State Rep. Sara Wojcicki
Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder and Gov. Bruce Rauner
talk about a bill to bring state jobs back to the capital city
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About
400 state jobs now located mostly in Chicago have been identified to return to
Illinois’ capital city, and a law signed Thursday will make that happen,
potentially saving state taxpayers millions and significantly boosting Springfield’s
economy.
Years
ago, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich moved hundreds of state jobs out of
Springfield and to the Chicago region. State Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez,
R-Leland Grove, said policy makers have been reviewing how to move those jobs
back to the Springfield area. That work led to a bipartisan measure to return
them back to the capital city.
“We
don’t want to uproot anyone currently,” Jimenez said. “This is going forward.
So what the agencies will do is evaluate those jobs and if there isn’t a particular
reason it needs to be in a different part of the state, then it needs to be in
Sangamon County.”
Jimenez
said locating more employees centrally could save state taxpayers tens of
millions of dollars in travel.
“So
there needs to be some travel, but the total travel we saw over a five-year
period was $126 million,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez
said some state travel is necessary, but the measure Gov. Bruce Rauner signed
Thursday should help cut that down.
Springfield
Mayor Jim Langfelder said the move was a tough political position for some but
in the end he hopes the move reverses a trend the city has suffered for years
“With
downtown Springfield, people comment about the vacancies and that was all
caused by the exodus of state government, plus the downturn of the economy,”
Langfelder said.
Rauner
said there will be economic benefits for the capital region by bringing back
“highly productive” state government professionals with good incomes.
“They’re
going to be homeowners and renters and participants in the economy here, of
goods and services and this brings in significant new revenue,” Rauner said.
He also
said with the lower cost of living, tax dollars on state government salaries
will go much further.
The
measure exempts state employees who work for the constitutional office holders.
A couple of local elected officials are leaving their posts
to move out of state, fed up with rising property taxes.
In the far northwest suburbs, Lakewood Village President
Paul Serwatka plans to resign this summer when he moves to Alabama. He said his
new home in Huntsville sits on more than 10 times the land that his home in
Illinois does and costs a fraction in property taxes.
In his short time as village president, he said he worked to
lower the tax burden for residents of Lakewood, a village of about 4,000 people
in McHenry County. He succeeded in reducing the village’s property tax levy by
10 percent, but he said many residents came to him with higher tax bills than
the year before because the other taxing bodies raised their levies, pushing
overall property tax bills up.
“I felt like I could fight this thing for another 20 years,
but do I really believe at the end that we’re going to save Illinois?” he said.
“I just don’t believe it.”
Serwatka faced criticism from residents and other members of
the Lakewood Village Board. The local newspaper called for his immediate
resignation.
He said he wishes he could have done more, but said he had
to take his family into account.
“By the time our kids are in college, a good portion of
their college tuition will be sitting there waiting for them just by the
difference in property taxes,” he said.
McHenry County College trustee Chris Jenner was laid off
from his day job in 2016. Already dealing with his wife’s illness, he resigned
late last year and moved to Fort Myers, Florida. He was frustrated that he
couldn’t lower taxes for residents that saw property taxes soar.
“Why give all this money to the government instead of saving
it for your own retirement?” he asked.
Jenner lost tens of thousands of dollars on his home after a
tepid response to paying market value in such a high-tax area.
“We had to lower the asking price by more than $70,000
before we got a single offer,” he said. “It was an absolute nightmare.”
Both he and Serwatka said many homeowners that would want to
leave the state were in a situation where their mortgage was worth more than
the value of their house, commonly known as underwater.
Then-state Rep. Pam Roth, R-Morris, resigned her seat in
2013 to move to Texas with her family. In an interview with Illinois News
Network, Roth talked about the differences between the states.
“I’m amazed by how prosperous it is down here," she
said. "Everywhere you look, there are cranes and buildings going up. This
is very much what happens when you live in a business-friendly state with low
Tags
Paul SerwatkaCommerceFinanceEconomicsStateChris JennerPoliticianPam RothPoliticsProperty TaxIllinoisLevyResident
JOLIET, IL - In a dramatic turn of events in Will County Courtroom 405, Judge Dave Carlson abruptly announced on Friday afternoon he was not ready to sentence a Joliet man who gave the police a detailed confession to committing multiple rapes along the I&M Canal trail near Route 6. The judge was just minutes away from issuing the sentence for Joliet resident Miguel Luna when he announced that he was not really sure who the confessed rapist was. Carlson, sounding perturbed, called for a five-minute courtroom recess. When he returned to the bench, the judge announced that the sentencing was being postponed until 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20.
Raising his voice at times, Carlson told his fourth-floor courtroom that the pre-sentence investigation for Luna indicated that the defendant should have been deported from the United States on March 1, 2012. Carlson also read into the courtroom record the ICE fugitive number for the man believed to be Luna, who is now 37.
The rapes committed by the defendant occurred in 2015 and 2016.
In preparation for sentencing, the probation department uncovered at least three known aliases that the confessed rapist has commonly used over the years, the judge revealed.
File Image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor
Luna has also been going by the names of Francisco Deluna,Pedro Flores and Enrique Zanchez, Carlson announced. The judge made this revelation just moments after the attorneys for the prosecution and the defendant were debating in court whether the defendant's name of Miguel C. Luna was really perhaps Miguel Luna Castaneda.
On Friday, the prosecution and the defense lawyer were trying to sort out whether Castaneda was his real last name and whether Luna might be his middle name. No one in the courtroom seemed to know.
"We are going to find out who this person is who pled guilty to these offenses," Carlson told everyone. "I just want to find out who the gentleman is sitting to your right," he told defense attorney Marzell Richardson of the Mitchell Law Group. The defendant was seated in the courtroom Friday afternoon wearing a red Will County jail jumpsuit, flanked by his lawyer and a Spanish speaking interpreter.
Between 2 and 3 p.m., Will County prosecutors played several excerpts from a long videotape interview where Luna gave a detailed confession to one of his rapes on the I&M Canal trail. The crime occurred near Route 6 and Brandon Road, just outside Joliet.
When Luna attacked his first victim on Sept. 6, 2015, he jumped off a bike, tackled the woman from behind, dragged her into the woods and tied her up.
The videotape showed Luna talking in English with the Illinois State Police about how he was constantly being tempted by the forces of evil. He told the police that he knew from reading the Bible that his actions were sinful and displeasing to God.
He told the investigators how he rode his bicycle to the I&M trail, and that when he came upon a hill, he saw an attractive young woman in "sexy short shorts" out for a jog.
"I don't want to defend myself," Luna told the two veteran investigators, a man and a woman who were questioning him back in 2016. "I just want to make justice in this case. But, yeah, she was running down the hill. I was just pedaling my bike, and once I saw (sic) I stopped. I let things came into my mind.
"I saw her, and she was wearing those sexy shorts; you understand?" Luna asked the male detective.
Luna told the investigators that the demons and demonic forces were tempting him and tempting him.
He started racing on his bicycle, faster and faster, toward the young woman. She was a college student and a stranger.
"I jumped off (the) bike and tackled her," Luna told the detectives. "I told her to shut up ... I punched her. I told her to shut up, and she was trying to scream. I punch (sic) her one time in face, and she stopped."
Terrified, the woman being attacked kept asking Luna whether he intended to kill her. He was wearing dark sunglasses to conceal his identity.
"I told her, I'm not going to kill you, but I have a knife, and if you do something wrong ... I wanted to scare her."
He told the State Police that the sexual assault lasted about an hour, and took place in a wooded area near the trail.
"When I started doing the bad things to her, I started to feel the pain" in my arm, he told the police.
When the police asked him why the rape lasted an hour, Luna explained that "since I got to this country, they didn't let me do as much as I wanted," referring to the women he had met and pursued romantically.
As for the young woman he raped along the canal trail, "I was not trying to hurt her," he told the police.
"You just wanted to have sex with her?" one of the investigators asked.
"Yeah," Luna agreed.
Luna told the police that he hid his still-tied-up victim's clothes over near a tree about 10 to 15 feet away from the attack. He wanted to give himself more time to make a safe getaway. After riding his bicycle back toward Route 6 and Brandon Road, he told the police he then saw another young woman out jogging alone.
"I saw another girl, she was heading to Route 6. She was hotter ... I say, 'I don't have to do this.' A lot of things went through my mind."
After he finished with his confession, the female investigator from the Illinois State Police calmly asked him, "Is there anything else you want to tell us, Miguel?"
He paused for at least 15 seconds.
Then he said, "I want to say that I deserve the time that you guys, that you're going to put me in jail ... I know I've done many wrong things ... I'm going to ask God for forgiveness. I hope he forgives me after what I did to this girl."
Luna faces between 32 and 80 years in prison, when he is sentenced on Monday afternoon.
Back in May, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgowissued a press release announcing that Luna had pleaded guilty to the violent rapes in the Joliet area. "Miguel Luna is in this country illegally. This ruthlessly violent sexual predator should never have had the opportunity to brutally prey upon these innocent young women," Glasgow declared.
Prosecutors say that Luna committed a total of three rapes, but under his plea agreement in May, the charges in his third rape case were dropped. The victim of that crime had recently died, officials said.
A Will County judge on Friday delayed sentencing for a confessed serial rapist amid last-minute questions about the undocumented immigrant’s identity.
Judge David Carlson directed prosecutors to consult with the Will County Probation Department to determine alleged aliases for defendant Miguel C. Luna, 37, of Joliet.
“I want to know who that person is,” Carlson told prosecutors. “Find out how they ascertained who that person is and who pled guilty to these offenses.”
Luna pleaded guilty in May to multiple counts of felony criminal sexual assaults of women on or near the I&M Canal State Trail. In videotaped interviews with investigators played in court, Luna confessed to raping three women in 2015 and 2016 near Rockdale and Channahon.
One of the women has since died. The other two read victim-impact statements in court on July 31 when the sentencing hearing began. Luna faces 32 to 80 years in prison for 12 counts related to the violent sexual assaults of the two surviving women.
Carlson directed prosecutors to clear up questions about Luna’s identity before the sentencing hearing resumes on Monday.
“On Monday afternoon we’ll finish this up, or maybe we won’t,” Carlson said.
Carlson was set to hear arguments prior to handing down the sentence Friday when Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Fillipitch and defense attorney Marzell Richardson told the judge a pre-sentence investigation report revealed discrepancies about Luna’s identity.
Luna’s middle initial stands for Castaneda, which is his actual last name, Richardson said in court.
Carlson then read from the pre-sentence investigative report and said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assigned Luna a fugitive deportation number on March 1, 2012.
“He should have been deported in 2012, according to the PSI,” Carlson said. “Now there are questions about who he is.”
Will County court records show 36 different charges between 2001 and 2015 related to a Miguel Luna listed with dates of birth as May 5, 1981 or May 6, 1981. All the charges were for nonviolent, driving-related offenses.
Carlson said the PSI report showed Luna allegedly also may have used the aliases Francisco J. Deluna, Pedro Flores and Enrico Zanchez.
The judge said he could resolve the discrepancies by amending court documents with the “also known as” aliases allegedly used by Luna, but he wanted someone from the probation department to explain the report’s findings to the court.
Prosecutors have cited Luna’s immigration status in statements about the case.
“Miguel Luna is in this country illegally,” State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow said in a statement when Luna pleaded guilty in May. “This ruthlessly violent sexual predator should never have had the opportunity to brutally prey upon these innocent young women.”
On Friday, prosecutors concluded presenting evidence in the sentencing hearing. They played in court about 20 additional minutes of a videotaped confession Luna gave to investigators in May 2016. On July 31, about 90 minutes of the confession was played in court.
The tape showed Luna telling investigators he was worried about how God would judge him for his actions.
“I know I’ve done wrong things,” Luna said in the interview. “I don’t care what happens to me in this world. I don’t want to go to hell. I’m going to ask God for forgiveness.”
Richardson presented Carlson with two letters on behalf of Luna’s defense. A former coworker of Luna’s wrote one of the letters and the pastor of a church Luna attended wrote the other, Richardson said.
On July 31, Richardson presented Carlson with other evidence that indicated mitigating factors for consideration of leniency in sentencing.
The documents submitted are impounded, according to court records. But Richardson said in court on July 31 that Luna was sexually abused as a boy and also witnessed the rapes of his mother and two young sisters.
Luna is being held at the Will County Adult Detention Facility and has appeared in court wearing a red jail jumpsuit indicating he is being kept in the jail’s medical unit.
“Is there anything about your current condition that would cause you to not understand what is going on here today?” Carlson asked Luna at the start of Friday’s hearing.
“No,” Luna responded, through a Spanish language interpreter.
The 12 counts listed in the court file include multiple counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon, causing bodily harm and using force. He also was charged with one count of unlawful restraint.
In testimony, the three women said their hands and feet were bound with articles of clothing during the sexual assaults and that they were punched and beaten during the attacks.
(Natural News) If you’re concerned about a heart attack, there are lots of steps you might take to reduce your risk. Perhaps you’re already exercising and eating a healthy diet, but you’d like to give your efforts that extra edge. Before your doctor convinces you to start taking a long-term regimen of risky medications that may or may not actually be effective, why not turn to nature for an alternative that is as delicious as it is powerful?
A study carried out by researchers from Harvard Medical School revealed just how much two particular berries can help reduce a person’s risk of heart attack: strawberries and blueberries. They looked at health data from more than 93,000 women aged 25 to 42 who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, which included information about their diet and health over the course of 18 years.
They discovered that the women who ate the fewest blueberries and strawberries had the highest risk of having a heart attack, while those who ate the most of these berries were 34 percent less likely to have a heart attack. Consuming the berries regularly brought about the positive health benefits, and those with the healthiest hearts tended to eat at least three cups per week of the two fruits combined, on average.
These benefits came about regardless of other risk factors like alcohol intake, smoking, exercise, family history of heart attack, age and high blood pressure, which means you can increase your risk even further by combining a boost in your berry intake with other healthy changes.
It is believed that their power comes from their high content of the flavonoids known as anthocyanins. These antioxidants can lower blood pressure and increase the flexibility of blood vessels.
Should you run out and buy supplements that contain these flavonoids? The scientists say no; they work best when you get them from the whole foods themselves, and organic varieties will give you more nutrients without the pesticide risk.
This is excellent news for people with heart concerns because berries are so easy to incorporate into your diet. Of course, a commercial blueberry pie isn’t going to do your heart any favors with its trans fats and high sugar content, but thankfully berries work so well with a number of healthy dishes.
For example, you can get your daily dose at breakfast by mixing some berries into your organic oatmeal or yogurt – be sure you sweeten it yourself with a bit of organic honey rather than buying the sugar-laden prepared varieties. You can work berries into your lunch or dinner by adding them to a salad; they pair extremely well with leafy greens like spinach, and you can make your own quick dressing with balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil to enhance their flavor and consume some heart-healthy fats. If you’re not inclined to cook, you can munch on a handful of berries as an easy snack at any hour.
Benefits of berry consumption extend beyond your heart
There are plenty of benefits to be gained by eating more berries, and they extend far beyond your heart. For example, regular blueberry consumption has been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, and urinary tract infections, while strawberries have been found to support the brain, eyes, muscles, joints, and immune system.
Read Fruits.news for more coverage of the healing properties of raw fruits.
The political philosophy of democratic socialism is ascendant in the Democrat Party, even though no one seems to know what it is or be able to explain it beyond "free stuff."
As Senator Bernie Sanders challenged the witch from Chappaqua for the Democrat nomination in 2015, some media outlets sought to get an explanation of social democracy or democratic socialism from him. His explanation fell short, according some political science professors.
"When you call your fire department or the police department, what do you think you're calling?" Sanders babbled to the crowd in one of his stump speeches. "These are socialist institutions."
"If he were to write this on an exam for me? That's an F," Andrei Markovits, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, said.
Nor is the latest darling of the movement, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez any better at telling us what she believes beyond basic platitudes of "free stuff" for everyone. When asked by "The View's" Meghan McCain whether the future of the Democrat Party is socialism, Ocasio-Cortez responded:
First of all, there's a huge difference between socialism and Democratic socialism. Democratic socialism, and really what that boils down to me, is the basic belief that I believe that in a moral and wealthy America and a moral and modern America, no person should be too poor to live in this country.
That vacuous response is all it took for the biddies in the audience to erupt in cheers and applause worthy a sport team's championship victory. And perhaps that's what it is, because there is no substance at all to what she said... it's all bread and circus.
No less than the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, called Ocasio-Cortez the "future of our party." And Sanders insists Democrats can't win 2018 midterms without him and a push for "universal health care, tuition-free public college, [and] a $15-an-hour minimum wage."
So what is democratic socialism? Samuel Goldman, an assistant professor of political science at George Washington University says it is "achieving collective control of the economy."
The previously-mentioned Professor Markovits said democratic socialism is an attempt to create, "a property–free, socialist society."
Making the rounds on social media is a meme that purports to explain it that seems to coincide with Goldman's and Markovits' description:
A Democratic Socialist is not a Marxist Socialist or a Communist. A Democratic Socialist is one who seeks to restrain the self-destructive excess of capitalism and channel the Government's use of our tax money into creating opportunities for everyone.
Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically – to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.
A Democratic Socialist does not want to destroy private corporations but does want to bring them under greater democratic control. The government could use regulations and tax incentives to encourage companies to act in the public interest and outlaw destructive activities such as exporting jobs to low-wage countries and polluting our environment. Most of all, socialists look to unions to make private business more accountable.
Perhaps someone should send this meme to Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders. At least they wouldn't sound like blithering idiots when pressed to describe their belief system.
Now when we look closely we see that democratic socialism is nothing new after all. It's merely an old system with a new name. It's the addition of the code word "democratic" to the old system of collectivism – previously called national socialism (Nazism), communism and Marxism – in order to put lipstick on a pig.
But even this is not new. Hitler referred to his National Socialism as "the great democracy." Nazism or National Socialism was only a generic form of collectivism exactly as Italian Fascism, Russian Communism or American democracy.
What's that you say Bob? That's right, both socialism and democracy are anathema to human liberty. Democracy is an esoteric belief system that manipulates the people in such a way that all power flows to the state. As with pure dictatorships, power flows from the top down.
Democracy implies freedom in the public's mind while power and wealth is constantly channeled to the federal government. Human liberty is regressively crushed under the one simple word, "democracy."
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and their ilk see their fight as one between capitalism and something else, with their something else being a form of mob rule collectivism. They falsely believe – or at least claim to believe -- that America is a capitalist society. It's not, and hasn't been for 150-plus years.
Capitalism is a social system in which an individual's rights, including his rights to own property, are recognized and all property is privately owned. In a capitalistic society, governments acknowledge that individuals and companies can and should compete for their own economic gain, and the prices of goods and services are determined by the free market. The role of government in capitalistic societies is to ensure that markets function without interference and to protect individuals from fraud and/or the use of physical force by others.
What we have is crony capitalism or corporatism, which is a form of fascism. It's a marriage of business and government that involves government passing legislation and enabling federal alphabet soup regulatory agencies to create rules favorable to certain businesses and unfavorable to others. Congressweasels pass tax laws to encourage and discourage behaviors – exactly what democratic socialists are advocating.
Like all statists, democratic socialists want to grow government to solve a problem created by government, and to do so under cover of mob rule (the vote).
Socialism is a philosophy of envy. When one sees something another has and decides he wants it, rather than earn it on his own merits he wants the power of government to take it and either give it to him or redistribute it to the masses. Often the socialist doesn't want that something for himself as much as he doesn't want someone else to have it.
Socialism is also a philosophy of racism, weakness, ineptitude and collectivism in that it assumes one gained what he has by way of special privilege not afforded everyone if they are of a different race or creed or social standing; and that one cannot obtain a thing or advance economically without the assistance of government or the collective.
Manipulating minorities who are naturally drawn to socialism is a basic political strategy to justify government politics and plunder.
Who are minorities? They are, of course, the racial minorities. But there are a whole lot more than that. There are homosexual minorities, feminine minorities, so-called "civil rights" minorities, cultural minorities and all the minorities that make up the "diversity" of the nation.
Democratic socialism is a disguised system of stealing the wealth and production of the producers of wealth with spurious laws under the legitimacy of the vote. Stealing or taking from producers and transferring it to nonproducers is very sophisticated and concealed class warfare.
Democratic socialism is anathema to human liberty and is a concealed form of slavery.
However, it's naïve and wholly inaccurate to ascribe this philosophy only to Democrats. Almost all politicians, Democrat and Republican, embrace socialism in many forms.
Always remember: The government has nothing good or nice to give to you. The government is in the business of shrinking freedom (and wealth), not expanding it.
Socialism is by no means limited to a political system. The definition of socialism under any masquerade is the pseudo-morality of groupism over the individual.
All political power is derived from this. This definition must be understood.
Immigration is an overwhelming problem, the government and media insist, particularly at the southern border and especially when the newcomers don't first ask a bureaucrat's permission to enter the land of the free.
Most Americans agree. And all "solutions" inevitably call for more laws, more regulations and enforcement, more gargantuan bureaucracies — in short, more government. (Could that coincidence explain the harping on this topic?)
But so far, few folks have investigated a question fundamental to fixing what's wrong: the cause. Why are crowds on the move flocking to the U.S.?
"Because," smug nationalists say, "we're the best country on earth!"
Without doubt, we once were. And our founding philosophy of liberty is not only earth's best but history's as well. Yet we've strayed further from those ideals than a shack in Mexico is from Trump Tower.
"We're still better than whatever hellhole the illegals come from," smirks our nationalist.
Especially when the U.S. has bombed, meddled with, imposed police-states on, and starved those hellholes. For more than a century, American governments and their corporate cronies have abused nations in Central America (and elsewhere) as though they were vassals rather than sovereign. And the refugees that result seek safety, food, and peace in the very country that destroyed those blessings for them, ironically enough.
Predictably, the American right excoriated this "invasion." But they should have instead damned their own State Department.
Why? Because about 80% of these folks hailed from Honduras. And the U.S. State Department has wasted not only billions of our taxes but decades on rendering that country uninhabitable: "...the foreign policy disaster [of] American support for the Porfirio Lobo administration in Honduras ... Ever since the June 28, 2009, coup that deposed Honduras's democratically elected president, José Manuel Zelaya, the country has been descending deeper into a human rights and security abyss. That abyss is in good part the State Department's making. … [Honduras] now has the world's highest murder rate … corruption [has] mushroom[ed]. The judicial system hardly functions. … At least 34 members of the opposition have disappeared or been killed, and more than 300 people have been killed by state security forces since the coup …"
The catalog of crimes continues, through Obummer's praising a drug trafficker at the White House, increased financing (read: more of our taxes) for Honduras' police state, and other horrors. (I've drawn this portrait from one source, but I invite you to read a variety of reports about the Feds' malice towards Honduras.)
Why the State Department's fixation on this little nation? Because it's "crucial to the United States' military strategy in Latin America." In other words, the Feds recognize no limits — not life, liberty, law, or morals — when advancing their agenda to dominate the planet.
Let's suppose for a moment that Honduras and the U.S. were to change positions, that the evil our government has wreaked, Honduras had instead visited on us — all while Honduras itself remained relatively peaceful and prosperous. Would you try to escape such an American nightmare? Would you desperately flee to Honduras with your vulnerable children? What if the natives ridiculed your longing for peace and protection? What if they mounted armed guards on their borders — these voters and taxpayers who permitted their politicians to ravage your home?
We find the same sorry tale when we turn to another Central American country disgorging refugees on us: "The CIA has a long history of involvement in Guatemala, having helped to orchestrate the army's overthrow of a democratically elected government in 1954. … As the Cold War raged in the 1960s and '70s, the United States gave the Guatemalan military $33 million in aid even though U.S. officials were aware of the army's dismal track record on human rights, the documents show."
When the American public learned of that gift, "U.S. President Jimmy Carter cut off overt military aid. However, money and arms still got ... there —through the CIA. When [Guatemalan] President Lucas Garcia began his fearsome regime in 1978, ...when death squads roamed the land and murdered at will, the CIA was there to help. … Near the end of the Reagan administration, another technique for repression was used — the war on drugs. While the program had no significant impact on drug production and trafficking, it had serious consequences for indigenous Guatemalans. The spraying of lethal herbicides by anti-drug helicopters and planes caused widespread damage, poisoning large numbers of people, animals, fish, and plants. To escape government violence, some of the tens-of-thousands of indigenous internal refugees in Guatemala at that time, banded together in remote areas. In the name of its anti-drug policy, the government bombed these areas, captured much of the population, and tortured and killed many of them."
Again, I Invite you to study the U.S.'s crimes in Guatemala. And if Guatemala's position in the world were switched with ours, if a secret Guatemalan bureaucracy had sowed the havoc here that the CIA did there, so that your friends "disappeared" and your children's future was sketchy at best, would you seek safety elsewhere?
Tragically, we could continue our survey with just about any region that's vomiting its residents onto our shores. The history of the U.S.'s malevolence abroad eternally shames us.
Which makes ending the influx simple: abolish the CIA, the State Department and all other bureaucracies responsible for these atrocities. Forbid the Feds from implementing any "foreign policy," and force them to abide by the Constitution's constraints.
But no politician and mighty few of their constituents would ever agree to such a reduction in American power. They prefer to continue creating refugees —and then deny them succor.
How long before a heavenly Judge redresses this wickedness?
