Children and Parents Being Separated at Southern Border

Obama’s immigration policy was modeled after G.W. Bush’s “Operation Streamline” from 2005. “Operation Streamline” referred all illegal immigrants for prosecution. Obama followed G.W. Bush’s “Operation Streamline” but detained families together in ICE custody. 

Congress did not pass comprehensive immigration during Obama's administration; a bipartisan Senate plan stalled in the House. Under Obama more than 2.8 million undocumented immigrants have been deported.

In comparison to Bush and Obama, Trump’s “Zero-Tolerance” Policy calls for the prosecution of all individuals who illegally enter the United States. The zero-tolerance policy, introduced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April, aggressively prosecutes migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally upon apprehension. 

This policy has the effect of separating parents from their children when they enter the country together because parents are referred for prosecution and the children are placed in the custody of a sponsor, such as a relative or foster home, or held in a shelter. 

When an adult is referred for prosecution, a child traveling with the adult is turned over to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. That agency is responsible for placing the child with a sponsor as the child’s immigration case is resolved. 

Under the Flores Settlement Agreement, DHS can only detain unaccompanied minors for 20 days before turning them over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which places them in foster care or shelters until they can find a sponsor, according to DHS. 

Between May 6 and May 19, 638 adults were referred for prosecution. Those adults brought with them a total of 658 children, all of whom were separated from the adults they traveled with due to the zero-tolerance policy. 

The cause of the change from Obama to Trump’s immigration plan was that the Department of Homeland Security said that in the first five months of fiscal year 2018, Customs and Border Protection saw a 315% increase in illegals using children to gain entry to the U.S. as family units compared to the prior fiscal year. That means that from Oct. 2017 to February 2018, there were 315% more illegals than last fiscal year using children to try to gain entry to the U.S. as family units.

IG: McCabe Used Strzok’s Mistress to Bypass Chain of Command to Monitor Clinton Probe

Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe used Lisa Page to get information on the FBI probe into the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server. As reported in the Inspector General’s report, Andrew McCabe tasked Lisa Page to stay appraised of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private server, a decision that other bureau officials took issue with at the time. 

Andrew McCabe has been the subject of concerns about political bias in the FBI’s handling of the case because of his family’s ties to the Clintons. Around the time of the investigation, Andrew McCabe’s wife received $700,000 from Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons who ran Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. The money was for Mrs. McCabe to run for the state senate, an unusual amount of money for that office. 

McCabe was fired in March 2018 for displaying what the IG called a “lack of candor” during interviews about his authorization of an FBI official to speak with The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 about the Clinton email investigation. 

The IG report makes it clear that Andrew McCabe essentially used Lisa Page as a mole to bypass multiple subordinates to feed him information about the probe. It also contains an organizational chart detailing the chain of command on the Clinton emails investigation.

Gallup Poll: Satisfaction with U.S. Direction Highest Since 2005

Satisfaction with the country's direction is at its highest level since 2005, according to Gallup polling released Monday. 

38% of respondents in the new polling said they are happy with the country’s direction. This marks the numerical high since September 2005, when 39% said they were satisfied. 68% of Republicans said they were satisfied with where the United States is going in combined surveys from May and June, which is up from 54% content in polls conducted in March and April. 

36% of independents in the May-June polling are pleased with the country’s trajectory, up from 25 percent in March-April. 

The number for Democrats who are satisfied held steady at 13%.

Study Shows that Liberal States Have the Most Psychopaths

The definition of a psychopath is a person who is mentally ill, who does not care about other people, and who is usually dangerous or violent.

A study conducted by Ryan Murphy at the Southern Methodist University ranks U.S. states in order of psychopathy. The study includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. 

Most Psychopathic States:

• 1- District of Columbia
• 2- Connecticut
• 3- California
• 4-New Jersey
• 5 (TIE)- New York & Wyoming
• 7-Maine 

Least Psychopathic States:

• 45- New Mexico
• 46- North Carolina
• 47- Tennessee
• 48- Vermont
• 49- West Virginia 

The analysis also shows three clusters of personalities – “Friendly and Conventional,” which roughly corresponds to the Midwest and the South, “Relaxed & Creative,” which is primarily found in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, and “Temperamental & Uninhibited,” corresponding to the Northeast plus Texas. 

The calculation is based in part on previous research that established the levels of big five personality traits (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) in each state.

Harvard Medical School Ashamed of White Male Department Heads 

The Harvard University Medical School has removed portraits of former department chairs from Bornstein Family Amphitheater because the individuals pictured are not sufficiently diverse.

School officials confirmed on Friday June 15, that the portraits of 31 medical school deans that were originally placed in one of the universities lecture halls have now been moved to various lobbies and conference rooms. All 31 individuals in the portraits are men and 30 of them were white while one was Chinese. 

The teaching hospital removed the paintings of the former department chairs as part of its broader diversity initiatives. The hospital’s president, Dr. Betsy Nabel, said she had considered ending the tradition of hanging pictures of retired chairs in the auditorium for several years, especially as more women and minorities train as doctors at the hospital. 

“I have watched the faces of individuals as they have come into Bornstein,” Dr. Nabel said in an interview in her office last week. “I have watched them look at the walls. I read on their faces ‘Interesting. but I am not represented here.’ That got me thinking maybe it’s time that we think about respecting our past in a different way.’’ 

The changes come amid a broader examination by some medical schools and academic medical centers about whether they are welcoming enough to women and minorities, especially given the scarcity of black and Hispanic doctors and executives. 

The national activist group White Coats for Black Lives recently published a racial justice report card that criticized 10 top medical schools, including Harvard’s, for policies it says promote racial bias. Diversity efforts in general have intensified among Boston medical institutions since the Globe Spotlight team published a series on race in December. 

When staff and residents were asked by Dr. Nabel about the portraits, she said no one has openly objected to the change. Residents had been discussing the possibility of moving the portraits among themselves for several years. 

When two dozen portraits are hung so close together in one room, such as in the Brigham’s amphitheater, “it reinforces that white men are in charge,” Dr. Jeroan Allison said.

Mail Time!

• Bill, Thursday’s show was the best Newscast I have heard to date. The single show itself was worth the cost of the Premium Membership. 

• Now that the IG report is out and we know that actions and efforts by Peter Strzok were nefarious (word of the day), can we expect the case against Gen. Flynn to be dismissed? Will Flynn be made whole for damages done to him?

• Just started my second year of membership and genuinely appreciate your no-spin presentation of the news. My question is what does it take to revoke the credentials of a journalist? Jim Acosta's behavior has been so consistently abhorrent, that it should transcend politics and upset any fair-minded American. What a terrible example of the state of journalism in our country.

Word of the Day: Gobsmacked