Succumbing to the Raging Hurricanes

Hurricanes Helene and Milton shattered so many lives in Florida, North Carolina, Appalachia, Georgia, and Tennessee that it is hard to imagine that hurricanes would stay so strong inland, so far from the ocean and become more powerful overland.

They destroyed large swaths of Floridian land and forested mountains, taking everything down with furious and fast swirling waters that disappeared entire communities and buried everything in its path under mudslides, sand, and deep water. The horror of humans, animals, and things, large things, adrift in fast moving massive bodies of water is often impossible to escape, not even in trees or on rooftops.

The thought of staying put in your home, barely protected by a foundation or by four pillars while rapid waters are entering through every crevice, door, opening, and window, ripping it apart to flood every space in its path, is hard to fathom.

Two of our close neighbors on Siesta Key had to endure such horror – a young man, paralyzed and left in his wheelchair, unable to escape fast enough on his own, found in water up to his neck, and the elderly gentleman who lived only because he floated on his refrigerator door.

Entire families drowned in NC, and many were never found. Help came too late, and it was inadequate. We have money and personnel to help others around the world, but we neglect our own. Thank God for churches, communities, and individuals who came to the rescue of those alive and in dire need of food, clean water, medicine, a shower, and clean clothes!

We were forced to evacuate from a hotel in Sarasota and we chose to go south to Miami to escape the wrath of the incoming hurricane Milton. We did not return because there was no house to return to, it had been flooded twice. We must make the painful and costly decision to demolish for lack of flood insurance. In 80 years of existence, no hurricane has flooded the area in the ancestral beach cottage.

How many times in history have there been two such powerful hurricanes, back-to-back, hitting the same areas on such a large swath of 600-800 miles, with catastrophic storm surges, wind damage, tornadoes, and such far inland flooding?

Most older people living in these homes will not return and will have to sell unless they can afford to rebuild to code, high off the ground. The real estate jackals out of Miami who had been hounding homeowners on the island to sell, will finally get their wish. The government or their rich corporate cronies will own the land in the most desirable place of real estate, transforming it into their paradise or the “paradise” the 15-minute cities, or re-wilding it per U.N. Agenda 2030.

The raging waters have reshaped the landscape and the mountain areas of North Carolina and Appalachia. People wonder what caused two hurricanes to follow the same path, two weeks apart, flooding with surgical precision the same areas in Florida – the land slated for 15-minute cities in Asheville, Tampa, and one specific county in Florida where most of the land is already owned by one individual.

Each home destroyed had a story. Our beach house has been in the family for 80 years. It never flooded even when it was built on the beach in 1945. At that time, there was nothing on the beach except sand, sea gulls, and seashells.

The beach cottage was brought to its current location in the 1950s. In the 1990s, the interior was modernized and enlarged by one more bedroom and another bath. It was not fancy, but it was a perfect beach house with a lot of memories of several generations of children’s laughter, playing in the sand, frolicking at water’s edge, and family members growing old in its protective walls, watched by the Cereus cactus still standing guard in the middle of the front yard, surrounded by flood debris and sand.

Four weeks before the flood, the cereus cactus had 47 blooms in one night – quite early and unusual in my 30 years of watching it every October, as if it knew that the house would be destroyed less than a month later and wanted to put on a show of beauty. It broke Ray’s heart as he mourned the loss of this cottage, a part of his identity, family’s history, and place on Earth.

Forced to evacuate from the Sarasota hotel, we chose to go south to Miami, a place we never wanted to visit, nor would we ever go back to, we found the teal blue ocean placid for one day, so unusual for the normally angry Atlantic waters.

We entered it with anxiety and dread as our legs were sinking in soft sand above our ankles. The pelagic zone at the water’s edge dropped precipitously 2-3 feet with every other step until we were at least ten feet or more underwater, yet so close to the edge of the breaking waves.

The water was a milky teal blue, so opaque that I could not see my hands 3-4 inches under the water. I imagined all sorts of marine life swimming around us in the balmy ocean, sharks, jellyfish, and sting rays. I could not see any little fish darting around us; by contrast, the Gulf waters in Sarasota were teeming with marine life. It was pointless to shuffle our feet on the bottom of these Atlantic waters as we lost contact with it quite quickly and suddenly. The opalescent ocean was warm, and I could feel the currents tugging at our bodies, trying to carry us far out to sea. We swam and treaded water with an incredible amount of energy to stay afloat and close to the water’s edge.

These brief dips in the Atlantic on Miami Beach made us forget temporarily our loss, the pain and the suffering people had to endure from the strange back-to-back hurricanes.

Some people wondered how much geoengineering and weather modification influenced such a disastrous and “rare” occurrence. 

In the grand scheme of life, we are just walnut shells floating on the vast oceans, disappearing to the bottom one by one.

 

Welcome Everyone, Take Our Country

I remember the curiosity and kindness that greeted me in the southern part of the United States in 1978.  People went out of their way to meet this foreigner to their lands who came from such a far-away country. Many did not know where my country was but they knew it was an Iron Curtain nation where people lived under religious oppression, could not go to church, have a Bible in their homes, or pray. But they could not fathom the exploitation of the soul, body, and mind that my people had to suffer under totalitarian communism.

There was a welcoming committee everywhere I went which made my adaptation to freedom and American life so much easier. I jumped every time there was a knock on the door and my heart raced when I saw a highway patrolman, an officer, or the sheriff. To me, they were not there to help, on the contrary, they were there to oppress just like the police I had experienced in my communist country.

In order to come here, I had to provide papers to the American authorities that I was in good health and I had means of supporting myself not become a burden on the welfare system. Only then did I acquire an entry visa.

Legal immigrants did everything within the confines of the law. It took time, money, and effort, but in the end, it was all worth it. Melania Trump’s parents became naturalized American citizens the right way, following the law.

This country had laws, rules, and standards of immigration because they wanted newcomers from all corners of the world to make a contribution to this society and make it greater, not suck it dry of resources and welfare.

American people and their official representatives tasked with protecting our country were suspicious and very thorough before they approved someone’s visa, green card, citizenship application, and eventual naturalization.

Marrying someone for a green card was certainly illegal and punishable with fines and jail time. Today, a cable channel actually makes a reality show out of breaking the law in order to obtain a green card by marrying a desperate American who wants to find love in the third world.

How times have changed! Former Vice President Joe Biden said, “We want unrelenting immigration until whites are an absolute minority.” He was preparing for Caucasians of European descent to be in absolute minority by 2017. Apparently he expressed the Democrat Party platform and the wishes of the Democrat voters. The rest of the country was rather shocked, to put it mildly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtIi8QR5Mzs

Marlene B., a military wife and mother said, “Isn’t it wonderful that all your ancestors including fathers, husbands, and sons died fighting to keep America free so we can give it away to the third world!”

The globalists have unilaterally decided, without as much as a vote, to open the borders of the developed rich countries and to welcome the flotsam and jetsam of the third world across any developed country’s borders, including ours, in search of generous welfare, free medical care, housing, public education, college education, and food.

Globalist billionaires and corporatists are the arbiters of redistribution of our wealth to the third world and of the forced diversification of the population into an easier controlled mass of humanity, no laws, only those that the globalist elites want to enforce.

Politicians and their main stream media sycophants falsely repeat that our immigration laws are broken. The truth is that our laws are not broken, they are not enforced.  

It is the corrupt political system that is broken, a fetid Swamp composed of dishonest men and women without a conscience and allegiance to America, with the sole agenda of re-election in order to maintain the intoxicating and enriching power at all costs even though, bringing in as many illegals as possible to vote Democrat in perpetuity, is destroying our country. They don’t care that their own children and grandchildren will have to survive in a lawless and violent banana republic.

Illegals who speak no English, have no loyalty to America, and know nothing about our country, are keeping them in office for decades. When these politicians are out of office and gone, the flood will drown us all and by then nobody will remember who broke the dam and caused such misery.

Demographic suicide started decades ago with the destruction of family, of faith, the deviant sexual revolution, moral relativism, and the establishment of cradle to grave daddy-government. It is exploding now with the open border agenda and the right of free mass migration across the globe, pushed and enforced by the United Nations. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/international-migration/

The illegal border jumpers are well organized as soon as they set foot on our soil and, with the help of Democrat money and community organizers, demand same rights as any American citizen, while waving the flags of their broken-down countries they hailed from, and desecrating our beautiful American flag.

It does not have to be this way--only if the majority population obliviously agrees to open borders and mass migrations. Perhaps Richard von Coudenhove Kalergi’s plan of widespread miscegenation outlined in his book, “Praktischer Idealismus,” is further along in its implementation than most of us realize.

Mark Twain once notably said, “Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all.”

Should we, instead of having a border wall and sovereignty, start leaving our doors wide open and place huge signs at the former border, “Welcome everyone, and please take our country?”

Perhaps liberals should make good on their open border mentality and take out their front doors, inviting anyone in who wishes to come into their home and to take whatever they want.

 

 

 

Louisiana Flood of 2016 and the Yangtze River Flood of 1931 Not Caused by Climate Change

Photo: Wikipedia

The severe flooding in Louisiana, the result of torrential rain and the location of Baton Rouge 56 ft. above sea level, contributed to the destruction of 40,000 homes. More than 30,000 people and 1,000 pets had to be rescued.

The New York Times  published a story immediately, “Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change,” blaming the flood on the global warming hoax created by the very profitable climate change industry.

Al Gore said, “These kinds of record downpours – that’s one of the manifestations of the climate crisis.”  The community of Watson had a record 31.39 inches of rain during the downpour. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/08/16/al-gore-houston-louisiana-floods-exacerbated-by-climate-change/

Nicolas Loris points to two studies by climatologists Patrick Michaels and Paul Knappenberger that seem to contradict Al Gore and the New York Times. In the Daily Signal, Loris quoted Chip Knappenberger, “Lower Louisiana is a climatologically prime location for massive precipitation amounts.”  http://dailysignal.com/2016/08/17/the-facts-show-louisianas-floods-not-caused-by-man-made-climate-change/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpkbU1tVmtZekZqT1RkaiIsInQiOiJPUysySWxTWEgxN082M1lORWV1UjZVcGRCRW9PTFZuUWlHUVlSazhqTEhwZE1pTUliNnRxMzFhaWpPSTNLMWNIWnNwc29BaDd1cnpyQm1HNjNrM2VtK0xFSXNFYmRIWGhaT1J4b1ZcL09sN0k9In0%3D

Patrick Michael’s and Chip Knappenberger’s paper reported, ”Our findings indicate that the climate variability of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans can exert a large control on the precipitation frequency and magnitude over the contiguous USA.” http://www.cato.org/blog/you-ought-have-look-natural-climate-variability

In a second paper, by a research team at NOAA/GFDL, Karin van der Wiel et al, who analyzed “climate model projections and observed trends in heavy precipitation events across the United States,” wrote, “Finally, the observed record and historical model experiments were used to investigate changes in the recent past. In part because of large intrinsic variability, no evidence was found for changes in extreme precipitation attributable to climate change in the available observed record.” http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0307.1

Iman Malakpour and Gabrielle Villarini, researchers at the University of Iowa, wrote about their study,  Analysis of changes in the magnitude, frequency, and seasonality of heavy precipitation over the contiguous USA, that “over the last 65 years, the stronger storms are not getting stronger, but a larger number of heavy precipitation events have been observed. The annual maximum precipitation and annual frequency of heavy precipitation reveal a marked seasonality over the contiguous USA.” http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00704-016-1881-z

Knappenberger mentioned the NOAA study of June 1978 when the main stream media focused then on the next ice age and global cooling, not global warming.  The 100-page document described the various levels of tropical storm precipitation, moisture, and rainfall around the country. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hdsc/PMP_documents/HMR51.pdf

Even the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported, “In summary, there continues to be a lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency of floods on a global scale.” http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_Chapter02_FINAL.pdf

But before Al Gore’s global warming movie and the profitable global climate change industry, there was the flood of August 18, 1931, when the Yangtze River peaked and killed 3.7 million people “directly and indirectly over the next several months,” as reported by the History Channel in 2009.

In April 1931 China the rainfall was above average. Torrential rains in July exacerbated the previous conditions and the Yangtze River flooded a 500-square mile area. Waters continued to rise in August as more rain fell and flooded the rice fields, destroying the crop. The population of the adjoining cities who depended on the rice crop starved to death or died from typhoid and dysentery from the polluted river, “perhaps the worst natural disaster of the 20^th century.”

This Chinese region is densely populated and thus people depend on the Yangtze River for water for personal and farming needs. Millions died from starvation and disease simply because flood-control measures were not enforced.  The Yangtze River “carries large amount of sediment, which accumulates in certain areas of the river and must be cleared regularly, However, with much of the area’s resources devoted to civil war at the time, the river was neglected.” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yangtze-river-peaks-in-china

The facts that natural disasters occur for reasons other than global warming, such as oceanic currents and underwater volcanic eruptions, are inconvenient details for the environmental/green growth agenda.

 

 

 

 

Florence Sparkled Under the Bright Sun of Tuscany, Part II

Palazzo Pitti
Wikipedia photo

Not far from Ponte Vecchio, on the south side of the river Arno, is a stark, Renaissance building, Palazzo Pitti, a huge complex of 32,000 square meters, divided into many galleries with paintings, plates, statues, jewelry, furniture, and other luxurious possessions of the Medici family.

Sitting on a hill overlooking Florence, Pitti Palace is administered by Polo Museale Florentino, an institution responsible for twenty museums, including the Uffizi Gallery, and 250,000 works of art.

The original part of the building was started in 1458 by a Florentine banker named Luca Pitti. The Medicis bought it a century later as the residence for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Napoleon used the palace as a power base in the late 18^th century, and, in 1919, King Victor Emannuel III donated it with its entire contents to the Italian people and thus it became a museum.

The main gallery of the palace is the Palatine Gallery with over 500 Renaissance paintings by Raphael, Titian, Perugino, Peter Paul Rubens, Correggio, and Pietro da Cortona. This gallery follows into the opulent 14-room royal apartments, and is thus displayed as the private collection would have appeared then, not in chronological order or by a particular style or school.

Eleonora of Toledo

Portrait by Bronzino

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The last descendant of Luca Pitti, Buonaccorso Pitti, sold the palace in 1549 to Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I. At that time, Cosimo hired Giorgio Vasari to enlarge the palace to more than double the space and to build the famous Vasari Corridor, an above-ground walkway from Palazzo Vecchio, his old palace and the seat of government, through Uffizi, above Ponte Vecchio, and finally to Palazzo Pitti. It was an easy escape route for the Grand Duke.

Boboli Gardens façade
Photo: Wikipedia

Behind the Pitti Palace the sprawling Boboli Gardens overlooks Florence with a breathtaking view. An array of 16^th through 18^th century statues and Roman antiquities on wide graveled-avenues, fountains, grottos, nympheums, and garden temples, cover the vast gardens.

The name Boboli is a corruption of “Bogoli,” the name of the family from whom the land was purchased for these gardens. The garden is lavish by any standards and it was built solely for the enjoyment of the immediate Medici family members. According to the guide, no parties or entertainment were took place in the expansive gardens.

Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I laid out the Boboli Garden. Construction of first stage began under Niccolo Tribolo, who died in 1550, leaving the work to Bartolomeo Ammanati, with contributions by Giogio Vasari (laid out the grottos), and Bernardo Buontalenti (sculptures).

Knowing how difficult is to maintain and water even a small garden, it was even more amazing to find out that everything in this garden of 111 acres is watered by a conduit that brings water from the river Arno and is fed into an elaborate irrigation system.

The Large Grotto underwent restoration in 2015; the statues on display are examples of mannerist sculpture and architecture.  Stalactites, luxuriant vegetation, and waterworks decorate the grotto.

Giotto's Bell in Piazza del Duomo

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The focal point in Florence is Piazza del Duomo, one of the most visited places in Europe and in the world, the location of the Florence Cathedral, with Brunelleschi famous Cupola, Giotto’s Campanile (bell tower), and the Baptistery. Walking from the train station, it is impossible to have an open space view of all the works as buildings crowd around the small plaza. All of a sudden, this massive construction comes into view once you reach the end of the street.

Baptistery with the Gates of Paradise
Photo: Wikipedia

Built on the ruins of a Roman wall and guard tower, the Florence Baptistery (Baptistery of Saint John) is the oldest known building in Florence, erected between 1059 and 1128, with a status of a minor basilica, a place where, until the end of the nineteenth century, all Catholic Florentines were baptized, including famous Italians like the poet Dante and famous Renaissance men and women, including Medici family members.

The baptistery stands both in Piazza del Duomo and Piazza San Giovanni, across from Florence Cathedral and the Campanile di Giotto. The sandstone, colored marble, and white Carrara marble building, shaped like an octagon, has three sets of bronze doors decorated with relief sculptures and Biblical scenes.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The south doors were made by Andrea Pisano, and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti.  These east doors made of gilded bronze were named by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise. Lorenzo Ghiberti, who worked on them for 21 years, carved his own face on the right side, a self-portrait signature piece for eternity. Twenty panels depict the life of Christ from the New Testament. Eight lower panels depict four evangelists and the Church Fathers, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory, and Saint Augustine. The door frame has gilded busts of prophets and sibyls.

Ghiberti's self-portrait on the Gates of Paradise

Photo: Wikipedia

 

Giotto’s campanile (bell tower) stands adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery of Saint John.  The free-standing tower was built in Florentine Gothic architecture, with “polychrome marble encrustations” and rich sculpted decorations. Giotto’s Bell Tower has 414 very narrow and slippery marble steps which I climbed years ago, giving the daring climber a breathtaking view of Florence.

Duomo at night

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

When Giotto died in 1337, he had only built the lower floor, richly decorated with geometric patterns, hexagonal panels of white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato, and reddish marble from Siena and bas-reliefs. A century later, Lucca della Robbia built five more panels.  Seven panels were chosen because the number seven has a Biblical meaning of human perfectibility. Giotto was succeeded by Andrea Pisano, who added two more levels, then by Francesco Talenti who built the top three levels and thus completed the tower in 1359. Talenti did not build the original spire designed by Giotto, thus lowering the original design height  from the 400 ft. to 277.9 ft. Nobody knows exactly which is the decorative work of Giotto and which belongs to Pisano. The work came to a halt during the vicious Black Death.

Duomo complex

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

The largest medieval building in Europe is Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (St. Mary of the Flowers) at almost 502 ft. in length and 381 ft. in height.  Began in 1296, Il Duomo di Firenze, as the Italians call it, was completed structurally in 1436 with a dome planned by Filippo Brunelleschi. The façade of the basilica, with an elaborate 19^th century Gothic Revival style by Emilio De Fabris, is adorned by multi-colored marble panels in shades of green and pink, and white.  The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence.

Brunelleschi’s dome is the largest masonry dome in the world. And  he topped it with a lantern which he did not have time to finish before his death but his friend, Michelozzo did in 1461. In 1469 Verrocchio crowned the conical roof with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics. Brunelleschi’s dome and lantern is thus 375 ft. tall. The copper ball was struck by lightning on July 17, 1600 and the copper ball fell to the ground. Two years later it was replaced by an even larger ball.

The copper ball was cast in the workshop of sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. One his young apprentices was none other than Leonardo da Vinci who was allegedly fascinated by Verrocchio’s machines that were used to hoist the ball to the top and young Leonardo made sketches of them.

As ornate as the exterior is, the Gothic interior of the church is disappointingly vast and empty. Perhaps it is so bare to make the point that a religious life must be austere and simple. Decorations were lost over time and some were moved to museums. On the other hand, the vast interior can accommodate lots of worshippers at one time. 

The interior art honors locals who contributed funds to its construction and repairs. There are 44 stained glass windows, quite a large number for that time period.  The first bishop of Florence, Saint Zenobius, is honored with a silver shrine that contains an urn with his relics. Saint Zenobius performed the miracle of reviving a dead child. The dome is covered with frescoes completed by different painters who used different methods and techniques. Brunelleschi had wanted gold mosaics that would have reflected more light through the lantern but he died and his idea died with him.

The crypt contains vaults where bishops were buried over the centuries. Among the archeological are the ruins of Roman houses, of early Christian pavement, and remains of the former cathedral,  Santa Reparata, with the tomb of Conrad II (c. 990-June 4, 1039), Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife.  There is a part of the crypt that is open to the public in which Brunelleschi’s simple and humble tomb is located, an expression of the esteem in which Florentines held the architect who helped build their place of worship. The cathedral is really his masterpiece and the crowning of his life.

Santa Croce Wikipedia

I found the Basilica di Santa Croce a most interesting church, smaller but very intriguing. A comfortable walk from the back of the Palazzo Vecchio, it is located in Piazza di Santa Croce, 800 meters south-east from the Duomo. The leather district of Florence with its shops ends in the corner of the piazza.

The minor Basilica of the Holy Cross is the largest Franciscan church in the world with sixteen chapels decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his students. It is said that St. Francis himself funded its construction. It is quite possible; St. Francis was a very rich man who gave up all his riches when he decided to follow God and the road to a simple and austere life.

Tomb in Santa Croce

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

When the site was chosen for the church, it was a marshland outside the city walls. Over time, some of the most famous Italians were buried inside the church, Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile, and Rossini. For this reason, Italians call it the Temple of the Italian Glories.

Santa Croce Interior Courtyard

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2005

 

The current church was erected to replace the old building and construction began in May 1294, paid for by Florence’s wealthiest residents. Pope Eugene IV consecrated it in 1442. The construction plan represents the Symbol of St. Francis, the Egyptian or Tau cross. There is a convent to the south of the church. Both Brunelleschi and Vasari were involved in the construction and design of the interior.

Santa Croce Façade

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

 

The neo-Gothic marble façade was designed by Niccolo Matas from Ancona and is dated from 1857-1863. I was surprised to see a large Star of David on the 19^th century façade which was the work of the Jewish architect Matas. Matas asked to be buried with his peers but, because he was Jewish, he was buried instead under the porch and not within the wall of the church.

Santa Croce Tomb

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2005

 

A public property since 1866, the entire complex is not just a place of worship but a burial for so many famous Italians and lesser known but moneyed residents. Florence Nightingale, who was born in Florence and named after her birthplace, has a monument dedicated to her memory in the cloister built by Brunelleschi and completed in 1453.

There is a Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce and is housed in the refectory. The former dormitory of the Franciscan monks houses today the Leather School (Scuola del Cuoio) where tourists can watch artisans make purses, wallets, and other leather goods sold adjacent to the shop.

Santa Croce suffered immensely during the Arno River flood of 1966 which affected the entire town of Florence. Mud, detritus, heating oil, and other pollutants entered the church and caused such heavy damage that it took decades to repair. On several visits, I witnessed the repairs to the main floor and to the tombs covering the entire surface. We had to walk on cardboard while the tombs were hidden from sight. I even wondered why rich Florentines would want to be buried in the floor and get trampled on by visitors and worshippers alike. The most famous were actually buried in the walls.

The renovations were finished on this visit and the tombs in the floor were restored to their original glory. It must have been quite smelly in the church when all the dead people had been buried constantly in the floors and the walls.

We left the church after lighting more candles and walked to Leonardo’s leather shop. My students had been fascinated on previous visits by the beautifully embellished book covers and leather goods. On this trip, as a memento, I bought Dave a leather tray embossed with his initials. An apprentice pressed the thin foil of gold onto the rich burgundy leather with an old-looking embossing press.

In the narrow street outside, a group of four Chinese tourists were busy watching their doctor painstakingly free a pigeon that had entangled his legs and claws into numerous thin strands of silk and could no longer fly.  Using tweezers, a nail clipper, and an antibiotic spray, he released the bird after giving him water and a couple of seeds. The bird was a bit confused, walked like a drunk for a bit and then flew away to everyone’s applause who had witnessed the rescue.

From this point we stopped at the Gold Corner, not far from Santa Croce and bought an exquisite Christmas gift. We walked to the famous Gilli café, in operation since 1793. It was a real disappointment! The service was bad, it was noisy, hot, and the sweets were way too sweet but the coffee was divine. Scuderi, on the other hand, a café from the turn of the 20^th century, had delicious cookies which we brought back to our hotel. After a Caesar salad with chicken and delicious cookies to boot, we were ready for a restful sleep after covering so much historical hallowed ground in Florence.

 

 

How Many Millions of Illegal Aliens Will Qualify for Discretionary Amnesty?

As President Obama is getting ready to make his announcement on immigration on Thursday, November 20, 2014, the Congressional Research Service is advising Congress through legislative attorneys, Kate M. Manuel and Michael John Garcia “on the scope of the Executive’s discretionary authority over immigration matters, including with respect to the enforcement of immigration-related sanctions and the granting of immigration benefits or privileges.” (”Executive Discretion as to Immigration:  Legal Overview,” November 10, 2014, R43782)

The precedent has already been set in 2012 following the “executive initiative” known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) when children brought unlawfully to the United States by their parents were granted “deferred action” and work permit. These young people perhaps voted in the 2012 election.

Critics viewed this executive order as an “abdication of the Executive’s duty to enforce the laws” and violated specific requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Proponents of DACA saw the executive order as lawful discretionary authority conferred on the President by the Constitution and the federal statute.

The authors mention President Obama’s June 2014 announcement that he would strive “to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own.” Here are some of the elements of discretionary authority the President has as described by Manuel and Garcia:

-          The President has “broad discretion” to give relief benefits such as work permits and temporary protected status to foreign nationals

-          INA allows the waiver of application requirements so that a foreign national can be eligible for benefits

-          INA gives the President “parole authority,” allowing aliens to physically enter or remain in the country “without their entry or presence being considered ‘admission’ for immigration purposes”

-          The Executive has a “degree of independent authority” to decide whether to prosecute “apparent violations of federal law”

-          The Executive has “Discretion in interpreting and applying immigration law”

Congress was granted the power to legislate under Article I of the Constitution.  Congress exercised this power in regard to immigration by enacting the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  INA provides rules about:

-          Admission of foreign nationals into the U.S.

-          Conditions of continued presence in the U.S.

-          Eligibility of foreign nationals to obtain employment and public benefits

-          Adjust immigration status

-          Become U.S. citizen

-          Mechanisms to enforce the above rules

-          Removal of aliens found in the U.S. illegally or in violation of the authorized admission

-          Criminal penalties for immigration violations

According to the authors, INA expresses or implies some discretionary authority on the executive branch in regards to immigration enforcement such as:

-          Granting of “certain types of benefits or relief to qualifying aliens who lack lawful immigration status”

-          Immigration officials waiver of certain statutory restrictions, allowing ineligible aliens to receive immigration benefits (via asylum, temporary protected status, or cancellation of removal)

-          The Executive can use its independent discretion in enforcing the law

Article II of the Constitution requires the Executive to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The authors believe that the “executive branch has historically been seen as having some discretion (commonly known as prosecutorial or enforcement discretion) in determining when, against whom, how, and even whether to prosecute apparent violations of the law.” (p. 3)

The CRS report discusses three types of discretion that the Executive has in regards to immigration:

1.       Express delegations of discretionary authority (granting of benefits and relief to aliens)

-          Temporary protected status to those who “cannot be safely returned to their home countries”  due to armed conflict, earthquake, flood, drought, epidemic, environmental disaster, have been “continuously physically present” in the U.S., and pay a “registration fee required by the executive branch”

-          Work authorization to legally work in the U.S.  (Who will create jobs to fill the need for the already unemployed Americans and the need of millions of illegals with work authorization?)

-          Statutory waivers of restrictions on benefits or relief

-          Waivers of grounds of inadmissibility (aliens who have committed serious crimes,  fraud, misrepresentation, and those previously deported)

-          Parole (waving certain grounds of inadmissibility; parolees can still be granted work authorization) (p. 11)

2.       Discretion in enforcement (prosecutorial or enforcement discretion) – the Executive can decide: “Whether to commence removal proceedings and the nature of the particular charges to lodge against an alien”

“Whether to cancel a Notice to Appear or other charging document before jurisdiction vests with an immigration judge”

“Whether to appeal an immigration judge’s decision or order”

3.       Discretion in interpreting and applying statutes

If the intent of Congress is interpreted as “silent or ambiguous,” according to the authors,” the executive branch must fill in any ‘gaps’ implicitly or explicitly left by Congress in the course of administering congressional programs.”

An example of such gaps is ‘derivatives,’ “noncitizen spouses or children of alien beneficiaries, who can immigrate with the so-called principal whom they accompany.” (p. 21)

The most important question which remains to be answered is how many millions of illegal aliens will qualify for executive discretionary amnesty and will be allowed to remain permanently in the United States, receive work permits, benefits, and eventual citizenship, competing with the already huge block of unemployed, low and high skilled Americans? Additionally, how would such millions be absorbed seamlessly into the fabric of our society without permanently altering the character of who we are and the respect for the rule of law? Will they accept our culture and our language? There was obviously no respect for our borders since they were here illegally. Will this discretionary amnesty encourage an unstoppable chain migration?