The US has spent the last 150 years selling itself to the rest of the world as the "greatest place on earth" to live. So it comes as no surprise that millions of people have headed to - and are still flocking to - your shores, whether legally or not.
And then there's the irony.
The richest place to live on earth can't manage to absorb a tiny fraction of your population?... so they can do all the shit jobs none of the "natives" are too good to do? The jobs you pay minimum (or less) wages to? The people your businesses take advantage of by not offering benefits or insurances? Just so these desperate souls can too share in a tiny fraction of the dream you sold them?
Instead, you created this mess, but now blame the victims.
Clearly compassion has completely exited your collective psyche. It's abhorrent and despicable. Your self-ingratiating greed as the richest country on the planet seems to have no bounds.
For every "bad-ass" that enters the county illegally, there's tens of thousands of "ordinary folk" who had no hope of survival back in their homelands - never mind subsistence. Thriving wasn't even a possibility.
And yet here you are... kvetching about how hard done you are. You sound like the sickest, whiniest, most pathetic humans on the planet.
Get over your lousy selves. Even the bleeding hearts in the US now have dark souls.
Reporting anybody, via a tip to a hotline reminds me of the Nazi regime in Germany. We all know the outcome-death camps. Neighbor fearing fearing neighbor. The breakdown of the moral compass of the country and its ultimate destruction. Although death camps aren’t the ultimate result here, the rounding up of people and putting them in camps does not bode well for the people of the United States.
I really do think the right approach here is Steve Bannon's approach: flood the zone with shit.
It's not the neck-breathers who ought to be calling Homan's deportation tip lines. That's a job for the rest of us. Report every chicken processing plant in Alabama, every slaughterhouse in South Carolina, every big dairy operation in North Dakota, every construction company in Texas. Every. Single. One. Thousands of illegals work in these businesses. Their owners, Republicans all, turn a blind eye and pay their elected officials to do the same. These businesses, not the onesy-twosey bodegas in New York City or restaurants in San Francisco or muffler shops in Chicago need to be the focus. Homan only wants to go into Sanctuary Cities guns drawn, kicking in doors. That makes good video on Fox News. What he does NOT want to do is start to get some pushback from some beefy Texas construction contractor who's going to default on a contract because he can't get the labor he needs.
Make these guys go after their own. Play the audio from the tip line. Get in front of a camera and say "we're just helping the federal government out. We know where these people are. Now they do."
Who is going to rebuild LA? Construction companies with 40-70% undocumented workers that’s who. Not to mention all the other industries that feed & house people. Culture wars demand lots of fear for entertainment so the lazy Republican elected officials cave in to dumb ideas instead of trying to create an immigration plan. Reagan understood the economic reality, having lived & governed in CA. Trump I believe deep down knows the economic reality of our migrant workforce but that is in direct conflict with the fervor he whipped up to get himself elected.
I live in a county in California with the highest per capita number of undocumented immigrants, more than 22 percent, most of whom work for our agriculture and hospitality industries, two sectors which donated mightily to Trump, Inc. County and city officials have been organizing themselves for months to make sure these vital workers and their families know their rights and what to do if rounded up in one the threatened “showcase” work raids. While we’re bracing ourselves for the worst, we are also ready to see the businesses who support Trump fail miserably as a result. They are so full of themselves that they think they’ll somehow avoid the consequences.
Cruelty is the point? Agreed to an extent! When you don’t have a plan, and only rough estimates or concepts of a plan, then what you are selling is absolute chaos!
The Trump administration will be playing whack-a-mole for four years. Nothing is static, and the world is dynamic. It’s best we prepare for the worst, since the last time he was president and we faced an existential crisis, he failed miserably, and an additional 500k people died needlessly. Expect more of the same. Lack of planning produces the results as advertised: NONE!
Furthermore, Trump’s immigration plan is pure chaos. Nothing meaningful will be accomplished, except lots of unnecessary and avoidable pain. His healthcare plan, or lack thereof; Good luck with that! His tariff proposals that will make Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act seem tame in comparison, and we all know how well that worked out in 1930.
Bottom line, Trump has already conveyed his best laid plans, and they have been found wanting! The problem with his plan, he never had one, but his nefarious aides do.
And while the MSM is focused on the distractions and chaos, his minions like Stephen Miller and his coterie from the Heritage Foundation, will be laying waste to the federal government and whatever freedoms we still enjoy which aren’t religiously related! IMHO!….:)
We need to stop acting as if demented DJT is making concrete policy decisions and instead remember who is really in charge: Musk, Miller, and whatever cowboy has Trump's ear at that moment. Did you know Musk's grandfather was part of the Technocracy Movement in the 1930s that sought an America that included Greenland, Canada, and Panama? Isn't it fascinating that Trump is suddenly interested in taking those exact regions? He is merely a dumb puppet, and we need to remember the bigger picture and who is behind it.
Before we spread conspiracies about Trump’s latest preoccupations, you might want to remember that he expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland long before Musk became his co-President.
In fact, I just read an article that describes a forged letter sent to Senator Tom Cotton in 2019, suggesting that Russia was considering invading Greenland. The Danish intelligence service concluded that the letter was likely fabricated by Russia to sow discord between Denmark, the U.S., and Greenland. Cotton, Trump and other sharp brainiacs were duped by Putin’s early hybrid warfare against the West. See https://www.newsweek.com/russia-us-greenland-annex-invasion-letter-cotton-2013864
The American People insist on reforming immigration, and they don't just mean seeing that everyone who wants to come into the country is admitted as long as they enter in orderly lines at the ports of entry and have a background or health check, like at Ellis Island in the 1890s. Polls make clear, especially the one that counts the most last November, that it means they insist on exercising the right, inherent in every other sovereign state, to choose through their elected representatives, who can and who cannot enter, and to have those choices not just honored but enforced at every land, sea, and air port of entry. Democrats have ignored, deplored, and tried to evade that legitimate insistence for decades. As David Frum has repeatedly warned, if liberals won't enforce borders, fascists will. And now we're going to see.
I have no faith in Trump and his henchmen. I despise him and his methods. I think that he'll fail, and he'll just make a bad situation worse. I only hope that in four years there's another chance to prove that liberal democracy can respond effectively and humanely to the popular will.
The one very important thing about this approach is that it "trains" the populace that being an informer is a good thing. You are "doing your duty" if you call the hotline to rat out your neighbors nanny. Once you inculcate that mind set, everyone is on the payroll to inform on....? Your LGBTQ plumber?, Your "woke" neighbor? The person you saw reading "The Bulwark" on the subway?
Yes to all of the above. Because the fear becomes contagious. You know "they" can come after you. It infiltrates the entire population. Russia has mastered this and we are well on course to do so.
Well, the scare tactics won in Springfield Ohio. The Guardian revisited the city after the election. Trump won by 150 votes. The Haitians, considered a major reason for the resurgence of Springfield, are moving away as fast as they can. Local merchants are seeing a loss of customers. Loss of customers means loss of rent payment, and loss of tax money. This will play out in many other places, leaving those behind with fewer services and higher taxes. I hope they are happy. They got what they voted for.
Perhaps because it’s so blatant it need not be said aloud, but all this immigration talk/fear is directed solely at Latinos and Latinas. No talk of raids in Brighton Beach or Little Odessa or Little Sweden. Racial discrimination? Hey, the Republican way!
"An incoming Missouri senator, Republican David Gregory, already introduced a bill that would give residents of the state $1,000 a pop to turn in undocumented immigrants as part of a bounty program." This is grandstanding in a state that wants to cut taxes even though we have one of the lowest starting pay rates for teachers, and is fighting to get around the ballot initiatives that changed the state's rabid anti-abortion law and approved increasing the minimum wage and requiring sick pay for many businesses. We also stopped right-to-work, approved Medicaid expansion, and legalized medical and recreational marijuana with initiatives. This is what 20+ years of Republican rule get you - a lot of hate and very little legislation to improve the life of residents.
Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday
As a Canadian I find this all rather disgusting.
The US has spent the last 150 years selling itself to the rest of the world as the "greatest place on earth" to live. So it comes as no surprise that millions of people have headed to - and are still flocking to - your shores, whether legally or not.
And then there's the irony.
The richest place to live on earth can't manage to absorb a tiny fraction of your population?... so they can do all the shit jobs none of the "natives" are too good to do? The jobs you pay minimum (or less) wages to? The people your businesses take advantage of by not offering benefits or insurances? Just so these desperate souls can too share in a tiny fraction of the dream you sold them?
Instead, you created this mess, but now blame the victims.
Clearly compassion has completely exited your collective psyche. It's abhorrent and despicable. Your self-ingratiating greed as the richest country on the planet seems to have no bounds.
For every "bad-ass" that enters the county illegally, there's tens of thousands of "ordinary folk" who had no hope of survival back in their homelands - never mind subsistence. Thriving wasn't even a possibility.
And yet here you are... kvetching about how hard done you are. You sound like the sickest, whiniest, most pathetic humans on the planet.
Get over your lousy selves. Even the bleeding hearts in the US now have dark souls.
Reporting anybody, via a tip to a hotline reminds me of the Nazi regime in Germany. We all know the outcome-death camps. Neighbor fearing fearing neighbor. The breakdown of the moral compass of the country and its ultimate destruction. Although death camps aren’t the ultimate result here, the rounding up of people and putting them in camps does not bode well for the people of the United States.
I really do think the right approach here is Steve Bannon's approach: flood the zone with shit.
It's not the neck-breathers who ought to be calling Homan's deportation tip lines. That's a job for the rest of us. Report every chicken processing plant in Alabama, every slaughterhouse in South Carolina, every big dairy operation in North Dakota, every construction company in Texas. Every. Single. One. Thousands of illegals work in these businesses. Their owners, Republicans all, turn a blind eye and pay their elected officials to do the same. These businesses, not the onesy-twosey bodegas in New York City or restaurants in San Francisco or muffler shops in Chicago need to be the focus. Homan only wants to go into Sanctuary Cities guns drawn, kicking in doors. That makes good video on Fox News. What he does NOT want to do is start to get some pushback from some beefy Texas construction contractor who's going to default on a contract because he can't get the labor he needs.
Make these guys go after their own. Play the audio from the tip line. Get in front of a camera and say "we're just helping the federal government out. We know where these people are. Now they do."
Who is going to rebuild LA? Construction companies with 40-70% undocumented workers that’s who. Not to mention all the other industries that feed & house people. Culture wars demand lots of fear for entertainment so the lazy Republican elected officials cave in to dumb ideas instead of trying to create an immigration plan. Reagan understood the economic reality, having lived & governed in CA. Trump I believe deep down knows the economic reality of our migrant workforce but that is in direct conflict with the fervor he whipped up to get himself elected.
I live in a county in California with the highest per capita number of undocumented immigrants, more than 22 percent, most of whom work for our agriculture and hospitality industries, two sectors which donated mightily to Trump, Inc. County and city officials have been organizing themselves for months to make sure these vital workers and their families know their rights and what to do if rounded up in one the threatened “showcase” work raids. While we’re bracing ourselves for the worst, we are also ready to see the businesses who support Trump fail miserably as a result. They are so full of themselves that they think they’ll somehow avoid the consequences.
I don't see how any person claiming to have a conscience can not support citizenship for the DACA folks. Just saying.
Cruelty is the point? Agreed to an extent! When you don’t have a plan, and only rough estimates or concepts of a plan, then what you are selling is absolute chaos!
The Trump administration will be playing whack-a-mole for four years. Nothing is static, and the world is dynamic. It’s best we prepare for the worst, since the last time he was president and we faced an existential crisis, he failed miserably, and an additional 500k people died needlessly. Expect more of the same. Lack of planning produces the results as advertised: NONE!
Furthermore, Trump’s immigration plan is pure chaos. Nothing meaningful will be accomplished, except lots of unnecessary and avoidable pain. His healthcare plan, or lack thereof; Good luck with that! His tariff proposals that will make Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act seem tame in comparison, and we all know how well that worked out in 1930.
Bottom line, Trump has already conveyed his best laid plans, and they have been found wanting! The problem with his plan, he never had one, but his nefarious aides do.
And while the MSM is focused on the distractions and chaos, his minions like Stephen Miller and his coterie from the Heritage Foundation, will be laying waste to the federal government and whatever freedoms we still enjoy which aren’t religiously related! IMHO!….:)
We need to stop acting as if demented DJT is making concrete policy decisions and instead remember who is really in charge: Musk, Miller, and whatever cowboy has Trump's ear at that moment. Did you know Musk's grandfather was part of the Technocracy Movement in the 1930s that sought an America that included Greenland, Canada, and Panama? Isn't it fascinating that Trump is suddenly interested in taking those exact regions? He is merely a dumb puppet, and we need to remember the bigger picture and who is behind it.
Before we spread conspiracies about Trump’s latest preoccupations, you might want to remember that he expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland long before Musk became his co-President.
In fact, I just read an article that describes a forged letter sent to Senator Tom Cotton in 2019, suggesting that Russia was considering invading Greenland. The Danish intelligence service concluded that the letter was likely fabricated by Russia to sow discord between Denmark, the U.S., and Greenland. Cotton, Trump and other sharp brainiacs were duped by Putin’s early hybrid warfare against the West. See https://www.newsweek.com/russia-us-greenland-annex-invasion-letter-cotton-2013864
The American People insist on reforming immigration, and they don't just mean seeing that everyone who wants to come into the country is admitted as long as they enter in orderly lines at the ports of entry and have a background or health check, like at Ellis Island in the 1890s. Polls make clear, especially the one that counts the most last November, that it means they insist on exercising the right, inherent in every other sovereign state, to choose through their elected representatives, who can and who cannot enter, and to have those choices not just honored but enforced at every land, sea, and air port of entry. Democrats have ignored, deplored, and tried to evade that legitimate insistence for decades. As David Frum has repeatedly warned, if liberals won't enforce borders, fascists will. And now we're going to see.
I have no faith in Trump and his henchmen. I despise him and his methods. I think that he'll fail, and he'll just make a bad situation worse. I only hope that in four years there's another chance to prove that liberal democracy can respond effectively and humanely to the popular will.
The one very important thing about this approach is that it "trains" the populace that being an informer is a good thing. You are "doing your duty" if you call the hotline to rat out your neighbors nanny. Once you inculcate that mind set, everyone is on the payroll to inform on....? Your LGBTQ plumber?, Your "woke" neighbor? The person you saw reading "The Bulwark" on the subway?
Yes to all of the above. Because the fear becomes contagious. You know "they" can come after you. It infiltrates the entire population. Russia has mastered this and we are well on course to do so.
Well, the scare tactics won in Springfield Ohio. The Guardian revisited the city after the election. Trump won by 150 votes. The Haitians, considered a major reason for the resurgence of Springfield, are moving away as fast as they can. Local merchants are seeing a loss of customers. Loss of customers means loss of rent payment, and loss of tax money. This will play out in many other places, leaving those behind with fewer services and higher taxes. I hope they are happy. They got what they voted for.
Non-white naturalized citizens who voted for Trump thinking he will only deport illegal immigrants have no sense of history of our country.
Perhaps because it’s so blatant it need not be said aloud, but all this immigration talk/fear is directed solely at Latinos and Latinas. No talk of raids in Brighton Beach or Little Odessa or Little Sweden. Racial discrimination? Hey, the Republican way!
Latinos (non-college-educated) swung hard toward Trump this election.
Elections have consequences.
And irony thrives despite the humorlessness Republicans who seem oblivious to it
Just wondering: Wasn’t there an “illegal” immigrant problem at Mar-a-Lago?
"An incoming Missouri senator, Republican David Gregory, already introduced a bill that would give residents of the state $1,000 a pop to turn in undocumented immigrants as part of a bounty program." This is grandstanding in a state that wants to cut taxes even though we have one of the lowest starting pay rates for teachers, and is fighting to get around the ballot initiatives that changed the state's rabid anti-abortion law and approved increasing the minimum wage and requiring sick pay for many businesses. We also stopped right-to-work, approved Medicaid expansion, and legalized medical and recreational marijuana with initiatives. This is what 20+ years of Republican rule get you - a lot of hate and very little legislation to improve the life of residents.