BORDERLINE: President Biden’s executive order limiting immigration for asylum went into effect at 12:01 this morning. Biden’s order used the same obscure clause in the federal asylum law as Donald Trump to close the border.

  Under political pressure in an election year because of the record number of immigrants seeking asylum, Biden reversed his long held position that the US is a nation of immigrants and we should welcome more.  “The simple truth is, there is a worldwide migrant crisis,” Biden said in at the White House, “and if the United States doesn’t secure our border, there’s no limit to the number of people who may try to come here.”

  Biden’s order says asylum rights will be suspended whenever migration surged past 2,500 a day, resulting in the order kicking in immediately. 

  Trump and his Republican allies in an election-year fear campaign have been fostering the fiction that South American countries are sending their criminals and mentally ill to America. But candidate Trump ordered loyal members of Congress to block a bill to deal with the problem agreed upon by both Republicans and Democrats because he wanted to have immigration as an election issue.

  Some Democrats are critical of Biden, saying he has bowed to right wing pressure. “I will never demonize immigrants,” Biden said in his White House remarks referring to notorious comments by former president Trump. “I’ll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. And further, I’ll never separate children from their families at the border. I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs.”

THE WAR ROOM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might be prolonging the war in Gaza to stay in office, President Biden suggested in response to a question yesterday. Biden said he believes “there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

  There is a general suspicion in both Israel and the US that Netanyahu will be swept out of office upon conclusion of the war. Street protests against Netanyahu have been mounting in recent days, blaming him for not making a deal with Hamas to end the war and bring home surviving hostages.

THE HUNTER FILES: Prosecutors used embarrassing images from Hunter Biden’s lost laptop and his own words from his memoir to present him to a federal jury as an addled addict when he filled out a federal form to buy a revolver on which he denied using drugs. They played a clip from is his audio book in which he said,  “I used my superpower, finding crack anytime, anywhere.”  

 As the analysts say, one of the most effective things a prosecutor can do is use the defendant’s own words against him. Prosecutor David Hines said in his opening statement, “Addiction may not be a choice, but lying and buying a gun is a choice.” 

  Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell said Biden had relapses but was not using crack cocaine at the time he bought the gun. Lowell said his client owned the gun for only 11 days, never fired it, loaded it, or even took it out of the lock box in his truck. The gun was thrown in the trash by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s brother who was his girlfriend at the time.

  All this happened while Joe Biden, held no office. The younger Biden’s lawyers have argued that the gun case and separate federal tax charges are the result of political pressure on his father’s Justice Department by Congressional Republicans. It’s a familiar tune.

STRIKE THREE: San Diego Padres Venezuelan infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned from baseball for life for placing $150,000 worth of bets on games. Four other players were banned for a year for betting. 

  The 24-year-old Marcano is the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling.The Cincinnati Reds’ Pete Rose was famously banned after he retired.

  In other baseball news, Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $17 million from the Japanese baseball player to cover his gambling losses.

THE OBIT PAGE: The great racing driver Parnelli Jones of the 1960s and 70s who won the Indianapolis 500 six times, has died at age 90 in Torrance, California. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease about 10 years ago.

  Fellow drivers credited Jones with being the greatest driver of his time, a wheel man with both aggression and finesse. Asked once by Car and Driver Magazine whether there was anyone better, Jones said, ““I don’t think so. You can teach somebody how to drive, but you can’t teach them that will and desire and kick-butt attitude.”

THE SPIN RACK: A gunman opened fire this morning outside the tightly secure US embassy outside Beirut. The shooter was wounded by security forces. — Attorney General Merrick Garland sitting before a Congressional committee sternly defended the Justice Department against “repeated attacks” by Republican lawmakers that he said have attempted to undermine legitimate investigations, particularly involving Donald Trump. Garland has been threatened with a contempt citation ironically by Judicial Committee chair Jim Jordan, who himself ignored a subpoena to appear before the House January 6^th Committee. — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony charges against Trump 2020 campaign aide Michael Roman as well as lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and James Troupis, accusing them of taking part in a scheme to appoint a phony slate of electors for Donald Trump. Chesebro has already pleaded guilty in the Georgia election case. Roman has also been indicted in Georgia and Arizona. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Dr. Pepper has tied with Pepsi as the second most popular soft drink behind the dominant Coca Cola and even now after 140 years no one knows who Dr. Pepper was or what’s in the can.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The editorial staff of The Rooney Report will be travelling for several days and unable to publish until sometime next week. Everybody needs a break.

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