Check the Blackstone 'facts'

About the only thing I can agree with Blaine Blackstone “Truth is incontrovertible” is his recommendation on checking the facts. Particularly, check the “facts” presented in his column. Speaker Pelosi was not the only one with a negative reaction to DHS Secretary Neilsen’s presentation. Senator Dick Durbin’s reaction to it included “it was preposterous” and “was not a credible presentation.” And as for listening to people on the ground, Todd Bensman, who worked for a decade along the Texas border: “I can say definitively that the number of terrorist suspects arriving at the southern border or en route never came anywhere close to 3,000 [the number claimed by Nielsen].” He estimated perhaps 20 a year and believes the Trump administration is damaging its credibility by exaggerating the threat from Mexico.

And as for the 17,000 with criminal records (also in the Nielsen presentation), the majority were stopped at border crossings. Of those attempting crossing between portals, close to half of the criminal records were precisely that: attempting to cross the border illegally. Nielsen denied including those, but numerous fact-checking sites confirmed those were included. As for Blackstone’s “liberals view the world as they believe is should be, whereas conservatives view the world as it is.” Consider the opposite: liberals see the world as it is, changing and progressing, requiring thoughtful solutions to complex issues, conservatives view the world, with blinders, as they want it to be, like it was 60 years ago. The true character of average American citizens, liberals and conservatives, is somewhere between these opposites.

David Coupal,

Noxon