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November 23, 2024
T. Keith Gurnee

T. Keith Gurnee

OPINION by T. KEITH GURNEE

After Donald trump’s stunning victory, California Democrats have come unhinged.

Consider the optics of the Democrats in announcing their resistance against Trump’s vow to undo our nation’s sanctuary policies. California appears to be doubling down in defending those policies in the face of criminal illegal immigrants who have been raping and murdering innocent girls and women across our country.

Events and Optics

Just this week, the Venezuelan immigrant who raped and murdered 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia was found guilty by a judge of all 10 charges against him and was sentenced to life in prison. With immigrant crime exploding throughout the nation due to Joe Biden’s open border and Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies, California continues to welcome illegal immigrants into our state. Biden is nothing less than complicit in the demise of Laken Riley and the many other women and girls who have become victims of illegal immigrant violence.

Remarkably, that same day, the LA Times reported that the LA City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance endorsing its status as a sanctuary city. Mayor Karen Bass robotically vowed to sign it into law. Does this city really want to roll out the welcome mat to deaths like Laken Riley’s? Does it really want to double down in inviting immigrant criminal activity, sex trafficking, sexual assaults, murder, and the importation of deadly fentanyl into their fair city? It appears so.

The contrasting optics of both of these events happening at the same time are deeply disturbing. After four years of Biden’s open borders. It compels us to fundamentally reexamine what we should be doing with sanctuary policies and their consequences.

What’s Next?

Interestingly enough, another LA Times article appeared addressing  “Golden State Democrats Take Hard Looks in the Mirror.” After the failures of a number of ballot measures supported by Democrats and the defeats of Dist. Atty. George Gascon and other local liberal officials in California, the Times felt that Democrats should focus on reevaluating their positions.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t “looking in the mirror.” Almost immediately after the election, Newsom announced that he would take on the mantle of “leading the resistance against Trumpism,” before he rushed off to Washington DC to insert himself into the debate over the future of Democratic leadership and the presidential elections in 2028. Gavin, your ambition is showing!

If Newsom is looking in the mirror, it’s only to make sure his hair is perfectly coiffed. After all, Newsom was the father of the sanctuary city movement in California when he declared San Francisco as one. Shortly thereafter in 2015, an illegal five-time deportee shot and killed Kate Steinle, a graduate of Cal Poly, on Pier 14 on the San Francisco Embarcadero. He’s not about to let go of the movement that has metastasized throughout the nation.

What Should be the Doing With Sanctuary Policies?

Donald Trump has made it clear that he is going to take on sanctuary states and cities when he is sworn in as President. Despite the abject resistance of California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Colorado and that of such sanctuary cities like San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, and New York City, how is he going to do it?

As sanctuary cities gird their loins for their legal and political fight with the federal government, Trump needs to make a paradigm shift to get around those attacks. With DOGE, he just might have the solution.

By forming the DOGE, the new Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, he has done just that. Creating such an agency run by such high-quality leaders, Trump could develop the tools that he needs. In seeking to reorganize the federal government and to eliminate government waste, DOGE using the federal purse strings could hold the key in addressing the elimination of sanctuary states and cities.

How? By withholding federal funds and subventions from those states and cities that persist in keeping their sanctuary policies. Cutting or eliminating the outflow of federal funds to states like California would be huge. Withholding federal funding for California’s high-speed rail (the bullet train to nowhere), other transportation projects, or federal grants for housing or just about everything for California’s cities who insist on maintaining their sanctuary status would surely get their attention while saving the federal government billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

Taking action against those cities and states should focus upon the priority of deporting those immigrants with criminal records, the massive numbers of got-aways, and those who have crossed our borders illegally who have no intent of becoming naturalized citizens.

When it comes to California, withholding federal funding from this cash-strapped state and our cities until they repeal their sanctuary status would provide a powerful incentive to disengage from the sanctuary city movement and its negative impacts on the lives of Californians.

Let’s see what happens after Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025 as the 47th President of the United States.

 


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The people of this country are fed up with the liberal policies, taking taxes paid by citizens and giving to trespassers and corrupt foreign governments, open boarders, open trade with no protection for our workers and industries, no respect for our culture or religion. We are tired of being told the constitution does not apply any longer and what we can and cannot say, that we must address people by some ever changing slew of pronouns that no one understands or cares to.

Ask yourself how much has the Biden administration, DNC or whoever is running this country cost the people? Fifty six billion in aid to Ukraine and eighty billion to remove the invading trespassers. Although I say push them over the boarder. If someone trespasses on my property back over the fence they go, I’m not giving them a ride home.

The people have spoken, The Representative Republic will stand for now.


34

The policies that have harmed us were instigated by BOTH parties, during the “Neocon, Neoliberal” phase, which is still in effect. When Clinton, for instance, installed NAFTA, that was at the top of the GOP wish list, so easily moved thru congress. This legislation was sold to the People as a big opportunity for cheap goods. It took away their jobs, handing them over to slave labor in third world conditions and our goods have reflected that ever since. And so have wages in this country.


The only ones to actually benefit? CORPORATIONS. They have gleefully shipped jobs overseas and cut or stalled wages here, whilst reaping record profits. How about instead of blaming pronouns, we get together and oppose the actual “enemy within”? End Citizens United, which allows corporate special interests to purchase candidates on BOTH sides, in favor of the will of the actual citizens. All of us.


End the Electoral College. One person, one vote. No “superdelegates”. No gerrymandering. And, with an end to massive corporate donations, no more corporate candidates, from either side. Then, the People could actually “speak”. Until then, we continue to get manipulated and screwed.


-14

Nice piece, Keith. Always so accurate and informative. I will never understand why any human being would support and defend the present dangers that have been standing before us since the Kate Steinle incident. Unbelievable.


34

And then elect a criminal and his band of criminals.


-4

Can’t believe I keep reading headlines that Democrats wonder what happened…or Pelosi blaming Biden for not dropping out earlier. Tone deaf is an understatement.

They lost. Trump didn’t win.

America is full of people. Full of criminals. And out of money to bring in more people.

Dems. That’s what’s wrong.

As Trump kept pounding away on crime and illegal immigration-the headlines kept pilling up on the issues. Every. Day.

Dems. That’s what happened.


21

Trump won handily. The administration of the five decade political grifter helped ensure that.


23

Trump did win. He won because he is an opportunist and opportunists know how to groom weak vulnerable suckers and the American Right are weak vulnerable suckers. America is full of people, yes, too many people, so stop having so many damn babies. Full of criminals? Full of criminals so you turn to criminals to rid the nation of criminals. Great logic. You’ve all been taken. Instead of strengthening that brain with knowledge and awareness, you’ve been filling it with Fox and shoot em video games and that’s when a guy like Trump, who isn’t any smarter than you, just and opportunist, comes along and takes you for everything you got.


-9

I suspect Mrs. Elizabeth Powell, age 47, of Colorado and her 16-year-old son, Riordan Powell; 2-year-old Jeremy Caceres of Maryland; Rachel Morin also of Maryland and a mother of 5, killed while hiking on a local trail; Kate Steinle of California; Mollie Tibetts, 20-year-old Univ. of Iowa college student murdered while jogging, as was college student Laken Riley of Georgia; and 11-year-old Aiden Clark of Ohio who was killed riding in a school bus along with 26 of his injured schoolmates, in addition to thousands of other innocent American victims of illegal alien criminals would beg to differ with you and call out your appalling ignorance of facts and delusional denial of reality. According to NBC News (Sept.28, 2024) “More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide – either in the United States or abroad – are living (in the U.S.) outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, according to data provided by ICE to Congress earlier this week. The immigrants are part of ICE’s non-detained docket, meaning the agency has some information on the subjects and they have pending immigration cases in the U.S., but they are not currently in detention because….1) they are not prioritized for detention….2) they are serving time in jail or prison for their crimes, or 3) because ICE cannot find them, three law enforcement officials testified.”


21

We could play the anecdotal homicide game all day but if I listed the names of the schoolchildren who’ve had their little heads shredded by military-grade assault rounds we’d run out of space. My point however, because of such emotional issues, and because Republicans have become so bad at thinking and so emotional and reactive to everything, that they were ready to fall for the first big-mouthed confidence man to come along, and he wasn’t even a GOOD one – not even a GOOD businessman, not even a SUCCESSFUL criminal, just a loud, orange FOOL with a severe case of narcissitic personality disorder.


-4

“Grab ’em by the pussy” – Donald Trump


-24

My buddy Jimmy used to say that way before Trump ever did.


1

Ever been in a military barracks on a Friday evening, moments after end of duty? “Grab’em by the pussy”, would be the nicest words said…


0

I’m sorry, but this is just partisan drivel. I agree with many of the underlying critiques (the Biden administration was too slow and too ineffectual in limiting the abuse of asylum claims, and even legitimate rebuttals like the GOP refusing to come to the legislative table in order to quite clearly exacerbate the problem, the violence, for political gain, doesnt excuse the Democratic position held through most of the administration), but the presentation here is just so unserious.


In this century the peak of deportations happened under President Obama. Why? Because there was strategic cooperation between federal and local law enforcement, a balanced approach towards lawful legal immigration – a pathway for long time taxpaying residents who were brought here by their parents and zero tolerance towards violent criminal immigrants (who we must be reminded are rare, lower per capita than violent American citizens). Do we really believe that Trump is going to work with the states and local agencies and work with Congress for long term solutions – of course not, he is interested in patronage for his flatterers and retribution for the disloyal. Trump is fundamentally not interested in policy, surely the author must know this. They must also know that pro-illegl immigration isn’t a policy held by almost anyone – painting the entire left as aligned with a fringe is not serious (for example: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/28/gavin-newsom-noncitizens-undocumented-workers-00181487, this took a 2 second Google search, this isn’t secret, as a philosopher once said – facts don’t care about your feelings). Would it be fair if I said that the author and people who already down voted this comment don’t believe in the Constitution and classic liberalism, that they are un-American, because some people on the political right believe and demonstrate that through action. Probably not, although it’s fair for some!


Also perceiving DOGE as anything but a meme demonstrates a fantasy view of reality. Will they maybe make some reasonable recommendations – sure, we could probably cut the millions of dollars sent to NPR, and just maybe they could get the DOD closer to completing an audit, but the idea that we can save trillions of dollars and solve our deficit problems in a way that doesn’t include: reducing social security, Medicare, defense, and raising tax revenue – isn’t engaging with reality, it’s playing with culture war toys for cable news hits.


-24

Yeah, “Let’s see what happens.” That’s about as far as any of you thought this through. Own the Libs, make your power grab, and then ‘let’s see what happens.’ What we are about to “see happen” are all your delusional MAGA fantasies clash head-on with real world realities, as a rapist president, with his team of rapists, attempt to sweep up whordes of undocumented rapists to the tune of $80 billion a year [that’s if and when it ever makes it through the courts and then there’s the manpower, transportation, housing …]. “Let’s see” what happens with those 20% across the board tariffs that economists say are bound to fail but your bronzer-caked failed casino-owner TV reality clown con-artist assures you will fill your American pockets by the end of year one, if you are just loyal to a man, not a country, not a system, but a man. Unhinged? We are way past unhinged – way past any kind of derangement syndrome. All we can do is cringe and watch. You gave our country away. You really did it. What we had was not perfect but we were still the envy of the world and you gave it away – to a con-artist clown and a team of con-artist clowns.


-74

Looks like I poked the bear. Not to worry, I’ve decided to keep poking it…


33

Poke, trigger, own, villianize, revolt, dismantle, tear up the playbook, but then sometimes you just might get what you “want” and you’re faced with the thing you’re really unqualified and out-of-practice at which is govern. And I’ve got to ask – are you bears planning on being victim-bears now that you’re bears?


-20

The Democrats spent $1.5 billion in 15 weeks making their case to American voters. That’s $100 million per week. And yet Donald Trump won a historic victory. And the reason is not because 76 million Americans are racist Nazis. The Democrat party has been captured by the far-Left fringe and the United States is still a center-Right country by and large. I’m neither Republican nor Democrat, I am a well-Right-of-center independent, and I can’t imagine the U.S. surviving another four years of policies like we’ve had with the Biden administration. Do I love Donald Trump? No, but in this case I and a majority of American voters perceived him as the lesser of two evils. If you go back to the 2016 Democrat primaries, the one candidate I was willing to consider was James Webb, a decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam, a former Secretary of the Navy, former Senator from Virginia. A Democrat from the old school of the party. He had to withdraw after mentioning that he’d killed a Viet Cong insurgent who threw a hand grenade at him.


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/10/jim-webb-grenade-comment-alludes-to-killing-enemy-soldier-in-vietnam-video.html


Bernie Sanders is more representative of the Democrat party now. Or Nancy Pelosi, who at age 84 announced that she will run again in 2026 (and she’ll win, in that district).

The Democrats are not what they used to be and the fault for their loss to Donald Trump lies entirely within themselves, though they seem bound and determined to avoid thinking about it. I think it’s going to be OK, actually.


18

I for one appreciate you’re honest and thoughtful comments and agree the dems swung way too far left for most to stomach, then made feeble attempts to rectify their horrible mess while never taking responsibility or admitting to causing the problem.

As far as JIM Webb he’s a war hero and should be treated as such, the idea that we send soldiers to war but don’t approve of what they do to protect and serve our country is an abomination, and shows how out of touch with reality liberals are.


19

In making your decision, did you factor in at all whether you or your children or grandchildren [if you have any] would ever vote in a legitimate election again?


-8

I am a father, no grandchildren yet. There will be a 2026 election, then 2028, then 2030, and then 2032, and so on. Donald Trump just had one of his Cabinet picks get rejected (sotto voce) by the Senate. He did not dissolve the Senate, he did not pass an Enabling Act, he simply accepted it and picked another nominee. The proof that all this fear-mongering was exactly that is shown by the reception President Biden gave him at the White House, and the pilgrimage by Joe and Mika down to Mar-a-Lago to “speak truth to power”, i.e., try to salvage their careers. No one in the Democrat power structure ever believed that tripe, it was all “…just a lie” as Homer Simpson said in Trash of the Titans. I get that you’re upset, but honestly, this isn’t healthy. I’m not trying to be snarky, I have relatives who feel the same way, but it’s not the end of the world. Peace.


8

I don’t know what my perceived emotions have to do with this, but anyway … I was just asking if it factored into your voting decision at all and I’m not even sure how you voted. I can tell though by the three examples you chose, that you are really going out of your way to minimize the very real threat that we have voted in our last LEGITIMATE election. A lot of countries hold “elections” that don’t mean anything. Go ahead and pretend and deny if you like – I prefer the realistic approach, and so have the Democrats throughout the campaign, warning us all that this may vary well be the end of democracy.


-10

I dig the hysteria.


12

It’s great comedy. Should be an SNL skit.


12

There wont be a 2028 election, Trump said he is going to fix that, you wont have to vote anymore, were you not listening?


-29

Never any mention of that in any of their comments and that is why I asked the above commenter about it. When you ask them about it, they always find a way to minimize it and that is because this is all about power and purification for them. Any fallout, short-term or long-term, is minor to them, as long as they have a man who will remove and keep out non-Americans from American soil, and remove and keep out what they see as “un-Americans” from any American positions of power. That, they feel is the answer to their prayers and God’s plan for the United States. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens if and when Trump is unable to deliver on the things he has promised. Either way, we should brace ourself for conflict and chaos, and it didn’t have to be this way. If Republicans just would have worked on policy and governing instead of falling head over heels for a cult-wacky carnival barker, they probably could have beaten the Democrats anyway.


-16

To be clear, withholding Federal funds might not turn out so well. California is the 5th largest economy in the WORLD. Perhaps you are unaware that many of the “red” states, along with their dismally low ratings for education, healthcare, housing, satisfaction with life, etc., etc., also rely on much more government funding than they pay in taxes. Where does this extra money come from? Places like California – BLUE STATES – that kick in more than they get back. Feel free to look that up.


Also, to be clear, actual crime committed by immigrants is only about 1/3 of what it is in the natural born citizenry. Surprised??? Again, look that up. Not the propaganda you have been fed, but actual reality. Getting rid of those workers would skyrocket the cost of food, not lower it. How could anyone miss that part?


Not really sure why you would be reveling in the concept of withheld funds. Or the deportation of our labor force, or perhaps the cancellation of the infrastructure projects of the current administration, when we desperately need construction of homes, new bridges, highway repairs, new and improved schools, etc. Those projects bring much needed revitalization and jobs. And revenue back to our state where we utilize the infrastructure, educate our children and depend on the healthcare, etc.


I think another factor you might not be aware of is that most undocumented workers still pay taxes, including unemployment and Social Security, which they will never see a return on. Social Security would be in trouble a lot sooner without those funds. Another thing to look up.


And another factor that is not in your equation is that during Trump’s last “administration”, if you could call it that, the State of California sued him and his actions against us about 160 times and * WON* 90% of those litigations. Look that up too.


One more thing, really important to look up: Elon Musk has boasted that the Trump policies as stated, which he intends to enact, will definitely crash the economy of our county for about 2 years, but after that it will return much more “solid”. Well, this is not likely to affect him a whole lot (he has literally hundreds of billions and pays no taxes), perhaps not even you. But most people will be destroyed by such an event. Disaster capitalists like Musk and his uber wealthy pals will be in position to suck up just about everything in such an event.


So, good luck with all that.


-26

Crossing the border illegally is a crime. Harboring a fugitive is illegal. Look it up!


27

And then along came a loud orange man that told them he was going to fix it all and he was the only one that could fix it all and they believed him because … well, he was the only one saying those things and it made them feel very good and very strong.


-16

Sure, “sbjcl”, but given the facts of the case, should it be? Not talking about the highly fictionalized campaign rhetoric that damns these people when they can’t defend themselves, but the actual (fact check them) statistics of lower criminal behavior, how essential they are to our economy and how many ways we actually benefit from them? They actually add up to better “citizens” than some of our actual citizens. I guarantee you yourself would not benefit by removing them.


In reality, that is…


-15

California conservatives and liberals disagree on a lot… but they agree on public safety… voter ID… and having a secure southern border… if the democrat party here wants to mend fences with the voters they should accept this as fact…


29

I don’t think they care, not that the republicans are much better, what voters want.

The problem is career politicians who are bought and paid for and pushing their agendas. Stop voting for the same names you see year after year the only time they show concern is eight months prior to the elections then it’s back to work for the lobbyist and special interest so they can finance the next campaign.


17

The problem, among other problems, WAS/WERE things like career politiicans bought and paid for pushing their agendas. A man, and some other men, are going to take care of all of that for you and me now. They are already going to have THEIR OWN money [from us] and all WE have to do is be good quiet citizens and look the other way, because, well, they might not exactly “follow the law” all the time … they might kinda “make the laws up” as they go along.


-8
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