Update: Rush asks a pertinent question.

For those of you who were pinning your hopes on Luis Guttierez’s gringo pal, we have some bad news for you. As the inestimable Senator Sessions explains in the video above, and Mickey Kaus has pointed out in meticulous detail on his Twitter account since this accord was reached, we are screwed. In addition to being atrocious on its face, the omnibus also entrenches the worst aspects of this administration’s horrific immigration policy, including funding for its refugee resettlement plan, support for its illegal administrative amnesty, and an expansion of the notorious H1B visa program.

In short, a complete and utter disaster. Thank you, House Freedom Caucus.

Apparently, it’s not burning so brightly these days. Maybe we shouldn’t have left it in the care of a group of self-styled rebels in the House of Representatives. Mickey Kaus has a fantastic deconstruction of how presumptive Speaker Paul Ryan took the House Freedom Caucus without firing a shot.

One of the mainstays of the Fox News Channel, like every other media property controlled by Rupert Murdoch, is its unstinting support of mass immigration. Granted, Lou Dobbs does have a show on Fox Business, and there are occasional appearances-and even guest hosting spots-for immigration patriots such as Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham, but that does not alter the fact that the talking heads on FNC mostly skirt the most important issue facing the American electorate going forward. We were reminded of the mind-numbing uniformity of opinion on this subject this week, as Fox news pundit and Weekly Standard alum Tucker Carlson fired Mickey Kaus, perhaps the only reason-with the possible exception of Neil Munro-someone would read The Daily Caller in the first place. The capital offense in this case was, naturally, pointing out Rupert Murdoch’s slavish devotion to open borders and its toxic effect upon the coverage of immigration issues by Fox News correspondents.

And so the media blacklisting that began in earnest with exile of Peter Brimelow for speaking unpalatable truths has cascaded down to ostensibly conservative Internet publications that abandon principle when it conflicts with the aims of rich Australian tycoons. And so the agora shrinks even further, thanks to well-heeled treason lobby. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One of the recurring themes of Jeb Bush’s political life is his low estimation of American citizens, especially those of the native-born kind. Whether he’s pontificating idiotically on the fecundity of border-crossers, or disparaging our entrepreneurial zeal, Dubya’s younger brother never fails to miss an opportunity to gratuitously bash the people whose votes he presumably seeks in next year’s presidential election. Although his recent comments pertaining to immigration are not quite as incendiary as some past remarks, they do reveal a mindset which has not evolved in any tangible sense over the past several decades he’s devoted to public life. 

Numbers USA has a very astute analysis of Jeb’s White House trial balloon, which essentially consists of belittling the competence and dismissing the aspirations of American workers, albeit in a slightly less obtuse manner than is customary for him. The fundamental problem is that Bush has not reconsidered any of the hackneyed ideas he outlined in the ghostwritten campaign book he co-authored with fellow open borders enthusiast Clint Bolick. Although asking him to recant some of his most cherished dogmas out of political expediency would be an absurd expectation, the fact that he hasn’t seen fit to even question the wisdom of legislative amnesty in the wake of the most lawless and blatantly unconstitutional actions of any White House in recent memory gives you an idea of where immigration patriots stand in the eyes of the GOP’s frontrunners.

We can only hope the pool of Republican presidential candidates appreciates in quality before it’s too late.

In a gubernatorial race where both candidates are to a greater or lesser degree beholden to the open borders lobby, notwithstanding the requisite pre-election posturing of the GOP standard-bearer, a genuine debate about the impact of  mass immigration upon California has not materialized, alas. Even so, the public policies which have irrevocably transformed the Golden State over the past three decades continue to be felt by ordinary Californians and scrutinized by academic scholars. Both groups can’t help but recognize the devastating impact that generations of illegal migration and low-skilled immigration have had upon a state which once served as the sum of hopes for Americans throughout this country, but no longer.

It’s not surprising with findings such as those by researchers at USC, who have concluded that up to ten percent of the California workforce is comprised exclusively of illegal immigrants. Two of the fields in which they exercise the most economic dislocation are, naturally enough, the construction and agricultural industry. However, the notion that the one and a half million unemployed Californians are simply shut out of these jobs-whose pay scale has been perpetually degraded by years of unfettered illegal immigration-is misleading. Beyond question of legality, the impact of mass immigration upon the working age population in California, the epicenter of technological innovation in the United States, has made itself felt in much more lucrative fields, as the scads of unemployed graduates in STEM fields can attest to.

Oddly enough, a legal amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens gainfully employed in that state would probably not lead to any increase in wages for those at the bottom of the labor market, as the Public Policy Institute of California has demonstrated. The very forces that attracted these workers to the United States, i.e. employers looking to find an unlimited supply of cheap labor and a government unwilling to enforce the law, ensure that they will remain mired in poverty for the remainder of their working lives. Unfortunately, the future of this country can be seen in the present of California, where hardly anyone benefits-and scores suffer-save for a few politically powerful corporate and political interests vested in a system that ensures the gradual degradation of the body politic and its economy.

The mendacity of our current administration is at times stunning, even for those of us who should by now have become inured to the lies regurgitated by the Obama administration and its factotums for the better part of two terms. The disavowals by La Raza graduate Cecilia Munoz and village idiot Joe Biden notwithstanding, the systematic emigration of unaccompanied minors from their homelands to the southwestern United States is nothing if not a ploy designed by those in power to destroy whatever prophylactic measures the government currently takes to prevent the complete dissolution of our nation’s system of border controls. 

-You need look no further than ICE itself, whose bureaucrats acknowledge that a contract request to escort these youths was publicly advertised as early as the beginning of this year to realize how fatuous the current administration’s protestations of innocence are. The fact that this crisis is completely and utterly contrived seems not to have dissuaded the usual suspects in the mainstream  news media from putting the most appealing face on what has become an untrammeled invasion. Perhaps predictably, the fact that those tasked with protecting our nation’s security are now the functional equivalent of babysitters to carriers of lethal, communicable diseases has only exacerbated the existing tendency among press outlets to treat every breakdown of public order and security risk as a vessel for the classic illegal immigrant sob story.

-That the public is being largely denied pertinent information about the risks posed by these cherubic children-or a rational debate over whether surviving custodians/parents are practicing child abuse by forcing them to make a potentially lethal, 120+ mile trek through the Mexican desert-should come as no surprise. While concerned citizens might be surprised to learn that many of these “unaccompanied minors” are in fact vicious gang members, the fact that this tidbit is being overlooked by every single national broadcast network is nothing new when it comes to immigration coverage, unfortunately. Even the question of whether these individuals are being released into the care of human traffickers is probably not going to be raised by reporters invested in the wholesale erasure of American sovereignty.

-What galls, however, is the deafening silence by the fourth estate regarding the manipulation of access to the detainment cells and way stations, including military bases, housing these uninvited guests from Central America. Naturally, any critics of this administration’s  calculatedly disastrous immigration policy are being denied entry to the facilities housing the latest cohort of illegal aliens, as Arizona Speaker Andy Tobin learned recently. Likewise, any reporters seeking to engage in journalism-not merely act as stenographers for LULAC or the ACLU-are obstructed from practicing their craft, even as the Border Patrol officers who would seek to assist them are threatened with prosecution by their superiors, a la Fast and Furious. Thus, the freedom of information whose death the press routinely sheds crocodile tears for ends, not with a bang, and barely a whimper from the credentialed hypocrites.

-In contrast to the brick wall greeting those few genuinely patriotic lawmakers and intrepid journalists seeking the truth, the Spanish-speaking subjects of so many glowing personal interest stories over the past month are being provided with the best in legal representation that your tax dollars can buy. Someone should inform President Obama and his sidekick that these star-studded legal teams are promising their clients amnesty, which is open to them through a variety of means, including the notoriously porous refugee resettlement program.

-These unaccompanied aliens-and presumably, the adults who are assisting their perilous voyage north-are acting upon an entirely rational, understandable impulse. Namely, to leave behind a third world life of desperate poverty and lack of security in order to live in a, relatively speaking, prosperous and safe environment-one in which attempts to circumscribe their access to any welfare program will be met with howls of rage by indignant, open borders fanatics. They’re doing so because they have concluded that they will not be deported to their countries of origin, and despite the disingenuous protestations to the contrary by this administration and its apparatchiks, this is a largely accurate assessment of the situation, as columnist Ross Douthat has pointed out in the pages of the New York Times.

News & Notes

-Perhaps predictably, the political earthquake that vaporized Eric Cantor’s future career arc  doesn’t seem to have reached the denizens of Capitol Hill, K Street, or the White House. Valerie Jarrett’s recent comments about Rupert Murdoch and Dave Brat only serve to underscore the cosmic disconnect between those who make their living manipulating the political process in order to serve their financial and political interests and the people throughout the country laboring to sate their avarice. Unfortunately, just as we seem to be stuck with Murdoch, there is no prospect of Ms. Jarrett returning to Iran any time in the near future. GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, unlike his Australian counterpart, was actually born in the United States, therefore should presumably have a deeper attachment to American sovereignty and the quality of life of this nation’s citizens. Unfortunately, as Breitbart reports, that is simply not the case.

-One group that passionately detests the United States-at least, as it’s currently constituted-is the National Council of La Raza. Shockingly, they seem to have drawn all the wrong conclusions from Eric Cantor’s epic primary defeat, demonstrating yet again the utter futility of hispandering in  hopes of garnering that ever-elusive, much-heralded latino vote. One man who does not tailor his message in order to appeal to segmented ethnic groups is the gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo, a man whose praises we have sung repeatedly on this website. Of course, the open borders elites who control the GOP machinery despise Congressman Tancredo, which is all the more reason registered Republicans in the state of Colorado should go out and vote for him in today’s primary.

And with that important admonition, we conclude today’s Daily Rattle.

Update: Roy Beck’s statement regarding the results in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District is now available online. 

The only question that remains is whether the heretofore tone deaf GOP leadership in the House of Representatives is listening.

We, like many patriotic Americans of every partisan affiliation, are celebrating the defeat of soon to be ex-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in yesterday’s Republican Party primary. The reaction of the open borders elites seeking to downplay the magnitude of this historic event has been all-too-predictable. Cantor’s corporate benefactors are already trying to orchestrate their next move in an ongoing attempt to flood this nation with millions of unskilled workers, while the drive-by media is doing its best to obfuscate the actual issues which animated Dave Brat’s successful campaign.

As Rush Limbaugh explained on his radio broadcast today, this victory-although sweet-is no excuse for letting down our guard. Just as we were assured that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts doomed Obamacare, now we are told that congressional support for immigration reform, i.e. amnesty, has evaporated. Don’t buy into the hype! The campaign to force amnesty down the throats of the American public will only accelerate now that Luis Gutierrez’s companero has been removed from his comfy perch in Congress.

This isn’t the time for a victory lap, but for continued vigilance in the face of an open borders behemoth which will seek to extract revenge-primarily upon the American public-for this ignominious defeat.

Marketwatch clues us in. 

It’s unequivocally good news for investors: More immigration equals cheaper labor, whether that’s provided for picking corn or processing computer code, with a possible rise in aggregate demand to boot. 

It’s likely good for the broader economy, though the benefits flow mostly to the rich. In a study that the White House cites in apaper about immigration , the average wage gains over 14 years were 0.2% for native-born high-school dropouts and 6.7% for native-born workers with a high-school degree. Another study , again one the White House cites, finds wages dropping 8.9% among high-school dropouts over 20 years.

Thankfully, as the invaluable Mickey Kaus points out, there is something you can do about this! You can find out what that is below the fold. 

Who might stop it and why:

–McKeon– He may not want to be remembered, in retirement, for starting a donnybrook that costs Republicans seats. His office phone number is 202 225 1956. The Armed Services Committee is 202 225 4151.

–Goodlatte might defend his committee’s jurisdiction (as he did last year). Don’t count on it, though. Goodlatte’s been going along with the amnesty plans of the House leadership, expressing support for some kind of deal. His phone numbers are 202 225 5431 (his office) or 202 225 3951 (Judiciary Committee).

–McCarthy: He’s obviously scared of something, otherwise he’d have been pushing openly for amnesty instead of operating through surrogates.  Maybe he can be more scared.  His office is 202 225 2915.

–Boehner:  202 225 0600 (Speaker’s office), 202 225 6205 (his regular member’s office). Boehner probably wants another term as Speaker, in which case he is susceptible to pressure not to betray his Hastert Rule pledge. But he may retire–especially if Republicans don’t regain the Senate, in which case it might make more sense to focus on …

–Cantor: Cantor wants to be Speaker one day– one day soon. He would probably stop his amnesty campaign instantly if he were persuaded it would scuttle his Speakership chances by convincing a large segment of his caucus that he’s a pointless sack of ambition an unreliable conservative.  His numbers are 202 225 2815 or 202 225 4000.

Members are, as always, surprisingly sensitive to telephone calls…