Among those criminals were tens of thousands of convicted murderers and rapists. According to Red State:

While border czar Kamala Harris makes a much-ballyhooed campaign stop at the southern border and pretends to care about the firehose of illegals crossing into the country every day, Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld is wondering why the media isn’t covering those damning ICE statistics showing how many violent thugs have made their way across the fruited plains.

As RedState’s Sister Toldjah reported earlier Friday, ICE released some truly chilling numbers revealing that a staggering 13,099 murderers, 15,811 rapists, and 425,431 convicted criminals have been let loose into the U.S. to prey on her citizens.

But all the handshakes, back pats, and tough talk from Harris Friday on border security are likely to be overshadowed by new numbers released by ICE after a Republican Congressman’s request that detail how many non-detained convicted illegal immigrants are still roaming the United States despite having final orders for removal:

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sex offenses and homicide convictions are loose on the streets, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data provided to lawmakers this week.

The agency provided data to Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, about national data for illegal immigrants with criminal charges or convictions. The data, as of July 2024, is broken down by those in detention, and those who are not in detention — known as the non-detained docket. The non-detained docket includes illegal immigrants who have final orders of removal or are going through removal proceedings but are not detained in ICE custody. There are currently more than 7 million people on that docket.

The data says that, among those not in detention, there are 425,431 convicted criminals and 222,141 with pending criminal charges.

Gutfeld noted during Fox News’ “The Five” that this story was “so unbelievable” that he “wanted to see if it was reported elsewhere.” Unsurprisingly, he could find nary a word about what he calls “probably the biggest crime story I’ve ever seen” on the likes of CNN, ABC, and Drudge. And he had a special message for the Democrat “hate watchers” of Fox News: “The media doesn’t want you to know this information. They don’t want it to reach you. They’re rather you die or be raped than Trump be right or find out the truth.” […]

— Read More: redstate.com

That last label has been debated but the debate may be over. He recently declared that he would not use the risk shutting down the government if the border crisis wasn’t addressed. That’s not what a fighter would do, and while some would say it’s all some sort of 4D chess or something, I’m not seeing it. The most important power the House has is over the purse and if a Speaker is unwilling to use that power to solve the most pressing crisis this nation currently faces, then his chess moves are futile.

Here’s the clip in question:

As some in the House GOP threaten to halt government funding until President Biden signs their border security proposals into law, @SpeakerJohnson tells @margbrennan the government won't shut down – but his members "understand this is a critical issue." Tune in Sunday for more. pic.twitter.com/94Rf8Pu6nS

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 5, 2024

Johnson’s response was not impressive. He had an opportunity to play off Representative Chip Roy’s threat and instead he diffused it for the “Face the Nation” audience.

Bonchie over at Red State took a more nuanced approach to Johnson’s strategy:

Reactions to this will likely vary. On the one hand, how effective would a government shutdown over the border even be? It is clear that Democrats do not fear any political backlash associated with the issue. Instead, they would likely just use it as messaging fodder in an election year, and perhaps with some success.

On the other hand, some would question what the point of electing Republicans to office is if they aren’t going to use all the leverage they’ve got. Part of politics is being willing to stand up for what’s right even if there is a risk it might not work. Would a shutdown do more harm than good to Republicans? I honestly don’t know, and I don’t think anybody truly does. Is that an excuse to not make a stand, though?

I suppose it’s debatable, and while it may seem like I’m making a definitive judgment, I’m not. I can see both sides of the argument. Much in life boils down to risk and reward. Can Democrats even be swayed in this environment by applying pressure? Or is it better to have a strategy solely focused on winning more power in 2024 to neutralize Democrat input? Again, it’s a fair question that fair people can come to different conclusions on.

Still, this latest move from Johnson does bring us back to the elephant in the room, which is what exactly was gained by the fight to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker? Has there been a distinct shift in governance? I would say, not really. We still ended up with a continuing resolution, and now we are getting the same strategy regarding avoiding a shutdown at all costs. Those were the two major issues that got McCarthy booted.

To reiterate, this article is not a criticism of Johnson. I like him as a person (far more than McCarthy), and I think he’s doing what he can with what he’s got to work with, which is an extremely slim majority. I don’t know if I agree with all his decisions, but I’m not suggesting it was a mistake to make him Speaker.

While Bonchie seems to be giving Johnson the benefit of the doubt, I will not. Call me naive but I see this as a no-brainer. The American people understand that there’s a crisis and they want it solved. As bad as the GOP is at optics, surely they can position a move to fix the border as a positive reason to play hardball with a government shutdown.

Is Johnson better than McCarthy? Yes. But being better and ACTING better are two different things. Thus far I’ve seen nothing done by Johnson that wouldn’t have been done by McCarthy.

Like Bonchie, I’m not going to pass judgment from a clip. But if the GOP caves to fund the government without major action taken to secure the border, than I’ll be far more critical of Johnson’s short tenure with the gavel.

This first tenet of his three-steps to centralized globalist domination is manifesting before our eyes in a nation that once opposed Marxism by default. Cities across the country are toying with the concept of government-controlled grocery stores for the sake of equity, climate change, and a nutritional nanny state.

This initiative is not only being driven by Democrats in government. “Charitable” organizations and lobbyist groups are working behind the scenes to sell the concept of State-Owned Enterprises to usher in a new era they hope will yield the Socialist States of America.

And it’s not  just theoretical. According to Manic Contrarian over at Red State, this threat is already manifesting…

In the heart of Chicago, a radical and socialist plan is being pushed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. This plan seeks to establish government-controlled grocery stores in areas where inflation and rampant theft have crushed private businesses, leaving residents trapped in what are being described as “food deserts.” And shockingly, or perhaps not so shockingly, other cities across the nation are contemplating following suit at the urging of advocates for so-called State Owned Enterprises.

This government-run grocery store solution may sound enticing on the surface. They promise affordable and nutritious food, support for local producers, and economic growth. But that’s just empty rhetoric. In reality, we’ll see government bureaucracy stifle innovation, diminish choice, and impose rationing measures that infringe upon our freedom to make our own decisions. Wherever government inserts its heavy hand, inefficiency and scarcity follow.

Literally everything that government touches is harmed, spoiled, or completely ruined. That’s the nature of a nation that was built on the concept of limited government but that has seen government power surge for over a century.

Government-controlled grocery stores are, unfortunately, quite easy to sell to a desperate public. We live in a time of contradiction where the vast majority of Americans do not trust government but far too many call on government to fix our problems. This is why we are stuck in a loop of government creating problems for them to be called on to fix.

The current food crisis is being camouflaged by rampant inflation. Most Americans see increased prices at the grocery store as indicative of the overarching economic challenges, but in reality the food crisis is outpacing standard inflation because the food supply itself is under attack.

What makes matters far worse is the delay between food supply challenges and their day-to-day impact at grocery stores. While food prices are clearly up by a great deal, they will go up far higher next year because the effects of supply shortages are months or even years in the making, depending on the product. Many of the foods that are sold at the grocery store today are still part of the 2022 supply. Once our diminished production starts impacting the shelves, we’re going to see prices skyrocket even more than they already have.

Now is the time to become as self-sufficient as possible. Stock up on staple foods that can be stored for the long haul. Get out of cities as quickly as possible. Start gardening at the very least. Get chickens if possible. Do whatever you can to get ahead of any food crash that may soon come. Unless things change for the better very quickly, a full-scale food crisis will come very soon, at which point government-controlled grocery stores will basically become ration distribution centers.

I symbolically cracked my knuckles, put the article on one screen and prepared to rebuke the article on the other screen. But upon reading it, I realized it was written from a proper perspective. It wasn’t bashing Kari Lake out of spite. It didn’t claim the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election was fair and square. It didn’t call on Lake to get out of politics and let a non-MAGA RINO run.

As it turned out, the article was spot on other than one major point. And even though that point is major it’s not blatantly obvious, so I uncracked my knuckles and prepared to move on, leaving my ire on the table to direct at someone else who actually deserved it. But as the day continued the article nagged at me. I’m not big on writing about slight disagreements since there are plenty of UniParty Swampsters to go after passionately.

In lieu of a rebuke, I’ll add a bit of context that should clear things up. According to Duke, Lake should not be running for U.S. Senate because she should be putting all of her efforts and fundraising prowess to work in a focused effort to expose the massive, widespread voter fraud that stole the 2022 (and 2020) elections in Arizona. It’s an understandable and even noble premise for his article, but the flaw is this: She’s already done that and lost multiple times.

Nobody has fought voter fraud following a stolen election harder than Kari Lake’s team. Not Donald Trump. Not Doug Mastriano. Not Dr Mehmet Oz. Not Blake Masters. I like all of them other than Dr. Oz, but combined they didn’t fight their stolen elections as hard as Lake’s team.

Considering the efforts that have thus far yielded zero fruit, it make sense for her team to assume that the truth isn’t going to prevail. They’ve presented mountains of evidence that demonstrate unambiguously how ballot fraud at a massive scale took place in Maricopa County, but the UniParty Swamp system has them completely blocked off. They can’t get a judge that isn’t corrupt. They can’t get media coverage even from conservative news outlets who are scared of being labeled “election deniers.”

They can’t catch a break.

But here’s the thing. They ARE continuing to fight against all odds because it’s the right thing to do. Lake’s direct participation at this stage is not needed. She raised enough funds to make the case and it still wasn’t enough. Could she raise more funds? Sure, but that’s not the problem. They need more evidence that’s beyond the bombshells they already dropped.

Instead of fighting a single-front war, she decided to run for U.S. Senate while allowing her team to continue the uphill battle of exposing the fraudulent 2022 election. At this stage, they don’t need much from her. They can continue to fight on that front while she tries to get to Capitol Hill.

Duke’s assessment was accurate. I have no qualms about his perspectives. I simply agree with Lake’s decision that her efforts are better spent attacking the UniParty Swamp directly rather than continuing to participate in the ongoing 2022 election litigation. She and her teams (legal and campaign) can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Sound off about this article on my Substack.

It’s telling that McCarthy’s latest statement about impeachment came late on a Friday. That’s the magic moment in politics when announcements are made or press releases are dropped to get them the least amount of attention from the media.

According to Breitbart, McCarthy is only going to launch an impeachment investigation into Biden once the House votes to do so. By comparison, Pelosi simply announced she was launching investigations and had an actual vote on it months later with the first impeachment of Trump.

Breitbart, which appears to support McCarthy’s strategy, posted:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made clear to Breitbart News on Friday that if House Republicans move forward with an impeachment inquiry into Democrat President Joe Biden, the move would come not as an announcement from him or anyone else, but from a formal vote on the floor of the House.

“To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives,” McCarthy told Breitbart News. “That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”

Doing so would require a majority—at least 218 votes, assuming the House is at full attendance for such a vote—of members of the House to vote for such a move. While opening a formal impeachment inquiry is not a vote to impeach the president, it is a massive escalation by the lower chamber of Congress towards doing so—and it would also provide the House with extraordinary new investigative and law enforcement powers in terms of compelling testimony, enforcing subpoenas, and digging into Biden’s behavior and the culture of corruption surrounding the president.

Let’s be crystal clear so there’s no ambiguity. The House GOP has bank records, plus a massive number of damning emails, text messages, and whistleblowers to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that then-VP Biden and the entire Biden Crime Family participated in felonious crimes against America.

Pelosi had a single partisan whistleblower and a perfectly fine phone conversation when she launched her investigation.

As Bonchie at Red State noted, it seems like McCarthy is trying to run out the clock on the Biden presidency without launching an impeachment:

I hate to be the cynic here, but this is McCarthy taking an out on impeachment, likely ensuring it will never take place. By contrast, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the 2019 impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump from the floor.

All of this hemming and hawing by McCarthy and the House GOP is intentional. Whether to somehow enhance their own political careers or to defend the UniParty Swamp, they’re doing nothing but talking about impeachment. They’re pretending like they’re doing all of this talking as preludes to action when in reality they’re just talking in lieu of action.

And they’re probably going to get away with it. Why? Because far too few Republicans are demanding action now. Sure, we may hop on social media and whine about the feckless GOP, but there’s no real accountability. They’re on track to avoid impeaching Biden or at least delaying it until after the 2024 election. This is unacceptable.

IF there is an impeachment, it needs to be soon. The only way I see that happening is if the outcry from the people is loud enough. Even then, our representatives on Capitol Hill no longer listen to the will of the people. Perhaps they never really did, but at least they pretended in the past. Today, they constantly take actions that the people don’t want. They do this with no remorse. They do this with no fear of repercussions.

I’m hopeful that we can make our voices heard, not because I believe it’s true but because to accept that it’s not true is to acknowledge that our government is fatally flawed. Many already believe it is, but I’m not quite ready to accept that. Call me an optimist but I’m going to continue to scream at them until someone tells me to shut up.

Scream along with me or otherwise express your opinion in the comments on my Substack.