NJ Mayor Arrested
This week, Newark Mayor and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Ras Baraka (D) entered the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center and asserted "this facility cannot be legally operated in Newark. Newark is a sanctuary city that welcomes immigrants. The planned living conditions at Delaney Hall do not fulfill the standards we require for these new Americans. ICE wants to lock them up in cages. We insist upon hotel accommodations."
Acting US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba pointed out that "so-called 'sanctuary cities' contradict federal law. They may have been tolerated under the lawless Biden Administration, but there is no legitimate basis for Mayor Baraka to trespass and seek to impede ICE's lawful operation of the Delaney Hall detention center. He was warned multiple times that his actions at Delaney Hall were interfering with these lawful operations. His refusal to heed these warnings led to his arrest."
Three Democrat members of New Jersey's Congressional delegation--Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman--were taking a prearranged tour of Delaney Hall that the Mayor attempted to join to gain entry to the facility.
Rep. McIver expressed her outrage at the treatment they and the Mayor received, saying "an ICE officer not only arrested the mayor of Newark, but he touched my elbow in the process. This type of assault on a member of Congress is yet another flagrant violation of due process from the Trump Administration. We all know that multiple federal district judges have invalidated virtually every action Trump has taken in his effort to fulfill his campaign promise to deport these innocent new Americans. None of them belong in prisons like Delaney Hall. All deserve to be free on their own recognizance until they get a fair trial on their right to stay here."
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claimed "my sit-in on the Capitol steps helped inspire these members of Congress to stand up for these people's right to travel freely to and within the United States. Once again, critics who call me a 'do nothing senator' have been proved wrong."
In related news, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) asserted that "Trump's claim that he can deport these folks is unconstitutional. Our Constitution's Sixth Amendment requires that everyone accused of illegally entering our country is innocent until proven guilty by as jury of his peers, which in this case, I would presume must be made up of other persons accused of entering the United States illegally. Trump is flouting this right and deserves to be impeached. Polls show he is so unpopular that folks will be glad to see him be removed from office."
Pelosi's Hope for the New Pope
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi appeared on MSNBC's "Chris Jansing Reports" to express her hope that "people of good faith listen to the words, both of our elected officials, when they say what they say about the need to respect immigrants. This new pope is acutely aware of conditions forcing the migration of vulnerable migrants. With so many people looking to him for guidance, I hope he will be impactful as a moral and ethical voice on that issue."
Jansing asked "would you say that Pope Leo's words would effectively rebut Vice-President Vance's assertion that care for the rest of the world came in last after family, neighbor, community, and fellow citizens?"
"I most certainly would," Pelosi replied. "The Pope has been God's representative on Earth for 2,000 years. Mr. Vance is only an ephemeral representative of a political faction that's been around for less than a decade. How could any sane person side with him over the Pope?"
Vice-President Vance pointed out that "every pope has clearly condemned abortion. Yet, the former Speaker of the House has steadfastly supported the legalization and public funding of murdering these yet-to-be born human beings. Our opposition to unrestrained immigration is founded on the very practical consideration that the resources of America are not sufficient to care for the needs of every person who would like to live here. We are in favor of an immigration system that allows honest people who want to work for a better life to legally enter our country."
Pelosi scoffed at Vance's "lack of faith. Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Our federal government has the legal authority to create an unlimited amount of money. Over the duration of the Biden Administration enough money was created to feed and house millions of new immigrants while simultaneously terminating millions of unwanted pregnancies. I see no good reason why the Trump Administration cannot continue those successful policies."
Good Oligarchy vs. Bad Oligarchy
For many weeks now, self-identified democratic-socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have been jetting around the country in private aircraft for their their "Fighting Oligarchy Tour." Federal Election Commission reports show that this campaign has spent more than $221,000 on private jet travel in the first quarter of 2025.
Fox News' "Special Report" host Bret Baier asked "don't these private flights cost around $15,000 per hour? Isn't this the way that oligarchs travel?"
"Yes it is," Sanders admitted. "Fortunately, not all oligarchs are bad people. Some of them are earning brownie points by funding the needs of those of us who are fighting for socialism. You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. That's the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. You think I'm gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United while 30,000 people are waiting for me?"
"I, myself, might be considered an oligarch," Sanders continued. "I own three homes. I'm a millionaire. However, my campaign for socialism demonstrates that I, like George Soros, am one of the good guys. When you are on the right side of history you have the right to do whatever it takes to smash the capitalist system and bring about the revolution that Marx advocated for ending economic injustice in the world. This means wresting political power out of the hands of bad oligarchs like Trump and Musk and putting it into the hands of the dictatorship of the proletariat--folks like Alexandria and me."
Rubio Rescues Hostages
In 2023, María Corina Machado won the nomination as the Unity Democratic Platform candidate for the presidency in Venezuela. The Maduro government invalidated this election. Edmundo González Urrutia took her place on the July 2024 ballot. According to non-government sources, he got 70% of the votes in the Venezuelan presidential election to 30% for incumbent Nicolás Maduro Moros. However, Maduro declared himself the winner. There were massive public protests against Maduro's usurpation. Thousands were arrested. Maria went into hiding. Edmundo sought and was granted asylum in Spain. Five top aides of the Unity Democratic Platform Party were granted asylum by the Argentine embassy where they have been besieged by the Maduro government for many months.
This week, under orders from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, these top aides were rescued by elite US forces. They are now in the United States. The Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yván Eduardo Gil Pinto has demanded their return calling their removal from our country "a violation of our national sovereignty. They are election deniers who must be returned to face justice for their crimes."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called for "an investigation of this invasion of foreign territory. How would we have responded if some other country's commandos had invaded our country and spirited away some of the January 6 insurrectionists? Can Democrats be expected to sit idly by and allow the Trump Department of State to trample the rights of a foreign government that's just trying to uphold its election integrity? Also, if our government can send so-called 'elite forces' to rescue these Venezuelans I wonder why such an audacious operation can't be used to rescue Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador? We need to find a federal judge who will restore justice to these two situations."
One indication that the Maduro government was undermining rather than upholding its election integrity is the fact that the Venezuelan Parliament condemned "Maduro's electoral fraud and his serious and systematic human rights violations perpetrated against the democratic opposition, the Venezuelan people, and civil society." Another is the awarding of the 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia "for their brave fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela."
In related news, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the deportation of Tren de Aragua gang members by the Trump Administration saying "in our country all men are created equal, and are endowed with certain unalienable rights, which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Since the current government of Venezuela considers these individuals to be criminals, sending them back there would endanger all of these rights and would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for persons whose only alleged crime is entering the country without proper permission, because as Rep. Jasmine Crockett has so sagely reminded us, 'it is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally.'"
"It's Too Hard to Build Things in America Because of Excessive Regulations"
Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg predicted that "Trump's efforts to restore American manufacturing will fail because excessive regulations make it too hard to build things in this country. From my time as Secretary of the USDOT I learned that everything goes over budget and takes far longer than it should because of regulations like the rules mandating that 40% of the benefits go to 'under-served' minorities."
President Biden established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council whose job is to ensure that the voices, perspectives, and lived realities of communities with environmental justice concerns are heard in the White House and reflected in federal policies, investments, and decisions. So, unless President Trump has disbanded this Council--and I haven't heard that he has--it will at least delay and may well thwart his intent to use tariffs to spark a revitalization of the 'made in the USA' phenomenon."
"As an example, take our $42 billion expenditure on rural broadband over the four years of the Biden Administration," Buttigieg suggested. "We didn't connect a single American because of insane regulations like 'prioritize the employment of justice-impacted people with criminal records to install broadband equipment. If a Biden Administration earnestly trying to achieve these equity goals failed I don't see how a Trump Administration that opposes these goals could possible succeed."
States Sue to Prevent Loss of Wind Subsidies
Eighteen states are suing the Trump Administration over the President's decision to end government subsidies to the firms that supply or operate the equipment needed to capture wind energy. New York State Attorney General Letitia James pointed out that "without these subsidies the wind industry cannot survive. The power generated by harnessing the wind is not cost-effective. Consumers are not willing to pay what it costs to generate this energy for their use. By cutting the subsidies this administration is devastating one of our nation's fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable and affordable energy."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright observed that "while wind power may be relatively clean as a source of energy it is neither reliable or affordable. The real cost per kilowatt of energy produced wind is far higher than it is for energy produced by burning natural gas or clean coal. And as we all saw from the nationwide blackout under Spain's wind-driven energy system it is not very reliable. International shipping used to be wind-powered, but the unreliability of the wind led to using coal, diesel, and nuclear power to move ships across the sea. The subsidies the President is discontinuing are a waste of the taxpayers' money."
James called Wright's perspective "heartless. The fact is that folks have made investments and taken jobs based on the assumption that the subsidies would continue. Taking them away now will cause real losses for these innocent victims of Trump's crusade to reduce government waste. America is the richest nation in world history. Surely we can tolerate a little bit of waste if we believe that we are saving the environment from irreversible climate change."
In related news, the FBI and US Attorney's Office in Albany have initiated a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud claims against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The accusation is that she made false statements on loan applications to obtain lower interest rates on a couple of properties she owns. Ironically, she has done the same thing she accused Trump of doing when she prosecuted him last year and obtained a verdict imposing a fine of more than $300 million on him. At that time she said "no one is above the law." Observers wonder whether that same view will be applied to her in this case.
