UPDATED: Briefly Noted: Perspective On The Border

An excerpt from Wayne Allen Root's Has Joe Biden Sold America out to the Mexican Drug Cartels? (I linked to FR to avoid all the extraneous "stuff" on Townhall pages.)

Experts estimated the money made on drug trafficking by the cartels at around $500 billion a year. That's half a trillion dollars a year -- "trillion" with a T.

Who quotes that figure? Republican senators. See what Georgia Sen. David Purdue said in 2019: "At half a trillion dollars -- $500 billion -- that makes the cartel business and the drug traffic just in Mexico alone coming across to the United States bigger than Walmart, to put it in perspective. So this is larger than our largest companies."

But that figure is bipartisan. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein quotes a figure in a similar range: "The illicit drug trade is a business, valued at anywhere between $426 and $652 billion."

That was all before Joe Biden's lax open-borders policies.

But that's just drugs. What about human trafficking? Nearly 100,000 migrants crossed the U.S. border in just the past month. Multiply 100,000 migrants times 10,000 ($10,000 is a common going rate for smuggling humans). That's $1 billion for human trafficking in a month. Now add in child sex trafficking.

Follow the link to read the rest. 

Obviously, Root has an interesting--if not entirely original--theory working here: Follow the money. What in the world are the cartels doing with all that money, year after year? Who ever heard of getting fabulously rich and not paying any taxes--taxes or something? Or, to put it in Root's own cynical words: "Who would you pay if you were a Mexican drug cartel kingpin?"

According to Reuters, 'Migrant president' Baiden stirs Mexican angst over boom time for gangs. Lopez-Obrador longs for the good old days of El Presidente--Donald Trump. He knows that this Progressive open borders scam will vastly empower the cartels vis a vis the Mexican government. One can only imagine his inner thoughts when Zhou told him: 

“We look at Mexico as an equal, not as somebody who is south of our border. You are equal."

Also, we'll respect you in the morning.

Recommended Reads On Our Continuing Political Crisis

The depth of corruption in US national politics is almost overwhelming. While Trump has thus far fought off the determined efforts to subvert his presidency, the insurgency against constitutional order continues unabated. Today there are several good reads that expose this depressing situation.

Julie Kelly at American Greatness once again takes on the role of Michael Atkinson in this insurgency. Kelly is by way of being rather an expert on Atkinson. I covered her earlier expose in Oh My! Michael K. Atkinson, ICIG and today she offers us:

Intelligence Community’s Inspector General Is the Link Between FISAgate and Impeachment

The American public must know more about Michael Atkinson’s ties to the same agency and same culprits who launched the phony Russian collusion scheme.

What's so depressing in this is that Atkinson was able to shift from his FISA and Russia Hoax activities at DoJ to become the first line of defense for the Deep State as IC IG. This speaks so loudly about the continuing subversion against Trump from within his own administration. Here are a few paragraphs from Kelly's conclusion:

Republicans have many questions for Atkinson and since, astonishingly, he remains in public office, he should be forced to answer those queries. Last September, Nunes, along with Rep. James Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent a lengthy letter to Atkinson demanding to know when and why he changed the official form to allow hearsay on the complaint. 

But the American public needs to know more about Atkinson’s past ties to the same agency and same culprits who launched the phony Russian collusion scheme. Did he handle the FISA applications on Carter Page? What did he know about the initial counterintelligence probe into Trump’s campaign? Did he counsel McCord prior to her meeting with the White House lawyer about Michael Flynn? Did he attend the April 2017 briefing with Comey and Rosenstein? 

Has he had any communications with McCord since she left the Justice Department? Did he work with Special Counsel Robert Mueller? Did he communicate with any of the other bad actors, such as Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Baker, or Bruce Ohr? Did he ever meet Christopher Steele?

Over at Zerohedge, James Kunstler has a piece that's actually much more insightful than you might guess from a somewhat mundane title: How's This Impeachment Farce Working For You, Nancy? Kunstler does a fine job of fitting impeachment theater within the larger insurgency stemming from the Russia Hoax, and showing how its a seamless web of deceit. These excerpts are not connected, but do give a good picture of the whole: