Sound off on whatever topic appeals to you. Try not to scare the children.
Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.
A Few Thoughts
VDH – Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson announced on his popular podcast that he will have a major medical operation this week. His show will continue with co-host Jack Fowler as Hanson recovers.
Debanking
Sen. Tom Cotton calls on the U.S. Treasury to debank illegal migrants — a move supporters say could rapidly shrink the illegal population at minimal cost to taxpayers. Sen. Cotton argues that the fastest and most efficient way to remove an estimated 15 million illegal migrants isn’t mass roundups or costly raids — it’s cutting off access to the U.S. banking system.
Experts say denying banking access would severely limit the ability to work, rent housing, receive paychecks, take out loans, or send money abroad — prompting large-scale self-deportation without physical enforcement. Supporters call it a low-friction, humane enforcement tool that uses systems already in place. Critics are asking the obvious question: Why are people in the country illegally able to obtain bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards, business loans, and car loans in the first place?
During the Obama-era Operation Choke Point, the DOJ pressured banks to cut ties with “high-risk” but legal industries — effectively starving them of capital. Conservatives argue this proves the federal government knows how to weaponize banking regulations — but often targets law-abiding Americans instead of illegal migrants.
More than $100 BILLION is sent out of the U.S. each year through remittances by migrants (including illegal migrants), draining capital from American communities. In Minnesota alone, billions are sent annually to Somalia.
Debanking would:
• Flag and close accounts tied to people without legal status
• Disrupt payroll deposits and remittances
• Prevent economic integration outside the law
• Encourage voluntary departure without force
In his letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Cotton wrote: “Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty.” He urged Treasury to review rules that allow banks to accept foreign IDs — such as Matricula cards — without verifying immigration status, and to explore using authorities under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. “Our immigration laws exist to protect American workers, ensure national security, and maintain our sovereignty,” Cotton wrote, adding that financial regulations should not undermine those goals. Supporters say this proposal aligns directly with President Trump’s promise to end illegal immigration — by enforcing the law, not ignoring it.
In Iraq
The new Iraqi Parliament elected Progress Party parliamentarian Haibat al Halbousi as parliament speaker on December 29. Haibat al Halbousi is the cousin of former Parliament Speaker and Progress Party head Mohammad al Halbousi, which indicates that Mohammad al Halbousi likely negotiated a deal with Iranian-backed Iraqi actors to support Haibat’s election. Iranian-backed Iraqi actors will likely use Parliament’s election of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia-linked deputy parliament speaker to further their control of the Iraqi Parliament.
The more I read about Tom Cotton the more my respect for him grows.
I’ve always thought he was solid.
The federal government has every bit of collectable information regarding all facets of my life they could possibly need to implement Sen Cotton’s proposal. All of this information has been gleaned from birth records, DOD and Dept. of State records, IRS records, State of Texas records, banking records, and the list goes on and on. But, I’ll guarantee if Sen. Cotton’s proposal is enacted by legislation, each and every one of us natural born and naturalized citizens will be required to supply a large portion of the same information currently on file in a format that doesn’t exist today. Generation of government paperwork begets additional paperwork throughout the entire system.
It has to be enforced across the board, legal or illegal. But the Deep State won’t. Just look at all the people in DC who got jammed up for being there on 1-6-21 vs how the FBI knew the pipe bomber’s identity almost immediately but….
The other part of driving illegals out is to cut off the retail money transfer business. Roofing crews in my area all go to a money transfer business with envelopes full of cash. This money is shipped home to Mexico at little cost. Cut that system off, and together with de-banking, you’ll have largely ended the illegal alien problem.
X2 – without the use of force.
Or – even better – tax such transfers at a relatively high rate; not enough to discourage them completely, but enough to make them costly, and benefit the US at the same time. How about a tax of 33% on every dollar sent abroad? That should be a welcome boost to the US government’s income, and possibly reduce tax rates for the rest of us stiffs.
That’s a start. How about: No…as in ZERO…drivers licenses, especially CDL’s given to illegals. We moved to Montana, for our DL’s – aside from producing her still good Colorado license – we needed all manner of identification, including (proper) birth certificates, a good passport, marriage license if a name change….AND two pieces of mail to a residential address (PO Boxes do not count, even if rural post offices often use the POB as a secondary address verification). Each piece had to have our individual names, not merely Mr & Mrs. We just moved here less than two months ago…have 60 days to get a new DL. No problem. Except a residential address required actually having one in our names we could use. Didn’t know this going in. Each of us had one, but not two mailpieces. Point is, MrsPaulM needed to send herself mail at our rental with her name to qualify for a new DL. After the second rejection (very politely done) she says, “If I were here illegally….” You can guess the rest.
I propose FedGov also tax the hilt out of Sanctuary Cities and/or States for flouting Federal law. Hit ‘em hard.
God idea, Peter! Why not make it 49.9%?
Considering the open mic, the other day I stumbled across this written by William Falkner in The Reivers (+, -) 1961 (you’ll remember the Steve McQueen movie, or not): a Republican is a man who made his money; a Liberal is a man who inherited his; a Democrat is a barefooted Liberal in a cross-country race; a Conservative is a Republican who has learned to read and write.
X2. Some things never change, except now The Dem/Lefty is brazen about their insane mentality because they believe they are superior in all things…as their cities burn.
Debanking for illegals: Aside – for arguments sake – from the glaring aspect that these people broke Federal law when entering our country, a critical detail The Dems/Left conveniently look straight past that therefore gives them free reign to their emoting on the subject (some nonsense about ‘due process’), the Feds did get Al Capone on tax evasion and not murder. Money talks, and the Demented Among Us (DAU’s) will have no argument to the contrary. Break our immigration laws, WTP cut you off from ‘the system’ reserved for actual citizens. Sayonora…sucks to be you. Then again, The Dems will argue the ‘debanking’ approach is somehow theft and unfair and all their typical baloney. Pick any subject that undermines their ill-gotten voter base, as if they don’t steal from WTP at every avenue. Just recently New Jersey Senate Goofballs are now reclassifying e-bikes as ‘motor vehicles’ so they can collect registration and insurance “fees” while demanding age restrictions. Ex: Colorado yearly taxes trailers as Motor Vehicles, whereas Montana offers a lifetime registration with a smaller license plate, same one used for UTV’s so you use them on streets. The difference has always been related to who’s running things at the Capitol. But we all know Democrats are people who enjoying stealing life out of life from societies productive members….the same nudges nobody liked in Junior High because even back then they were annoying, just ‘shorter’.
***
Read a piece over at Kim du Toit’s place about paywall news outlets becoming a problem because many contributors work for multiple outlets, offering the same repackaged news stories, and how this is a bit of a slippery slope. Sure, everybody needs to put a roof over their head, but this has gotten more and more restrictive as the MSM goes off the cliff and online media takes over. News cutlets used to pay for themselves with advertising, a Kim says, that little benign ad on the newspaper sidebar one could ignore. Now it’s in-your-face popup ads that interfere with the reading experience. But many altmedia shops do not require payment, some accept donations, or a very small yearly subscription for specialty shops, like Stigall’s ‘Harrumph Society’ (similar to The Limbaugh Letter). If ‘Our Host’ decided to allow a Patreon, say, like Conservative Treehouse, I’d be first in line to donate, only fair to get paid a little something for the work involved, even if voluntary amongst the readership.
Immigration law says: first illegal entry is a misdemeanor; second illegal entry is a felony. Reentry after deportation is a felony.
So, they most assuredly are criminals.
Debanking seems like a pretty drastic way to address the problem of illegal aliens. Are you sure you want to trust the government to decide who should have all their assets frozen, bank accounts locked . . . because they (the government) have decided that their targets have done something illegal? Without due process? (Or any process at all, other than a bureaucrat’s whim.) We have the shining example of the Canadian government to show us how this can work. They arbitrarily debanked hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who had dared to protest Official Government Policy. Not just the truckers who were demonstrating by snarling traffic but also people who vocally supported them, as I understand it.
This issue is rather personal for me. I am a native-born citizen but a few years ago my life’s savings were seized by the government of a state I had lived in 25 years earlier, on the grounds that they claimed I had failed to file or pay sufficient state income taxes . . . 25 years before. There was no warning, no due process, and my bank told me there was nothing they could do. Of course I had no records going back that far and believe me, this was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. So much for the 4th Amendment.
There’s also the question of hierarchies of punishment. You’re allowed to kill a home invader on the principle that he’s a deadly threat to you and your family, but you are not entitled to set a trap that will kill an intruder when nobody’s home. Speeding is against the law but cops are not permitted to shoot motorists who are exceeding the speed limit. Similarly, we want to expel illegals but destroying their lives may not be the best way to do it.
Maybe the BRM solution of taxing remittances 33% would be a better solution?
The government has a large tool chest of options from mild to wild, and nobody wants overreach, but the illegal alien problem must be addressed.
A community in Texas passed a law preventing illegals from renting, leasing, or owning property in the city. The citizens stated it cleared them out quickly, but the Feds stepped in and the law was prevented from being enforced. That’s one of the solutions. If a renter, or hotel, faces criminal prosecution for a lack of documentation, most will follow the law and without a place to stay, the illegals will leave.
Open tool chests… Block IP addresses used in transfers, block or redirect phone numbers used, publish modem phone numbers and flood connections so lines are tied up. If fax lines are used, connect fax with circular roll of black paper to use up ink and tie up line. WTP skills without thumb on unintended citizens. Happy New Year.
Do what needs to be done to address the problem. Use the available tools, and if ‘de-banking’ is one, do it. Do not be afraid to act decisively: if someone was attacking you, would you not respond due to fear they might attack you harder?
** Why are people in the country illegally able to obtain bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards, business loans, and car loans in the first place?** Profits!
~~
** “Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty.” ** A privilege? If it’s a privilege they can take it away from anyone.
They obtain them by identity theft. Pity the poor bastard who doesn’t report that income the illegal with the fake id made on his taxes.
The measures against illegals mentioned so far only affect the supply side of the equation. We also need to move against the demand side by ruling that wages paid to illegals are not tax deductible. A first step is to apply the rule to any wages with a social security mismatch (Name not matching the SSN). Currently, employers get a letter notifying them of the mismatch problem but there is no incentive to clear the mismatch. Legal employees can do so easily, illegal, not so much. Proper enforcement of independent contractor laws follows to cut off that alternate path. If paying illegals less actually costs employers more, the demand for illegals fades.
The idea of debanking is new to me. I like it.
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Open microphone.
Data centers. What and who benefits from them? Given their huge consumption of power and water, who is paying for that?
Yes, WSF, silly question.
Gotta increase the data harvesting capacity somehow. You sure don’t think big brother is going to foot that bill?
Okay….New Topic.
I just finished reading APRICOT JAM, a short story collection by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. There are two stories which, I believe, are autobiographical: Adlig Schwenkitten and Zhelyabuga Village. Both stories involve a WW II Soviet Army formation known as a sound-ranging battery. From the description in the stories, the unit’s task was to set up 4-6 large microphones about 500 yards apart, each, in a line paralleling the front line. They were designed to listen for German artillery. The sound from the microphones was transferred via ground lines to a central station where the sound waves were printed off on a paper roll using a stylus-like pen (as a seismograph would use). By interpreting the lines drawn by the pen, the German artillery was supposed to be pinpointed for counter-battery fire. I have read a couple thousand books on military history and have never come across such a land-based system for locating enemy formations. Did anyone besides the Ruskies ever use such a system?
At least the Brits and French used that sort of system as early as WWI.
Probably others, too.
– Kle.
PS Anyone know what has happened to Western Rifle Shooters? Been missing for a week now.
Im not seeing that. I’ve read his posts for today Tuesday 12/31. He hasn’t been down as far as i know,daily read.
Just end the welfare scam.
Open microphone .
We talked a couple weeks ago about various ginger ales. I have discovered Hanks naturals Irish ginger ale. Unfortunately so many other people have that they can’t keep it on the shelf.
No high fructose corn syrup, real ginger content, cane sugar and taste real good.
I’m a big fan of Hanks Ginger Ale.
Dad’s Root Beer is made with cane sugar. Son gave us some for Christmas.
I remember my dad getting a bottling kit and bottling Dad’s root beer in our basement. Even bought a capper.
You should use the right kind of yeast. I did it once with brewer’s yeast…
Fishlaw,
WRSA loads fine for me with this: https://westernrifleshooters.online/
Juan
When I go to Western, I get
westernrifleshooters.online sent an invalid response.
ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR
Goofy computers
Fishlaw-
do you use a vpn?
or even a dvpn?
If so, for me, Singapore nd Japan are the most reliable in terms of accessing “marginalized” sites.
I wish I had more to offer.
Juan