Following Up: The Establishment’s Pro-Mass Immigration Bias Goes On and On and…

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crime, deportations, drunk driving, Ed O'Keefe, Following Up, ICE, illegal immigration, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Maria Sacchetti, The Washington Post

Last Thursday, I wrote about how a combination of Trump Derangement Syndrome and a determination to uphold America’s current mass immigration policies had apparently driven no less than the U.S. Supreme Court to equate committing war crimes with speeding tickets. Two days ago, the Washington Post made appallingly clear that its hard news staff, including its editors, also ranks mass immigration – in this case, illegal immigration – uber alles. Specifically, in an article purporting to show how unreasonable the Trump administration’s deportation policies have been, the paper decided that drunk driving should not be considered a serious crime.

The article’s tone was set by the headline: “ICE data shows half of immigrants arrested in raids had traffic convictions or no record.” And in case you doubt that the piece’s aim was to demonstrate that President Trump’s policies are squandering precious immigration enforcement funds on residents of the country who are clearly no danger to their communities, here’s the lead written by reporters Maria Sacchetti and Ed O’Keefe:

“About half of the 675 immigrants picked up in roundups across the United States in the days after President Trump took office either had no criminal convictions or had committed traffic offenses, mostly drunken driving, as their most serious crimes, according to data obtained by The Washington Post.”

Obviously disgraceful, right? Except the Post account could only get even close to this conclusion by belittling the importance of drunk driving. Here’s how. The article analyzes the backgrounds of immigrants rounded up in early February by agents from regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York, and contends that the records reveal 139 to have been convicted of assault or involvement with “dangerous drugs.” That’s over 20 percent of the total. Only about 26 percent of those rounded up (177 individuals) had no criminal convictions on their record, though 66 of them (more than 37 percent) had charges pending (“largely immigration or traffic offenses).

Sacchetti and O’Keefe went on to write that “The largest single group — 163 [were] immigrants convicted of traffic offenses….” Kind of trifling, right? We all speed or something to that effect now and then. But it turns out that more than 90 percent of these traffic convictions were for drunk driving – which outside the Mainstream Media is surely and rightly viewed as anything but trifling.

In fact, just to remind, during the last full year for which data is available (2015), 10,265 Americans died in “alcohol-impaired crashes” – 300 more than in 2014. And from what we already know, 2016 will see an even higher toll.

So of the 675 immigrant pickups analyzed by the Post, it looks like 139 were convicted for crimes that even the Post evidently considers serious, and at least 147 (90 percent of 163) were drunk drivers. So more than 42 percent had been convicted of crimes that any thinking person would consider serious. And then there were 66 more currently being charged with “traffic offenses” (mainly drunk driving?) or immigration offenses (which could well include such unmistakably serious matters as reentering the United States after being deported or lying on an immigration form).

If only half of the 66 belong in the serious crime category (which seems to be low-balling the issue, based on the other data we have), then more than 47 percent of the pickups looked at by the Post were, by any reasonable standard, menaces to public safety.

But the article’s original claim indicates that this number is actually much higher. After all, Sacchetti and O’Keefe contend that “About half of the 675 immigrants picked up in roundups across the United States in the days after President Trump took office either had no criminal convictions or had committed traffic offenses, mostly drunken driving, as their most serious crimes….”

In other words, a substantial share of the immigrants picked up could have been convicted of crimes perhaps less serious than drunk driving, homicide, assault, or dangerous drug involvement, but still legitimately seen as major offenses. Unfortunately, the piece itself was so poorly written (and edited) that it’s simply not possible to tell. But in a tweet on the article, the Post itself cleared up the mystery, stating that the share of the 675 pickups with no criminal convictions at all was only about 25 percent.

So it’s plain as day that this article’s real message is that the great majority of the individuals being picked up by the Trump administration have taken or endangered American lives, and would remain in positions to do so without federal intervention. The rest, even if they’re simply “undocumented,” have violated the nation’s laws. And that’s a record to condemn?

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Im-Politic: The Culture of Failure in Washington

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2016 election, accountability, Beltway, campaign finance reform, D.C., Donald Trump, Ed O'Keefe, Im-Politic, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Jeb Bush, Katie Packer Gage, Marlene Ricketts, Mike Murphy, The Washington Post, Washington

I’ve always loved “Failing your way to the top” as a way to describe how the world of Washington’s intertwined political, policy, and media classes works. Not coincidentally, endless examples of handsomely rewarded incompetence no doubt feed Main Street USA’ strong belief that much of American life is rigged against it. So it’s more than fitting that the last three days alone have provided three more major instances of career Washingtonians getting major issues massively wrong – and surely in no danger of facing any adverse consequences.

The first comes from the Washington Post‘s new first cut at a post-mortem on former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s spectacular flame-out of a presidential campaign. Many lavishly paid political consultants and fund-raisers must deserve considerable blame, but no one’s been a bigger lightning rod for criticism than Mike Murphy. The veteran Republican operative directed Bush’s Right to Rise “Super-Pac” (political action committee), and therefore reportedly made many of the key tactical mistakes that ultimately doomed Bush.

Post reporter Ed O’Keefe’s account of the disaster is worth your while, so I won’t list all the revealing anecdotes here. But one that’s worth spotlighting is Murphy’s admission that he didn’t detect the huge “anti-establishment wave” that has been sweeping over the American electorate. In fairness to Murphy, this widespread anger probably doomed Bush’s candidacy from the start. At the same time, consultants like Murphy are paid the big bucks (reportedly $14 million) to know this – or figure it out – and develop responses that don’t repeatedly keep flopping – and laughably.

In fact, where’s this guy been for most of the last two years? Prowling the toney haunts of megabucks donors hungrily eyeing their wallets? (Actually, O’Keefe’s article indicates that’s exactly where he’s been.)

So on the one hand, it will be interesting to see how long it’s going to take Murphy to get his next contract. On the other, as one wag on Twitter cracked, given his reported payday, he may not need one. The more so since just a few years earlier, Murphy also cashed in big by steering eBay founder Meg Whitman’s $177 million campaign for governor of California to defeat at the hands of Jerry Brown.

Another long-time Beltway denizen who could well keep failing her way to the top is Katie Packer Gage. Her latest claim to fame is convincing the uber-wealthy Ricketts family, which founded finance giant TD Ameritrade and owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team, to spend $3 million to fund a Super-Pac she created to take down GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Kudos to Packer Gage for raising these funds – especially since her previous major experience in national politics was advising 2012 Republican presidential loser Mitt Romney. Or maybe the Ricketts were simply chumps. Earlier this political cycle, Marlene Ricketts shelled out several million dollars to finance the (quickly) failed presidential run of Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker.

But I’m still not convinced that other likely Packer Gage prospects will wise up. Because like Murphy, she’s plugged into the Republican half of the Beltway Establishment, and will always get glowing references from colleagues in this anti-Meritocracy – for their careers also depend on their skill at covering up or, more commonly, spinning away abject failure.  

Our final example of certain-to-be-rewarded Washington incompetence comes from the supposedly apolitical world of the International Monetary Fund. Among the IMF’s functions is tracking major trends in the world economy, and to this end the Fund puts out a veritable torrent of studies and forecasts. Now I’d be the first person to acknowledge how tough it is to predict the courses of the U.S. economy, any other national economy, or the global economy. That’s largely why I shy away from predictions. But presumably, the legions of economists at the IMF have gotten their jobs because they’re good at what they do. I’ve certainly been a frequent user of their material.

But the latest annual report of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which gives a U.S. Administration’s official take on the state of the American economy and where it’s heading, contained this startling chart, which will make me think twice about citing the IMF’s projections. It clearly shows that for at least four years, the Fund’s best economic brains have consistently – and whoppingly – overestimated global growth:

Which raises the questions: Have any of the Fund economists behind these blunders been cashiered? Are they likely to be? Have any such professional staff paid any price for any comparable goofs?

Again, no one should expect political consultants to win every election, or economists to possess perfectly clear crystal balls. But no successful system of anything can last without at least to levy major punishment for instances of major ineptitude. Wondering why Washington politics and policy have become so close to dysfunctional? The capital’s conspicuous accountability shortage is a great place to start.   

 

Im-Politic: Washington Week (Unwittingly) Nails it on Anti-Terror Strategy

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ABC News, Alexis Simendinger, border security, Ed O'Keefe, Gwen Ifill, Im-Politic, ISIS, Mainstream Media, Middle East, Paris attacks, PBS, polls, public opinion, RealClearPolitics.com, refugees, terrorism, Washington Post, Washington Week in Review

Let’s hear it for Washington Week in Review! Seriously! Like most news talk shows, it’s usually only useful for conveniently summarizing the Mainstream Media conventional wisdom on current events at home and abroad. But it’s latest broadcast shed important light (albeit unwittingly) on a major and positive development in American public opinion on dealing with the threat of ISIS terrorism.

A principal theme of this latest PBS show was the alleged disconnect, in the wake of the latest Paris terrorist attacks, between Americans’ clearly heightened fears of terror strikes at home on the one hand, and on the other their apparent view that limiting Middle East refugee admissions is a better response than crushing ISIS militarily with American forces.

As Washington Week anchor Gwen Ifill indicated, she was “surprised” that the political flashpoint created by these latest terror strikes “did not turn, as it has in the past, on questions of war and retaliation but, as we’ve been discussing, on whether refugees from the fighting in Syria should be allowed into the U.S.”

Similarly, The Washington Post‘s Ed O’Keefe agreed with Ifill that it was “incredible” that new poll findings released by his paper and ABC News indicated continued public reluctance to send large numbers of American ground troops to the Middle East to fight the ISIS organization that claimed responsibility for Paris – just as other polls revealed majority opposition to those refugee admissions.

And according to RealClearPolitics.com’s Alexis Simendinger, these results showed a lack of consensus among Americans who she described as “all over the map” on these issues and in fact (understandably, of course) “confused.”

In fact, as is so often (and seemingly increasingly) the case, the public here looks to be way ahead of its leaders – and much wiser. For these poll results are completely consistent with my oft-stated view that the best way to deal with the threat posed by ISIS is not to seek its decisive defeat on the battlefield – since the Muslim-Arab world’s culture and society are so terminally ill that a powerful ISIS successor is bound to appear eventually. Instead, as the poll indicates, the public understands that America’s anti-terrorism efforts are best focused on what the government can plausibly hope to control much more effectively – its own borders and their continued excessive porousness.

There’s an obvious way to fill this gap in the analysis offered by Washington Week and its counterparts: Include a typical Main Street American in the discussions. Ratings could well soar. And just as important, their supposed experts might actually learn something worth knowing.