I felt exhausted just *reading* about President Biden's recent itinerary, and like you, consider his efforts to be extremely successful. I despise the msm for their constant harping on his age and for never acknowledging his accomplishments. It is shameful and I don't know why he and VP Harris never get any kudos for what they've accomplished for this country.
Alas, too much of the MSM is under financial influence of wealthy right wingers. Those terribly annoying influencers continue to obstuct and instruct the outcomes.
Lawrence was, as usual, on fire tonight. I love it when he has Neal Katyal and Andrew Weissmann on together. They asserted that Trump is still trying to game the system with his “demand” that Chutkin recuse herself. I laughed at the absurdity of it all. He’s shitting bricks, that’s what Donnie id doing. His former buddy, Mark Meadows, received a denial from the presiding judge, to move his case to federal court. Why? Because the cameras will be on him and the 18 others. Too f**king bad! Time for these autocrats to be brought down quite a few notches.
Who do these people think they are! DEMAND- my ass! That’s really funny. Are the lawmakers he keeps saying this to supposed be scared of this fat yellow pig and just jump to it! Sure....
I agree about the schedule. Only people who do nothing substantive with their time would not get how grueling it is. I think someone should be creating a reality show (apparently the only thing Republicans consider "real") where politicians try to keep up with Joe Biden's schedule. Trump would be welcome to try it too, but he cannot leave the country, because he is a flight risk. Also, he is bad for our international image. I am here in Germany. We spent several days of one week about 5 days after we got here looking for housing for our daughter in Berlin. I have never been so tired in my life and I had comfortable shoes on. Each day, we would all just sleep deeply. I am happy to say, she is however, installed in a very good living situation in Berlin as she studies there. My 78 year-old-aunt just visited us here. She is partially blind and just seeing her difficulties getting around, whereas a family friend who is 89 is out in the marketsquare every Saturday, with her husband standing for at least 90 minutes holding protest signs is in great shape. She doesn't personally drive anymore because she also has a visual problem in one eye, but she is very active and travels every 6 weeks to live in her husbands house in another German city, and then back here for 6, and then to conferences. Her conversation is still very fit. This age stuff is so relative, just as it is for people at any age. Biden is amazing. We are so fortunate to have him.
Thanks Robert, there was a time when journalists had respect for the President enough not to try to “make hay” over a stutter or a meaningless attempt at a joke or story spoken with good faith. This is called wisdom and so little of it exists in the current media. This is not to criticize the medias coverage of the anti democratic rhetoric of the former guy. However the media should put more focus on the pro democratic statement’s of-the current “guy”.
Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
I am old enough to well remember speeches produced by Raygun and GHWBush. Thanks to his days as a C-list actor, Ronnie could memorize the lines and reproduce a coherent speech...full of immodest amounts of bullshyte and lies, of course...but, thanks to his speechwriters, at least the speeches had complete sentences. GHWBush, on the hand, had some kind of aversion to verbs and often lost the press, the audience and usually himself as well, in the midst of a rambling maze of dangling participles and incomprehensible grammar.
I don't seem to recall that much fuss made over Reagan's obvious lies, nor that the msm focused their comments on Bush senior's word salads.
The msm has become very much more politically weaponized (to use the R's absolutely favorite descriptive) since the days of Ronnie and George senior. And of course the R-slanted media just loves to use Trump's favorite distraction: accusing others of the exact thing he is actually doing.
The problem with many in the MSM isn’t just “weaponization”. Many many many members of the MSM evidently have inflated egos and feel driven to show how smart they are. They seem to think that subtly, and not so subtly, denigrating public figures demonstrates their cleverness.
Sadly, too true. I know what TCinLA calls the members of the press when he's particularly disgusted with them, but I don't have the ability to call up that kind of vocabulary unless I'm channeling my deceased stepfather (who was a retired Marine, a Viet Nam vet and a MGySgt).
As the two principals of the lawfirm of Katyal & Weissman LLC pointed out tonight to Lawrence, Trump is about 45 days late having his lawyers make the motion regarding Judge Chutkan. As they both also pointed out, that the motion was made when it was, citing what it did, is proof the lawyers have no control over their client and have been browbeaten to where they do what he wants. The motion wasn't written for anyone involved in the case, it was written for the inbred droolers moron enough to believe him and stupid enough to have no idea how things work. This way when he's convicted he can tell them "she was prejudiced against me from the beginning!"
God I wish he'd just die, or that prophylactic termination wasn't so socially unacceptable.
I have never wished ill on anyone until tfg became POTUS and proved what an incompetent morally bankrupt subhuman he actually is, and every day since, I've wished that karma would strike him like a lightning bolt and leave him incapacitated for the remainder of his unnatural life. But then that wouldn't be fair to the Secret Service or the caregivers forced to endure his execrable existence.
OMGoodness, Prophylactic Termination! All I can think of is Edward G Robinson in Soylent Green, waiting for termination while lying on a bed in front of a large movie screen that is playing a scene of a field of daisies swaying in a gentle breeze, and his favorite music….
What would you have trumples watch??? I suppose video of Jan 6 Insurrection at the Capitol is too easy and he’d probably enjoy it too much, but that is his legacy and so…
Great lead (or lede) today, Robert. I hadn't been keenly aware of President Biden's itinerary before I saw his speech, where I thought he looked tired and was a bit less sharp. In the context you described, I can't imagine how anyone could have done better.
I have a son who lives in Japan, and my wife and I have visited him many times. The stress of a trip like that, and the circadian disruption it causes, is not something to brush off.
I don't agree with President Biden on everything, and sometimes cringe at things he says or does, but my respect for him is enormous, and for that he has my unwavering support.
Best pres of my lifetime, which began early in Eisenhower, and I say that despite the fact that I think he's doing a terrible job with the (now open) border. But he's doing incredibly well with everything else. The Dems could have gotten rid of the border problem by voting with the GOP last spring to pass a national, mandatory E-verify, but somehow, in the last 15 years or so, the Dems have become the party of open borders.
Not that I have answers David, but my own "inner" compass keeps pointing to a much more radical and inclusive solution. I believe the immigration "problem" is multi-focused, and deserves a congressional hearing. Expert witnesses should include refugee-savvy folks such as World Hunger Index and UNICEF; DEA experts, some migrants who took the journey and why, our diplomats with understanding of Latin America, esp. Mexico and
Venezuela, climate specialists, and governmental reps in Europe who have tried to manage their own immigration problems. I believe that this is a multi-focused issue that is also a world-wide catastrophe.
Last but not least, our crafty friends across the aisle are not innocent. They are promoting and intensifying immigration as a political cudgel. Those folks put on busses? They are not all new border crossers by any means. They are enticed by false promises of jobs, social services, and expedited green cards ony to find homelessness on the other end of the journey.
Hope, most of these migrants are mostly ***economic*** migrants. I don't blame them, but there is such a thing as carrying capacity. Ours is dropping along with the water level in all of our country's major aquifers...
... meaning there is less for agriculture, and there is less for people.
The US population explosion is killing off wildlife, some of which has declined as much as 80% in as little as 20 years. More generally, there's been a decline in everything from insects to mammals of more than 50% over the last 50 years. Among other things, this decimation of the natural world bollixes ecosystem services, which give us everything from clean water and pollination to disease prevention. Summer of 2022, a group of scientists wrote in Nature (one of the premier scientific journals) that we were risking more pandemics by not doing anything about our numbers. It's true. Lyme, HIV, COVID all almost certainly emerged as a result of the human population messing up relationships between various species which prevented the emergence of new diseases.
Then there's the fact that we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. The average immigrant's GH emissions rise threefold after arrival, which shouldn't be surprising since so many come from low per capita emissions third world countries. Thus, immigration to the US hurts the planet!
Finally, Propublica predicts that in the next several decades, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees.
That suggests that if anything, we should be reducing our numbers, not taking in more millions of immigrants.
It is a form of American exceptionalism on the left to think that we can save the world without screwing our progeny.
If any potential solutions are going to be developed, this probably needs to be done by an international agency that would have people dedicated to this task.
Meanwhile, the GOP has at least tried to pass a national, mandatory E-Verify, at least twice, maybe three times since 2018, and most recently this past spring. That would stop people from entering illegally. Unfortunately, virtually all the Democrats vote against it (Arizona Senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly is probably on exception, although the bill didn't make it to the Senate this time), which is voting against our own interests, as the border problem hurts us at election time.
Thank you for your response, David. I agree that something has to give. Extreme poverty and desperation are, indeed, drivers of immigration. I just know that a broad coalition of some sort is needed, rather than a bickering focus on competing ideologies. For decades now, Rs and Ds have been tossing this hot potato back and forth to the detriment of a solution and with deadly consequences for the immigrants.
Another thing I didn't mention is that big biz uses immigration to keep American workers' wages down. In 1980, meat packers were Black. They made middle class wages. By that decade's end, meat packers were mostly immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely above minimum wage. Similar replacements of American workers by the more easily exploitable immigrants were occurring in multiple other job categories. You can read about it in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon.)
Beck gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs American workers won't do. He interviewed recently fired Black poultry workers. Would they take their jobs back if offered, he asked them? No, they told him, because on the wages their replacements were being paid, they'd have to live in their cars or many to a house. Immigration is what kept American workers' wages down for 40 years. Cesar Chavez understood how this stuff worked, which is why he denounced illegal immigrants to ICE's predecessor, the INS.
The reason that they are flooding into the country now in such numbers is that they know they can get in and won't get kicked out, which wasn't true under previous administrations. They know that because during one of the Democratic debates that preceded the last presidential election, one of the moderators, from a Hispanic broadcasting station, asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would refuse to deport immigrants. Everyone raised their hands except for Biden, whose hand went up and down a bit.
That so-called "gang of eight" bill from 2013, I think it was, deserved to die. It would have greatly increased legal immigration while doing nothing to stop illegal immigration, despite the fact that E-Verify was mandatory in an handful of states, and many companies in non-mandatory states used it voluntarily. We (Democrats) lost the Senate in 2014 almost certainly due to Obama's DAPA (amnesty for parents of illegal immigrants). I predicted that loss before it happened. All the new GOP senators had campaigned on amnesty as bad labor policy for American workers.
There would be no deadly consequences if we would pass a national, mandatory E-Verify. They would cease making the trek because they would know they would not be able to get jobs here.
My lingering January 6 question: why didn't the Defendant send the Army against the Congress instead of a mob? That's what Cromwell, Yeltsin, Pinochet and many like them did. It's hard to believe he didn't try. I conclude that the military held firm to their oaths, and that's a very good sign and creditable to them.
Last night, on the CBS Evening News for September 11th, Norah O’Donnell finished with a clip from an interview with the two pilots who took off in F-15s on 9/11, determined to intercept the airliner headed for the Capitol. They scrambled so quickly that there was not time to mount missiles on the planes, and F-15s carry no guns. The only way they could have forced the plane down would have been to ram it, which they were perfectly willing to do. Stop and think about that for a moment. In the end, they did not have to make that sacrifice, because the passengers on Flight 93 made theirs—saving the lives of those pilots as well as people on the ground in Washington. That is the spirit that the fascists traduce.
The legitimate angry intensity at those who unfairly denigrate the President and the media that goes along with that denigration as well as the angry intensity at those, from Marjory Taylor Greene to former President Trump, who would dismantle the United States Constitution is visible and, I think, is spreading. If we can retain that intensity and use it -- investing in candidates and groups like the Rural Democracy Initiative 2024 could be a transformative election.
"Instead, she (Rep. Taylor-Greene) will be rewarded by a weak and narcissistic Speaker of the House whose only goal is to maximize the number of days before his tenure is unceremoniously terminated by another faithless member of his party."
I totally agree, Robert, that Speaker McCarthy is weak and narcissistic. But as you know, his tenure can be terminated by a "motion to vacate the chair" brought by any Member of the House, so long as it receives 218 votes.
MAGA extremists are fond of wielding this as a threat, but in reality they don't have the votes to carry through, unless Democrats provide them. And that's a coalition we'll never see.
On the other hand, a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats could remove Mr. McCarthy and elect a centrist like Don Bacon (R-NE) who owes nothing to MAGA and is committed to governing responsibly.
A network of ordinary citizens has been working to bring this about since January. Everyone who values an orderly functioning House of Representatives is encouraged to pitch in.
You provide great commentary on some disturbing MAGA sniping, Robert. Ageism is everywhere, and it is just as pernicious and ignorant as racism and all the other isms that are plaguing our world. I love the contrast you draw between 45 and Biden’s world travel, and even more so between 9/11 and January 6. Thank you for being a bulwark against bad actors, and providing hope and humor in spite of the drones of tiresome stupidity.
It's hard to think that MTG has Kevin McCarthy quivering and it says a lot about both leaders of the GOP. It's actually hard to imagine MTG's rise to power based on such a thin resume. She is, however, fiercely loyal to Trump, and Fox, and says out loud what the crazies in the GOP actually contemplate as they hope to arrest the Biden government and re-install the Trump kleptocracy.
One thought - - maybe McCarthy should switch tactics, isolate the Freedom Caucus, and work with Hakeem Jeffries, then rational Dems, and the rational end of the GOP (of which there are more than we think), the ones hiding in the corner, hoping to avoid the loose cannon balls flying around). Then maybe the budget resolutions would get passed on a bi-partisan basis and move up to the senate.
Swbv, that is precisely what will ultimately happen. Just as with the debt ceiling increase a few months ago, when the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed in the House with a bipartisan vote of 149 rational Republicans joining 165 Democrats, it's the only way anything substantive can become law..
MAGA extremists will never vote for any appropriation bills that can pass the Senate. The problem is that so long as Kevin McCarthy remains Speaker, we'll continue to have these periodic "crises" initiated by a faction within the House whose only intent is to obstruct and disrupt.
That's why our network of ordinary citizens at www.FeathersOfHope.net has been advocating for that same bipartisan majority to pass a "motion to vacate the chair", removing Mr. McCarthy, and elect a moderate Republican Speaker like Don Bacon (R-NE).
In reading about Biden’s 5-day trip, I doubt I could have been a functioning adult on day number 3, much less day number 5, and I’m younger than he is. Kudos to him for his stamina. He continues to represent this country with knowledge, compassion and grace. After all he’s done during these turbulent years, he deserves our respect. And our vote!!
It's a joke that Trump, who appointed three justices with no ethical standards, is calling for the recusal of a judge just because he doesn't like him.
When the GOP criticizes Biden for being 80 years old, we should as that person for their view on
89-year-old Chuck Grassley who was all set on January 6 to step in as President Pro Tempore of the Senate to warp the electoral vote count once VP Mike Pence was spirited away by a Secret Service team loyal to Trump (Pence refused to get into the car)
I felt exhausted just *reading* about President Biden's recent itinerary, and like you, consider his efforts to be extremely successful. I despise the msm for their constant harping on his age and for never acknowledging his accomplishments. It is shameful and I don't know why he and VP Harris never get any kudos for what they've accomplished for this country.
“White House Thanks Fox News' Peter Doocy For His Viral Biden Remark
A clip of the Fox News host describing the president's schedule raked in more than a million views.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-doocy-biden-work-all-night_n_64fec9aee4b0ec5bf2ea0240
Let’s keep sharing !😂
That's what I want to know! What is the MSM end game?
Click bait = money, it's not any deeper than that. They don't care about tomorrow or the next day, it's just the clicks today.
I agree! Readership during tumultuous times = money!
Alas, too much of the MSM is under financial influence of wealthy right wingers. Those terribly annoying influencers continue to obstuct and instruct the outcomes.
Robert's synopsis and this comment prompted me to develop a concept that may be worth considering: https://open.substack.com/pub/bobmorgan/p/character-and-integrity-trump-policy
Lawrence was, as usual, on fire tonight. I love it when he has Neal Katyal and Andrew Weissmann on together. They asserted that Trump is still trying to game the system with his “demand” that Chutkin recuse herself. I laughed at the absurdity of it all. He’s shitting bricks, that’s what Donnie id doing. His former buddy, Mark Meadows, received a denial from the presiding judge, to move his case to federal court. Why? Because the cameras will be on him and the 18 others. Too f**king bad! Time for these autocrats to be brought down quite a few notches.
Who do these people think they are! DEMAND- my ass! That’s really funny. Are the lawmakers he keeps saying this to supposed be scared of this fat yellow pig and just jump to it! Sure....
I agree about the schedule. Only people who do nothing substantive with their time would not get how grueling it is. I think someone should be creating a reality show (apparently the only thing Republicans consider "real") where politicians try to keep up with Joe Biden's schedule. Trump would be welcome to try it too, but he cannot leave the country, because he is a flight risk. Also, he is bad for our international image. I am here in Germany. We spent several days of one week about 5 days after we got here looking for housing for our daughter in Berlin. I have never been so tired in my life and I had comfortable shoes on. Each day, we would all just sleep deeply. I am happy to say, she is however, installed in a very good living situation in Berlin as she studies there. My 78 year-old-aunt just visited us here. She is partially blind and just seeing her difficulties getting around, whereas a family friend who is 89 is out in the marketsquare every Saturday, with her husband standing for at least 90 minutes holding protest signs is in great shape. She doesn't personally drive anymore because she also has a visual problem in one eye, but she is very active and travels every 6 weeks to live in her husbands house in another German city, and then back here for 6, and then to conferences. Her conversation is still very fit. This age stuff is so relative, just as it is for people at any age. Biden is amazing. We are so fortunate to have him.
Thanks Robert, there was a time when journalists had respect for the President enough not to try to “make hay” over a stutter or a meaningless attempt at a joke or story spoken with good faith. This is called wisdom and so little of it exists in the current media. This is not to criticize the medias coverage of the anti democratic rhetoric of the former guy. However the media should put more focus on the pro democratic statement’s of-the current “guy”.
I am old enough to well remember speeches produced by Raygun and GHWBush. Thanks to his days as a C-list actor, Ronnie could memorize the lines and reproduce a coherent speech...full of immodest amounts of bullshyte and lies, of course...but, thanks to his speechwriters, at least the speeches had complete sentences. GHWBush, on the hand, had some kind of aversion to verbs and often lost the press, the audience and usually himself as well, in the midst of a rambling maze of dangling participles and incomprehensible grammar.
I don't seem to recall that much fuss made over Reagan's obvious lies, nor that the msm focused their comments on Bush senior's word salads.
The msm has become very much more politically weaponized (to use the R's absolutely favorite descriptive) since the days of Ronnie and George senior. And of course the R-slanted media just loves to use Trump's favorite distraction: accusing others of the exact thing he is actually doing.
The problem with many in the MSM isn’t just “weaponization”. Many many many members of the MSM evidently have inflated egos and feel driven to show how smart they are. They seem to think that subtly, and not so subtly, denigrating public figures demonstrates their cleverness.
Sadly, too true. I know what TCinLA calls the members of the press when he's particularly disgusted with them, but I don't have the ability to call up that kind of vocabulary unless I'm channeling my deceased stepfather (who was a retired Marine, a Viet Nam vet and a MGySgt).
As the two principals of the lawfirm of Katyal & Weissman LLC pointed out tonight to Lawrence, Trump is about 45 days late having his lawyers make the motion regarding Judge Chutkan. As they both also pointed out, that the motion was made when it was, citing what it did, is proof the lawyers have no control over their client and have been browbeaten to where they do what he wants. The motion wasn't written for anyone involved in the case, it was written for the inbred droolers moron enough to believe him and stupid enough to have no idea how things work. This way when he's convicted he can tell them "she was prejudiced against me from the beginning!"
God I wish he'd just die, or that prophylactic termination wasn't so socially unacceptable.
I have never wished ill on anyone until tfg became POTUS and proved what an incompetent morally bankrupt subhuman he actually is, and every day since, I've wished that karma would strike him like a lightning bolt and leave him incapacitated for the remainder of his unnatural life. But then that wouldn't be fair to the Secret Service or the caregivers forced to endure his execrable existence.
OMGoodness, Prophylactic Termination! All I can think of is Edward G Robinson in Soylent Green, waiting for termination while lying on a bed in front of a large movie screen that is playing a scene of a field of daisies swaying in a gentle breeze, and his favorite music….
What would you have trumples watch??? I suppose video of Jan 6 Insurrection at the Capitol is too easy and he’d probably enjoy it too much, but that is his legacy and so…
I'd go with that. :-)
Great lead (or lede) today, Robert. I hadn't been keenly aware of President Biden's itinerary before I saw his speech, where I thought he looked tired and was a bit less sharp. In the context you described, I can't imagine how anyone could have done better.
I have a son who lives in Japan, and my wife and I have visited him many times. The stress of a trip like that, and the circadian disruption it causes, is not something to brush off.
I don't agree with President Biden on everything, and sometimes cringe at things he says or does, but my respect for him is enormous, and for that he has my unwavering support.
Best pres of my lifetime, which began early in Eisenhower, and I say that despite the fact that I think he's doing a terrible job with the (now open) border. But he's doing incredibly well with everything else. The Dems could have gotten rid of the border problem by voting with the GOP last spring to pass a national, mandatory E-verify, but somehow, in the last 15 years or so, the Dems have become the party of open borders.
Not that I have answers David, but my own "inner" compass keeps pointing to a much more radical and inclusive solution. I believe the immigration "problem" is multi-focused, and deserves a congressional hearing. Expert witnesses should include refugee-savvy folks such as World Hunger Index and UNICEF; DEA experts, some migrants who took the journey and why, our diplomats with understanding of Latin America, esp. Mexico and
Venezuela, climate specialists, and governmental reps in Europe who have tried to manage their own immigration problems. I believe that this is a multi-focused issue that is also a world-wide catastrophe.
Last but not least, our crafty friends across the aisle are not innocent. They are promoting and intensifying immigration as a political cudgel. Those folks put on busses? They are not all new border crossers by any means. They are enticed by false promises of jobs, social services, and expedited green cards ony to find homelessness on the other end of the journey.
Hope, most of these migrants are mostly ***economic*** migrants. I don't blame them, but there is such a thing as carrying capacity. Ours is dropping along with the water level in all of our country's major aquifers...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/29/climate/groundwater-aquifer-overuse-investigation-takeaways.html
... meaning there is less for agriculture, and there is less for people.
The US population explosion is killing off wildlife, some of which has declined as much as 80% in as little as 20 years. More generally, there's been a decline in everything from insects to mammals of more than 50% over the last 50 years. Among other things, this decimation of the natural world bollixes ecosystem services, which give us everything from clean water and pollination to disease prevention. Summer of 2022, a group of scientists wrote in Nature (one of the premier scientific journals) that we were risking more pandemics by not doing anything about our numbers. It's true. Lyme, HIV, COVID all almost certainly emerged as a result of the human population messing up relationships between various species which prevented the emergence of new diseases.
Then there's the fact that we're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. The average immigrant's GH emissions rise threefold after arrival, which shouldn't be surprising since so many come from low per capita emissions third world countries. Thus, immigration to the US hurts the planet!
Finally, Propublica predicts that in the next several decades, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html
That suggests that if anything, we should be reducing our numbers, not taking in more millions of immigrants.
It is a form of American exceptionalism on the left to think that we can save the world without screwing our progeny.
If any potential solutions are going to be developed, this probably needs to be done by an international agency that would have people dedicated to this task.
Meanwhile, the GOP has at least tried to pass a national, mandatory E-Verify, at least twice, maybe three times since 2018, and most recently this past spring. That would stop people from entering illegally. Unfortunately, virtually all the Democrats vote against it (Arizona Senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly is probably on exception, although the bill didn't make it to the Senate this time), which is voting against our own interests, as the border problem hurts us at election time.
Thank you for your response, David. I agree that something has to give. Extreme poverty and desperation are, indeed, drivers of immigration. I just know that a broad coalition of some sort is needed, rather than a bickering focus on competing ideologies. For decades now, Rs and Ds have been tossing this hot potato back and forth to the detriment of a solution and with deadly consequences for the immigrants.
Another thing I didn't mention is that big biz uses immigration to keep American workers' wages down. In 1980, meat packers were Black. They made middle class wages. By that decade's end, meat packers were mostly immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely above minimum wage. Similar replacements of American workers by the more easily exploitable immigrants were occurring in multiple other job categories. You can read about it in Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck ($14 on Amazon.)
Beck gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs American workers won't do. He interviewed recently fired Black poultry workers. Would they take their jobs back if offered, he asked them? No, they told him, because on the wages their replacements were being paid, they'd have to live in their cars or many to a house. Immigration is what kept American workers' wages down for 40 years. Cesar Chavez understood how this stuff worked, which is why he denounced illegal immigrants to ICE's predecessor, the INS.
The reason that they are flooding into the country now in such numbers is that they know they can get in and won't get kicked out, which wasn't true under previous administrations. They know that because during one of the Democratic debates that preceded the last presidential election, one of the moderators, from a Hispanic broadcasting station, asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would refuse to deport immigrants. Everyone raised their hands except for Biden, whose hand went up and down a bit.
That so-called "gang of eight" bill from 2013, I think it was, deserved to die. It would have greatly increased legal immigration while doing nothing to stop illegal immigration, despite the fact that E-Verify was mandatory in an handful of states, and many companies in non-mandatory states used it voluntarily. We (Democrats) lost the Senate in 2014 almost certainly due to Obama's DAPA (amnesty for parents of illegal immigrants). I predicted that loss before it happened. All the new GOP senators had campaigned on amnesty as bad labor policy for American workers.
There would be no deadly consequences if we would pass a national, mandatory E-Verify. They would cease making the trek because they would know they would not be able to get jobs here.
My lingering January 6 question: why didn't the Defendant send the Army against the Congress instead of a mob? That's what Cromwell, Yeltsin, Pinochet and many like them did. It's hard to believe he didn't try. I conclude that the military held firm to their oaths, and that's a very good sign and creditable to them.
As Jon noted, General Milly released a statement in advance of January 6 saying the military would stay out of the election.
I'm surprised heir cheetolini didn't have him courtmartialed.
Because, as General Milley made clear, the military would not have marched.
Last night, on the CBS Evening News for September 11th, Norah O’Donnell finished with a clip from an interview with the two pilots who took off in F-15s on 9/11, determined to intercept the airliner headed for the Capitol. They scrambled so quickly that there was not time to mount missiles on the planes, and F-15s carry no guns. The only way they could have forced the plane down would have been to ram it, which they were perfectly willing to do. Stop and think about that for a moment. In the end, they did not have to make that sacrifice, because the passengers on Flight 93 made theirs—saving the lives of those pilots as well as people on the ground in Washington. That is the spirit that the fascists traduce.
That last line.
That last line puts thick oven mitts on my hands, so worn from carrying all of these hot potatoes.
Thank you.
Deep, nourishing rest to our leader(s), and to us all. We may be worn down, but we are not done in.
Onward. Always.
The legitimate angry intensity at those who unfairly denigrate the President and the media that goes along with that denigration as well as the angry intensity at those, from Marjory Taylor Greene to former President Trump, who would dismantle the United States Constitution is visible and, I think, is spreading. If we can retain that intensity and use it -- investing in candidates and groups like the Rural Democracy Initiative 2024 could be a transformative election.
Good point but there “ intensity” is an act because they are actors playing a role on a stage call political theatre.
"Instead, she (Rep. Taylor-Greene) will be rewarded by a weak and narcissistic Speaker of the House whose only goal is to maximize the number of days before his tenure is unceremoniously terminated by another faithless member of his party."
I totally agree, Robert, that Speaker McCarthy is weak and narcissistic. But as you know, his tenure can be terminated by a "motion to vacate the chair" brought by any Member of the House, so long as it receives 218 votes.
MAGA extremists are fond of wielding this as a threat, but in reality they don't have the votes to carry through, unless Democrats provide them. And that's a coalition we'll never see.
On the other hand, a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats could remove Mr. McCarthy and elect a centrist like Don Bacon (R-NE) who owes nothing to MAGA and is committed to governing responsibly.
A network of ordinary citizens has been working to bring this about since January. Everyone who values an orderly functioning House of Representatives is encouraged to pitch in.
Learn more here: https://www.FeathersOfHope.net or www.jerryweiss.substack.com
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You provide great commentary on some disturbing MAGA sniping, Robert. Ageism is everywhere, and it is just as pernicious and ignorant as racism and all the other isms that are plaguing our world. I love the contrast you draw between 45 and Biden’s world travel, and even more so between 9/11 and January 6. Thank you for being a bulwark against bad actors, and providing hope and humor in spite of the drones of tiresome stupidity.
It's hard to think that MTG has Kevin McCarthy quivering and it says a lot about both leaders of the GOP. It's actually hard to imagine MTG's rise to power based on such a thin resume. She is, however, fiercely loyal to Trump, and Fox, and says out loud what the crazies in the GOP actually contemplate as they hope to arrest the Biden government and re-install the Trump kleptocracy.
One thought - - maybe McCarthy should switch tactics, isolate the Freedom Caucus, and work with Hakeem Jeffries, then rational Dems, and the rational end of the GOP (of which there are more than we think), the ones hiding in the corner, hoping to avoid the loose cannon balls flying around). Then maybe the budget resolutions would get passed on a bi-partisan basis and move up to the senate.
Swbv, that is precisely what will ultimately happen. Just as with the debt ceiling increase a few months ago, when the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed in the House with a bipartisan vote of 149 rational Republicans joining 165 Democrats, it's the only way anything substantive can become law..
MAGA extremists will never vote for any appropriation bills that can pass the Senate. The problem is that so long as Kevin McCarthy remains Speaker, we'll continue to have these periodic "crises" initiated by a faction within the House whose only intent is to obstruct and disrupt.
That's why our network of ordinary citizens at www.FeathersOfHope.net has been advocating for that same bipartisan majority to pass a "motion to vacate the chair", removing Mr. McCarthy, and elect a moderate Republican Speaker like Don Bacon (R-NE).
Everyone who values an orderly functioning House of Representatives is encouraged to pitch in. Learn more here: https://www.FeathersOfHope.net or www.jerryweiss.substack.com
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McCarthy is pitiful. He’s so nakedly ambitious for the title, the pomp, and the office that he has sold his soul to the devil(s)
In reading about Biden’s 5-day trip, I doubt I could have been a functioning adult on day number 3, much less day number 5, and I’m younger than he is. Kudos to him for his stamina. He continues to represent this country with knowledge, compassion and grace. After all he’s done during these turbulent years, he deserves our respect. And our vote!!
It's a joke that Trump, who appointed three justices with no ethical standards, is calling for the recusal of a judge just because he doesn't like him.
A sick joke.
When the GOP criticizes Biden for being 80 years old, we should as that person for their view on
89-year-old Chuck Grassley who was all set on January 6 to step in as President Pro Tempore of the Senate to warp the electoral vote count once VP Mike Pence was spirited away by a Secret Service team loyal to Trump (Pence refused to get into the car)
81-year-old Moscow Mitch McConnell
85-year-old Congressman Harold Rogers (R-KY)
81-year-old Congressman John Carter (R-TX)