Good morning, Kruiser Morning Briefing fans. Your usual master of ceremonies is off visiting family, so I’m here pinch-hitting. Why didn’t the ancient aliens ever build anything with some kind of durable exotic metal alloys? Or plastic?
Over the weekend, I was invited to do a quick interview on Newsmax TV. It was the second of the week; Chris Salcedo had me on earlier to discuss the border and Biden’s politicization of the military. As these things go, producers sent me the topics a day ahead, and the border was to be the main event for Saturday. I’ll always do some prep for appearing on radio or TV, and so I set about marshaling a few facts about the border and checking out what others are saying. Here’s a synopsis of what’s going on.
On Friday, journalists started complaining louder that the feds are limiting their ability to report what’s happening on the border. Journalists shouldn’t stand for that, and many aren’t. CBS News reported that the number of children apprehended at the border is much higher than the government has acknowledged. Texas congressional members in both parties are complaining that the Biden White House is not consulting Congress. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) even turned images from inside the detention facilities, or “pods” as the administration is calling them, over to Axios — exposing conditions inside. Reporter Stef Kight tweeted some and wrote an article about them. Credit to Cuellar for imposing the transparency the Biden administration claims it’s living by, but clearly isn’t.
NEW: Exclusive photos from inside a CBP temporary overflow facility taken over the weekend in Donna, Texas reveal the crowded, makeshift conditions at the border as the government's longer term child shelters and family detention centers fill uphttps://t.co/uxdWO7cV7N
— Stef Kight (@StefWKight) March 22, 2021
The Biden administration is playing word games with all of this, refusing to call it a “crisis” despite the fact that its own head of Homeland Security has been quoted saying the numbers now are higher than any time in the past 20 years. Federal and local systems are overwhelmed. COVID-positive migrants are just being allowed to travel about the country they have no legal right to be in, while many Americans remain locked down. Rep. August Pfluger said the feds aren’t even consulting with the towns where they’re setting up the “pods,” they’re just dropping them into communities in the dead of night. None of this is acceptable. All of it stems from Biden’s policies and rhetoric. This crisis is his and he isn’t dealing with it. He is having trouble navigating stairs lately, so there’s that.
A border county sheriff, Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Ariz., says the situation is empowering the violent drug cartels and increasing human trafficking. It’s spiraling out of control.
The sheriff indirectly addressed President Biden, pressing that he must get border personnel and immigration experts to the table to discuss what’s best for national security.
“The bottom line, Mr. President, is you and I share one thing – the citizens of this country,” he said. “And these reckless and hasty plans and executive orders only serve one purpose – to open up our country for public safety disasters.”
“We’re in a global health pandemic but we’re being ignored on the southwest border,” he continued. “It’s almost like we’re not part of America anymore. … What I’m seeing down here is total opposite of what the CDC is recommending. … Are we part of this country or are we not?”
That feeling, of not being in America anymore, isn’t limited to the border.
Then we learned the administration will spend $86 million on hotels for illegals, while it treated the National Guard troops it deployed to protect itself from a non-existent threat terribly. Those troops were relegated to sleeping in garages and eating food that made some of them sick. Biden, who never served in the military but has been a politician his entire adult life, mistreated the Guard while increasing incentives for people to break our immigration law. How can any Biden voter live with themselves?
Going back over the course of his career, you can always count on Biden to go the wrong way.
White House spox Jen Psaki was asked about the National Guard issue on Monday. She had no credible answer, take a look.
What credible answer could she have for this glaring disparity? The administration she works for has consistently prioritized non-citizens over citizens, and fringe policies over mainstream ones that would promote jobs. The Biden administration even went back on its word to deliver $2000 stimulus checks while it used the bulk of the recent stimulus bill to pay off Democrat constituencies. I think the stimulus is unwise policy that’s likely to lead to inflation or worse. But if you’re going to do a stimulus, at least direct the spending toward Americans who need it, not politics.
All of the above leads to an inevitable place: The Biden administration is attempting to engage in a cover-up. Consider: It’s limiting reporter access to the border facilities; it’s refusing to offer any real numbers of those crossing illegally and those who’ve been apprehended; it’s failing to consult with Congress; it’s failing to work with the affected states; and it’s failing to work with local communities.
That’s a cover-up, and it’s time for the media to call it that and for the American people to react accordingly. This administration cannot be trusted to deal honestly with something we can see with our own eyes.
Asked about the humanitarian crisis on the border on Monday, Kamala Harris just laughed it off.
Refuting the entire Democratic platform in one tweet.
I still don't understand why so many brown people are desperate to come here to be oppressed. Also don't understand why the left are encouraging them to come if America is as horrible as they say. They should be screaming, "Noooo! Turn back! Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!"
— Leonydus Johnson (leave/me/alone) (@LeonydusJohnson) March 22, 2021
If you don’t know who Leonydus Johnson is or where he’s coming from here, see his Twitter feed and check him out.
Lockdowns are destructive. End them and never revisit them.
Pew: Lockdowns are causing serious distress among younger generations.
Would it be surprising that the toxic brew the lockdowns unleashed has amped up cancel culture?
PJ Links
[EXCLUSIVE] Read the Shocking Pentagon Training Materials Targeting Conservatives in the Military
(VIP) Why My Trust in the Military Has Been Shattered
I’ve Decided to Be Nicer While Being Mean to Joe Biden
If Joe Biden Was a ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Character, Which One Would He Be?
Defamation? Babylon Bee Is Considering Legal Options to Counter NYT Cheap Shot
Links from the greater alliance
It’s a Monday, a Disaster Is Unfolding and Joe Biden Just Called a Lid
Report: CNN Loses 45% Of Primetime Audience In Just Five Weeks
So this is pretty cool, but I have a question.
Popular Mechanics reports that the “massless” battery may be real soon. It’s not actually massless, of course, it’s just part of the structure of the car, laptop, or whatever it powers. So it has a dual role — power the thing and also provide part of the structure of the thing. PM ponders whether, if it hits the market, it will electrify things that we can’t electrify now, such as airplanes. Why not? A passenger plane’s fuel tanks are usually in the wings now, so in a way (don’t come at me, aircraft engineers) they’re part of the structure now. But that’s not entirely analogous and anyway, it’s not my question. My question is, if the structural battery leads to electrifying more things, that means we will be connecting more things to an already strained power grid that will rely on the increasingly unreliable. How are we gonna do that?
Even Seinfeld isn’t a fan of the Seinfeld finale
I’m just not sure how they could’ve ended it in a way that would have satisfied the fan base. That show was a monster by the time it wound down. I hated the finale at the time, but in retrospect, it’s true to the series. They’re awful people, courtroom dramas were huge then and still are. And no one hugs or learns a thing from that finale. So having all the best characters return to reprise their moments and see the Seinfeld Four off to jail does make sense, or “provide closure” as they say now.
Retro clip
The Call lost their lead singer, Micheal Been, back in 2010. Across the 1980s and into the ’90s they were one of those criminally underrated bands you’d hear on the radio every once in a while. You’d like the tune, the DJ would neglect to say who it was by, and that was that. There were no apps or Internet available to track them down. Combining elements of Simple Minds, U2, and their own thing, The Call packed a punch that always deserved a larger audience than they tended to get. “I Still Believe” is one of their signature songs. It appeared (as a cover) in the ’80s vampire film The Lost Boys, and on the album Reconciled. More recently, it appeared on the soundtrack for Waco. Here’s the original band on stage, way back when. I saw them live someplace in the Dallas area a gazillion years ago, probably the West End. Phenomenal, powerful show.
Bonus retro clip: Do you think these kids are going anywhere?
Bonus retro clip with a point, sort of.
I Dream of Jeannie was controversial in its time for almost showing Barbara Eden’s navel. That was a big deal. It went off the air in 1970 — just three years before Joe Biden entered politics.
It’s hard to believe now but this was ribald stuff in 1968. Just five years before Biden entered politics. Are you seeing my half of a point here?
Barbara Eden is still a national treasure.
Joe Biden is a living argument for term limits.
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