your role. It is not about being perfect, but being present.

[Bullheaded Texan]

How Chief of ICE Responds to Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo on Illegal Immigrants.         

 6/5/18  Fred Lucas 

The Trump administration has tripled enforcement against employers that hire illegal immigrants, an offense that could involve an array of crimes, the nation’s top immigration official says.

 “Simple math, more officers in the county jail equals less officers in the community,” @ICEgov Director Thomas Homan says.

 “We’ve increased worksite enforcement by over 300%. We’re going to continue doing that,” Thomas Homan, who is retiring as chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington. “We’re not only going to continue conducting criminal investigations of employers where we have evidence of criminal behavior. We’re doing the audits and we are arresting illegal employees,” Homan said.

 Homan, acting director of ICE because he has not been confirmed by the Senate, is set to retire later this month.

As yet, the Trump administration hasn’t chosen a successor, he said at the event sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies, a pro-enforcement think tank in Washington.

 Homan spoke in a question-and-answer format with Jessica Vaughan, the organization’s director of policy studies.

“It’s not just employing an illegal alien. There is tax fraud going on. Employers aren’t paying their taxes,” Homan said, adding:

"There is identity theft going on. A lot of these illegal immigrants are using the Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens. There is identity theft. There is tax fraud. There is trafficking. So, there is a criminal aspect to worksite enforcement people don’t understand."

Homan addressed a wide range of topics

 In April, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, sent a “cease and desist” letter to ICE, asking Homan’s agency to “direct your agents operating in New York to follow the clear constitutional requirements attendant to searches and arrests.” “If you fail to do so,” Cuomo wrote, “I will explore and pursue all available legal recourse, taking any such action that is necessary to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers.”

 Homan responded that he is a native New Yorker and isn’t intimidated by Cuomo. “Last year, we arrested nearly 5,000 criminal aliens off the streets of New York,”

 Homan then said. “Rather than a cease and desist letter, a letter of thank you would be appreciated.”

The Justice Department has sued Mexifornia over a sanctuary state policy that prohibits local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration officials, even by holding illegal immigrants who already are detained in county jails.

 Homan responded to criticism from Mexlifornia Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, that officials at ICE and other federal agencies aren’t telling the truth. Homan said Mexifornia law enforcement authorities oppose Senate Bill 54, the sanctuary state law.

 “The Mexifornia State Sheriffs’ Association, the governor’s own sheriffs, agree with us that SB54 prevents communications with ICE,” Homan said, “and dangerous criminals like gang members, those that assault police officers, they’re being released from jails all across Mexifornia.”

 If local law enforcement cooperates, he said, then ICE agents won’t need to look for criminal immigrants in the community.

 “When one ICE officer can sit in a county jail and process 10 illegal aliens in a shift, and now you release those 10 aliens to the street, I’ve got to send a whole team out to try and locate one,” Homan said, adding:

 Simple math: More officers in the county jail equals less officers in the community. That’s just operational reality. And, Don’t tell me to prioritize criminals, but you can’t come to my county jail. It doesn’t make sense.

 The ICE chief praised President Donald Trump for doing more than any of the other five presidents he worked for to protect public safety.

 But he expressed skepticism about the president’s willingness to make a deal with Congress on the policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which the obuma administration imposed by executive action.

 DACA, which Trump announced he will end, allows certain illegal aliens who were brought here illegally as children to be shielded from deportation and to obtain work permits.

 Although Trump and Congress failed to reach a deal on legislating a version of policy, the president has said he is willing to support amnesty for those so-called “Dreamers” in exchange for increased enforcement, such as a border wall, and a merit-based immigration system.

 Vaughan asked Homan: “Doesn’t amnesty encourage illegal immigration?”

“When you reward illegal behavior, it certainly does,” Homan replied. “If Congress chooses to pass legislation on DACA, what I’ve said many times is you can’t pass a clean DACA bill without talking about the underlying reasons for illegal immigration.”

 He added that the United States must seek to stop illegal immigration first. "You’ve got to address that as part of the fix. Because if you don’t, those families coming across now will be your next DACA in 10 years. 

 Let’s stop kicking that can down the road. If you want to do a fix on DACA, let’s talk about an overarching issue of illegal immigration, so we don’t have a DACA every 10 years. We don’t have an amnesty every 15 to 20 years. Let’s fix it.

 As he prepares to exit the agency, Homan also strongly defended his agents against political attacks and name-calling.  “A lot of people want to attack ICE. I see it every day. They want to call ICE racist. They want to call us Nazis,” Homan said.

 “What I want to make clear is, you can 'not like' what we do, but don’t vilify the men and women that took an oath to enforce the law.

 If you don’t like what we do, then talk to your congressman and senator and tell them you don’t like the law.”

[Bullheaded Texan]

1 Year Later, Lawmakers Who Were There Reflect on Ballfield Shooting and How It Changed Their Outlook.

 6/13/18  Rachel del Guidice

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, accompanied by his wife Jennifer, makes his way through the Capitol on Sept. 28 for the first time since being shot and wounded the previous June 14 during a congressional baseball practice.

 “I can still taste the dirt in my mouth when I hit the ground, that parched dirt,” Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich., recalls.

“It’s just a sensation that you will never forget,” Bishop says in an interview with The Daily Signal. “And it was both eerily quiet and then, just wildly beyond my explanation, the loudness of those gunshots.”

 Bishop and other Republican lawmakers who were present one year ago Thursday when a man opened fire during practice for a congressional baseball game say the shooting is etched in their memories.

 They also say it affects how they see their public service.“Each time they made your heart skip, ’cause you knew it was coming your way,” Bishop says of the gunshots. “I was still in the field at the time, and I could hear the bullets whizzing over, I saw stuff flying over the back of the dugout; you could hear it pinging off the chain-link fence.”

 House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and at least 21 other Republican members of the House and Senate were at baseball practice at an Alexandria ballpark when James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, began shooting at them shortly after 7 a.m. He fired about 70 rounds, authorities said at the time.

 Scalise, the No. 3 House Republican, returned to Congress on Sept. 28, walking with canes after extensive surgeries and an initial recovery from the bullet that shattered his left femur and damaged his hip and pelvis.

 Four others, including two Capitol Police officers, were wounded in the attack before police brought down Hodgkinson, killing him in an exchange of gunfire.

 “I think it was a wake-up call to some people,” Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, tells The Daily Signal in an email.

Johnson had left the ball field just minutes before Hodgkinson began shooting at Republican lawmakers and staff during the practice on June 14, 2017.

 “People respond to what they see on the news and when they see members of Congress being divisive and going at each other, it just plays right out in our society because Congress is a microcosm that is a reflection of our own society,” Johnson says.

 The lawmakers and staffers had been preparing for the annual baseball game, scheduled the following day at Nationals Park, when Republican and Democrat members of the House and Senate play against each other.

 This year’s game is set for Thursday.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., recalls for The Daily Signal where he was standing when he heard the gunfire.

“I was probably 20 steps from the thug when he fired his first shot, and I was the first one to yell out to Mississippi Rep. Trent Kelly.  He was at third base, I was at shortstop … I yelled out, ‘That was a gunshot.’

 “Trent said, ‘I know.’ And I turned and said, ‘There he is, get off the field,’” Palmer recalls in an interview. “Of course, you know what happened after that.”

 One bullet hit team coach and former Capitol Hill staffer Matt Mika in the chest, just missing his heart, and another severed a major nerve in his left arm. His doctors said Mika, a government relations director for Tyson Foods Inc., narrowly escaped death.

 Zachary Barth, a legislative aide to Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, sustained a minor injury.

Bishop says he was trying to make it to the one open exit from the field when Capitol Police Special Agent David Bailey, on Scalise’s security detail, made a valiant effort to cover the lawmakers. Advancing with Bailey was a colleague, Special Agent Crystal Griner.

 “I decided I would rather die on my feet than on my stomach trying to get away, so I got up and ran,” Bishop recalls, “and as soon as I did that … David came running through toward the gunfire and laid down cover fire so the rest of us could get out.”

 Griner was hit in the leg, Bishop says, and he watched the officer use her weapon to prop herself up over the hood of a car. “I have never seen that level of courage and valor,” the Michigan Republican says.

 

Had Scalise not been at the practice with his Capitol Police security detail, the day could have ended much more tragically, Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., says in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“Steve could … have had a meeting, but he was there, [and] because of that, and David and Crystal firing back, we’re all here today,” Davis says.

On July 27, 2017, President Donald Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Valor to Bailey, who also was wounded, and to Griner, who was still walking on crutches, as well as to three Alexandria police officers who responded.

Like Johnson, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., had departed practice early and, unbeknownst to him at the time, encountered the shooter as he was leaving with an aide and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.

“I was running across the parking lot to my waiting vehicle. I ran into somebody that asked a question in the parking lot; turned out to be the shooter, Hodgkinson,” Duncan recalls, adding:

 "He said, ‘Excuse me, can you tell me who is practicing today, Republicans or Democrats?’ And I said, ‘This is the Republican team,’ and he said, ‘OK, thanks,’ and turned and ran across the parking lot.

Duncan says he believes it is a miracle that his life was spared.

 “Turns out the thug had my name on an assassin’s list that he carried in his pocket; there were six of us, and my name was on there. He had my description, had my age, had my office number, had a couple other details, but I didn’t know that at the time. That came out later,” Duncan says, adding:

 "I truly believe it was a God thing, it was a God thing. The thug had my name on his list, he talked with me. He either had scales on his eyes or just wasn’t ready to commit an act of murder at that point in time."

 Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., tells The Daily Signal that the shooting reminded his colleagues on both sides of the aisle of the importance of their shared mission and responsibility.

 Fleischmann describes the incident as “sad,” “injurious,” and “devastating.”

“Whether we are Republicans, Democrats, independents, House, Senate, and White House, judiciary, we are all there to serve the American people,” he says in an interview. “And despite our differences, which sometimes run deep, we want to try to come together and move our country forward in a very positive, very positive direction … since the shooting.”

 Davis says the shooting’s immediate aftermath reminded him of the goodwill that the country still possesses, even with its vast political differences.

 “To get my phone back later that evening and see the 400-plus texts and voicemails and calls, knowing that these were people that, if you look at the 24-hour news cycle, you wouldn’t expect that they would call and check on me,” Davis says. “But that is what I saw. I saw the humanity of people, regardless of whether you are Republican or Democrat.”

Duncan, the South Carolina lawmaker, says the shooting left a lasting impression on those who experienced it.

“It has been tough on the members of Congress that were there. And it has been a year now, and we still talk about it almost weekly, and have for a year,” Duncan says.

 “It is kind of strange how you kind of process everything through people who were there and people that understand, people that care.”

[Bullheaded Texan]

1 Year Later, Lawmakers Who Were There Reflect on Ballfield Shooting and How It Changed Their Outlook “I can still taste the dirt in my mouth when I hit the ground, that parched dirt,” says Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich. “It’s just a sensation that you will never forget.” Year Later, Lawmakers Who Were There Reflect on Ballfield Shooting and How It Changed Their Outlook

“I can still taste the dirt in my mouth when I hit the ground, that parched dirt,” says Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich. “It’s just a sensation that you will never forget.”

1 Year Later, Lawmakers Who Were There Reflect on Ballfield Shooting and How It Changed Their Outlook

“I can still taste the dirt in my mouth when I hit the ground, that parched dirt,” says Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich. “It’s just a sensation that you will never forget.”

[Bullheaded Texan]

The Meaning of the Stars and Stripes.

 6/13/18  Rep. Brad Wenstrup

President Harry Truman signed the national observance of Flag Day into law on June 14, 1949.

 When Congress approved and President Harry Truman signed the national observance of Flag Day into law on June 14, 1949, it was for an important reason: “It is our custom to observe June 14 each year with ceremonies designed not only to commemorate the birth of our flag,” Truman said, “but also to rededicate ourselves to the ideals for which it stands. This beloved emblem, which flies above all our people of whatever creed or race, signalizes our respect for human rights and the protection such rights are afforded under our form of government.”

 

“What are you doing to celebrate Flag Day?”

It’s a question you probably won’t hear in the checkout line at the grocery store or around the dinner table with friends this week.

 

That’s because, unlike other hallmark holidays of summertime—Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day—Flag Day isn’t always celebrated with grand gestures, gatherings, or parades. More often it passes by with perfunctory commemorations at best. At worst, it is all but forgotten.

  Truman’s words cut right to the heart of this holiday. Our flag is far more than fabric stitched together in stars and stripes. She is a tangible symbol of our national identity, reminding us of who we are, and how far we’ve come.

 I wrote a salute to “Old Glory,” which hangs on the wall in my office in Washington, D.C. In part, it reads:

Today, as we pledge our loyalty to this flag,
Think about what she has stood for, think about where she has been.

From the home of Betsy Ross, to the streets of Concord, to the fields of Gettysburg.
From the rocks of Iwo Jima, to the Tundra of Korea, to the jungles of Vietnam,
And the deserts of the Middle East.

She has stood in your front yards, and she has stood on the moon.
She has been sadly placed over coffins, and proudly raised at the Olympics.

This is our flag—a symbol revered and cheered for. Battled and bled for. Both an embodiment of the collective struggles and triumphs of a nation over centuries and a symbol of the individual sacrifice of each man or woman who has fought and died beneath her stripes and stars.

 In my district, there was an installation of 1,000 flags placed across 10 acres at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield Township, Ohio, for Memorial Day this year. It was called the “Field of Memories.”

 Visible from the highway, each flag was dedicated to a former or active military member, but the 3 feet by 5 feet pieces of fabric also represent a lifetime of memories. Birthdays missed. Joyful reunions after long deployments. Inside jokes shared over the phone across continents. Moving trucks headed to the next base, in the next state. The empty chair at the table. The memories of a single life, and a nation’s life, all stitched into one red, white, and blue emblem.

 We don’t just honor our flag—it is also itself a symbol of the utmost honor. On the Thursday evening before Memorial Day, every available soldier in the U.S. Army’s Old Guard walks the rows of more than 228,000 headstones in Arlington National Cemetery, placing an American flag one foot in front of each grave marker with perfect precision. Throughout the weekend, the Old Guard will stay in the cemetery, making sure a flag remains in front of each grave.  This national tradition is called “Flags In” and has been conducted every year since 1948.

 It is more than a bright display—it is 228,000 distinct reminders of why these men and women gave their lives in the struggle for a more perfect union, and a more free world. Each flag is a small but powerful statement that this field of memories does not lie forgotten. The freedom that these Americans fought for, and that our flag stands for, lives on.

 This week, on Flag Day, Democrats and Republicans will gather on one field to play ball in the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Washington, D.C. This is an event where for one night, both sides come together for charity, putting political differences aside and playing under one flag. It is a fitting moment to “rededicate ourselves to the ideals for which it stands,” as Truman said so many years ago.

 I hope that’s what you think of when you see our flag flying this week, and every week. I hope you join me in taking a moment to pause and honor her—to ponder the magnitude of what she represents.

  The tribute that I wrote to our flag finishes likes this:

 She flies through the air. She sails across the sea. She marches over the land.

She has stood for freedom in places around the world,
Until freedom could stand,
On its own two feet.

Evildoers have feared her,
Those in need have prayed for her arrival.
She has always stood for exceptionalism,
And for that we do not apologize.

 Whether you honor her by raising her in your own front yard or visiting a veterans’ cemetery, by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” this week, please join me in honoring our grand United States flag, and all she represents.

 Our American Flag belongs to each and every person in joint and common tenancy. You own it all and I own it all, "We, the people..." own the American Flag.

  The stars are one for each state,

 the thirteen stripes are one for each of our thirteen colonies,

  the white for purity,

 the red for courage and

 the blue for loyalty.
I learned this in the first grade in grammar school. This needs to be taught in every grade again!

 Those who desecrate our Flag ought to be exiled as traitors. They did not lay down their lives, nor did they petition the government for redress. They destroyed what belonged to all citizens. As thieves and marauders, vandals and insurrectionists. They should  not be allowed to desecrate our American Flag, without PUNISHMENT.  A pox on those who do these dastardly things. "...and our Flag was still there."