Dear Tucker, What the Heck Happened to the Daily Caller? Sucking up to Refugee Contractors!

10/18/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 8 Comments

Did you see the news that Democrat candidate for President Beto O’Rourke told an audience recently that he wanted to pull the tax exempt status of any religious organization that refused to perform gay marriages?

Yes Beto! Get rid of tax exempt status for some ‘religious charities’ but not for the reasons you suggest!

Well after having followed the fake non-profits hired by the feds to place refugees into unsuspecting towns and cities for over a decade, I have been thinking that we ought to pull the tax exempt status of any ‘religious’ group that operates in secrecy, gobbles up millions of tax payer dollars and then goes out and protests against the President (who is funding them!)….

….You know groups like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

But holy cow! I never expected to see the Daily Caller carrying the water for those federal refugee CONTRACTORS in order to take a swipe at Beto.

The Daily Caller, called by wikipedia a right wing media outfit started by Tucker Carlson in 2010, must be trying to suck up to the Left with this distorted piece about how much religious groups do to help the poor and struggling refugees coming into the US from the third world.

Go for it, help the poor refugees (ignoring vulnerable Americans!), but do it with your own private charitable resources—NOT WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS AND TAX EXEMPT STATUS!

[I just had a look at dozens of posts about the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the millions it receives from the federal government and came across this 2017 post where Tucker Carlson eviscerates the Bishop’s Washington, DC lobbyist! Clearly Carlson is ‘Tucker who?’ at the Daily Caller!]

So what got me fired up this morning?

It is this headline at the Daily Caller:

Religious Institutions Support Refugees, But Beto Wants To Take Away Their Tax-Exempt Status

What do you mean by “but?” I agree with Beto—take away their tax-exempt status! Of course, however, the young Catholic-educated reporter is referring to his statement about gay marriage.

Here are the opening two paragraphs in a report by Mary Margaret Olohan:

2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke wants to take away religious institution’s tax-exempt status if they will not perform same-sex marriages, but religious institutions make major contributions in helping refugees.

O’Rourke sparked backlash at CNN’s LGBTQ forum on Oct. 10 when he said that religious institutions that would not perform same-sex marriages should lose their tax-exempt status. He reiterated his statements Sunday, adding that this would apply to mosques and minority churches.

And, then she uses the supposed good works of two of nine refugee contractors to make her gushing points about how they help refugees and thus it’s an outrage for Beto (who loves refugees!) to suggest these benevolent politically Leftwing groups should lose tax exempt status.

Let me say it more clearly, it isn’t just that these ‘religious charities’ help refugees with taxpayer dollars, they promote illegal immigration and they actively protest on the streets against this President while living almost entirely on OUR US Treasury!

See Ms. Olohan’s credentials! https://dailycaller.com/author/Mary+Margaret+Olohan

You can read more from Ms. Mary Margaret Olohan, the Daily Caller‘s Social Issues reporter, yourself, but since she extols the virtues of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) as an example of a ‘religious charity’ making a major contribution to helping refugees (not American poor people!), I thought I would have a look at their most recent IRS Form 990.

[I mentioned the latest finances of the US Catholic Bishops here at ‘Frauds and Crooks.’]

First take a trip down memory lane and see this post about LIRS I wrote on Valentine’s day 2018:

Lutherans announce departure of CEO Hartke amid claims of financial irregularities, poor management

During the Obama years LIRS was 95% federally funded. According to the most recently available Form 990 (2018) they have slipped some and only received 87% of their funding from the US taxpayer—$41 million!

But here is the stunner! CEO Hartke was getting the heave-ho that year, but look at the salary she got going out the door! Over $400,000! That is about $80,000 more than the previous year! Pay-off?

This is largely your money!

Screenshot of a portion of the salaries page at LIRS 2018 IRS Form 990

What good is it if we have “right wing” media doing propaganda for Open Borders Inc?

So, I suggest Ms. Olohan do a little more research before picking which ‘religious charities’ to use as examples of virtue. And, btw, where was her editor?

Endnote: I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, but I’ve just spent a couple of hours (I don’t get paid!) doing research that salary-collecting reporters should be doing.

The transgressions of LIRS have been widely reported for years and even if she couldn’t find my work because WordPressdotcom killed RRW, Breitbart did do a bunch of stories on the financial scandal surrounding Hartke’s departure.

Reason Writer: Bring the Kurds to America as Refugees (WTH!)

10/16/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Reason, as many of you know is a Libertarian operation.

Here Reason senior analyst Shikha Dalmia makes the argument that we (America, you, the taxpayers!) could save the Kurds (Sunni Muslims) from the Turks by resettling them in our towns and cities.

Let the Kurds Come to America

Shikha Dalmia

America could safeguard Kurdish lives by offering them a quick way out and arrange their evacuation. There are less than a million Kurds in SDF-controlled Syria.

Even if they all came to the U.S., America could absorb them without breaking a sweat. And not all of them would even come. Kurds have been fighting for their own homeland ever since the European powers carved the Kurdish population into several pieces after World War I, handing each to Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. So many of them won’t abandon their struggle and flee. But Kurdish fighters may appreciate a safe haven for their spouses and children. The least America can do is give them that option.

Of course that will require Trump to lift his “Muslim” travel ban and revive America’s near-dead refugee program.

More here.

This is nuts as you will see if you take a minute and search for ‘Kurdish gangs in Nashville!‘

The inter-Islam conflicts of the Middle East that have gone on for centuries are not our problem!

CAIR, Church World Service, Others, Plan “Civil Disobedience” at US Capitol this Week

10/13/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 14 Comments

For new readers, Church World Service is one of the nine federal resettlement contractors with subcontractor office spread throughout the US. They receive millions of federal dollars amounting to 62% of their entire budget from you—the US taxpayer. See here.

Here they plan to join the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) on the Capitol steps looking to get arrested in a protest of the President’s refugee policy.

CWS CEO McCullough (annual salary $272,000) must enjoy being arrested. Here he is under arrest for an illegal protest of OBAMA’S DEPORTATION POLICIES in 2014. https://cwsglobal.org/cws-ceo-arrested-at-white-house-protesting-presidents-deportation-policies/

Press release from Amnesty USA:

FAITH LEADERS, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS, AND FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE STAGE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE FOR REFUGEES

On Tuesday, October 15th, 18 protestors–including heads of Amnesty International USA, America’s Voice, CAIR, and Church World Service, as well as a former Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration–will risk arrest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The leaders will wear life vests symbolizing the life-saving refugee resettlement program.

Faith communities, human rights groups, clergy, refugees, and refugee agencies will hold a major action on Capitol Hill as Secretary Pompeo meets with Congress to finalize the administration’s 80% cut to the refugee admissions program.

WHAT: Protest and Civil Disobedience Responding to Decimation of Refugee Resettlement

WHERE: Capitol Lawn Area 9, Constitution and First St NE

WHEN: Tuesday, October 15th at 1:00 PM

DETAILS: 18 protestors–including heads of Amnesty International USA, CAIR, America’s Voice and CWS–wearing life vests symbolizing the lives that could be saved or lost through the resettlement program will risk arrest on the steps of the US Capitol. Supporters will hold 95 photographs of refugees, a nod to the historic average refugee cap of 95,000.

LEADERS RISKING ARREST INCLUDE:

Anne C. Richard, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) [She’s back!—ed]

Margaret Huang, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

Rev. John L. McCullough, President and CEO of Church World Service

Nihad Awad, National Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations

From time to time, and like the Reverend McCullough, CAIR’s Nihad Awad seems to like being arrested on the Hill. Here he is in March of 2018 leading a protest, and, yes, Church World Service is there too. One trick ponies! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/03/07/linda-sarsour-cairs-top-gun-nihad-awad-and-imam-suleiman-among-those-arrested-on-capitol-hill-this-week/

Frank Sharry, Founder and Executive Director, America’s Voice

Sarnata Reynolds, former counsel for the House Judiciary Committee

OTHER SPEAKERS:

Sami Muya, a Refugee from Somalia separated from family members by anti-refugee policies

Endnote: I am so happy to have RRW back so history isn’t forgotten and images like those above can continue to be available for all to see.

You should take a minute and have a look at the church member congregations Church World Service is representing (see this post). Is your church among them?

Idaho Refugee Sob Story Sounds Fishy to me!

10/05/201910/05/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

My alerts are filled to the brim day after day with stories from around the US featuring a sob story for some refugee who won’t be able to reunite with a family member because there is a meany in the White House.

Inevitably a sad tale anchors a story which tells readers in a state—in this case Idaho—about how bad the Trump Administration’s proposed refugee ceiling of 18,000 is going to be on the refugee resettlement industry that derives most of its funding from the taxpayer—from you and me.

At least this story does mention the fact that federal funding is tied to the number of refugees admitted. But, I got a laugh when I saw that the report from Idaho Press uses the International Rescue Committee as the example of an agency singing the budgetary blues.

Heck! The IRC’s head honcho makes nearly a $1 million a year salary—a figure that has jumped at least a quarter of a million since Trump took office!

They simply can’t be that bad off!

Idaho IRC Director Tzul. https://www.eyeonsunvalley.com/Story_Reader/4359/Photographs-Chronicle-New-Step-for-Refugees/

The IRC’s Idaho representative Julianne Tzul told the Idaho Press:

Much of IRC’s funding comes from federal grants based on the number of refugees it serves, and Tzul expects to have “a wild ride to plan a budget when you don’t know if a major (funding) component is zero or is healthy.”

Still, Tzul said the agency has “no intention of going away.”

But, that isn’t the part that I want to tell you about. It is the part about their featured Iraqi refugee sob story.

(Virtually every article I’ve read in recent days features some family that has been separated. Instructions must have gone out to every resettlement office in America to find a family separation story to feed to the local press!).

Here is the headline of this one from Idaho:

What new refugee limit could mean for the Treasure Valley

BOISE — Under the Trump’s administration’s latest cap on refugee resettlement, Idaho refugees who have been separated from their families will likely have to wait longer to be reunited, and local resettlement agencies are expecting a dip in federal funding.

“We are going to see fewer refugees make it to Boise,” said Julianne Tzul, director of International Rescue Committee’s Boise office. “When total national numbers contract, they contract everywhere.”

The Trump administration last week announced an 18,000 cap on the number of refugees resettled in the U.S. this fiscal year, which started Tuesday. Trump’s final decision on the cap must include consultation with Congress, which could push for a higher total, according to the Associated Press.

Ahmed Al Abboodi wants his son to join him in Idaho, but Trump is standing in the way.

The historically low cap would affect people like Ali Al Abboodi, a 28-year-old from Baghdad who was separated from his family in 2014 while they were traveling to Boise to be resettled. His family has worked with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in trying to secure his entry into the U.S.

.[….]

After seven years in Syria, the family moved back to Iraq to await permission to become refugees in the United States. They received refugee status and flew to Boise in January 2014. Ali Al Abboodi’s case was separated from the rest of his family, but the plan was he would follow the family to Boise a few days later.

I want to know why wasn’t he with the family as they were shuffling around between Syria and Iraq? Why was his case separated as the family left for Boise?

And then this: Are we really expected to believe that someone just dying to be reunited with his family in the US missed TWO scheduled flights that would take him to America?

Idaho Press continues….

Ali Al Abboodi missed his first flight because of traffic and missed his second because of a car wreck, according to the family. After that, his case for refugee status was closed.

In 2017, Trump restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, further hindering Ali Al Abboodi’s ability to travel to the U.S.

Ahmed Al Abboodi did not let the travel bans stop him from trying to get his son to Boise. He met with Crapo with his caseworker, and urged the senator to help his family. Crapo helped reopen Ali Al Abboodi’s case for refugee status.

What do you think? I’m thinking there is more to this story than we are being told!

More here.

See my ever-expanding archive on ‘welcoming’ Idaho by clicking here.

Did You See the Pope’s New Statue? Guilt-Tripping the World Again?

10/04/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

No, not the one of the poor Italians in need of shelter and food, or the one of homeless veterans living on the streets of any major US city, or even the poor souls escaping the crumbling Communist economy in Venezuela?

It is a statue of migrants arriving with an angel in their midst to be welcomed wherever they decide has the best deal to supply their needs.

Migrants arrive with angels. Of course it is a political propaganda stunt!

Although the reporter, Erica Evans, at Deseret News gives her story a slight tilt toward the views of US federal resettlement contractors doing their usual spin about how they are driven entirely by their Christian zeal to help the stranger, she throws in some commentary from others who question the wisdom of hauling the third world (at great expense to taxpayers) to the first world every time there is a conflict somewhere on the globe.

The pope is making a statement about immigration with this new statue at the Vatican

SALT LAKE CITY — Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against exclusivist immigration policies and called for broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally at a time in which refugees are fleeing violent and unstable countries around the globe.

On Sunday, the Pope unveiled a new statue at the Vatican depicting 140 migrants and refugees traveling on a boat. He counseled people of faith to respond to displaced people with four words: “welcome, protect, promote and integrate,” The New York Times reported.

Mark Tooley https://theird.org/person/mark-tooley/

The pope’s outspoken views on refugees and immigration policies have raised questions about the role religious leaders play in debates about immigration.

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says religious leaders are too narrowly focused on humanitarian needs and fail to consider nations’ rights and interests.

“My critique of them is that sometimes they implicitly conflate the purposes and mandate of the church with the purposes and mandate of the state.” said Tooley. “The church, of course, is called to offer aid and hospitality to all people in need, but the secular state’s primary purpose is to look after the interest of the nation and people over which it has jurisdiction.”

Tooley said there is nothing wrong with the statue if it is meant as a call for concern for people fleeing violence, but “inevitably” some will use it for political reasons to demand higher levels of immigration and refugee resettlement. [Exactly!—-ed]

[….]

The presence of the sculpture in St. Peter’s Square is meant to commemorate the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, according to Vatican News. In his message for the occasion, Pope Francis said that extreme individualism is being reinforced by the media in rich countries and resulting in the “globalization of indifference” towards migrants, refugees and other people in need.

Tooley, however, doesn’t think that prioritizing national interest when it comes to immigration is a sign of “indifference.” He said religious people might think it’s selfish for a government to look after its own citizens first, but that is not the case.

“That’s not selfish,” Tooley said. “That’s similar to parents looking after their own children. Hopefully they treat other people’s children well, but they shouldn’t prioritize other people’s children over their own.”

According to Tooley, the pope and other Christians advocating for more lenient immigration laws should acknowledge that there are limits to the number of people who can be resettled in a given country, in addition to economic and security risks to be considered.

[….]

Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services are among the organizations listed as U.S. resettlement partners by the United Nations.

Here it is! Finally 29 paragraphs into the story (how many uninformed readers got this far)? These phony-baloney non-profit Christian groups get their funds from us—the taxpayers—not from their parishioners and church members!

Soerens [Matthew Soerens, the U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief], said his organization, World Relief, has closed resettlement offices in seven cities, including in Boise, Idaho, Nashville, Tennessee, and Miami, Florida. He said the closures were a result of fewer refugees and a reduction in government funding.

Continue reading, there is a lot here.

In case you missed it, see how much payola the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Fund lost in just the first full year of the Trump Administration, here.

It is no wonder they are squawking!

One day I hope to see the mainstream media shut up on the ‘welcome the stranger’ BS and tell the full story about how much of your money is doled out from the US Treasury to these supposed ‘religious charities’ (all hardcore Leftwing political agitation groups!) so they can brag about their compassion.

I can dream!