Stealing From the Military

I suspect that this will become a court case as the dontard has made the Pentagon divert money to build border walls.

How much of an impact this might have on the military is difficult to say.  It will obviously have some sort of impact, but most likely it will add project to the unfunded list instead of cutting current projects.

Diverting funds to combat a real emergency would be one thing, but the situation on the border is not an emergency.  It is more of an emergency for those trying to get asylum than it is for Americans.

Even if a few of the people who cross the border illicitly end up committing crimes, it is not going to be a noticeable increase.

They aren't causing any particular disruptions or presenting any significant danger.

It just isn't an emergency.

Its just a situation that we should address with a sensible immigration policy.

Stop robbing the military.

Wall Progress

Progress on building the useless border wall is going on slowly.  So far about 13% of the latest revised amount is built.  Since we are now down to 450 miles from the original 1000, we are closer to 5% of the original number.

The numbers don't really mean anything.  The parts of the border that are inhospitable, which is much of it, is already inaccessible without expert help.  That same expert help will go where the wall isn't or go where the wall is breached.

Not sure why we don't allow them to apply for admittance legally and do background checks.

It needs to be pointed out that of the Hispanics in this country, the great majority are here legally.  It should also be pointed out that we acquired quite a few as we annexed territory in the southwest in the 1800s.

The simple fact is that they want to come here because they can get work and be relatively free of the violence in their home countries.  I never understood why so many Americans seem to think they threaten them.

People who want to come here are not criminals, until we decide to call them that.

Its a self made problem.

Round Up?

What really is the point of going to businesses and rounding up undocumented people who are working and paying taxes?

If the argument is that they broke the law by coming here in the first place, but are now simply living a normal working class life and raising a family, maybe the punishment should be a fine or other restriction.

We can still control our borders but at some point we have to realize that upwards of 11 million people living here came without authorization.

If they are living here we have evidence of what kind of resident they are.  If they are in fact law abiding, except for the means of entry, why are we rooting them out?

If they commit a serious crime deport them.  If not we should probably allow them to apply for a retroactive visa based on the exhibited good behavior since there arrival.

Is this amnesty?  Maybe, but it just seems like common sense.

Not Open Borders

One of the things that is often misrepresented is the idea of decriminalizing immigration.

If you change it back to a civil violation instead of a criminal one, the main difference is how they are treated.  In a civil proceeding the issue will come down to the lack of documentation and failure to produce or obtain it will still lead to deportation.  It won't lead to people being locked in cages and separated from their families until it plays out.

Failure to show up for a hearing will result in warrants and make the offense more serious.

If your image of the undocumented people is a bunch of criminals and rapists who are intent on violating our laws this will not seem like a good policy.

However that describes very few of the undocumented people in this country.

They and their families are generally simply behaving like all previous immigrants have.

The problem is simply what standard should we apply to hard working people simply trying to lead a better life.

I think treating them like people and the good neighbors they are is appropriate.

Give Us Your Rich

The Statue of Liberty was erected to celebrate the fact that America (the United States) was a land of opportunity where the poor or persecuted people of the world could come and make a new start, needing only the will to contribute.

It was how most of us got here, since we are a nation of immigrant descendants, and very few of our ancestors came here because they were doing so well in their old country.

Possibly the came to practice their religion freely or because they couldn't make a living or raise food.

We accepted all who showed up, although there have been other periods in our history where some of those here felt they didn't want further competition.

The Irish were considered undesirable by many and certainly as each nationality too their turn.

We started restriction on immigration when the belief spread that we were seeing too many of the wrong people coming.

Still as a nation we knew that while we could impose some quotas, we weren't going to exclude all immigrants and that the people coming here were doing so to build a better life or escape persecution.

It has always worked as after one generation they are as American as anyone else, indistinguishable, except maybe for facial characteristics form any American.  In fact our President is the Grandson and son of immigrants as are some of our Senators and other important figures.

Now of course we see a plan that would have likely excluded those ancestors with a few exceptions as undesirable since they were poor and could only provide a desire to succeed.

This belief that immigrants only want to come here to get handouts and free benefits is a made up story as history and research clearly shows.

We might have been better off is some of those ancestors were in fact turned away, but even so, as a nation we need to provide a place for those who need opportunity.

Its our heritage.

Civil Discourse

In general the things we argue about represent very little of the actual Government.  For example, things like defense, social security, homeland security are all things that are supported by nearly everybody.  Whether a particular weapon system gets funded or what the social security cola should be might be arguments, but the broad topic is something agreed on.

It seems like the differences are greater than they are because we have a press that mostly focuses on the interesting arguments and a president who treats everything as a political issue.

Take immigration.  Everybody, or at least almost everybody would want policies that weed our terrorists and known criminals while allowing asylum seekers and desirable immigrants access.  Its not that hard but of course you need to understand that you are dealing with many individuals, each whom has their own issues.

They are not selected by their home countries to come here.  They are not generally terrorists or drug smugglers.  They are generally fleeing the gangs, not joining them.  They don't become a long term drain on our resources, once they get settled.

To believe these things is the result of rhetoric with no basis in facts.

Yes, in any fairly large group of people you will have some who aren't going to obey the law and who might commit a crime, but these are the exceptions.  It would be like saying all Americans are mass murderers because some have committed mass murder.  Its just not logical or correct.

The idea of working together on the things that unite us while debating the things we disagree on isn't really that alien a concept.  We used to do it all the time.

Unanticipated Consequences

In general, to determine the effectiveness of a course of behavior you have to measure results.

The results are the measure of effectiveness although of course to get a true measure you have to make sure there are no other variables.

This is fairly easy in a laboratory setting but not so much in the real world.

Still, if you introduce a specific action and a related result changes, you can treat the result as a likely result of that action.

Take immigration.  We have seen a lot of rhetoric and bluster about it yet the result is a significant increase in people coming for asylum.

It seems counterintuitive, but there is most likely a relationship between the two.  Sometimes just drawing attention to an issue, makes it more popular.

Of course the causes could be related to deteriorating conditions in their home countries.

Still our anti-immigration administration has managed to increase the number of undocumented immigrants significantly.

Maybe time to try something different.

Doing The Right Thing

Are poor immigrants wanting to come to this country for a better life a crisis?

If so the country was in a crisis for most of its history.

I understand that the rhetoric has grown dramatically and it is presented as an invasion of undesirables.

Still, it might rise to the level of a situation, but it is only a crisis if we make it one.

It may strain our border resources a bit, but we could certainly process these asylum seekers in an orderly way if we wanted to.

We have processed large numbers of asylum seekers in our past successfully.  Of course in some events we simply accepted everyone fleeing Cuba who passed a rudimentary check.  To some extent our current cumbersome process and shortage of personnel is causing delays and detention issues.

As a person who should care about his fellow man, the issue is what should we do with people who have left everything behind and show up at our border asking for safe entrance?

Obviously if they are some sort of threat or have terrorist connections, we shouldn't admit them, but ordinary people with families who just want a chance to be safe?

The country is not full, its is far from it.

Its clear that not everyone agrees that we have a humanitarian responsibility to help these people, our fellow humans, and that is just a fact.

However, each of them is a person and has the same hopes and desires as we do.  They are mostly victims of violence, poverty and corrupt governments.  Those are not our fault, but its not their fault either.

We need to do the right thing and not blame the victims.

Immigration

I find it a bit strange who many people who romanticize the shiploads of immigrants that used to come by ship to Ellis Island, act like a van load of immigrants on the border is a crisis.

They may cross the border illegally, but it is perfectly legal to request asylum.

They aren't terrorists or criminals, at least not more than any other random group, and most statistics indicate less.

Of course they are the clear cut leaders in immigration law violations.

The fervor over immigration is simply misguided.

We should have a way for people who want to come here, to come here legally, we need immigrants to fill jobs and help with our demographics.

Our current system is simply bad for everyone, costly, punitive, and in some cases cruel.

Its also pretty unfair in how its applied.

There will be additional border security of some sort based on the current negotiations.

Wouldn't be a problem if we opened up a broader path to letting hard working people immigrate.

Screen out the undesirables, we have always done that.

Speaking a different language doesn't make you undesirable, it makes you interesting.

Shutdown Futility

The shutdown is over, or at least in an armistice as a continuing resolution provides a three week window to negotiate on border security.

Its hard to imagine the shutdown being revisited after this one was an expensive exercise in futility, that did not succeed in financing a wall that the public generally doesn't think is needed.

Certainly in some areas on the border either physical or technological barrier might serve a purpose, but we also need to understand that barriers can almost always be defeated.

There are two issues on the border.

One involves immigrants, people who want to find a better or safer life for themselves and their families.  They cross illegally because we allow so few of them to come legally.

A good number of Americans object to them because they violated the law but also because they represent changes in our population that some resent and reject.

We see Spanish becoming more and more common in many aspects of our life as the Hispanic population has grown.  This is not a new trend but conservative media has taken it on as a crusade arguing that traditional "white" America is threatened..

This is essentially the same argument that was made by previous generations as waves of German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and others came to this country.  Of course we had African Americans brought here against their will who help form our traditional America.   Already we see the sons and grandsons of Hispanic immigrants occupying positions of importance and their ethnic background is not a factor.

The other issue is the importation of contraband, mainly drugs.  Drugs are so profitable that all our attempts to stop them have failed in the end.  People who want them have consistently been able to get them.  Stopping usage would be the only effective control, eliminate demand and supply will stop.  We have been unable to do that, either by treatment or incarceration and it has been costly failures.

A wall will not stop this profitable business, it probably won't have any impact on it.

It just won't work.

Our Melting Pot

Some people react to the undocumented immigrants as if they are burglars breaking into this country to steal something.

However, all the statistics show they contribute far more than they use.  Generally because of their status they pay taxes but don't qualify for benefits.  Yes they may use education and health resources, but once again they are paying taxes and contributing to the economy by doing jobs that most Americans don't want.

The math is hard because they are undocumented, but they certainly aren't the parasites painted by certain biased media and the dontard.

Consider the majority who come here to have a better life, or work seasonally to make some money.  They are no threat to our way of life and n fact some of our industries depend on them to function.

If you were to construct more barriers you might deter some or you might make the cost of getting here greater.  The barriers will not stop them and I'm not sure we even want to.  Keeping our seasonal workers and poor families who want a better life is hardly much of a goal.

Of course some of the people violating the border do smuggle drugs.  Mostly those they don't do it in the wilderness, they come through our points of entry.

Drug smuggling, like prohibition was, is so profitable that new and better ways will always be found.  Any kind of barrier will have no impact on it at all.

Do terrorists come across our Southern border?  There is no evidence that they do, at least in any meaningful numbers.

Our pretense about border security is really a cover up for ethnocentric bigotry.  A certain percentage of our population believes that America should remain pure.  They ignore the fact that this purity, if it ever existed, went away ages ago.

Our history is a story of immigration with our current America a melting pot of many cultures and peoples.  Adding more people to it is simply going to make the product richer.

At one time people wanted to keep the ancestors of many of us out, because they were different.

Imagine if they had succeeded.

Offering Nothing

There are offers and generally the best way to hammer out a deal is by talking to the other side nd working the details.

What we saw yesterday was a public relations attempt to sell a position that the polls show the American people don't want by wrapping it around some things that they do like, but not really offering anything.

The thing they don't want is a wall, as all the polls clearly show.

The wall does not solve any of the problems the dontard talked about, the dangerous trip to the border in central America, the importation of drugs, the exploitation by smugglers who prey on the desperate.  It would in fact probably increase the last one as they could point to it as a reason they are needed.

The things Americans do favor, protection of dreamers and refugees is currently something the courts are deciding.  Right now the courts are already stopping the attempted change to the policies and how long that will continue is anyone's guess, it might be permanent.

So three years of what is already the situation is, well, three years of nothing.

The other things he mentioned are already part of a bill that the democrats favor and all he has to do is sign it and the other funding bills to open the Government and move on.

It is certainly possible that some barriers in strategic locations could be agreed to once the Government is open, it should be based on careful analysis and data, not the whims of a dontard.

The public relations of all this is to give the impression that the dontard has made the first move and that the democrats now need to reciprocate.  What is being ignored is that they have already offered most of the effective measures he mentioned and want permanent solutions to the dreamer and refugee issues.

This was no offer at all, just a public relations ploy.  We need to see it for what it is.

Nothing at all.

Wall or no Wall?

It seems like the dontard realizes that his chances of getting his wall built are quickly disappearing and in spite he will shut down some of the Government.

Most Americans just don't care about the wall but his core supporters do so he is playing to his base.

Not good for his party or his chances in 2020 but he gets a big cheer when he mentions the wall at rallies.

I can't envision any money being allocated to his wall, but anything is possible in the world of politics.

Generally the democrats will want to reopen the Government so they made need to agree to something that saves some face for the dontard.

Not what he wants, but if they give him any type of bone, he will turn it into a gigantic skeleton.

Border security is something we need but how much do we need?

People have crossed our southern border fairly regularly for years with no detrimental impact to the country.

The issue is more of a media issue mixed with some racism.

Do some of the people who cross the border do bad things when they get here?

Of course, a small percentage, it is people after all.

They tend to be hard working families trying to build a better, safer life.

Have they taken good paying jobs?

Not really, they tend to do the jobs most Americans don't want to do.

They tend to be a bit browner and speak Spanish, and that has contributed to why they are attacked.

Certainly we don't need a wall that won't even be effective to deal with what is primarily a non-problem.

Yes we have many undocumented immigrants in this country.  They have the most risk, not the rest of us.

Border Security

Border security is something that we obviously need to be somewhat concerned about but with two coastlines and thousands of miles of actual borders it is never going to be 100% guarded, it would be both unaffordable and technologically and personnel nearly impossible.

The concern currently is the number of illegal immigrants coming across our Southern Border, because the comprise the majority.

They certainly don't comprise the greatest threat, at least not in any real sense of that word.

They do however create something of  cultural threat, speaking a different language, influencing certain programming, and generally being a different type of American, than our European roots.

Of course, they also have European roots, but for various reasons, those roots were Spanish and ours don't include Spanish roots, since they would have obviously emigrated to the Spanish speaking countries.

The people coming here, and they have been coming here for a very long time, come for better economic or because we are generally a safer country than some of our southern neighbors.

Current claims to the contrary they do not consist of gang members and/or terrorists, at least not to any great extent.  Terrorists might tag along but they have many other means and the idea that they would first travel to a Latin country to then try to enter this country illegally is both convoluted and a bit silly.  If they aren't already a known terrorist, they could probably just get a tourist visa and come here.

The current argument concerns whether we need a hugely expensive border wall to reduce illegal immigration along our southern border.  If the reason to do this has to do with keeping out terrorists or gang members, it is extremely silly and almost certainly useless.

I've never seen an analysis that would indicate a wall along the southern border would accomplish anything.  We already have created barriers in the areas with the easiest overland access only to have them bypassed or tunneled under.  Will a multi-billion dollar wall stop some immigration, certainly, but so would many other more effective measures.

It is a project that would take many years to complete, cost many billions of dollars, and require significant maintenance and manning to accomplish very little.

Its not the way to get effective border security.

Immigration Phobia

There are people who are concerned that the demographics of this country are changing and that in the relatively near future the majority of the country will consist of people we currently consider minorities.

Its a pretty silly concern since in one way or another this has been the history of the country and populations that were once considered "unAmerican" like Irish or Italians among others, are now as mainstream as any.

We are a country that is diverse by its nature and our origins as a group of mostly English colonies is foundational and ingrained.

Yet we consistently go through periods where we decide that immigrants are going to destroy our society.

As early as the 1840s we had the Know-Nothings who felt we had to stop immigration to salvage our values.

It became a political force but soon splintered over issues like slavery and was pretty much gone by the Civil War, although of course the anti-immigration issue never really went away.

It is probably safe to say that the America of the time underwent major changes, one of which was the end of slavery and of course the millions of immigrants who came here.

This idea that the values of a particular time should be preserved forever is fairly common and we see it in some religious sects that refuse to use modern technology.

Most of us consider them somewhat quaint but then many of us want to glorify a particular period of American history and freeze it in time.

It isn't going to happen, the world isn't going to stand still and neither is the country.

American Values

We are seeing an erosion of civil liberties for people in this country because of their country of origin or because of their race.

This isn't accidental, it is an attempt to deny them an equal say about our countries policies and elected officials.

One of the methods widely used is to manipulate voting districts to minimize the impact of voters you don't like.  If you simply put them into a single district, you can reduce their representation greatly despite the fact that they comprise a higher percentage of the population.

To do this based on race has been illegal for some time, so they tried to justify it based on party affiliation, which effectively was the same thing in practice and the courts struck it down.

One person one vote, its not a complex concept but it becomes meaningless if you make the vote count less.

We actually see this on the national level as well because of the electoral college and the equal number of senators per state.  If you live in one of our mountain states in the West your vote counts a lot more than if you live in a major metropolitan area.

Geography doesn't have political opinions.

We also see a crackdown on Americans of Mexican descent who are in many cases being asked to provide excessive proof of who they are.

People born along the border are being accused of having false birth certificates, without much proof and being denied passports and re-entry into the country.

These are people who were born here, educated here, served in the armed forces, worked here and now many years later have their credential being challenged.

Even if, at the time of their birth, a midwife changed the location on the birth certificate, after all these years they are as American as anyone.

Its part of a crackdown on people of Mexican descent orchestrated by politicians who want to suppress their votes.

They are being accused of a crime on speculation and being asked to prove their innocence as opposed to the Government having to prove their guilt.

That's not the America I grew up in.

Immigration

This is a country that was built by immigrants and which still needs immigrants to grow and prosper.

Immigrants come here for all sorts of reasons, some who are professional people come to make much more money in say our medical system then they could at home, others because of a particular job but the majority come here with limited skills hoping to build a better life for themselves and their children.

Some of course flee oppression or war and come here for a safe refuge.

There are of course some who try to come here for sinister reasons, either as terrorists or possibly spies for a foreign power or members of a criminal group who we should of course try to identify and prevent.

There's an old adage about throwing out the baby with the bathwater and clearly the current administration attitude towards immigrants leans to that approach.

They are now interpreting our laws in a way that is going to make it harder to obtain a green card or become a citizen.

Our rules generally require applicants to be self sufficient, and it makes sense we wouldn't want to have people who came here and simply depended on Government assistance.

But consider a scenario where someone comes here, gets a job and at some point gets laid off, collects the unemployment insurance he paid into for a few weeks before he lands another job.

Years later his application for citizenship and his green card status are questioned because he had accepted public support.

Or someone who complies with the ACA and signed up for the insurance and qualified for a Government subsidy under the rules.  His status could also be doubtful.

These are hard working people, struggling to support their families but despite their clean records and desire to be good citizens we are looking for anyway to deny them and possibly force them out of the country.

It is shameful.  It denies our history and our promise written on the Statue of Liberty.

Safety Net?

We've been seeing a sell off in the market the last couple of weeks as it becomes apparent that the dontard is actually pursuing trade policies that will hurt the economy.

Of course his immigration policies also are bad for the economy because right or wrong, undocumented immigrants make us more competitive in many areas.

I believe his team of so-called economic advisers argue that we need to replace the people coming here and working for very low wages with people getting public assistance.  Economically it seems to make sense since you turn someone using taxes to someone paying taxes.

The issues with this are pretty clear, since that strategy attempts to make people who either can't work or won't work into workers.

The other problem is the people aren't where the jobs might be.

If you accept the premise, you have to transport a lot of single mothers to the migrant camps where our undocumented work all day harvesting crops.

Not likely, or even probably possible.

Creating useful opportunities for these folks with training could work to a certain extent, but the current positions of the dontard are shaped by radical proponents of the sink or swim scenario.

Cut off their aid and food stamps unless they can prove they are working and drug free.

The fact that there are no jobs to be had in many cases, at least ones they qualify for, or that the real victims in many cases will be the children, is simply "one of the breaks".

Instead of providing education and opportunities for our vulnerable poor, we can turn them into a permanent underclass with all the problems they already have, plus some more.

The saddest thing is that the abusers of the system will figure our how to keep abusing it while the neediest will suffer.

Those are "the breaks"/

Immigration Reform

You didn't think things could get worse in Washington considering how disruptive it is, but then it does.

The policy of zero tolerance which results in Children being taken away from arrested parents is simply a terrible thing to do and its very hard to defend.

There is a fairly strong anti immigration mood in much of the country, but there isn't a pen up little children mood, at least not yet.

The anti immigration mood is fanned by the alt right and is really a form of racism or racial purity, defend America as a "white" country.

That goal is at the bottom of a lot of the sentiment, just like we see people defending the flag or what language we use when neither is under attack.

The typical American is non-existent and the image of a Mayberry RFD type of life is fine, but it was never really the norm.

It did exist but it wasn't the only existence.  For many Americans the image of their ancestors is one of a struggling immigrant, braving the unknown and arriving in a new country with their family to start a new better life.

Many of them did brave the journey to the west to settle on farms, many stayed in the cities of the east to work in factories and workhouses.

Some came to this country to work on the railroads and helped complete our infrastructure.

Some of course were dragged here against their will and enslaved, after which they were discriminated against.

For most it worked out pretty well, if not for them, at least for their children and grandchildren.

This is a country of immigrants or descendants of immigrants and it is shameful how we treat "illegal" immigrants.

We need immigrants and we need to have a way for people to come here legally.

Its in our blood after all.

Immigration Silliness

People who brake laws don't do it expecting to get caught.  Of course they might realize it a possibility, but with a few exceptions, they assume they will get away with it.

One of those exceptions is people who cross our border without authorization who then turn themselves in.

The reason for this is that it is better than the alternative.

These are people who have no possibility to come here legally as they don't qualify under any of the criteria.

Not because of anything they have done wrong but simply because they the criteria requirements apply to specific categories which is pretty restrictive.

You can't just apply to come here and wait your turn, you must have a job, family or some humanitarian basis.

Since they have no legal path to immigration they take the only path available to them, one which puts them at some risk but also creates an opportunity.

So we arrest the adults and separate them from their children at which point we are housing and feeding all of them until whenever the cases get depositioned.

The cost for this, time in detention, care of the children, transport back to country of origin is all borne by the citizens of this country with the general result being, well cost.

Of course back before we had these immigration laws we used to screen arrivals and if they weren't infectious or a known danger, allow them simply to enter the country and help grow it.

Most of our ancestors came in via this sort of process and they worked hard raised families and had, well us.

Outside of prejudice against Mexicans or other central Americans, there is no reason we couldn't have a similar process today, except of course for the prejudice thing.