penny press 1, 2019 · asylum, more than double the normal rate, according to u.s. customs and...

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 16 Number 44 JULY 11, 2019

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THE PENNY PRESS,JULY 11, 2019 PAGE 2

By ROBERT ROMANOSpecial to the Penny Press

Faced with an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration at the southern border — more than 350,000 people were apprehended

between March and May entering the country illegally or seeking asylum, more than double the normal rate, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol — there has been a rash of reckless and unfortunate comparisons made to Nazi Germany, concentration camps and the mass murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust and another 13 million Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and others.

Taking to Twitter, U.S. Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on June 18 declared, “This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying. This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis…”

Ocasio-Cortez linked to a report from Esquire by Jack Holmes, “An Expert on Concentration Camps Says That’s Exactly What the U.S. Is Running at the Border”that quoted author Andrea Pitzer stating, “We have what I would call a concentration camp system, and the definition of that in my book is, mass detention of civilians without trial.”

The systematic killing of the Holocaust was no singular event. It included the detention of civilians and prisoners of war in a network of more than 42,000

campswhere death and murder were commonplace. Millions died. Any comparison is bound to draw harsh criticism.

In the Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes, “AOC’s trivialization of Hitler’s camps, where 1.5 million Jewish children were gassed to death, should sicken the heart of every person of conscience. If we don’t confront and defeat growing Holocaust denial, we may soon confront a reality where young Americans more quickly associate the term ‘concentration camp’ with Texas and Arizona than the killing fields of Europe — and come to see Auschwitz as just another place where some bad things happened.”

Other irresponsible headlines include Jacobin’s “The Border Patrol Is the American SS,” foolishly comparing the U.S. Border Patrol to Nazi Germany’s notorious Einsatzgruppen. The SS

included paramilitary death squads that were responsible for the mass murder of millions of Jews, Slavs and others often by mass shootings in addition to the millions more that were murdered in the death camps.

The ridiculous Nazi comparisons don’t end there. Screenwriter and director Joss Whedon on July 4 tweeted in response to the reports, “We have a racist, fascist president who’s using armed thugs in law enforcement & illegal militias to keep us cowed & hopeless & he’ll take the 2020 election by armed force & blatant, treasonous criminality & that’s us now, we’re the country with concentration camps so happy 4th.”

There are others, but these serve as prime examples of the mass hysteria we are seeing unfold in our mainstream political parlance. To summarize, per the radical left’s fantastic ravings: 1) detaining illegal immigrants at the border is

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 16 NUMBER 44 JULY 11, 2019

Penny WisdomI have eight stents in my heart, and I’m going to have a heart attack in the next year or two, and that’ll be it. I’m trying to get the music out of my head. —David Crosby

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInside:Did W Make His 'Damn Fool Mistake'?

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7MERRILL MATTHEWS PAGE 9FRANCINE WEINBERG PAGE 10ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

Has AOC Even Read About the Holocaust?

Commentary

Continued on page4


the same as concentration camps that isolated political prisoners in Word War II and sent them to death camps in the Holocaust; 2) the Border Patrol apprehending illegal immigrants, heroin smugglers and human traffickers on the southern border is the same thing as paramilitary death squads roaming the countryside and murdering millions; and 3) the duly elected President Donald Trump is the same as Adolf Hitler who ordered the mass murder of millions.

So, let’s examine the facts.The Esquire piece in turn noted that 24 people had died in custody

since the beginning of 2017, citing an NBC report from June 9. 22 of those were in 2017 and 2018. But neither of those years were the worst on record, per NBC: “The number of in-custody deaths remains below the peak of 32 deaths in 2004, the first full calendar year records were kept.” So far, in 2019, two people have died in custody, despite a record year of apprehensions. None were murdered by Border Patrol agents.

The case most cited was the death of Roxana Hernandez, a Honduran. According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) statement on May 25, 2018, Hernandez “entered ICE custody on May 13 at the San Luis Regional Detention Center (SLRDC) in San Luis, Ariz. Two days later, Hernandez was transferred to the El Paso Processing Center in El Paso, Texas, and on May 16 Hernandez arrived at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico. On May 17, Hernandez was admitted to Cibola General Hospital with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV. Later in the day she was transferred via air ambulance to LMC, where she remained in the intensive care unit until her passing. LMC medical staff pronounced her deceased May 25 at 3:32 a.m. (MDT), and identified the preliminary cause of death as cardiac arrest.”

A three-time illegal immigrant, Hernandez had been convicted of theft, lewd, immoral and indecent conduct, prostitution and illegal entry into the U.S. Her death, while tragic, is not akin to the Holocaust. She was not murdered, she passed away owing to her illnesses, despite receiving intensive care for a week prior to her passing.

All told, from the beginning of 2017 through May 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have apprehended 1.41 million people entering the country illegally. Of that number, 24 died while in custody, a mortality rate of 0.0017 percent. Far more were ordered deported, about 452,000, having no legal basis for being here.

During the last three years of the Obama administration, 1.56 million were apprehended, about 276,000 were deported. According to the NBC report, “Deaths rose and then fell during the Obama administration, from 10 in 2008 to five in 2012, a period in which ICE implemented policies to improve detention conditions and oversight. But deaths then ticked up to 12 in President Obama’s last full year in office, 2016, as the number of detainees grew.” For 2016, Obama’s last year in office, the mortality rate was 0.002 percent, slightly higher than present, using the same facilities that the Trump administration now depends on to care for those who were apprehended.

The truth is, most are ultimately released simply because there are not enough facilities to house the sheer number of people showing up.

When compared to federal and state prison populations, for example, in 2014 there were 3,927 deaths in federal and state prisons, which had a total population of 1.56 million that year, a rate of 0.25 percent. Nearly all the deaths were illness-related, suicides or drug and/or alcohol intoxication. Just 83 were determined to be homicides, or about 2 percent of the deaths. Those are not concentration camps, either.

In comparison, the Einsatzgruppen murdered more than 2 million

people between 1941 and 1945, meaning more than 1,100 people were murdered every single day and more than 400,000 every year. That’s not counting the millions more who were sent to the gas chambers at the death camps.

The Virtual Jewish Library reports that “Only a small fraction of those imprisoned in Nazi camps survived. As many as 15-20 million people may have died in the various camps and ghettoes.”

So, while almost everybody died in German imprisonment in the concentration and death camps during World War II, with murder being the top cause ordered by Hitler and his regime, with starvation and disease being another, in comparison, more than 99 percent do not die in U.S. prisons or whilst in Border Patrol custody, and almost none of them are murdered. None were ordered to be murdered by President Trump or his administration.

Consider the sick and twisted cruelty of the Second World War, and then think about those risking their lives on the southern border to stop drug and human trafficking, sex slaves and other forms of barbarity. They’re comparing those tasked with preventing human cruelty with the most evil, despicable acts in human history.

In short, there simply is no comparison. It’s unbelievable and reckless to repeat this nonsense. Vice President Mike Pence on July 8 blasted the comparison at the Christians United For Israel summit in Washington, D.C., saying, “Last month, a leading Democrat in Congress actually compared our U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention facilities to concentration camps. And her allies in Congress, the Left, and the media shamefully came to her defense. To compare the humane work of dedicated men and women of Customs and Border Protection with the horrors of the Holocaust is an outrage. The Nazis took lives. American law enforcement saves lives every day. This slander of law enforcement was an insult to the six million killed in the Holocaust. And it should be condemned by every American of every political party everywhere!”

Clearly, the journey through Central America and Mexico across the U.S. border is a dangerous trek, but it is not at all comparable to the magnitude, horror and evil of the Holocaust and World War II. The comparison on its face is rooted in ignorance, an idiotic trivialization of the mass murder that took place at the hands of Nazi Germany and other totalitarian regimes in history that have sought to exterminate entire civilian populations.

While the shame of making such comparisons can never stand in contrast to the horrors of the Holocaust, it is nonetheless disgraceful.

But more than that, it is a dangerous comparison, likely to provoke yet more political violence against Trump supporters and Republicans more broadly as we proceed into the 2020 election cycle. Increasingly, the comparisons made are to liken regular Americans to the perpetrators of the Holocaust, to see your neighbors as being Nazi stooges. Antifa, a radical extremist group that claims to be fighting modern-day fascists, organizes around this very basis.

Such an unwarranted demonization of people, civilians, as being akin to mass murderers is pure propaganda and scapegoating. U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez should go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and she will very quickly come to realize that the mass murder of the Holocaust was not contained to the death camps in Poland, it was widespread and deliberate killing including in the concentration camps, labor camps, POW camps and ghettoes. Saying that the same thing is occurring here in America is beyond the pale.Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

As Many As 15-20 Million People May Have DiedContinued from page 3

Fiddler on the Roof: It’s about Fathers and Daughters

The two best days of my life will always be the day I married Kathy and the day our daughter Karyn was born.

For our wedding music, I chose “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof, among other pieces.

“But we’re not Jewish,” said Kathy. “Don’t have to be,” I answered. That song and everything about the film had always moved me greatly. Fiddler’s on the short list of best films ever, and the song

perfectly captures a wedding. In part, Fiddler is about the

beauty, richness and goodness of Judaism and the burdens many Jews have suffered for their religion. But I’ve always viewed it as being mainly about fathers and daughters and the story of a really good man, Tevye. And as Karyn has grown up, it has become ever more precious to me.

Tevye is a poor dairy farmer in the Russian village of Anatevka a century ago with three teenage daughters soon ripe for marriage. As the rousing opening song proclaims, life there was governed by “Tradition!” He explains, “Because of our traditions, each of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” What could be more important?

The film, a sometimes joyous and funny one, chronicles the challenges his daughters raise to those traditions. [Spoiler alert: This column reveals key parts of the plot.]

Following tradition, the matchmaker Yente has found a husband for the first daughter, Tzeitel. That’s Lazar Wolf, the rich but widowed butcher, who’s also older than Tevye. This is a disaster for Tzeitel – not just on its own merit, but also because she and the young tailor, Motel, promised themselves to each other a year earlier.

However, they don’t reveal their pledge to anyone else until the morning after Tevye and many men in town have celebrated (with much vodka) Tevye’s agreement to Lazar Wolf’s request. So, the young couple plead their case to Tevye.

“They gave each other a pledge!! Unheard of!! Unthinkable!!” he exclaims incredulously. They are persuasive. But what really changes his mind is a good father’s love for a good daughter. Looking at them, he weighs things on the one hand and on the other and concludes, “But look at my daughter’s eyes. She loves him …” He finds a way to revoke the commitment to Lazar Wolf.

“Sunrise, Sunset” is the wedding music for their otherwise traditional marriage.

One excursion from tradition begets another, and soon the second daughter, Hodel, also decides on a man of her own choosing. One from outside their community. A radical with strange ideas. And they don’t even ask for Papa’s permission, just his blessing.

Tevye is even more astounded.

“Absurd!!! Who do you think you are?!!” he demands. But ever the generous soul, he concludes, “But look at my daughter’s eyes. She loves him. …” Of course, he ends up conferring his blessing and his permission.

One can see where this is going. The third daughter, Chava, wants to marry outside the faith. That sets up the two most powerful moments of this film, both of which show Tevye’s principles put to the ultimate test – that is, against his love for his daughter.

First, he again thinks, “But look at my daughter’s eyes. She loves him.” Only, this time, “There is no other hand. If I bend this far, I will break!!!” This revelation of his character is powerful.

They marry anyway, and Tevye proclaims Chava is dead to the family.

Second, a pogrom has been brewing and the Jews must leave Anatevka, dispersing all over the world. As Tevye finishes packing everything they can fit into the cart they will take with them, Chava and her husband come by to say they too are leaving even though as non-Jews they don’t have to. They cannot stand to be part of a society that persecutes the Jews. Tevye ignores them.

But as they shout final farewells to the family and Tzeitel answers, Tevye tells her to add, “And God be with you.”

A father’s love overcomes even tradition. And today when I look at Karyn’s eyes, I know a father’s love for his daughter is one of the most powerful elemental forces in the universe.


The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:The United States Department of Justice which has indicted billionaire Jeffery Epstein for trafficking in under age girls for his own personal amusement. This just goes to show that it doesn’t have how much money you have or how many friends, you violate the law you eventually pay the price.

The BLM for finally doing something right by suggesting that Burning Man attendees be checked for drugs and weapons on their way in. The Burning man people have pitched a hissy fit so you know it must be a good idea.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:Colin Kaepernick for being his usual douchebag self and intimating the Betsy Ross Flag was a symbol of racism. The flag is a symbol of the founding of a nation which has allowed a mediocre quarterback who has not one ounce of respect for anyone or anything to become a millionaire for being a douchebag. Isn’t this a great country? www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT

Commentary: Ron Knecht

George W. Bush may well go down as one of the most decent human beings ever to serve as President, so it is not surprising that he hasn’t said anything negative about Chief Justice John Roberts.

But, after Roberts twisted himself into a legal pretzel first to uphold Obamacare and most recently to try and deny the Trump administration its absolute right to ask a question about citizenship on the 2020 census, you have to wonder what W might be quietly thinking.

Dwight Eisenhower had this to say about his appointment of former Chief Justice Earl Warren, “The biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.”

Harry Truman appointed Tom C. Clark to the Court. “It isn’t so much that he’s a bad man, it’s just that he’s such a dumb son of a bitch.”

Roberts needs to stop worrying about his legacy and just pay attention to the damn law.

From a purely practical standpoint, you do not need a JD from Harvard to know that any administration can add a question about citizenship to the decennial census without the Court’s blessing. The constitution mandates the count, it is used to apportion congressional districts and only citizens can vote.

That’s it.

Even though the left has its collective panties in a twist over the current President and his attitude towards illegal aliens the constitution is not changed.

To suggest that the Secretary of Commerce’s “rationale” for adding a question which has appeared on every census until 1950 is justplain silly. A more pertinent issue for the Court is why the question has NOT included since then.

On what planet is a government not allowed to count residents by citizenship?

The problem Roberts has is that he seems to think his role

as Chief Justice comes with a commission to be loved by both sides of any issue.

That is clearly at odds with what he told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005 at his confirmation hearing.

Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.

Apparently Roberts has evolved in his role as an umpire.

His vote on the census question wasn’t a ball or a strike. If anything, it was a foul ball with two strikes. That is, nothing. Another pitch. But baseball doesn’t have a clock to run out and Roberts knew damn well that the census has a clock.

Roberts’ call was more like the referee in that game seven of the 2019 Vegas Golden Knights vs. the San Jose Sharks series which changed the direction of that game and caused the National Hockey League Board of Governors to actually change the rule in the off season.

And it may well be that George W. Bush’s “biggest damn fool mistake” will turn out to be John Roberts.

Fortunately, this President appears up to the challenge and he is looking for a way around the ridicules ruling the court made.

Which might mean Roberts will get this issue jammed up where his moon doesn’t shine very shortly.

Watching him twist and turn will be like watching a Christian Scientist with appendicitis.

FRED WEINBERG


OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Should W Think Roberts Was A "Damn Fool Mistake"?


Democrats and the Long GameMost pundits believe that when every Democratic candidate raised his/her

hand when asked if they would support healthcare for illegal immigrants, it was the death knell for the Dirty Dems’ chances in 2020. And they’re probably right. Even so, from what we’ve witnessed to date, there are certain to be many more excellent reasons not to vote for a Democrat in 2020.

Time to celebrate? Not so fast. The sad irony is that the Democrats have already won the illegal immigration battle. Sure, they’re virtually certain to lose big in 2020, but a foundational strategy of the Marxist movement is to play the long game. To the Dirty Dems, losing today is nothing more than a speed bump along the way to long-term success.

It’s been nearly 175 years since Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto, but even after experiencing one socialist/communist failure after another, the Radical Left continues to move relentlessly forward. How different the world might be if conservatives possessed such grit and determination.

The ongoing debate over illegal immigration is just one good example of how the Dirty Dems play the long game. It begins with a false premise, namely, that Congressmen and women were elected to do everything possible to improve the lives of those who come to the United States illegally. That’s right, to listen to the swamp creatures talk (yes, Republicans included), one would be led to believe that you and I want our representatives to focus not on making our lives better, but on making the lives of illegals better.

While there’s no question that the hateful Democratic presidential hopefuls truly believe this to be their mandate, it’s safe to say that at least 63 million voters do not. In my October 26, 2018 article, “Fake Caravans and Decision Time for America,” I alluded to what I believe tens of millions of voters really do want, to wit: Any undocumented person arriving at any border of the United States, regardless of age, sex, or country of origin, should be refused entry into the country, no questions asked. No debate. No court rulings. End of discussion.

Plain and simple, the reason we call them illegals is because they are — Duh! — here illegally! Meaning they are in violation of U.S. law. It has nothing to do with age. Whether someone is seventy or seven, whether they are labeled “DACA” or some other catchy acronym, it doesn’t change the fact that they are in the United States illegally. If you buy into the argument that children who are here illegally should not be held responsible because it was their parents who brought them here, you are unthinkingly agreeing to open borders.

Think about it. If you’re allowed to stay in the United States just because someone else brought you here, what it really does is assure an endless flow of illegal immigrants. It gives too much of an incentive for parents to take whatever risks necessary to get their children onto U.S. soil.

The question that no open-borders advocate has ever answered is, How many illegals should be allowed into the United States? 100 million? 500 million? One billion? Where does it end? When the United States finally becomes one of the most undesirable countries in the world to live in?

If Republicans were really serious about solving the border crisis, they would come up with legislation that would cut off 100 percent of government benefits to illegals, overturn the ridiculous asylum laws and the 72-hour release scam, and require that all — repeat, all — people who are here illegally be rounded up and deported. No exceptions.

Republicans are giddy over the fact that so many Democrats — including those in the FNM — now admit there is a crisis at the border. But it’s a mistake to be lulled into a false sense of security by their admission, because the crisis they are referring to is a “humanitarian crisis,” not an illegal-entry crisis.

To them, if fascist Donald Trump and Republican meanies would just allow everyone to come and live in the United States without applying for citizenship, there would be no humanitarian crisis. That’s right, you, I, Donald Trump, and all his supporters are the real cause of the crisis — humanitarian crisis, that is.

Sure, it’s absurd, but the reality is that the Radical Left is getting away with it. The so-called humanitarian crisis on our border is a manufactured crisis. Democrats have created it not only by welcoming undocumented foreigners to cross our Southern border illegally, but by enticing them to do so by offering

them ever-greater government benefits.And guess who has bought into this manufactured crisis? If you guessed

unprincipled, weak-kneed Republicans, you’re right. This is the long game Democrats play in order to get Republicans to give in to what they really want: Divert attention from the real problem by getting Republicans to accept a false premise — that helping illegals to have better lives is a top priority for most Americans — then keep moving the goal posts.

The bottom line is that swamp creatures don’t care about the wants and needs of Americans. For them, the big question is, What can we do to ease the pain of those flouting our immigration laws? More bedding? You got it. Healthier food? You got it. More comfortable holding facilities? You got it.

The need to treat illegals better than Americans, to give them more of everything, to apologize for America’s privilege, knows no bounds. Because we are a flawed people, there is no limit to what we should be willing to do to atone for our sins.

Thus, the $4.5 billion emergency border-aid bill passed by the House is not intended to make your life better. Nor is it to stop illegal immigration. It is to ease the pain of those who are already here illegally and those who continue to come to the United States illegally every day. It’s for mattresses, diapers, food — whatever our uninvited guests require.

In the meantime, more than a half-million people sleep in the streets of America every night and millions of other Americans are forced into bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills. And, of course, the United States is $22 trillion in debt and headed for bankruptcy — or, worse, runaway inflation. But none of this matters to the Radical Left. The only thing politicians are concerned about is tending to the needs of illegal immigrants.

Give Barack Obama credit for one thing, he actually succeeded in fundamentally transforming the United States of America. After all, before 2008 no one could have imagined every Democratic candidate for president openly advocating for socialism … or open borders … or infanticide … or reparations … or sanctuary cities … or abolishing ICE … or cancellation of student debt … et al. The fact that these anti-American, anti-liberty ideas are now being openly promoted is de facto proof that America has already been fundamentally transformed.

Fundamentally transformed, but not yet irreversibly transformed. There is still time to go back to our roots. But if the uninformed masses ever succeed in electing another Democratic president, there will be no turning back, no more United States of America as we once knew it. The geography will be the same, but the culture will be savage rather than civilized. The shining city on the hill will be no more.

A rational person might say that if voters are that ignorant, they deserve the government they get. Which is true. But what about the millions of Americans like you and me who believe in liberty and reject the politics of division and hate? Do we deserve the government low-information voters elect?

That said, I’m not concerned about the buffoons on the Democratic debate stage. I find it hard to believe that any of them can win the Democratic nomination anyway. What I am concerned about is the millions of Americans who are so uninformed, or misinformed, that they wouldn’t be able to pass the LeBron Literacy Test even if they were allowed to cheat.

So long as millions of information-challenged men and women have the right to vote, we are going to move ever closer to that one election that will make America’s fundamental transformation permanent. The only hope is to find a way to educate the walking dead among us.

If you have a solution to this problem, now is the time to step forward and present it. ROBERT RINGERRobert Ringer (© 2019)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

Commentary: Robert Ringer

Price Controls on Drugs Limit Access More Than Price

Congressional Democrats want to fundamentally transform Medicare by imposing socialist price controls on prescription drugs. But they know such drastic changes would be dead-on-arrival in the Republican-held Senate.

In the meantime, some of them are coalescing behind a more moderate-sounding proposal that would achieve a similar result.

This proposal, known as “binding arbitration,” would allow government-appointed arbitrators to dictate, er “negotiate,” drug prices.

Currently, Medicare pays for drugs in different ways. Medicines that patients buy from pharmacies are generally covered through Medicare Part D, which relies on private health insurers that negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies.

Medicare Part B covers advanced medicines often administered in hospitals and doctor’s offices. Physicians and hospitals buy the drugs at market prices, then bill Medicare for reimbursement.

Prices in both programs are determined via negotiations between private entities. As a result, Medicare patients have access to almost all drugs, including the newest, cutting-edge medications. The proposed arbitration process would be entirely different.

The basic idea is that a drug manufacturer would propose a price for its brand name drug. The government would also propose a price, which would almost certainly be less.

If the government and company couldn’t agree, the government would appoint an arbitrator to determine the price. Both parties would have to

accept.In other words, the government would dictate, not negotiate, the

price. In this case, arbitration is just an indirect form of government price controls.

The proposal would harm innovation. Developing a new drug is expensive and time-consuming. It typically

takes about 10 years for a drug to move from inception to ingestion. The process costs on average about $1.7 billion out of pocket. And only about 20 percent of drugs that receive Food and Drug Administration approval generate enough revenue to offset their research and development costs.

Arbitration would make it much harder for manufacturers to earn a return on their investments. Medicare is a major purchaser of pharmaceuticals. If the program pays below-market prices for drugs, investors would have little reason to continue funding research and development.

Fortunately, as FDA administrator, Dr. Scott Gottlieb took several steps to ramp up market competition, which is the best way to drive prices down without stifling innovation.

Just look at what happened to a certain class of hepatitis C medicines. When the first drug was released in 2013, it was expensive. But over the next four years, as five competitors came to market, the average price of those drugs dropped nearly 70 percent.

If lawmakers want to cut drug spending without leaving patients in the lurch, they’d be wise to foster more competition in the drug marketplace. Price controls are more about limiting access than price. MERRILL MATTHEWSMerrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @MerrillMatthews.


Commentary: Merrill Matthews


Closing Gender Wage Gap Through Immigration Reform

Technology firms portray themselves as bastions of equality and progressive values — but in reality, they frequently discriminate against female workers.

Sixty percent of the time, tech firms offer men higher salaries than women for the exact same role. And that’s assuming firms even interview female candidates. More than 40 percent of the time, firms exclusively interview men.

Once they accept job offers, 65 percent of female tech workers say they’ve faced discrimination due to their gender, compared to just 11 percent of men.

Federal immigration policy fuels this discrimination. The H-1B visa program enables tech firms to hire tens of thousands of foreign, mostly male programmers each year — and box out American women in the process.

The tech industry is responsible for some of the starkest gender inequities in the nation. Women account for only 26 percent of America’s computing workforce and fill a mere 11 percent of the leadership positions at tech companies.

These disparities can’t be chalked up to a lack of technical training. Female graduates outnumber male graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

But these accomplishments haven’t translated into gainful employment. Even among female computer science majors, only 38 percent are employed in computer jobs — compared to 53 percent of male computer

science majors. The H-1B visa program is largely to blame. Congress created the

program in 1990 so firms could bring in highly specialized foreigners to fill jobs that Americans couldn’t.

Tech companies haven’t used H-1B visas to close skills gaps – they’ve used them to slash payroll costs. Eighty percent of H-1B workers earn less than Americans in similar roles.

The sheer scale of the program has distorted the labor market. More than 900,000 H-1B visa holders — three-quarters of whom are men — work in the United States. They account for about one in every eight tech workers.

Competition from foreign laborers has driven Americans out of the tech industry and depressed their earnings. Had the H-1B program never existed, 11 percent more Americans would have been employed as computer scientists by 2001. And those Americans’ salaries would have been about 5 percent higher as well.

As long as tech companies can hire cheap guest workers, they’ll feel little pressure to hire American women and treat them fairly. Reforming the H-1B visa program would force employers to give women the pay and opportunities they deserve. FRANCINE WEINBERGFrancine Weinberg works in the tech industry.

Commentary: Francine Weinberg

www.pennypressnv.com

Hey You Morons At Nike: Betsey Ross Flag Not Used Until AFTER Slavery Was Outlawed!

Nike made major headlines and drew sharp criticism when it decided to nix a “Betsy Ross” flag design on a sneaker — 13 alternating red and white stripes with a field of blue in the upper left with 13 five-pointed white stars appearing in a circle — because it was thought of as a symbol of white supremacy by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

So the popular myth goes, in 1776, Betsy Ross single-handedly designed the first American flag with George Washington, who personally approved of it and took it into battle with him.

Since slavery was still allowed at the time, the social justice warriors (hereafter “SJWs”) at Nike reasoned, it symbolizes a time of oppression.

There’s only one problem. The “Betsy Ross” flag was not really popularized as being the original flag until 1876 for the 100-year celebration of independence — after slavery had been abolished in 1865 after the bloody Civil War. This is perhaps owed to Ross’ grandson in 1870, William J. Canby, presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that forms the basis of the claim based on a family oral tradition that he only learned of in 1857, which lent itself to the popular legend. When Harper’s New Monthly Magazine picked up the account in 1873, it reached a large audience for the first time. Come 1876, it was common to see the “Betsy Ross” flag.

But that is likely a coincidence. The Canby account does not mention the circular star pattern (or any pattern for the stars) at all. According to antique flag collector Jeff Bridgman, “Circular star patterns were a favorite in the period between the Civil War (1861-65) and the 100-year anniversary of our nation’s independence in 1876.”

In fact, the Flag Act of 1777 did not specify a layout for the official Stars and Stripes, and throughout the war various customized flags were in use depending on the militia or regiment. Although versions of such a circular display of stars design were in use during the Revolution, such as Washington’s Commander-in-Chief flag depicted in a 1779 portrait by Charles Willson Peale, those included six-pointed stars on a field of blue and no stripes.

The earliest reference may have been a 1792 painting after the war by John Trumbull, although the number of points on the star is not clear (Ross’ innovation was said to be switching to the five-pointed star) and looking closely there only appear to be 11 stars (probably owing to the relatively tiny space on the canvas dedicated to the flag), but may have simply been an innovation of the flag shown in Peale’s portrait.

Later paintings, such as “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emmanuel Leutze in 1851, clearly shows the classic “Betsy Ross” design with the five-pointed stars, indicating some usage prior to Canby’s paper but still long after the Revolution. However, the popularity of the painting may have helped lend itself to the popularity of the design itself during the post-Civil War era.

As for when the circular star design itself became attributed to Betsy Ross, that might not have been until even later, in 1892, according Bridgman’s “New Constellation”exhibit at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Bridgman writes, “The first time that a star configuration gets attached to the Canby story apperas to have occurred during the last decade of the 19th century. In 1892, Charles Weisgerber painted a nine-by-twelve-foot rendition of the fabled meeting between Betsy and George Washington, in which there is a flag with a circular wreath. In 1898, Weisgerber and a ‘group of concerned citizens’ sought to preserve Betsy’s former Philadelphia residence at 239 Arch Street, where she lived at the time the flag would theoretically have been sewed. Weisgeber moved his family into the house and immediately opened to the public the room in which Betsy was said to have worked her magic. Ten-cent memberships were sold to

fund renovations and donors received a small calendar, to which a cotton 13-star Betsy Ross pattern parade flag was affixed.”

Adding to the legend, per Bridgman, “In that same year, Rachel Abright, Betsy’s granddaughter, began making little hand-sewn flags in the east wing of Independence Hall and selling them to tourists, while at the same time disseminating family folklore. Sometime around 1902, Abright’s daughter, Saraha M. Wilson, joined her mother in this venture, producing her own flags. She may have, in fact, been assisting all along, inscribing signatures and dates on the hoist buildings of the flags for her mother, who could certainly sew with expert precision, yet may have been unable to write legibly. Albright and Wilson proudly proclaimed that a circular wreath pattern was the design of the very first flag, in 1777, but no hard evidence exists to substantiate it.”

The “Betsy Ross” design was never officially adopted by the U.S. government. The first flag adopted was designed likely by Francis Hopkinson, a member of the Continental Congress who also signed the Declaration of Independence. Hopkinson is credited with helping to design the Great Seal and U.S. currency. In 1780, Hopkinson had requested payment from the Board of Admiralty for his design of the “flag of the United States of America” in exchange for some wine. However, Congress refused him, on the grounds that others had helped contribute to the design. From 1777 to 1795, the flag appears to have had stars that were staggered, not in a circle, although many designs were used. The fact is, no official configuration of the flag existed until 1912, when President William Howard Taft issued Executive Order 1556.

As for the historical Betsy Ross, some of the historical documentation does confirm she was a flag-maker. For example, she made flags for the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for ship’s colors based on receipts from that time. Whether she designed the circle stars design personally with the aid of George Washington, however, though relies solely on her grandson’s account almost a century later.

Meaning, the SJWs at Nike canceled a product based on a legendary recounting of history that may not even be accurate and is most certainly misplaced. When the “Betsy Ross” flag reached the height of its popularity was in a post-Reconstruction America where slavery had already been abolished.

This revisionism is disgraceful.The official Stars and Stripes, regardless of one’s views about slavery, was

most certainly the flag that was flown by the Union in the Civil War. It was the same flag that William Carney, the first black recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, rescued on July 18, 1863, at Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Carney had noticed the man carrying the flag was wounded, and he carried it in his stead and upon returning it to his regiment, reportedly stated, “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.” Carney fought with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the state’s first all-black regiment.

Nobody should be ashamed to fly the Stars and Stripes this July 4, whether it’s the “Betsy Ross” design or otherwise. That is the flag men and women have fought and died for the cause of liberty since the founding of the republic.

In any event, the flag for the purposes of July 4 is about the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that adopted the eternal proclamation that “all men are created equal” that would form the basis of Abraham Lincoln’s denunciation of slaveryin the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Meaning without the Declaration, without the American Revolution, and Lincoln is never inspired to take up the cause of abolition, he never rises to fame nationally, and is not elected President in 1860.

Here is what Lincoln said about the American flag on Feb. 16, 1861 on the eve of the Civil War at Dunkirk, New York: “I stand by the flag of the Union, and all I ask of you is that you stand by me as long as I stand by it.”

Abraham Lincoln never gave up in the Civil War nor on the question of abolition and certainly not on the Union and the flag that it represented. Why have Nike and Colin Kaepernick? ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.


Commentary: Robert Romano

The Comical Return of Li’l NatePolitical gadflies, like bad pennies, keep turning up. The latest…A little dweeb named Nathan Taylor says he’s running against Nevada

State Sen. Pete Goicoechea in the GOP primary next year for District 19. Fool’s errand. By a certifiable fool. But in case Li’l Nate’s name

doesn’t ring a bell, here’s a refresher course from a Las Vegas Sun story back in July 2005…

“Nevada’s chapter of the Young Republicans has basically imploded, leaving its chairman with up to $25,000 in personal debt and allegations that he mishandled money.

“All but three people have resigned from the statewide group, but the fallout could prove increasingly embarrassing to the entire state Republican Party.

“Today, the chairman of the group, Reno resident Nathan Taylor, plans to hold a press conference attacking three of the state’s party leaders — Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter.

“Taylor argues that the state’s Republican delegation should have helped him fund the national Young Republican convention held last week at Mandalay Bay. ‘I’ve got bills at the hotel I can’t pay,’ said Taylor, a 29-year-old political science senior at UNR…”

Epic fail.In addition, I have some longtime personal experiences with Li’l Nate

- who I once characterized as “a hot-head who can’t hold his liquor; even those girlie pink Cosmos with the little umbrellas in them.”

Subtle, I’m not.Here’s what I wrote about this goofball in March 2009…“I paid to send this wet-behind-the-ears, fresh-out-of-high-school

Eddie Haskell wannabe to a professional Campaign Management School in Washington, DC about a dozen years ago – something I’ve done for a number of Nevada GOP activists over the years.

“But at the last minute, Li’l Nate apparently got butterflies in his belly over the thought of a sleep-over in our nation’s capital without his Teddy Bear, so he backed out of the trip – sticking me with the bill - and told me he already knew it all anyway.”

Welp.A couple months later I recounted an Election Night bathroom story

I’d heard about Li’l Nate…“Seems Nathan got pretty drunk at a Stavros Anthony celebration

after his city council win on election night last week and followed Dave Williams, the Clark County Republican Party vice chairman, into the bathroom. He was taunting Dave about being an officer of the CCRP while Dave was trying to take a leak. Apparently Nathan wouldn’t let up and was harassing Dave the whole time in there and acting like a blithering drunken fool.

“Nathan also – and this is the funny thing – got into a fight, literally, with a guy named Cory (a Stavros Anthony volunteer) when Cory walked into the bathroom and saw what was going on. The fight started in the bathroom and continued out into the bar – to the point where the bartender had to literally physically subdue Taylor. He was thrown out of the place.

Witnesses say Taylor made an utter and complete ass of himself, to where nobody wants to have anything to do with him now.”

A week later, the Clark County GOP held a meeting to consider issuing a censure of Republican legislators who voted for the massive 2009 tax hike package – including a bunch of “temporary” tax hikes that former RINO Gov.Brian Sandoval later made permanent.

At the meeting, Li’l Nate, the RINO Whisperer, went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs over the resolution and almost got his clocked cleaned by a young woman in attendance before security ushered him out the door.

Anyway, the Man Who Loves Tax-Hikers then ran for State Assembly District 13 in 2010. Naturally, he refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. And came in third in the GOP primary.

Since then he’s been a goofball local lobbyist. And now he wants to be a state senator.

Sen. Goicoechea is a moderate who once suggested taxing groceries. So he’s not exactly high on my list.

But if the alternative is this Li’l Nate clown, I’ll go with “Tax My Meat Pete.” CHUCK MUTH(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com. He blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.)


Commentary: Chuck Muth


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