Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a weekly crime report highlighting serious crimes committed by illegal aliens in our country.
Illegal immigration may be a hot topic for politicians running for office, but as Americans, it should be an even greater area of concern. The left is determined to make us an open border country, allowing any and everyone in, no matter their criminal background. That’s why I feel it is important to highlight the serious crimes committed by so many illegal immigrants in this weekly report.
Week of August 9 – August 15, 2018
Welcome to this first installment of our illegal immigrant crime watch. This is not an analysis, but rather a report of the more serious crimes committed by illegal aliens. While there may have been many more, hundreds even, arrests of illegal aliens for simple infractions, here we concentrate only on the most dangerous of offenses. This, our first week, has been rather busy and just further demonstrates the need to get control over the illegal immigrant population in our country.
ICE: 45 Arrests in 5-Day Operation
Houston, Texas
The local enforcement operation targeted at-large criminal aliens in the Houston area, ending with the apprehension of 45 illegal immigrants On August 10. Of those arrested, 42 had prior criminal convictions, 15 had been previously deported, and many had felony convictions which included rape, child exploitation, drug trafficking, assault and robbery, such as:
- In Houston, a 29-year-old Turkish national convicted of child exploitation.
- In Houston, a previously removed 43-year-old Honduran national convicted of rape.
- In Houston, a 44-year-old Cuban national convicted of burglary.
- In Tomball, a twice-removed 46-year-old Mexican national convicted of burglary and drug trafficking.
ICE reported that individuals arrested during the operation included nationals from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nigeria, and Turkey.
Brian Alejandro Martinez
Murder Suspect Removed from U.S.
Newark, New Jersey
ICE officials removed an El Salvadoran man wanted for a homicide in his country. Brian Alejandro Martinez, 32, who has also gone by the name Maximiliano Cornejo, was removed from the U.S. on August 10. Martinez has illegally entered the U.S. repeatedly and has been arrested several times over many years.
“This individual’s egregious immigration history and serious criminal history in the U.S., as well as being wanted for homicide in his home country, shows that he is a dangerous individual who warranted removal from the community and the U.S.,” said John Tsoukaris, field office director of ERO Newark.
Homicide: Ran Over in Front Yard
Lancaster, South Carolina
A 60-year-old man was killed when Abel Borbonio-Olivio reportedly ran him over while the victim was in his own front yard. Borbonio-Olivio is a 42-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who also happens to have four previous arrests for driving without a license.
Abel Borbonio-Olivio
According to reports, Charles Byrdic was in his front yard around 9:30 a.m. getting ready to go to the store to pick up blueberries for his wife, when Borbonio-Olivio’s vehicle veered off the road and slammed into him. He was hit so hard that he was knocked out of his shoes and catapulted from the suspect’s SUV, the family said.
Borbonio-Olivio had two prescription drugs in his system at the time of the crash. According to arrest warrants obtained by The Herald, he did not have a driver’s license, was speeding more than 10 miles over the speed limit, and was looking at money in his wallet at the time.
Byrdic, who survived leukemia and a stroke, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Luis Angel Cisneros-Garcia
Drug Sales: Two Illegals Arrested
Raleigh, North Carolina
Two suspected illegal immigrants were arrested for possession of drugs with intent to sell.
Luis Angel Cisneros-Garcia, 20, was arrested on the suspicion of having 16 fentanyl pills, 25 Xanax bars, and 2.9 ounces of marijuana, a digital scale for measuring marijuana, and plastic bags usually used to package the drugs for sell. He was held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Damaris Sharbell Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was with Cisneros-Garcia and was arrested for felony cocaine possession, possession of a digital scale, and marijuana possession. She was held on a $3,500 bail.
Damaris Sharbell Martinez-Hernandez
Federal immigration officers filed notice that they suspected the two were in the U.S. illegally and requested a 48-hour hold before releasing them.
Forty-eight potentially dangerous illegal aliens removed from our streets this week, not a bad start. Remember to check back next week for the second installment of our crime watch.
Despite the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, the number of illegals crossing the border into the U.S. is still climbing. Parents are still taking the risk and bringing their children to a country that has been separating families – according to the left, of course. In fact, the number of families crossing illegally has grown exponentially.
The Associated Press reported on this growth, saying:
The Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector has seen a more than 120 percent spike in the number of families and unaccompanied children caught at the border over the last year, surprising many in an area that had been largely quiet and calm for the past decade.
Yuma, Arizona has become the second largest area for illegal crossings. Despite the oppressive heat at this time of the year, they are still risking life and limb to get to the United States. It is also not the usual place to cross. Drug smugglers use the desert to cross illegally while families tend to walk or swim across the Rio Grande Valley and River into Texas.
Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay said how immigrants migrate is “largely controlled by the cartels that smuggle people across.” Currently, Tamaulipas, Mexico, which borders the Rio Grande, has been besieged by “extreme violence” by the drug cartels who are “fighting for every inch of control of the river” where most of the crossing takes place into Texas. This is likely one of the reasons so many have chosen to cross into Yuma instead.
Another reason could be that most of the border crossers into Yuma are Guatemalans, Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute said. Crossing through Yuma may simply be the safest way to get to the U.S.
The Yuma area used to be a popular crossing location years ago, but advanced technology, more patrol agents and new fencing drastically cut illegal crossings, so it was a surprise to have such a sudden surge.
“It’s really been a combined effort across the whole agency to be able to turn this sector into something that is manageable and not somewhere there was 138,000 apprehensions back in 2005,” Garibay said.
But even with all of the improvements, the tidal wave of illegal immigrants continues to swell. Just seven years ago, border patrol agents arrested 98 families and 222 unaccompanied children. Those numbers have drastically climbed to nearly 10,000 families and 4,500 unaccompanied children during this fiscal year alone.
Why are so many immigrants ignoring the “zero tolerance” policy and risking everything to get to the United States? Many are migrating to California, a known sanctuary state, where they feel they will be welcomed with open arms and given food, clothing, housing, and jobs. Yuma is an agricultural area, which supplies 90% of the nation’s leafy greens, dates, and lettuce, and relies heavily on immigrant labor. These two areas offer illegals an opportunity that just may be too good to pass up.
Another key player in the Russia collusion conspiracy has just been uncovered: DOJ official Bruce Ohr. As it turns out, Ohr, who has for the most part been ignored during this whole travesty, may have had a much larger roll in the plot to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president than we ever suspected.
Jon Solomon
Investigative Reporter Jon Solomon recently obtained emails, memos, and text messages between Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele, who was the author of the now infamous “Steele Dossier.” These golden bundles of information prove Ohr not only contacted Steele on several occasions, he continued to communicate with the former spy before, during, and after Steele was fired by the FBI.
“Ohr’s own notes, emails and text messages show he communicated extensively with Steele and with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson,” Solomon said.
“They show Ohr had contact with Steele in the days just before the FBI opened its Trump-Russia probe in summer 2016, and then engaged Steele as a ‘confidential human source’ assisting in that probe.
They also confirm that Ohr later became a critical conduit of continuing information from Steele after the FBI ended the Brit’s role as an informant.”
When the FBI severed ties with Steele (supposedly), he was informed that he could no longer “operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI.” However, as the recently uncovered text messages and correspondence between Ohr and Steele reveal, that was not the case. In a January 31, 2017 – three months after being fired by the FBI – text correspondence, Steele reached out to Ohr to see if their information sharing deal was still good:
Former British spy Christopher Steele
“Just want to check you are OK, still in the situ and able to help locally as discussed, along with your Bureau colleagues.”
“I’m still here and able to help as discussed,” Ohr texted back. “I’ll let you know if that changes.”
Steele replied, “If you end up out though, I really need another (bureau?) contact point/number who is briefed. We can’t allow our guy to be forced to go back home. It would be disastrous.”
Investigators still haven’t determined who the “guy” Steele referred to is in the text. Any guesses?
In a July 1, 2016 communication, Steele told Ohr: “There is something separate I wanted to discuss with you informally and separately. It concerns our favourite business tycoon!” Which was an obvious reference to Trump, of course.
What’s interesting about this particular correspondence is that just four days later, Steele went to the FBI office in Rome with his allegations of Trump’s collusion with Russia, including efforts to sway the presidential election.
Bruce Ohr
On July 30, 2016, Steele and Ohr met in Washington at the Mayflower Hotel. Ohr brought Nellie, his wife, who was also working at Fusion GPS on the research project against Trump. Steele wrote to Ohr after their meeting: “Great to see you and Nellie this morning Bruce. Let’s keep in touch on the substantive issue/s. Glenn is happy to speak to you on this if it would help.”
“Glenn” is Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS.
Exactly one day after that meeting, Peter Strzok, then FBI counterintelligence official, formally opened an investigation to find out if the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to steal the election. This investigation became known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
While we’re speaking of Strzok, Solomon said: “Ohr’s notes suggest he met Nov. 21, 2016 with FBI officials that included Strzok, then-FBI attorney Lisa Page and another agent.”
No collusion here, folks, right?
“In all,” Solomon said, “Ohr’s notes, emails and texts identify more than 60 contacts with Steele and/or Simpson.”
And the plot continues to thicken as more moles are whacked in discovery.
Another liberal teacher, this time in Lodi, CA, has decided his political beliefs were more important than his students’. High on his power and righteous indignation, he singled out two students for wearing NRA shirts in his classroom.
The history teacher said the NRA shirts — which, consequently, didn’t even feature images of firearms — were inappropriate and told the two sophomores to remove them. When neither of them did, one was sent to the office and the other, a 15-year-old girl, was lectured in front of the class, according to the girl’s mother, Charlene Craig.
“She was basically being attacked in class,” Craig said of her daughter. “He basically yelled at her, telling her that she would be writing an essay if she disagreed with him.”
So what was so offensive about this awful shirt? The front had an NRA logo and on the back was the United States flag made up of shell casings. Under the picture was “National Rifles Association.” You got it, folks. There were no gory scenes of shooting people or obscene language. In fact, there wasn’t a single picture of a weapon, just the casings. The school’s policy on appropriate clothing only states there cannot be images of weapons on clothing, not company logos.
But then, teachers and schools picking on conservative students for their political and personal beliefs is, unfortunately, nothing new; it’s only growing in popularity. Let’s not forget about the Oregon high school student who was suspended from school for wearing a pro border wall sweater.
The NRA caught wind of the story and tweeted this:
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Two #California teenagers were harassed by their anti-#gun history teacher last week. How would you handle the situation if this were your child’s school? #NRA #2A #DefendtheSecond https://t.co/6YE6MCFZuF
— NRA (@NRA) August 7, 2018
Joe Giordano commented on the company’s tweet saying, “Maybe if the teacher taught about the Constitution and the 2nd ammendment, more kids would wear cool shirts like that.”
Isn’t it ironic that the teacher chastising these young students claims to be knowledgeable enough to instruct them on history? The First and Second Amendments are clear; a right to free speech and a right to bear arms. This egotistical liberal tried to infringe on both students’ constitutional rights – during a history class, no less.
Craig said her daughter was raised around guns and that they are a part of her life. “That’s what she is, that’s what she does.”
To some, the shirts may be offensive or seen as inappropriate because of the recent school shootings, but on the other side, it is extremely offensive and worrisome that there are some who want to take away our gun rights. People get in car accidents every day, and there are suicidal idiots who use their cars to mow down people in shopping centers, but that doesn’t mean we should prohibit wearing shirts with Chevys on them.
The logic is lost on the left – guns don’t kill people, people do. Still, the libs feel they have every right to force their opinion on others, including impressionable students, while taking away those same rights for those they oppose.
The Lodi Unified School District released a statement saying “…the school administration reviewed the t-shirt in question and determined that it did not violate school dress code policy,” and they will refresh staff on appropriate attire and procedures. Nothing, however, was said about the history teacher’s actions and if there would be any kind of repercussion for him.
Mugshots of those arrested during the No to Marxism in Berkeley event
Berkeley, CA police arrested 20 people on August 5 during a mostly peaceful “No to Marxism in Berkeley” event. At least it was peaceful until the police department decided to tweet out the names and mug shots of the Antifa members arrested. During the “alt-right” rally, local police said they made the arrests based on protesters in “possession of a banned weapon,” or “working with others to commit a crime.”
The cry of injustice began almost immediately. University of California law professor and former Berkeley police review commissioner Veena Dubal called it “public shaming”:
Veena Dubal
“This is very disturbing,” she said. “It seems like a public-shaming exercise, which is not the role of the police department … They are making it really accessible for folks who might wish these people harm to locate them.”
As opposed to Antifa members being trained by a professional fighter, supposedly for self-defense, but we all know better, don’t we.
There’s nothing wrong with “public shaming,” when the left does it; however, in this case, it’s the police letting their citizens know that certain individuals in their community had been arrested. Police blotters often have pictures, names, and other information regarding those who have been arrested. Just think of newspapers that publish mug shots of alleged drunk drivers.
Now, the left is all over Twitter for allowing the posts, or what they call “doxing.” An example of a tweet (that was removed) follows:
Andres Gonzalez, 35, of Oakland, was arrested at Civic Center Park on five counts of carrying a banned weapon. pic.twitter.com/GbU9PgFv9K
— Berkeley Police (@berkeleypolice) August 5, 2018
Huffington Post contributor Jesse Benn responded to the tweet with one of his own less that politically correct verbiages:
hey @TwitterSupport I thought doxing wasn’t allowed or is it just fine when a ghostskin does it from an official police account?
— Jesse Benn (@JesseBenn) August 6, 2018
Before the event was held, the police department posted notices that explicitly prohibited weapons or anything that can be deemed a weapon at the demonstration. The notice also forbade the wearing of masks — which we all know was directed at the cowardly mask-wearing antifa members. Still, counter protesters were arrested for ignoring the banns and bringing weapons or conspiring to commit a crime, according to the Berkeley police.
Sam Menefee-Libey, a Washington DC activist who has helped Trump protesters, compared the cops to Nazis:
“It’s clear that the cops have chosen sides and that they think of the left as their enemies,” he said. “The cops are doing something that Nazis do all the time, which is dox people.”
The “cops” were only using the social media as everyone else does – a means to quickly get the information to the public. Antifa members are just upset that their own tactics were turned against them. But, in this case, it was not doxing those arrested, it was reporting it as police departments and newspapers around the nation have done for decades.
Arrests are a matter of public record; putting the information out on Twitter just delivers it faster. The mask-wearing Antifa members are not likely to be happy about being “revealed” to the world since they go to such lengths to hide their identities. But that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
Antifa is becoming even more violent. Now the terrorist group has brought in a fighting instructor to teach its members self-defense – or is it to teach them how to beat down Trump supporters? James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas went undercover and caught the fight instructor teaching his pupils on video. And the instructions are horrifying.
“If you get a good liver or kidney shot, it’s pretty much crippling them,” one fight instructor says. “They’re going to be doubled over in a lot of pain. If you break one of the floating ribs, which are small and right down here. Those are also very painful, it’s hard to move after that, to catch a breath.”
Antifa Violence
It’s being touted as self-defense, but we all know it’s much more than that. According to Antifa instructor Chris, the idea of self-defense is not simply about someone being attacked by an aggressor, “but it’s kind of a decision you make to fight back. In a lot of ways to say, I am human and I occupy this space and I will not be f***ed with.” This was followed by chuckles among the members.
While martial arts and self-defense are useful skills to learn, they are not usually taught to activists as part of a political group. Antifa is already known to be very aggressive and even violent. In most cases, they are the aggressors, starting the violence at otherwise peaceful demonstrations and protests. They taunt, harass and shove their way through crowds, hiding cowardly behind their masks, and now they are getting professional training to become even more violent:
“So one good body shot could potentially give you all the time in the world to run away while they’re doubled over in pain, or really put a beating on them after that if you really want to make it personal.”
Doesn’t that just raise the hairs on the back of your neck? If they really want to make it personal? That’s a given. Everything Antifa activists do is because they take exception to anyone who does not follow their personal beliefs. “So if that doesn’t knock them out, then yeah. The nose, the eyes, poke the eyes… Absolutely,” one fight instructor says.
Protesting Trump
The Veritas video continues with another segment that introduces Andy Zee, an organizer for Refuse Fascism, an organization that is a project of the Revolutionary Communist Party. He tells the undercover reporter that the group is trying to raise between $2 and $5 million for protests against Trump across the nation.
“You’re actually going to sustain millions of people, hundreds of thousands on the streets in certain cities,” Zee explained.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets to remove the president from office and some likely trained by a professional fighter? Talk about a recipe for disaster, mayhem, and destruction.
Something needs to be done about this growing threat to our citizens and our country. We cannot let fear and violence rule us and prevent us from standing up for our rights and freedom. This mass movement with trained fighters does not speak of a peaceful protest. Antifa is gearing up for war.
With recent talks about splitting California into three separate states, Calexit’s plan to secede from the Union, and most recently its plan to give half of the Golden State to the Native Americans, I felt it was a good time to talk about one of the “brains” behind Calexit: Shankar Singam.
Last August, Singam did an interview on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show and floored not only the host, but even some Calexit supporters when he said it would be a good thing if the middle class left the state.
Shankar Singam
“In regards to [the] middle class leaving, that’s actually a good thing,” Singam told a shocked Carlson. “We need those spots opened up for the new wave of immigrants to come up. It’s what we do. We’re exporting our middle class to the United States, you guys should be thanking us.”
Yeah, because that makes sense, right? Singam and others of the same mindset see the state as its own government that should not have to answer to anyone else, especially a president they don’t agree with or want. “If it’s good for the state we’re going to do it, regardless of what the federal law is,” Singham proclaimed.
Exporting California
He continued to say that “We’re a dominant state. We’re a global powerhouse.” Hmm, boast much? The arrogance of Californians is beyond comparison. Singam claimed that the huge number of people moving out of the state – in record numbers, by the way – was beneficial because those Californians would go to other states and spread their values.
What kind of convoluted thinking is that? But he wasn’t done with his idiotic predictions. Singam said “Soon, Texas will be a blue state,” because of all of the Californians moving to the area. Like Texans would even begin to let that happen. People left the state because they were fed up with the state’s values, not to go and try to change other states into the same thing they’ve fought so hard to get away from.
Let Cali be Cali
But that is the idiocy we are seeing with all of these plans to change California into whatever each group thinks it should become. Calexit’s plan wasn’t gaining enough signatures to go onto the November ballot, so it changed strategy and is now planning to give half of the state to the Native Americans – mostly all the federal lands. If this doesn’t help them get enough signatures, what’s next?
Singam’s brilliant idea is to let all the middle class leave in order to make room for immigrants. Okay, who will support these people when they are jobless, homeless, need food, shelter and healthcare? The Native American nation, as it’s being termed, isn’t likely to have the funding or even the desire to support the New California state. The United States certainly won’t want to help a country that turned its back on them.
Perhaps it is time we let California break away and live in their own little delusional world. Fill the state with immigrants and no jobs or housing. Split it into separate states so that they can fight amongst themselves over valuable resources and political standings. Maybe even build a wall around it – at the state’s expense – to keep the New Californians the hell out of the United States. ICE can free up a lot of its personnel by leaving the area to concentrate on other states who welcome the support. How’s that for a twist?
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders succeeded in upsetting the press again by refusing to admit that the media is not an enemy of the people.
One reporter, in particular, had his nose tweaked out of joint more than the others. Yes, we’re talking about CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. In fact, Acosta was so offended, he called for a protest – which never happened, of course.
Jim “Crybaby” Acosta
“I walked out of the end of that briefing because I am totally saddened by what just happened,” Acosta said. “Sarah Sanders was repeatedly given a chance to say the press is not the enemy and she wouldn’t do it.”
No, she wouldn’t. Instead, she let them have it by listing all of the ways the media has gone out of its way to harass the Trump administration, herself included:
“As far as I know, I’m the first press secretary in the history of the United States that’s required Secret Service protection,” Sanders said. “The media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration and certainly we have a role to play. But the media has a role to play for the discourse in the country as well.”
Acosta said everyone should get bumper stickers and buttons and instructed journalists to go out onto Pennsylvania Avenue “like the people who chant ‘CNN sucks’ and ‘fake news’,” and chant ‘we’re not the enemy of the state.’”
Facts vs. Feelings
Freedom of speech and the right to one’s opinion doesn’t just belong to select individuals. Besides, as a professional reporter, Acosta should know better than to flaunt his feelings. His job is to report the facts, not cry that someone hurt his feelings or wouldn’t declare a statement he didn’t like as false.
Dave Shuster, managing editor of 124 News, didn’t care for Acosta’s attitude either, according to one tweet:
“Hey Jim @acosta, the job of a true journalist is not to be sad or happy by what happens in a press briefing room. It is to ask questions and report facts about what was said/not said. Your feelings, antics, + self promotion are hurting journalism, not helping it. Enough.”
Amen, Shuster.
Like a dog after a meaty bone, Acosta refused to give up. He repeatedly interrupted the press secretary and would not listen to the examples she provided. When she wouldn’t back down, Acosta took to Twitter and wherever else he could to bemoan his woes.
“I’m tired of this,” he said. “It is not right. It is not fair. It is unamerican to come out here and call the press the enemy of the people.”
Shuster had something to say about that as well:
So you think the others who stayed in the briefing room were being un-american? Many journalists are sick of being lied to and insulted. But they have the guts and integrity to stay there, report the facts, + not become part of the story. @acosta gave #trump a victory today. https://t.co/OB5XY6yFgJ
— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) August 3, 2018
Time to Grow Up
Grow up, Acosta. When has the media ever been popular? It’s true that if you’re doing your job right – which means reporting the facts without opinions or feelings – you’re going to make people mad. However, it’s also true that the people’s confidence in the media has taken a nose dive, and for good reason. It’s not because President Trump accused certain outlets of producing ‘fake news’. It’s because the people have seen it for themselves and are tired of it.
If you want to gain the trust of the people, then go back to the basics. Report the facts and keep your emotions and feelings completely out of the equation. Let the truth speak for itself.
Four cities are unhappy with the president’s latest attack on Obamacare and have decided to sue the Trump administration. They claim that President Trump is violating Article II of the Constitution, which states he needs to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Trump made the announcement last month that he was going to freeze payments from the part of the Obamacare program that protects insurers with less healthy customers from financial loss. Instead, the new risk adjustment program will take money from insurers with healthier customers and redistribute it to those who have more sickly customers.
Obviously, insurance companies with healthy customers are not happy about it. However, the idea here isn’t a mass conspiracy to take from the rich and distribute to the poor. No, the goal is to curtail insurance companies that purposefully seek to pad their clientele with the healthiest customers.
The lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Baltimore, Columbus, and Cincinnati, OH, and Chicago, IL.
“There’s a clear case of premeditated destruction of the Affordable Care Act,” said Zach Klein, Columbus city attorney.
The move “will significantly increase 2019 premiums for millions of individuals and small-business owners and could result in far fewer health plan choices,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield Association president Scott Serota in a statement. “It will undermine Americans’ access to affordable coverage, particularly those who need medical care the most.”
Scott Serota
However, that’s not the extent of the healthcare plan. To help with threats of rising insurance premiums, “the Department of Health and Human Services, Labor Department, and Treasury Department released the final rule that allows consumers to buy “short-term, limited duration” health insurance plans that are not subject to the Obamacare requirements.”
The new rule is basically the same as the existing rule before 2017. At that time, Americans could keep the plan for nearly a year, but that was changed by then-president Barack Obama in an executive action a mere three weeks before he left office. Obama reduced the short-term limited duration coverage to less than three months to encourage more people to join the exchanges.
The new plan will again cover an initial period of one year, but it will come with a renewable maximum period of no longer than three years. The Department of Health and Human Services has said that the average monthly premium for somebody with a short-term health plan in the fourth quarter of 2016 was $124, whereas an unsubsidized plan in the Obamacare exchange was $393.
According to 
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, only subsidized consumers show continued stable enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges, while unsubsidized consumer enrollment has declined by 20%. Premiums have increased by 21%.
A written statement by CMS Administrator Seema Verma states that:
“We continue to see a crisis of affordability in the individual insurance market, especially for those who don’t qualify for large subsidies. This final rule opens the door to new, more affordable coverage options for millions of middle-class Americans who have been priced out of ACA plans.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the new plan “can be as much as 50-80 percent lower cost than the Affordable Care Act exchange plans.”
This may be good news for contract and part-time employees, students, and anyone who doesn’t qualify for subsidies. Currently, the Obamacare exchange has subsides for 87% of its consumers.
Oh California, how the mighty are falling. The Golden State is being torn into pieces by its very own citizens. On one hand, there’s the Cal-3 Proposal, which calls for splitting the state into three, and on the other hand, there’s Calexit’s proposal to secede from the Union. If that’s not enough to confuse voters, now Calexit has changed its proposal to include giving half of the state to the Native Americans.
Yes, you read that correctly.
And how do they propose to pull off this monumental task? With a treaty, of course. Yeah, because that worked great in the past:
All people living within the lands of this Native American nation-state will be required to adhere to Native laws, not Californian, or American laws. But we will sign a treaty establishing this nation-state that guarantees continued access to water, and protects our ownership of existing infrastructure California taxpayers built on those lands over the years. And yes, there will be a free passage agreement to allow for free and unfettered travel for Californian citizens to the U.S. through this Native American nation-state.
The plan proposes to divide the state so that “New California” will consist of the coastal areas and the Native American state will encompass the rural areas — you know, the forests, mountains, and deserts. In fact, the proposal aims to give most of the federally owned land to the Native Americans.
According to Calexit’s information, this includes forests from Sequoia, Inyo, and Sierra, to Klamath, Six Rivers, and Shasta-Trinity. Most of California’s Sierra Nevadas, as well as the Cascade Range in Northern California, will belong to the new state. “These mountains will be retroceded.” As far as the deserts are concerned, the High Desert region, such as Death Valley and the Mojave Desert, will be assigned to the new territory.
The border lines act as a “buffer,” Calexit explained. “This by default, not by design, establishes a “buffer zone” between the United States and California.”
“Virtually all of the territory we will return to Native Americans is currently managed by the National Park Service (NPS), the United States Forest Service (USFS), or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),” the organization said.
In our new #Calexit plan, we retrocede federal land back to Native Americans. Here's a map of federal lands in California. We return virtually all of it Native Americans to establish the first ever Native American nation in North America. pic.twitter.com/CI2wdNoh7i
— #Calexit Campaign (@YesCalifornia) July 31, 2018
Marcus Ruiz Evans, president of Yes California, said the decision to “return” the lands to the Native Americans came about after the group was criticized for not doing enough for the People. “Why not do something to right some of the wrongs of the past to the Native American people, and give them back their land?” Evans said.
Evans said he understood that Californians are confused by the different options trying to tear the state either away from the United States or by splitting it up into separate states. But he thinks the measure will grow in popularity if the Democrats do not win control of the House of Representatives, or if Trump is reelected.
Marcus Ruiz Evans
“Calexit is left — we are progressive, and that’s why we don’t like Trump,” Evans said. With regards to the state’s voters, he had this pearl of wisdom: “I’ve seen Americans double down on stupid in my lifetime and they are fully capable of doing it again. We think ‘Calexit’ is going to be bigger than ever.”
A bigger what is the question.
The state is being torn apart by so many different proposals – what’s next?