Mills' mockingbird memoir: fact or fiction? (Marja Mills, The Washington Post, July 19)

Former Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills is right in one respect regarding recluse Harper Lee—famous Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “To Kill a Mockingbird”—who withdrew from the public spotlight in the early 1960s.  Given that well known fact, why 50 years later would Ms. Lee suddenly actively participate in an unauthorized biography penned by Mills claiming her verbal approval and cooperation?  Indeed, if the latter was in agreement, living next door would have been wholly unnecessary as Ms. Lee could have opened her door to a welcome visitor at any time.  Indeed, moving next door for a year and a half implies some level of spying or stalking.  The fact that Ms. Lee has publicly disavowed “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee” means it is likely an indirect and parasitic effort; an issue understandably not raised by Mills in her self-promoting puff piece or the editors of The Washington Post who evidently do not find Ms. Lee's contrary views newsworthy to mention.  Ms. Lee might have killed a mockingbird in her classic American novel, but Ms. Mills seem content only to exploit the literary golden goose.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2015/07/20/the-harper-lee-i-knew-2/

“Fix” border jumping illegals: Vote Trump

Beware modern, anti-American progressive Democrats who claim to operate in good faith to solve society’s problems.  Specifically, the insipid Mr. Obama is taking on the federal prison system now that he's fresh off his latest “fix”  (to which a grousing ally Israel strenuously objects and those that publicly proclaim “Death to America” celebrate): a flaccid, toothless Middle East “agreement” with virtually no oversight which guarantees an unregulated Iran—the world's largest state-sponsor of terrorism—quick access to nuclear bombs and the permanent lifting of economic sanctions to further reward them in their perpetual Jihadist religious war against the West.

Like a monopoly game figure stopping by between million-dollar tax-payer travel subsidized Hawaiian vacations and jaunts to the world's best golf courses while partying with millionaires and billionaires, Mr. Obama is “just visiting” prison.  His stated purpose, an overhaul of the criminal justice system: “This huge spike in incarcerations is also driven by non-violent drug offenses where the sentencing is completely out of proportion with the crime.”  Historically, the “spike” in the prison population to which Mr. Obama refers (and objects to) is the direct consequence of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 otherwise known colloquially as the Federal “three strikes” law.  This statute, essentially adopted by states like California and Washington, mandates life imprisonment if a criminal has been convicted in federal court of a “serious violent felony” (defined as murder, manslaughter, sex offenses, kidnapping, robbery and any offense punishable by 10 years or more with a specific element of use of force or significant risk of force).  This sounds good except for the last element: because serious drug offenses—even wholly non-violent ones—have inherently high mandatory minimum sentences they are often cobbled together.  As a direct consequence per the Federal Bureau of Prisons, almost half or 48.7 percent are in prison for life for drug offenses versus 2.9 percent for homicide, aggravated assault and kidnapping; and 7 percent for sex offenses.

Ironically, in this we have come full circle: the original writer of this train-wreck of a bill was then Delaware senator Joe Biden, Mr. Obama's hapless vice president.  To add insult to injury is Mr. Obama’s Orwellian de facto catch-and-release program: per ALIPAC as of April 2014, of the 68,000 violent criminals (many convicted of murder and rape) have been released into the wild by Obama’s lawless policies.  One telling example from today in Lubbock, Texas: a briefly detained illegal alien by U.S. Border Patrol, Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas from Honduras, was arrested after his initial release for the murder of his girlfriend and kidnapping of children on U.S. soil.  More to the point: how many more 32-year-old Kate Steinles cut down in the prime of life do there have to be by the activities of this underclass of invaders like Mexico's Francisco Sanchez (deported by the U.S. five times, convicted of seven felonies and shielded by San Francisco, a sanctuary city, where federal immigration laws are not enforced by the locals) before the American people finally wake up to the incalculable human cost of this outrage?

How many American citizens have been killed or injured in similar circumstances is unknown.  Is there any doubt that the deafening silence coming out of the White House and Mr. Obama’s Justice Department (which maintains crime statistics) know this information and refuse to release it to the public?   Indeed, how can an ultra-Constitutional president in clear and repeated violation of his twice taken oath of office to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States’ be trusted to do anything that doesn't harm America further?  As apparently no one is accountable on the federal or state level related to the illegal alien problem.  America's only viable option is to elect border law enforcer, and  promised Mexican wall builder Donald Trump. 

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
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