Why is British Somaliland Stable Compared to the Rest of Somalia?

  

(from Google AI)

Somaliland’s relative stability stems from three core factors: its unique legacy of indirect British colonial rule, a bottom-up peace process utilizing traditional clan elders, and a deliberate decision to re-establish independence along its original 1960 colonial borders. [1, 2]

Here is how these distinct elements created a functional, self-governing entity:

1. Distinct Colonial Legacy

Unlike the rest of Somalia—which endured the highly centralized, bureaucratic, and settler-focused rule of Italy—British Somaliland was administered with a light touch. Britain’s policy of indirect rule allowed local clan leaders and customary laws (known as xeer) to remain largely intact. This prevented the erosion of traditional, community-based leadership and helped establish a distinct political identity. [1, 2]

2. Grassroots, Clan-Led Reconciliation

When the military dictatorship of Siad Barre collapsed in 1991, plunging the rest of Somalia into civil war and state failure, the northwest took a different path. Through the Somaliland Grand Conferences, clan elders and the Somali National Movement (SNM) utilized traditional conflict-resolution methods to disarm militias and establish an inclusive, hybrid government that blends modern democracy with a traditional council of elders (the Guurti). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

3. Reverting to Original Borders

The territory declared its independence by dissolving the voluntary, 1960 union between the former British protectorate and Italian Somalia. Because it is largely populated by the Isaaq clan and their neighbors, it lacks the complex, localized clan rivalries and competition over central resources that have continuously destabilized the south. [1, 2, 3]

While it lacks formal international recognition, Somaliland operates as a fully functioning de facto state with its own constitution, currency, military, and history of peaceful, democratic elections. You can read more about how this divergence is viewed in discussions on the Reddit Geography or Quora forums. [1, 2]

LA Votes to Give Illegals the Vote

 

Los Angeles, the city that no longer loves itself, the city that is casting out the angels and replacing them with progressive demons and rabid communists, has unleashed another political inferno with their latest diabolical election scheme.

By a vote of 10 to 5, the Los Angeles City Council passed a charter amendment initiative which, if approved by the voters in November, would allow non-citizens to vote in Los Angeles’ local city and school board elections.

The Democratic Socialist of America-allied (DSA) leader of the LA City Council’s progressive phalanx, Hugo Soto-Martinez, rolled out the usual dodgy reasons proffered for this scandalous proposal.

The reasons are daunting and disturbing:

1.      “The immigrants live here, too. We can’t leave them out of the process.” Notice how the open-border advocates don’t differentiate between legal and illegal? I know many legal immigrants, and they are furious that they worked hard to get into this country, only to see lawbreakers get the same rights and privileges, including who gets elected to local office.

2.      “They pay taxes.” Do they? A friend of mine, a long-time tax preparer, often complained about the IRS credits which illegals took advantage of, as opposed to paying taxes. Sure, the illegals pay taxes on goods and services they purchase, but that doesn’t justify their lawless presence in the country.

3.      “They should have a say in how local government operates, since they are affected by the local government.” Criminals are affected by local government, too, but we don’t let them decide the punishment for their crimes. Do we allow bank robbers to have a say in how best to protect financial institutions? Do we allow someone who trespasses onto our property to dictate how to mow our lawns or landscape the property? This is madness. Instead of a vote, they deserve a veto for their presence in the country.

4.      It’s the humane thing to do.” A disregard for law and order is never humane. Such lawlessness has exacerbated human trafficking and other crimes against the innocent.

5.      “We need to stand up to President Trump’s ‘war on immigrants.’” The progressive left and their enabling politicians are waging war on immigrants, i.e., those in the country legally. They are also declaring war on the idea of citizenship, the rule of law, and national sovereignty. “No borders, no wall! Sanctuary for all!” leads to anarchy and mayhem for all. Remember Seattle’s CHAZ experiment, anyone? Come to think of it, that autonomous zone had stricter borders than the southern border under President Trump!

Of course, there’s no consideration for what the voter franchise actually means. Who are the stakeholders in a city? Should those who break the law by crossing the border without authorization stay wherever and vote?

Since when does anyone think it’s good to reward brazen lawlessness?

What is it with big cities, anyway? The politicos want the votes so bad, they will let illegals invade the country, then let them settle in their backyards to help call the shots, and the powers that be will happily push aside the law-abiding citizens who pay the bills, work the jobs, and make the cities run.

This bad idea has already been implemented in other California cities.

As far back as 2016, San Francisco allowed non-citizens to vote in school board elections. The law faced legal challenges, but the First Appellate Court of Appeals reversed lower-court injunctions against the law in 2023.

In 2022, Oakland, California, voters enacted a charter amendment to let non-citizens vote in the school board elections. Why not allow them to vote in city council elections, too, I wonder? If Oakland progressives are so determined to make everyone in the city the same, why not expand the (already bastardized) franchise to everyone else?

 In 2024, local reports indicated that the city still had not rolled out the process to allow the illegals to vote. As of 2026, nothing has changed to ensure they can exercise this new right. All virtue-signaling, perhaps?

The New York City Council tried this stunt in 2021. Thankfully, it got struck down five years later by the liberal—yes, seven Democrat appointees—State Supreme Court. They argued that the state constitution did not permit the city to expand the franchise.

Cities in Vermont and Maryland have joined the anti-citizen fun, but the majority of states require citizenship to vote in all elections, and five more plan on joining the ranks this year: Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Now, let’s get back to Los Angeles, the latest major city to push through this vile stupidity.

Despite the majority's madness, some sanity prevailed on the city council. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, one of the pragmatic Democratic members of the city council, voted against this proposal, fearing that it would make it easier for federal immigration law enforcement to arrest and deport illegals in the city: “Given the dynamics that we have right now, what we’re creating is a list of individuals that could then just be the target [of] another potential federal administration.”

 She concluded the right outcome, but gave the wrong reason. The illegals still need to leave, Monica! At least Rodriguez is raising hell about the waste and lack of accountability over the homeless spending.

Councilmembers McOsker, Bob Blumenfield, John Lee, and Adrin Nazarian rejected the charter amendment, as well. As of press time, none of the dissenters have responded to my media requests. Councilman John Lee, the only non-Democrat on the city council, gave the following reason for rejecting the proposal, as LAist reported:

Councilmember John Lee voted no, expressing concerns about the cost of having non-citizens vote and the logistics of determining who is eligible. For example, how long would someone have to have lived in L.A. to vote?

“Those decisions will inevitably be viewed by some as benefitting allies or harming opponents, even if that was not the actual intent,” Lee said. “The perception alone can undermine public confidence in our elections.”

Close enough, but still missing the larger point. Not just the cost to the budget, what about the cost to the city’s self-respect? What about the sovereignty of the country? Illegals shouldn’t be in the city to begin with!

Councilwoman Imelda Padilla gave a principled reason to oppose this amendment: “I am very nervous this could potentially create a disincentive to become a legal citizen.” Yet she voted for it anyway!

Clearing aside the arguments for and against, why the incessant drive to undermine citizenship altogether?

The politically cynical reason is obvious: Democrats want easy votes, and non-citizens will vote for the politicians who gave them the vote and promise them the freebies. More importantly, though, Martinez and his DSA radicals, aggressive activists as well as his colleagues on the council, are convinced that radical “fairness,” leveling to the extreme, is the only way to go. No differences among any group. There should be no boundaries.

This erosion of citizenship is a part of the LA-DSA’s communist vision. Radical equality cannot happen as long as ethnic differences, national identities, and legal distinctions of any kind remain. Everyone is equal, and no one is illegal. It’s also easy virtue-signaling for woke white liberals without cost (to them).

The Plight of Our Border Patrol, Beyond Media Posturing and Politicking

Protecting the homeland is the highest priority for our government, and the protectors of our homeland, the border patrol agents, deserve the highest respect. However, while the media plays up the pain and suffering of illegal alien parents placing their children in harm’s way to break into the United States, the public hears very little about what our border law enforcement must face. This week, I received a video from ABC News. Elizabeth Russo shared the following report with David Muir as news anchor. The segment, billed an “ABC Exclusive”, included one of their on-location reporters at McAllen, Texas as he followed along with a border patrol agent. Afterwards, he interviewed a Border Commissioner.

As expected, the report played up the plight of the illegal aliens rather than our nation’s law enforcement. The first segment features one agent, officer Robert Rodriguez, who catches a family of migrants, then he pursues their smuggler. Scurrying away in a small boat, the trafficker crosses back over the Rio Grande to escape arrest, and the whole thing is captured on camera. The agent cannot pursue the smuggler, but he reluctantly accepts that the smuggler is gone for now. 

In the second part, the camera crew catches up with the migrants, who had kept moving. It’s almost as though the smuggler purposefully played this game of distracting the border patrol agents to run after him, while the illegal alien migrants can continue their journey across the border. The reporter’s description of the migrants is compassion-oriented editorializing: “They are tired, sweaty, confused.”

How does he know that they are confused? What exactly are they confused about? Their goal is to go north. Not that hard, really, considering that it means going opposite the way from where they had come from. The American public is constantly subjected to the media’s push to personalize the illegal aliens’ trials to breaking into our country, as if they are the heroes of this story. The camera then focuses on a little baby named Angel. One woman explains that they are fleeing gang violence. The gangs targeting her baby have already killed the father.

Are these stories true? Perhaps, but we should be skeptical of these dramatic displays of human anguish caught on camera. By wide margins the American public blames the illegal aliens for the crisis of family separation. Voters should contrast these tragedies with the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, who have seen their quality of life diminish, and who live in violence-torn communities where transnational gangs are waging all kinds of domestic terror. Much of this crime and corruption stems from illegal aliens, including the transnational gang known as MS-13. The solution to this international violence is not an open border.

In the last segment of the Exclusive, Commissioner Kevin McAleenan of Customs and Border Protection talks about what his border agents go through. Everyone needs to know about their frustrations and the challenges they contend with. First, they were ordered to comply with a zero tolerance policy, which justly requires prosecution of every illegal alien border crosser. With that policy has followed the necessary separation of criminal parents from their children. Then the President reversed the order, complicating their efforts. Never did he apologize for enforcement of our nation’s laws. “That’s a challenge in law enforcement. You’re always taking actions that impact people.”

The interview above provokes a broader set of questions: Why does the media put law enforcement on trial for doing their jobs? Where’s the compassion for American citizens who live in war zones in their own country?  Last month, I connected with activists in Monterey County, California including Angie Morfin, whose son Ruben was murdered by an illegal alien gang member three decades ago. These citizens detailed for me the rising crime rates and corruption caused by illegal immigration in Salinas, CA. It’s gotten so bad, students may not wear red or blue clothing, since they are gang-affiliated colors. While Central American migrants seek asylum by any means in the United Sates, where do United States citizens go when their own neighborhoods are blighted with gang violence?

In contrast to ABC News biased reporting on the border crisis, conservative news anchor Tomi Lahren offered a respectful perspective on America's protectors. We don’t see her interactions with border agents, but in her final thoughts for the evening she focuses exclusively on their hard work, patience, and diligence to do the greatest good for everyone, even the illegal aliens! Yes, and viewers can even witness this good will when Agent Rodriguez offered water to the one-year old in the arms of her illegal alien migrant mother.

Despite their efforts to exploit the border crisis to shame the public and our government’s enforcement efforts, the ABC report showcased the brave steps efforts of border patrol agents to enforce the law in the most humanitarian ways possible. In spite of every effort from the liberal media to make law enforcement look cruel and cold-hearted, it’s clear that border patrol agents are working as hard as they can to keep America and Americans safe. Not only that, but these fighting men and women put their lives on the line to protect all of us—and to protect the country—while dealing with the never-ending posturing of the political class in Washington DC and in the border states.

It appears that their work is only going to get harder. One report now contends that border agents will have to settle for catch-and-release again, since the families must stay together as best as possible per President Trump’s latest executive order. While Washington DC plays politics, and the national media stokes outrage and pulls on the emotional heartstrings of the viewing public, the United States sovereignty and safety endure ongoing attacks and destruction, and our brave men and women have to shoulder through to serve and protect their country and citizens as best as they can. Our control deserves better, and so do our protectors along the Southern Border.

At Citizens' Request Business Owner REMOVES Two Mexican Flags

                         

There is so much winning, even in California!

After much prodding and activism, this private business in Sanctuary City Santa Ana, California finally removed two Mexican flags on their roof.

Finally.

It is a great day to see American citizens in their own country, in their own STATE, stand up to this Open Borders folly and demand a fully recognition of sovereignty on our own land, in our country.

Way to go, We the People Rising!

Hey Hey, Ho Ho--DACA Has Got to Go

I have argued the illegal immigration discussion on many levels. I have outlined the attacks on our country’s sovereignty. I am sure that millions of you have read on this news site as well as other media organs how the DACA program is unconstitutional, and an extreme executive overreach. Hopefully, you read something that I wrote on this divisive issue three months ago: “I’m a DREAMER TOO!”

I am a dreamer. Yes, and I have a dream that the elected officials commissioned to enforce our immigration laws will stop being baited by the sob stories of young illegal aliens who were brought to this country by their law-breaking parents. Besides, there are many American dreamers whose dreams have been cut short by illegals, like Dominic Durden, Jamiel Shaw Jr., Ruben Morfin, Drew Rosenberg, among many others.

During the presidential campaign, Trump made it crystal clear that he cared about American dreamers—their dreams come first—I would add foremost and finally, not the rights of illegal aliens. “But what about the young illegals?” I have had this discussion back and forth with close friends as well as younger people on colleges, policy makers, and those who enforce our immigration laws. We are a nation of laws, and sovereignty and security go hand in hand. No more guilt-tripping, please. Nope. The only thing lacking is the political will to enforce our laws, which then presidential candidate Ted Cruz had announced during one of the final contentious debates before the make-or-break primaries ensued earlier in the year.

Political will is needed. Why is this so hard? The Democratic Party has played the race card, the identity politics game, but they are now losing. They exploited this illegal issue, tugging at the heart-strings of the average voter. All Americans who are still heartbroken about the difficult plight of “The DREAMers” need to come to California. Then again, even the native-born Californians don’t want to live here. They could go to Texas, and see what these illegal alien youth are doing in that legislature, too. 

The violent arrogance of this sticking, needling DACA cohort is astounding. Thy have burst into state legislative sessions demanding amnesty. One lawmaker had the guts to call ICE and scare them off! On college campuses across the country, too (not just in blue states) young illegals are taking advantage of legal loopholes and diffident state legislatures who think that they can thumb their noses at our federal laws. In a Cudahy, CA city council meeting, the fierce hatred from these illegal youth should condemn DACA outright. Young illegals wearing bandanas, holding Communist signs, agitating in public, violating our public meeting laws—these young illegals here and elsewhere are not innocents. They are now joining the Antifa hordes—the same hordes shutting down freedom of speech and attacking innocent citizens.

Antifa Illegal Alien Youth Hordes in Cudahy

Yet lawmakers still fall for the “poor illegal” lie, especially Republicans. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner is pandering for Hispanic support in his tough re-election fight. Despite his epic backbone in one budget battles, he signed off on a sanctuary state bill. What is this man thinking? Does he not understand that slip-siding upside-down, amoral compromising is why this country faces this convoluted immigration mess? Chicago, Illinois is the only illegal-alien magnet municipality in the state, and it’s going bankrupt. If Chicago goes down, Illinois goes red. Pretty simple concept. But no, like many squishy Republicans more concerned about not looking bad than doing good, Rauner went with the “poor illegal” narrative.

Enough! It’s time for us to stop being nice. It’s time for men and women in Washington and throughout the states to stop governing from their hearts and start leading with their minds. In fact, most politicians want to cave and roll out the red carpet to the “poor illegals” who were brought here against their will.

Reports have circulated before and after today that Trump was cutting the program. Now there’s a delay. Who are the culprits making all the noise?

1. Speaker Paul “Big Business” Ryan. This guy just gave more grassroots Republicans and House candidates a reason to distance themselves from him. Fire this guy right now.

2. Silicon Valley—these are abject liberals and their Millennial cohorts who think that they can devise an app for just about everything. There is no social media device that will excuse lawlessness. Pay American techies more money, you tightwads!

3. “Conservative” US Senators like Thom Tillis of North Carolina. He has been pushing legal status programs for illegals for the past three years. Geez, when will GOP politicos get a clue? We don’t want amnesty!

Enough!

This is what needs to happen, President Trump:

1. Revoke DACA now.

2. Issue a time-limit for all former DACA recipients: 6 months to return to one’s country of origin. No one should cry about this. The program was called “Deferred Action,” was it not?

3. Ensure adequate staffing in American consulates around the world. Then those illegals can get in line and enter the country the right away, with the advantage of speaking English, with American education and upbringing.

4. Ensure that every immigrant (meaning lawfully present resident) has been taken care of who is still waiting for their full naturalization status.

That’s it.

Yet Trump is thinking about making a deal with Congress? Why? He already has bad Republicans on the run, including Jeff “Open Borders” Flake. Conservatives are poised to pick up the Alabama US Senate Seat (go Judge Moore!) Ohio and Montana are flippable US Senate seats in 2018, along with the 2012 and 2016 red states won by Romney and Trump.

No more deals. The American people have seen their best interests danced away with the Potomac Two-Party Bipartisan shuffle. Stop this immigration lunacy for good. Build the wall, deport them all, watch American wages rise, and crime rates fall. By 2020, the American electorate will be so thrilled with Trump’s MAGA agenda, that illegal immigration will have become a minor political footnote.