Tag Archives: ICE

An open letter to Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese

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Multnomah County (OR) Sheriff Mike Reese.

First, for those unfamiliar with the situation and why I’m writing this post in terms of an open letter to a fellow Sheepdog, I provide the following background from a number of news sources.

First, from KGW.com, the local NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon.

ICE not alerted when sex assault suspect released from jail in 2016, official says

PORTLAND, Ore. — A man accused of breaking into a 65-year-old woman’s home, sexually assaulting her and stealing her car was arrested after allegedly assaulting another woman and running from police.

Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, was caught July 24 after officers chased him through a neighborhood.

Of course this is not the most egregious part of the story. Read on.

According to court documents filed in March 2017, Martinez has a history of illegal entry into the United States. He has been a transient in the Portland area for more than a year and has been deported 20 times.

That is not a typo. Martinez has been deported twenty times.

Martinez has at least five probation violations for re-entering the United States. His most recent removal was in November 2016, according to the March court documents.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer against Martinez, asking authorities to notify them before releasing Martinez to allow ICE to take him into custody. The Department of Homeland Security said a detainer was requested for Martinez in December 2016, but he was released into the community and authorities did not notify ICE.

Released by whom? The Multnomah Sheriff’s Office, whose sheriff is in charge of the jails in that county, one of 36 in Oregon. Portland is within Multnomah County and is in fact not only the largest city in Oregon but the county seat as well. The next paragraph is vastly disappointing.

Earlier this year, Multnomah County leaders and Sheriff Mike Reese wrote a letter to the community saying, “The Sheriff’s Office does not hold people in county jails on ICE detainers or conduct any immigration enforcement actions.”

This story went global too, as illustrated by the UK’s DailyMail.com.

Illegal Mexican immigrant, 31, who was deported TWENTY times ‘rapes woman, 65, at knife-point’ just months after Portland released him from jail under ‘sanctuary’ policy

by Keith Griffith

  • Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, charged in assault on two women in Portland Monday
  • Martinez has lengthy history of arrests, illegal entry and deportations to Mexico
  • Admitted meth and heroin user told jail staff that he drinks up to 10 beers a day
  • Portland jail officials released him in December in defiance of federal request
  • State of Oregon has forbidden local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE 
  • Now Martinez is accused in sickening sex assault on a 65-year-old stranger

An illegal immigrant with a long history of deportations to Mexico, and who was released by local jail officials in defiance of a federal immigration hold, is now accused of raping one woman and assaulting another in a sickening crime spree.

Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, is charged with 13 counts – including burglary, kidnapping, sodomy and sex abuse – in the knife-point attacks on two women in Portland on Monday.

But wait, there’s more.

Six months ago, on December 7, jail officials in Portland had Martinez in custody when they received a request from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, asking the jail to notify ICE before his release.

What happened?

Yet the local officials released him the next day in defiance of the federal immigration detainer, an agency spokeswoman told the Oregonian. 

Oregon has a state law forbidding local law enforcement from using any resources to enforce federal immigration law.

Stop. Correct. Oregon has a law from 1987 entitled the Revised Statutes 181A.820.

The criminal spree on Monday began around 7pm, when a suspect broke through an open window into a 65-year-old woman’s home, on NE Halsey street in the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood.

The suspect, who police say was Martinez, used scarves and socks from her closet to bind and gag the woman before sexually assaulting her, according to court documents reported by Fox12. 

Martinez slammed the elderly woman’s head into the wooden floor, punched her, and stole her phone, credit cars, and car, speeding away in it, according to police.

The woman was able to get to a neighbor’s home and call 911.

The crime spree continued unabated. There was yet another female lawful Oregonian victim to come.

Just hours later, police say Martinez had made his way to a parking garage, where he crouched in a dark corner until he spotted a woman.

He approached the woman saying he wanted to ‘talk’, but then produced a knife and forced the woman to walk towards her car, according to police.

Her plight, luckily, was not quite so dire as the first victim of Martinez, the 20-time and ignored potential deportee.

He is now charged with two counts of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, two counts of second-degree assault, one count of kidnapping, two counts of burglary, two counts of robbery, three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, and one count of first-degree sodomy.

Bail has been set at $2.36million in the case.

Please also see the Breitbart.com article here.

And now comes my letter.

Dear Sheriff Reese:

I, like many others, find the recent events involving the processing of Sergio Jose Martinez through your jail both confounding and shocking, simultaneously.

I’d have thought, would have hoped, that you’d been better than that. Instead, I find you in lockstep with some seriously twisted elements in our society. Elements political in nature and, truthfully, the most political in nature.

Those elements who simply wish to do away with the terms “illegal” and “alien” and for that matter, “citizen.” Because what is a citizen if not “lawful” in the eyes of the state itself? Are there true citizens? Or are there merely “occupants”?

You’re a “new” Sheriff and not an entrenched official. That provides you some leeway.

You seem to, however, have aligned yourself with the wrong elements when you created a recent investigation, from KOIN.com:

Sheriff Reese investigates deputies helping ICE

by Jennifer Dowling

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese said Thursday his office is still investigating a number of emails showing that his deputies were involved in assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

In a normal world, this would be a normal act. That is to say, an act committed by those wishing to see that justice is served. These days, an abnormal act.

This is you, sir, drawing a line. A line that didn’t reflect your entire good will but instead reflected your political interests and those of the persons to whom you answer or to those to whom you believe you answer.

Separate and disparate.

You have an incredible opportunity here. You have the opportunity to set a precedent not unlike that of another sheriff, in Texas, via Sally Hernandez in Travis County.

She showed remarkable heroism. I must admit.

For the wrong side. You can weigh in afresh and strong.

I challenge you sir to, at minimum, pen a letter to the victims — plural, both women — of the illegal alien your department released directly back into the community, apologizing for your actions and ensuring them your lockstep obedience of injurious and corrosive Oregon laws will end and cooperation will occur between your department and ICE in terms of timely notification for relevant holds and detainers.

I challenge you, sir, to further step up to the public podium and take the necessary political stand against so-called sanctuary cities and states because you are full well cognizant of the deleterious and life-altering consequences of allowing serial illegal alien criminals to continue abusing Oregon laws originally designed to protect the lawful citizens of your state.

Repudiate your most terrible of laws. Take a stand. Sally Hernandez did. You can do no less. Take a stand. Or simply stand by and watch your citizens be scourged by more aliens completely uninvested in your area.

Signed,

BZ

This, Sheriff Reese, has been my open letter to you.

One final question to you, Sheriff Reese.

What are you?

Are you a Sheep?

Or are you well and truly a Sheepdog?

The only one who can make that decision is you.

BZ

P.S.

For those unfamiliar with the relationship between sheep, wolves and Sheepdogs please see my post here about Lt Col Dave Grossman’s article entitled “On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs.”

 

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ICE agents: illegals not deported because DC wants them to vote

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Mexico Wants US AgainAnd there you have it. The clear reason why DC isn’t doing its job and, further, why DC is instructing border installations to reduce border interactions and arrests.

As a matter of fact, border arrests are at their lowest point since 1972.

Watch the video below.

First, from GatewayPundit.com:

ICE Officials Tell TRUMP Illegals Are Being Allowed to Vote – That’s Why They They Won’t Deport Them

by Jim Hoft

Cameras picked this up during a meeting Donald Trump held with ICE officials in August.
Via FOX Business Network:

What you pick up in the conversation is agent from Tucson telling Donald Trump basically why are these undocumented illegals with criminal records, why aren’t they being kicked out. And why is there such a rush to give these illegals citizenship. And he says the ICE official says simply so they can vote.

The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, the organization representing 5,000 federal ICE immigration officers and law enforcement staff officially endorsed Trump on September 26th — the first time the union has endorsed anyone for president.

Perhaps that would be one of the reasons that the physical number of persons caught is down. From CBSLosAngeles.com:

Report: Barely Half Of Illegal Border Crossers Are Caught

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigration authorities caught just over half of the people who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico last year, according to a report commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security that offers one of the most detailed assessments of border security ever compiled.

The report found that 54 percent of people who entered illegally between border crossings got caught in the 2015 fiscal year. That’s much lower than the 81 percent success rate that Homeland Security cited publicly using a different counting method.

The 98-page report was completed in May, and Homeland Security officials have declined to release it, despite urging from some members of Congress.

What? You mean your United States government is attempting to keep information from the American Taxpayers — the people who paid for the report? Perhaps because it might not shine the fanciest light on DHS under Barack Hussein Obama and Jeh Johnson?

Let us not forget this from the NYTimes.com:

Obama Administration Is Quietly Delaying Thousands of Deportation Cases

by Caitlin Dickerson

The Obama administration is delaying deportation proceedings for recent immigrants in cities across the United States, allowing more than 56,000 of those who fled Central America since 2014 to remain in the country legally for several more years.

The shift, described in interviews with immigration lawyers, federal officials, and current and former judges, has been occurring without public attention for months. It amounts to an unannounced departure from the administration’s widely publicized pronouncements that cases tied to the so-called surge of 2014 would be rushed through the immigration courts in an effort to deter more Central Americans from entering the United States illegally.

The delays are being made as a cost saving measure, federal officials said, because of a lapse in enforcement that allowed immigrants who were supposed to be enrolled in an electronic monitoring program to go free.

Some of those affected had failed to report to government offices to be fitted with GPS ankle bracelets, according to a February memo from the chief immigration judge, Print Maggard, in Arlington, Va.

Right. Because of a “lapse in enforcement.” Because it was entirely unforeseeable that “some” would “fail to report.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the US immigration system is entirely broken, because the people in DC want it to be broken. Some on the GOP side want it broken because of cheap labor — although that argument is being minimized by the booming mechanization of jobs requiring little or no skill — and the Demorats want the system broken because of the burgeoning mass of potential voters who could enable Leftists/Demorats to keep power in perpetuity.

The system is broken because that’s how DC wants it. And you, the American Taxpayer, can go straight to hell.

BZ

 

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SF Sheriff: more complicit in Kate Steinle’s murder

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Pier 14 San FranciscoJust when you thought things couldn’t get more Leftist, they get more Leftist.  But it’s San Francisco after all.

From SFGate.com, a bay area news site:

Pier 14 killing: S.F. sheriff asked feds to send immigrant here

by Jaxon Van Derbeken

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.

An excellent question.  Why?  Finally, a journalist with an inquisitive mind.

The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.

Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico, and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.

Curiouser and curiouser.

The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession for sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold onto him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”

“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.

Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, and the marijuana case against him was discharged the following day. He was returned to jail, however.

For the next three weeks, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Chronicle, sheriff’s deputies sought clarification from the department’s legal division on whether to hold onto Lopez-Sanchez so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could pick him up for possible deportation. ICE had requested that the city detain Lopez-Sanchez.

About now, you’re asking yourself a question, aren’t you?

Let’s let Breitbart.com pick up the story.

Lopez-Sanchez was scheduled for release from federal prison in southern California in March. Given that information, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began processing a reinstatement of removal order for the five-time deportee, Breitbart News previously reported.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department was also alerted to Lopez-Sanchez’s impending release from federal Bureau of Prisons custody in March, according to a Sheriff’s department letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. Noting Lopez-Sanchez had a 20-year-old bench warrant on possession-for-sale of marijuana, on March 23 the Sheriff’s department requested notification when Lopez-Sanchez was “ready for our pickup.”

“Ready for pickup” on a $5,000 dope charge about which the SF District Attorney couldn’t care less.

Lopez-Sanchez was transferred from the federal Bureau of Prisons in Victorville, California to San Francisco Sheriffs’ department custody on March 26.

A court dismissed Lopez-Sanchez’s charges the day after he arrived in San Francisco, March 27.

It was not until after Lopez-Sanchez was delivered to San Francisco County custody that ICE was notified of the transfer. ICE then issued a detention request for Lopez-Sanchez. That request simply asked for notification prior to Lopez-Sanchez’s release, not that he be detained for an extended period of time.

San Francisco sanctuary city and Sheriff’s department policies specifically deny all such detainer requests unless backed by a court order or warrant.

In other words, as a “sanctuary city,” San Francisco chooses not to comply with the law.

So why request his return?

Please allow me to state what, in my opinion, may be the answer to: why did they request Sanchez?

I believe it’s because they are a “sanctuary city” and that, by acquiring physical custody of Sanchez, they could assure his release prior to being detained by the feds for deportation back to Mexico.

In other words: they were protecting him.

It’s what they do.

BZ

Sanctuary Cities Cartoon

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San Francisco helped kill Kate Steinle

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Kate SteinleSan Francisco quite proudly declared itself a sanctuary city 26 years ago.  It is proud of that fact.  A “sanctuary city” means that Illegals of all shapes and sizes will, according to the mindset of Leftists, not be “ratted out” to various authorities for deportation just because they are “undocumented” — LeftSpeak for illegal.

San Francisco is proud of that label.

San Francisco is proud, even after a 32-year-old Pleasanton woman, Kate Steinle, was shot and killed in front of her father at Pier 14 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, on Wednesday, July 1st, at about 6:30 PM.

Her last words were: “Dad, help me, help me.”

Her father was powerless, considering Kate Steinle had been shot directly in the chest three times by an illegal immigrant who purposely sought out San Francisco because he knew it was a sanctuary city.

Here’s where the pride of San Francisco comes in:

Had San Francisco authorities not refused a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request, Lopez-Sanchez may not have been in the United States and Steinle might still be alive.

Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) addresses the core issue: laws were not enforced.

Laws were not enforced.  We’ll get back to that.

Sheriff Ross MirkarimiThe San Francisco Sheriff’s Department is in charge of illegal immigrant notifications, not the SFPD.  The SF Sheriff himself, Ross Mirkarimi, is doubling down on his having done the proper thing:

S.F. Sheriff Defends Releasing Killer, Calls Trump ‘Opportunist’

by Michelle Moons

San Francisco’s Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is defending the intentional April release of five-times-deported Mexican national Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who has since confessed to the Wednesday shooting death of a young woman at Pier 14.

Sheriff Mirkarimi appeared agitated as he spoke to San Francisco-based KRON 4 News, casting blame on U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for not filing a formal court application to detain Lopez-Sanchez. In a separate CNN interview, Mirkarimi defended his refusal of ICE detainers. He called ICE policy the “imperfect deportation and transferring of people.”

It is San Francisco Sheriff’s department policy to deny all ICE detainer requests. He indicated that he only honors court orders.

Mirkarimi also told CNN’s Jake Tapper that sanctuary city policies “make us safer.”

Safer, yes, of course.  Why didn’t I think of that?

Further, the San Francisco mayor, Edwin Lee, said in part:

As I said in 2013, we must protect both civil liberties and uphold public safety. Which is why, at the time, I promised to veto any legislation that completely eliminated the Sheriff’s ability to make a case-by-case determination about honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Our sanctuary policies should not create a safe harbor for convicted, violent felons.

Translated: Mayor Lee just threw Mirkarimi under the bus.  But of course Lee takes the golden opportunity to turn a death into a political wiffle ball.  It’s the fault of the Republicans:

Even after repeated attempts by President Obama and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to reform our immigration laws, Republicans in Congress have blocked those efforts, unfortunately, leaving cities and local municipalities to act upon immigration issues that affect its residents. I will continue to work with the Obama Administration on Comprehensive Immigration Reform to ensure cities aren’t forced to make and enforce immigration law.

That said, what actually happened with Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez?  He shouldn’t have even been in the United States.  With seven felony convictions — not arrests, but convictions — Sanchez had been deported to Mexico five times.  And came back each time.

Even CNN wrote about the circumstances surrounding the multiple releases of the murder suspect:

In March, Lopez-Sanchez was turned over to San Francisco authorities and ultimately released after completing a federal prison sentence.

U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement said San Francisco wanted Lopez-Sanchez on a drug warrant, so the agency handed him over with a request to let it know if he was to be released.

Despite that request, San Francisco authorities let him go in April after the drug charges were dropped.

Freya Horne, chief legal counsel to the San Francisco County Sheriff, said city officials believe such requests violate Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Question, Freya: if a federal detainer violated federal law, then how has the federal government been getting away with its various USC sections over the numerous years regarding deportations of illegals?  When I worked Booking in the Sacramento County Main Jail as a deputy in the 80s, I would pick up the phone and call the USBP when we suspected a LE agency had arrested an illegal.  The USBP did the rest.  Simple.

Sanchez confessed to the murder but his Public Defender subsequently insisted he was not guilty.

Breitbart.com adds:

It is San Francisco Sheriff’s department policy to deny all ICE detainer requests. He indicated that he only honors court orders.

ICE had begun processing the reinstatement of Lopez-Sanchez’s removal order before the prisoner was transferred on March 26 from a Bureau of Prisons facility in Victorville to San Francisco Sheriff’s custody pursuant to an old drug warrant.

ICE was informed of the transfer afterwards and alternatively issued a detainer request for the prisoner.

A San Francisco court dismissed Lopez-Sanchez’s drug charge on March 27.

On April 15, 2015, authorities dismissing the ICE request for detention released the seven-time convicted felon Lopez-Sanchez onto the streets.

Finally, I submit to Leftist sheriff Ross Mirkarimi (he is, you should know, a co-founder of the Green Party of California) that you, sir, are damned near equally responsible for the death of Kate Steinle.  You go explain your philosophy and mindset to the parents, siblings, friends and relatives of Kate Steinle.  Personally.


ABC US News | World News

But you won’t.  Because you are a coward and your belief system is “Leftist Mindset Uber Alles.”  It’s funny, however, how you call Trump an “opportunist” when he dared to speak the truth about Mexico.  Mexico is out for Mexico — but of course on your planet of purple skies you hadn’t remotely thought of that.  Mexico does not give us our best and brightest.  Its children have brought disease to this nation.  It sends us more MS13 gangbangers.  Its illegals commit crimes in this nation and commit murders.  Yet your purple skies, Mirkarimi, “Trump all.”

You are absolutely disgusting in your willingness to forsake your law enforcement oath for murdering Leftist values.  You sicken me.  You are unfit to wear your badge.  I say this, sir, as a recently retired (two weeks ago) Sergeant with a California department much larger than yours, after 41 years of service: you sicken me.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me finally write: wake up.  Some of your police and sheriff departments are killing you in the fashion of the SFSO.  They are killing you either by fear, cowardice, ignorance or by dint of wishing to be politically correct.  But they are doing it nevertheless.

They are killing you because they are not obeying the law.  Their not obeying the law is because they have chosen to do so for expedience — AND — because the federal government does not obey its own laws.  More on that in a subsequent post.

I submit: the American taxpayers are not too terribly far away from picking and choosing which laws they will or will not obey.

Because the federal government and some agencies in law enforcement have already led the way on the issue.

And a terrible lead it is.

BZ

P.S.

Two additional points:

1. The handgun used by Sanchez to murder Kate Steinle was stolen in a burglary from a local federal agent.  Sanchez said he “found” the handgun nearby wrapped in a T-shirt.  Of course he did.  Read this to see the lengthy criminal history of Sanchez as per a federal database.

2. Here is the City of San Francisco’s sanctuary ordinance from its own website.  The complete text of the ordinance is here.  Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order 07-01: Sanctuary City Policy (PDF) is delineated.

UPDATE:

Gavin Newsom has had the link to his Executive Order 07-01 Sanctuary City Policy REMOVED.  The link, when clicked, now indicates: For Your Information – Page Not Found

Isn’t that just terribly convenient, as Stick points out, since it would appear that Newsom will likely be running for governor?

Sanchez Pleads Not Guilty

 

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Ben Carson: wrong on ethanol

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Dr Ben CarsonI know that Dr Ben Carson is a highly educated and good man, and I suspect that he is likewise a very compassionate and considerate man.

However, he has now provided sufficient information for me to conclude that I’ll never vote for him.

First, from HotAir.com:

Ben Carson: Let’s slash Big Oil to pay for ethanol

by Jazz Shaw

Newly announced presidential contender Ben Carson was out talking to the Cornhuskers and the inevitable subjects of ethanol, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and subsidies for King Corn came up. 

Uh-oh, do I hear some potential pandering in the wings, pray tell?

Whilst there in Iowa, Dr Carson said, however:

“I don’t particularly like the idea of government subsidies for anything because it interferes with the natural free market.”

Nicely played sir.  Agreed.  Go on.

“Therefore, I would probably be in favor of taking that $4 billion a year we spend on oil subsidies and using that in new fueling stations” for 30% ethanol blends, Dr Carson said.

Oh boy.

This is where Dr Carson and I part ways, and part ways Big Time.

Dr Carson wants E30 in our vehicles.  Are you kidding me?  E30?  That will be one of the largest destroyers of current ICE engines imaginable, other than kicking one out the back of a C-130 at 38,000 feet.

He’s suggesting cutting subsidies for domestic energy companies in the oil and gas industry. Not for everyone, mind you. Just them. And then reallocating that money away from fossil fuels and into ethanol processing. Just five seconds before that Carson had been claiming that he didn’t want anyone interfering with the free market, but now he’s saying to cherry pick one specific set of companies in the energy sector, remove a subsidy from them, and then redirect it to benefit the ethanol industry? It’s difficult to imagine a more egregious example of the government picking winners and losers, with the winners just happening to be in the first caucus state.

Hot Air disapproves in a political fashion:

If you want to have a discussion about removing all subsidies across the board, then fine. We’re all ears. Carly Fiorina has proposed the same thing and it’s a worthy topic of debate. But when you start talking about just picking the pockets of oil and gas developers and using it to pay for ethanol, you may as well be running for the Democrat nomination. Poor showing, Dr. Carson.

But has anyone considered the physical-energy aspects of the plan?

Hold that thought.

I’d never much wanted to write this, but Dr Ben Carson lacks a major component that most political figures must possess: presence.  It is a tool that Dr Ben Carson completely lacks.  That said:

Second, calling out the “subsidies for Big Oil” is the language of the Left, and as usual it’s complete horse hockey. As anyone who follows this topic knows, the subsidies received by oil and gas companies are not specific to them. They are precisely the same as subsidies given to almost anyone who sells anything, including Apple and Microsoft among so many others. In fact, you couldn’t just cancel the subsidies to the fossil fuel segment of the energy industry without rewriting the rules entirely just to exclude them. That’s a left wing, anti-energy talking point and Carson should be embarrassed to be saying it in front of an ostensibly conservative crowd.

True.  But moreover, what do we know about ethanol?

First, that the greater the gradient (E-15 to E-30), the greater amount of water is contained.  Internal combustion engines don’t like water, they aren’t built to have any water in the fuel system.  High compression motorcycle engines eschew ethanol completely.

Corn crops marked for ethanol might even be illegal.

Further, globally, America earmarking corn for fuel reduces the amount of corn available for the rest of the world in terms of edible food.

As in: corn for food vs corn for fuel.  As in: who starves and who profits from corn?

It is clear that Dr Carson wishes American corn to be utilized as a domestic fuel source, as opposed to a global food source.

But realize: even way back in 2005, ten years ago, Ethanol was recognized as inefficient.

Even Forbes.com, a site most certainly supportive of business, suggests that ethanol is moribund at best.

It’s Final — Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use

OK, can we please stop pretending biofuel made from corn is helping the planet and the environment? The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released two of its Working Group reports at the end of last month (WGI and WGIII), and their short discussion of biofuels has ignited a fierce debate as to whether they’re of any environmental benefit at all.

The IPCC was quite diplomatic in its discussion, saying “Biofuels have direct, fuel‐cycle GHG emissions that are typically 30–90% lower than those for gasoline or diesel fuels. However, since for some biofuels indirect emissions—including from land use change—can lead to greater total emissions than when using petroleum products, policy support needs to be considered on a case by case basis” (IPCC 2014 Chapter 8).

And here we go with the poor:

With more than 60 nations having biofuel mandates, the competition between ethanol and food has become a moral issue. Groups like Oxfam and the Environmental Working Group oppose biofuels because they push up food prices and disproportionately affect the poor.

Yet:

So why have we pushed corn ethanol so heavily here in the U.S.? Primarily because it was the only crop that had the existing infrastructure to easily modify for this purpose, especially when initially incentivized with tax credits, subsidies and import tariffs. Production, transportation and fermentation could be adapted quickly by the corn industry, unlike any other crop.

Let’s summarize: ethanol is inefficient.  You get more “bang from your buck” from petroleum products.

MPG plummets with ethanol.

Horsepower plummets with ethanol.

And ethanol destroys engines.

Concurrent with: ethanol is energy-inefficient and — simultaneously — drives food prices higher.

Way to go, Dr Carson.

I suggest: you might want to think this over for a week or two.

BZ

 

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