My dentist is from Ghana, my primary doctor is from India and my mom and husband are from Germany. My neighbor to the east is from Mexico, my neighbor to the west is from Israel, my neighbor across the street is from Finland and her husband is Egyptian-German. My uncle was from Panama, and my best friend growing up had a Pakistani (now Bengali) dad, and Austrian mother. Another good friend's mom was from England. All of them have wonderful children who are growing up bi-or tri-culturally. One of my best friends is from The Philippines, and another from China. Friends in a group that I sing with weekly are from Finland, Austria, Lithuania, Iran and Germany. I live in a neighborhood in Chicago that has embraced supporting immigrants to our city since the Syrian war. My class has held fundraisers where we made things for people to buy such as scarves, hats, and jewelry to bring Syrian refugee families to our community. Now our refugee support, which is supported by the neighborhood interfaith organization of churches, mosques and temples, has expanded to include supporting those who are being sent by the Texan governor to our wintry city. I know that the lies about immigrants are that they take jobs, when the opposite is true. We should be vying not just for Africa's natural resources for our green economy but their people resources, since people on their continent has an average age of 19. Currently we had about a 10 mil job shortage and only 5 mil Americans who were available to fill those jobs. That tells me that these immigrants can help fill the job deficit. I do see some systemic things that need to change, like faster processing of legal immigrants to be able to work, and a system that provides free education through college at least through state universities, so we can be training people into the professions that have a shortage. Not just immigrants, but all. We also need more people going into teaching, medicine and mental health. We need a national health insurance that people pay into on a sliding scale based on their incomes. With these systems set up we will more easily be able to support citizens and those who come here.
A quick mention about gal pal who we’ve known for years and years.
My pal has lived in Vermont longer than I have (I’ve been here… 40yrs… oh man, HOW did that happen?), she comes from California. One year we were chatting about her nephews who live in Cali. The boys came home from college for the summer and wanted to work at McDonalds. They and she, were resentful because immigrants worked at McDonalds and there were no summer job openings.
I told her that many people immigrate here and those people are workers. They work. Year round, day in and day out – doing what most Americans don’t want to do. They loyally work in the hot sun, construction, fast food. They don’t come for the summer and then hang up their apron to head back to college. They don’t graduate college and leave town to get a ‘real’ job elsewhere. Sorry if that inconveniences the boys… they will have to look harder to find a job that will last the 8 or 10 weeks.
She quickly changed her paradigm about the situation. Clearly. she had always seen immigration through a lens of: what they are taking vs what the are giving. (Um; that lens has been honed to make the ‘us and them’ argument)
Immigrants work hard because they're making five times what they would be making had they stayed home. Try to look at this from the point of view of an American worker. You can't afford a decent car; you can't afford to own a house, you can't afford a nice vacation, you can't afford a family. Furthermore, the wages they're paying immigrants are less than they'd be paying sans mass immigration. That's because immigrants are easier to exploit. Here's the text of a letter I wrote on the subject that was published in the Boston Globe
Re “Healey: Speed up migrants’ work forms”: We already have a housing crisis and too much traffic — not surprising since we’re the third most densely populated state, after New Jersey and Rhode Island. Faster work authorizations will probably attract more migrants to Massachusetts and encourage more illegal immigration to the United States.
Our country cannot support unbridled immigration. The United States is running out of water. Among much else, an aquifer that waters half the nation’s rice production is losing water twice as fast as nature replenishes its supply.
Climate change will reduce carrying capacity still further. Within several decades, “millions” of Americans will become climate refugees, according to ProPublica.
If anything, we need to stabilize, or even reduce, our population. But the Census Bureau projects that our population will grow by 79 million over the next 40 years, 68 million of that — equivalent to 3.4 New York states — from mass immigration.
If we’re going to save our country for our progeny, we need to face the fact that we can’t save the world.
Yesterday I was at an immigration ceremony in Tucson where 50 people became citizens. They were from many countries. It was very uplifting.
I was part of a League of Women Voters and Pima County Recorders Office team registering them to vote as they left the court room. That also was uplifting.
On my way in to the federal building I met an old friend who is an attorney who defends immigrants.
A good day.
I am an immigrant. I came as a three month old baby and my mother and I were welcomed and helped all along the way. We had a hard time, but there were lots of kind people.
Michael, thank you for telling us about your uplifting day - welcoming, supporting and encouraging our newest citizens. And thank you for helping these citizens become immediately involved in our most basic, and most important right - the right to vote!
Here is a quote from an Arizona voter that I spoke with while phone banking in 2022. She said this after I thanked her for being a consistent voter: “You can’t change the world if you don’t vote.”
In my opinion, the confusion in the US is not over immigration as such. It is over the apparent widespread acceptance of *illegal* immigration.
Lawful immigration has been good. Acceptance and justification of illegal immigration, no matter how well-intentioned, is acceptance and justification of lawlessness.
Wonderful description! This reminds me a bit of the neighborhood where I grew up in a suburb northwest of Chicago. We had an open field on one side of our house, but on the other three sides, our neighbors were all Mexicans. My own dad was an immigrant from Brazil. I remember the day he came home a citizen, having done his swearing in ceremony in the middle of the work day in downtown Chicago, when I was six. I have taken to signing off of social media discussions that get contentious about immigrants “Signed, Daughter of an Immigrant.” The city where I live now recently elected a black immigrant from West Africa as mayor--first non Republican-backed mayor in our history.
Linda, thank you so much for this. The description of your neighborhood and others in your life demonstrates what we as Americans can be proud of in this nation.
I heard a fascinating interview last month with Dutch sociologist and geographer Hein de Hass, author of his recent book "How Migration Really Works, A Factful Guide to the Most Divisive Issue in Politics". The interview was stimulated by a piece the The Guardian regarding this book by de Hass. "De Haas puts it: 'bold acts of political showmanship conceal the true nature of immigration policies'”. His book is an exhaustive corrective on our distorted ideas around migration. Most people migrate to work and seek opportunity and they migrate to a place where they will be successful at that. The work by de Hass is based on this as a global issue, not just as an issue in the U.S. We cannot have an open market economy without that "which requires a degree of immigration to fill domestic skills shortages."
People need to become educated regarding truths concerning migration, but it seems an impossibility with the "news" and disinformation silos too many of us insist on inhabiting.
Lynn, I share your frustration with the media's narrative and bias against immigration as evidenced by their negative reporting. All countries benefit from an exchange of ideas with people from different places. It takes tenacity to move somewhere else, something I point out to people I know who say they want to migrate elsewhere but they cannot afford it. I know that many coming here are well off, and want to study, or be employed in high skilled work, but others come here with little more than the clothing on their backs and maybe some food, and some money. It is interesting that a Dutch sociologist is aware of the benefits of immigrants, yet the Netherlands just voted someone into power, who are very anti-immigrant. They are not getting the news either. The liars are playing on people's perceptions, which is sometimes more effective than the truth. The Democratic party still needs to take the narrative on.
Yes and amen! I live in a rapidly graying state where the average citizen is retired or about to be! We recently--thanks to the pandemic and some major investments in our wireless networks--have started to get younger families to move here and begin work from home, which is a great thing, however, we NEED more young folk--from everywhere! To hell with the cranky old yt farts who can't stand the idea of the patriarchy slowly fading into the sunset and depriving them of their "natural" spot in society.
Personally, I love the idea of a country with a vibrant multi-cultural presence. Fie on the xenophobic jackhats.
In my case, my dentist is from Iran, my doctor, from the Philippines, which is where my lady friend lives. My son was born in South Korea, and my daughter-in-law is from there. Friends in the Prescott area are from Taiwan, Iran, Mexico, Australia, India, Lesotho and the Philippines.
Probably the most outstanding quality of immigrants to the United States is their desire to do well and get ahead. In my opinion, and from my experience, most newcomers work far harder than many American-born citizens.
With the unemployment rate being so low now, people willing to start at the bottom and work their way up are a boon to the economy. They are the future pioneers…
My great uncles sold candy on the Staten Island ferry when they were just eight or nine years old. My grandmother was the first to graduate from high school. My mother was the first in her family to get a college degree. That’s how it works.
I've been thinking a lot about the anger. There was a picture of Iowans in the audience of a DeSantis campaign stop. All white people, looking so angry. What do they have to be angry about? Who has done them wrong, seriously? What about the anger of Black people? They would have good reason. What about the anger of gay people or trans people who have been wronged for so long? The white Iowans are angry about what other people are doing, but not to them. They want to control other people yet claim they are being persecuted and controlled. I don't understand the anger of these people.
I live in Florida. Iowans are being led by lies. They have not done their homework on DeSantis & what he has done. Taken away freedoms; from women, children, educators, LGBTQ + people, homeowners via property insurance crisis, labor unions, even private business, the list is endless. Shame on them for falling prey to marketing campaigns of lies.
I’m in Florida too. My dear friend and her wife in Portland will never visit me here. Because “Florida does not welcome them.” They refuse to give money to a state that actively rejects their history and existence.
That is the same reason my annual Austin trip switched to “anywhere but Texas” after 20 years of spending money, time, and hundreds of social posts about the gloriousness of Austin sights, shops, bars, music, activities, rivers, trails, and weather.
States that reject human rights are rejecting $$$ from people who want to reward progressive ideals and refuse to support regressive leadership.
I watched an Interview with a couple of Iowan voters who voted for Trump twice, enthusiastically, but won’t again. Not after the way he behaved after losing in 2020 and has continued to behave for three years. The they went on to say things along the line of “And why would we, when we have this great guy who will defend democracy and is a better administrator many times over and has his act together.” Talking about DeSantis. It’s like they were talking about a made-up version of him.
Oof! I thought that your friends had come around to become Biden supporters before you dropped the “DeSantis” rug-pull.
I live in Florida and I can tell you that Florida had been veering to the Left. DeSantis benefited from the pandemic because he ascended to the governorship of a state that lives outside. Florida therefore was able to continue with business as usual during COVID not because of his leadership but because the virus didn’t spread as readily outside.
Republican U.S. representative Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated Democratic mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum for the governorship, in what some considered an upset. The candidate filing deadline was June 22, 2018, and primary elections were held on August 28.
Gillum had not expected to be the candidate (he had been polling in 3rd place). When he won the primary, he had a very small window to assemble a statewide org for the governorship. It was a very close loss because he wasn’t ready to win. DeSantis is lucky. Not a genius.
Tom Keen, (running to flip Fl House seat D-35 in next week’s special election) and his team have canvassed literally tens of thousands ! (Best poll ever😎)He says the two issues people are most concerned with 1) Reproductive Health Care Rights 2) Property Insurance Rates.So many Floridians are not happy with our part-time governor!
I know! I was watching and thinking they were going to say why should they vote for Trump when they have this great guy doing a great job, Biden, and then DeSantis came out of his mouth!
What I infer from Shawn Shawn Gauthier’s post is that DeSantis won the governorship because the Florida Democratic Party was incompetent. The Party should have been prepared to back the nominee, no matter who he was.
I too, sadly live in Florida. I can't wait for the tax payers to wake up and understand just how he has abused our money. All the money that is being spent on legal fees to expensive DC law firms due to evil, mean legislation that he gleefully signed and the spineless legislators that gleefully wrote the laws. Wake up everyone he is just a snake oil salesman!!
Me too I've been thinking about the anger. And here's how I understand it. I believe we are born into the world to find out "who-we-are" as individuals, with unique gifts, skills, and talents. Or as the Yogi teabag I taped to my desk says, "There is nothing like you, there was nothing like you, and there will be nothing like you." But that is not celebrated in our culture. We do not have a culture in which the person is encouraged to develop their unique personhood. In fact, the wholesale consumption of television and internet — both the stories people watch and the time LOST to growing oneself at every stage of life, leads to an unconscious sense of something being taken away/stolen. And that leads to anger. Which is easily stoked and channeled.
One reaction to this argument is "television can't be that important." I think it is. On average on 7 hours a days. Dr. George Gebnerr in the 1960's identified the "mean world syndrome" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome. Other than his research the only other research on the effects of television on the person comes from other work. Dr. Putnam of "Bowling Alone" stumbled into televsion viewing as the reason social trust is down. And researchers in the early 60's found that television viewing increased aggression in children. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-TV-Violence-013.aspx. But otherwise there is little real research of the effects of tv on people because it's impossible to isolate and have a control group. I've talked with folks who wanted to do PhD research on such and have been discouraged.
So the anger is real, but so deep that I don't know how we offer a way out. It will take years.
And it followed the White House luncheon she and other scholars and historians had recently with President Biden. Our president obviously respects HCR greatly, as do we all.
My first recollection is Florida v Zamora, who at age 15 was convicted in a televised trial of shooting and killing his 83 year old neighbor. During the trial, Zamora's lawyer tried to present experts who had studied the effects of television on children. The judge allowed neither the testimony nor the novel defense, and Zamora, who admitted the crime to police, was quickly convicted. His accomplice, Darrell Agrella, struck a plea deal and was released from prison in 1986.
A potential expert witness who was a principal in a 1974 study was excluded and the jury did not get to hear about research about imitation of film-mediated aggression against live and inanimate victims, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED097975.pdf
You raise important questions, Kim. "What do they (Iowans) have to be angry about?" They are insulated from much of what they fear and much that angers them. Others have more to be angry about.
Yet, as other posts show, their sense of being wronged and ignored is a carefully nurtured reactions. They being told to be "mad as hell" daily by politicians and the right wing media. But let us realize, they are ignored by the world except for the month leading up to the caucuses every four years. When they travel to NYC or Boston, people they talk to confuse Iowa, with Ohio, and Idaho. What is more, when politicians descend on the state and the media want to interview "true" Iowans, they find some guy in bib overalls and a MAGA hat who cannot articulate why he is supporting Trump and sounds "stupid" to the rest of the country. Why aren't reporters talking to insurance executives in Des Moines, nationally known writers in Iowa City or farmers in Le Mars who understand how global markets work and distrust Trump's affection for Putin, farmers who have traveled the world and are millionaires in their own right with real assets, unlike Donald's. The Republican Party's war on the elites is funded by elites and mouthed by Ivy League trained politicians who would not stop to eat at a Perkin's in Newton, Iowa if they were starving, except every four years during caucus season.
The crowd at a DeSantis rally does not represent Iowa. It represents DeSantis, who is telling Iowans, as he has told Floridians, effectively enough to get him elected governor, that they are victims and he is their savior.
Remember, also, the way caucuses work. They are held in schools and houses and people change their minds and can move from one candidate to another, but in this atmosphere they are also susceptible to the loudest and most intimidating voice. The caucus system is not the same as a secret ballot. We may see some surprises Monday.
I realize rural and small town people all over the country have fallen for the con, by and large. There are reasons for this. We must work hard to understand those reasons and fight the arguments.
Racism, fear of the "Other", fear of change, fear of loss of patriarchy (which guarantees white men a position over others of lesser status--women, children, POC)
Patrick E.White: “The crowd at a DeSantis rally does not represent Iowa. It represents DeSantis, who is telling Iowans, as he has told Floridians, effectively enough to get him elected governor, that they are victims and he is their savior.”
However, Iowans have every *right* to consider DeSantis or Trump their savior. No matter how perverse that view might seem, it is their *right*. “All men are created equal.” It’s wrong to *disparage* others who disagree with us.
My comment in toto was not meant to disparage the DeSantis crowd, but to defend Iowans from being painted with too broad a brush, but your excerpt from my comment shows that I may have fallen into the trap I was criticizing. Certainly people have the "right" to consider Donald Trump or DeSantis their savior and I would urge all of us to treat our opponents with respect. "All men are created equal," yes, but not all opinions or ideas or allegiances are equally praiseworthy. The OPINIONS of people who think the election of 2020 was stolen, who feel that Dr. Fauci should be imprisoned for his work on COVID, that the insurrectionists are heroes and "hostages," and many more held by DeSantis and Trump are dangerous, cruel, and profoundly irrational and stupid and decidedly "wrong" in my opinion, and should be resisted because they infringe on the the rights of others, cause bodily harm and death, and foment hatred and contempt for our fellow Americans. Trump calling political opponents and others "vermin" and DeSantis fostering discrimination certainly need to be opposed for their opinions and ultimately for their content of their character. I hope you would allow that.
I completely agree with your post, and admire your phrasing, “"All men are created equal," yes, but not all opinions or ideas or allegiances are equally praiseworthy.”
Woah! Kim… right????? Interesting isn’t it. I’ve never looked at their anger in that way. For freakin once, wouldn’t it be refreshing if those that have so much could walk out the front door, to the fresh green grass, get down on their knees and say a prayer of thanks for all they have and all they don’t have to fight for.
I sometimes--without specifically engaging the absurd comments that get posted in all caps--simply say “You seem really angry. That must be really hard to be so angry all the time.” So far no one lashes back at me for acknowledging their anger, and I feel like I made my point. Just stop it.
The immigration issue is a hysteria created by racism and stoked by fascist propaganda. In the 1920s we closed what was called the golden door through the efforts of the demagogues of the day. Race riots and vigilantism ruled many parts of America, it was a time of - isms - antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, Jim Crow, but most of all anti-Asian immigrants with a dose of eugenics. Rampant discrimination towards anyone who could be called not a WASP. Protestant Christianity now called Evangelical is today's root cause, but it's really just religious extremism and scapegoating of 'The Other.' You can't argue with zealots or someone who is driven by fear and win by appealing to the rule of law when they believe that they are adhering to a higher law.
Mass nonviolent movements are the only thing that I believe can turn this situation around.
It has been, as you say, used to create a hysteria fueled by racism and propaganda. But there is another side to it, one that is well documented, and that we Democrats ignore at our peril.
Big Biz uses immigrants to reduce Americans' wages. There's a whole book about this phenomenon, 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). Two centuries ago, companies were sending boats to Europe to bring back immigrants to take the place of Black employees (don’t forget that before the Civil War, free Blacks were working in the north). Frederick Douglass noted the phenomenon, due to which his sons were downwardly mobile. Black periodicals wrote about it, and the late Barbara Jordan, the Black Democrat from Texas who’d made her name on the Judiciary Committee during Watergate, and who ran the latest commission on immigration reform, under Clinton, noted it in recommending cutting immigration numbers nearly in half, and strict enforcement of immigration laws (which has not happened since the 1986 Reagan amnesty).
In 1980, Meat packers were Black, earning decent middle class wages. By that decade’s end, meat packers were immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions where amputations were common. That pattern of change—companies hiring immigrants at low wages to take the place of their American workers—appeared throughout most of the low/no-skilled job categories, which is why workers’ wages stagnated for 40 years, and happened in tech jobs as well. This article appeared in the NYT a couple of decades after computer pubs had begun writing about it.
The book gives the lie to the notion there are jobs Americans won’t do. In writing the book, among other things, the author interviewed Black people who had recently been laid off from a poultry plant to make way for immigrant workers. Would they take their old jobs back if offered, he asked them? No, they told him. They did not want to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Biden is criticized for bad messaging about immigration. While the MSM shows picture after picture of migrants at the border, in the cities and bussing to and fro, the actual facts belie the MSM narrative. Why ? Because there’s no story in a declining migration. The plight of migrants is better programming and gets advertisers so the MSM can make more money. Our capitalist system has made news into a business which lives or dies by who watches. Reagan and the Republican Party gave us TV journalism that encourages big lies. TV is corporate business. Journalism takes a back seat to profits. Don’t blame Biden for bad messaging. Blame Reagan, Bush and Bush for corporate greed at the expense of truth.
I haven’t done nor have I read an analysis of the NPR and PBS news programs. I suppose I’m relying on what I see and hear; increased attribution of conservative donors
like the Kochs and changes in the reporting of the news that fit conservative narratives. I may be wrong or too sensitive to the issue. Nevertheless imany agree with those observations.
Doesn’t make any difference who is to blame we need to deal with it more aggressively and we need a groundswell of voters who say we are the majority and we are taking our country back.
Tell the mayors of NYC, Eagle Pass, and other cities that “the actual facts belie the MSM narrative” on migration. Actual municipalities are struggling to cope with the influxes of migrants. Their budgets, tax policies, and school systems have not been put in place with migrant influxes in mind.
This is going on in Massachusetts, in no small part due to a "right to shelter" law. We don't have enough shelter, given the numbers of indigent immigrants being bussed here, and some of our own US/Mass citizens are losing out on shelter due to the influx.
Maybe the antecedent is now too far above her to find, but I'm wondering what it is you're referring to about Nixon. My own view is that he was a complex and difficult personality, partly the result of having a father from whom seeking praise was like trying to get blood from a turnip, despite Nixon's having worked early mornings before school at his father's store, and related chores, and who also lost two brothers in childhood. I've read a couple of bios of Nixon, and it's like he started out wanting to be good, and he had some good in him, but his father, and he was arguably cheated out of winning the 1960 election (and then he cheated to win the '68 election and gave us watergate and the Southern Strategy). He also smeared Helen Gahagan Douglas, when he ran against her for Senate. As I, the son of two trained economists, at age 7, told my friend Ralphie in one of my early political arguments, when my mother was driving us somewhere, "You know, Ralphie, you really should't vote for Nixon becauase he called that lady in California something like an economist." My mother told that story so many times--despite her relative lack of sense of humor she thought it was hilarious--that I'm quite certain I'm quoting myself accurately.
But he also told Pat, when he went off to WWII, that he hoped that if he was killed she'd remarry.
Thanks for the brilliant quotes from Timothy Snyder. So disappointed in the California governor and his appointees mouthing the same misreadings Snyder so righteously condemns. Thanks again for what you are doing , Mr Hubbell.
Thanks for the perfect set up, Robert. “Many readers said the Biden administration needs to do a better job of communicating the facts about immigration. Others said, in effect, that statistical arguments won’t change feelings about immigration. Fair point. But when the truth doesn’t persuade people, coming up with a message that does is challenging.”
It is about PERCEPTION. SO, with that, I ask you all to consider this “WHAT DOES A BETTER JOB OF COMMUNICATING LOOK LIKE?” For Biden, the answer... it looks like ENTHUSIASM. No one has to “know” Biden’s immigration statistics are a net improvement... they have to sense that he is doing great things. PERCEPTION. Consider this, we here are all (in our own qualified ways) enthusiastic about Biden. So it is up to us to be the message. Know that PERCEPTION can work in our favor. I wear a Biden T-shirt on EVERY grocery run. Imagine if just two more people wore Biden shirts at the same grocery store... Just three Biden shirts would make it feel like everyone was wearing Biden shirts. There would be a perception of momentum. And perception is reality.
Buy a Biden shirt. I just found another great one that says “DEMS MAKE LIFE BETTER” at IndivisibleMarin.org.
What a spectacular answer to make America great again... Dems aren’t trying to move the country backward they make life better NOW.
That’s wonderful. I loved your talk on IndiMarin and have shared it many times over since you shared it.
My in-laws live in Florida (which is why I moved here from LA). And they are staunch Dems surrounded by a community of staunch Trump supporters. They feel very muzzled by their (very wealthy) community.
I have so much hope for 2024 and you are a big part of that.
Thank you, Shawn and Robert, for helping spread the word about the "Dems Make Life Better" t-shirt and Shawn's inspiring example of wearing pro-Biden or pro-Dems shirts every time he grocery shops! Don't miss his great 1-minute video testimonial from Shawn Shawn: https://youtu.be/BRPPgYlmUd4. Let's all follow his lead!
I agree with Tim Scott that we are living in fear of Donald Trump rather than holding him accountable for not following the rule of law. This has to stop, As he continues to violate the conditions of his bail agreement he should go to jail. Yes it will interfere with his campaign, but he has chosen to run for President to avoid facing the consequences of his actions. It reminds me of the game we played as children, "you can't touch me because I am on safety"
It’s nuts. We have company this week. One fellow commented that Biden is allowing all these immigrants, who are criminals being released from jail(s), into our country. The only info Google offers on people from jails coming across the border are people who are jailed in order to testify against the folks who helped them. Any one here know what jails are being emptied of criminals that are slated to go to the USA?
Is that effed up fake news, or BS GOP’rs using the thousand of migrants who are detained in jails to make up a story about emptying ppl from Jails and sending them over the border???
Yesterday he started with some kinda “Biden’s made $25 millions” blah, blah, blah… My husband asked him if he was so worried about that why isn’t he concerned about Jared Kushner and the $2B from the Saudis. He looked up perplexed. He knew NOTHING of this. He kept saying he knows nothing about this… I took the opportunity to say:
“(Insert name here), how can you not know this? This will be under investigation soon- how can you not know about it?. He looked on line and said it was given to a fund.
I said “A FUND? You mean his fund called Affinity Partners that is Jared Kushner’s business”?
I then added “Where do you get your news, this has been hot news since they left the White House…. “. CRICKETS … no answer
I won’t get in a pissing contest with a skunk; juice not worth the squeeze.
Trumpers can be vicious and I won’t allow myself to be on the receiving end of some cruel, cockamamie mental masturbation. No thank you. I just say “don’t take my word for it, look it up”.
I wanted to follow up on my post from earlier this week when I said I had written to the NYT and NPR about coverage of Biden, prompted by Robert's newsletter of Tuesday, Jan 9.
The NYT responded that Biden is more about policy and administration and Trump about personality (read Trump is more exciting than Biden), and that the NYT will cover Trump as his actions merit and matter (no definition of what "matters" as I would posit that a President's actions matter more than an ex-President's). They also said that they get complaints that Trump is not covered enough or prominently enough.
How about if readers of this newsletter write to the Times to request better and more prominent coverage of Biden, his speeches (quotes from them would be great), and actions. We could make a difference!
Darn! Don't you hate it when "policy and administration" are boring but insurrection is exciting?
I take the Times' response as an admission it is agnostic on whether democracy survives. Being fair isn't the same thing as being amoral, indifferent, and uninformed.
Thanks for writing to the NYTimes and for sharing your experience. I hope other readers follow your example.
Does the Times not understand that they will be first on the list of organizations that Yammie will have neutered and/or muzzled??? Do they think they are somehow immune to the actions that Tang Face will take to ruin them or make them into a propaganda puppet? I really don't get their reasoning unless of course it's all about the simoleons (and yeah...it IS all about the money--they make that pretty damn clear.)
Ya; like you said the times will have non stop excitement if ol’ Tang Face gets in and starts going after them (and everyone else that has offended the little baby tang).
I came to Boston to medical school in 1967. I was in awe of the US - we did not have TV in South Africa at that time - and watching newscaster criticizing Johnson was both exciting and unnerving. When I landed at Logan airport - with resentment and some anger, the immigration official told me I was 'taking work away from 'our boys'' I applied for a green card (they were actually blue) and was part of the first 'induction' of immigrants at Faneuil Hall in Boston's center. The judge, who was African American welcomed us all with open arms and encouraged us not to lose our particular cultural heritage. It was important, he said, for us to cherish what was special about our culture which in turn added to my new country. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the political situation here, I remind myself that I grew up in a one party police state. It was impossible to imagine the kinds of hearings (Like Watergate and January 6th committee) This country remains special - and as Robert encourages us daily - it is up to us to keep it special.
There is a great deal of justified concern over whether the Supreme Court will decide that Trump can be barred from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, and that provision does not, indeed, provide for such a remedy directly; instead, it bars some insurrectionists from serving as president. One way to solve that issue would be a lawsuit to obtain a binding legal decision that Trump is actually barred. That could be done through a suit for a declaratory judgment—a judgment declaring the rights of the parties. The best way to do that would probably be for a state to sue him, because it’s hard to see that federal courts would find that a state lacks a sufficient interest to have standing to sue. But a group of citizens might be able to show that their rights are sufficient to authorize such a suit, which is declaratory in nature. (I recognize the irony of such a declaration then being applied as an actual bar, rather than as advice of what should happen if Trump were to win in November.). Another real issue would be where such a suit could be brought. The Southern District of Florida would be the safest place, as Trump resides there, but perhaps he still has sufficient contacts with Manhattan and the Bronx for suit to be filed in the Southern District of New York. (I don’t believe that if such a suit were brought in Florida it would be assigned to Judge Cannon as being related to the classified-documents case.). Still another problem would be obtaining a decision before the election, but the clear need for such a case to be decided before then would be a powerful spur. Oh, and the trial in such a suit ought to be carried on television.
The above is the cleanest way to present the issue to the Supreme Court--a straight up adjudication of the legal issue.
Just to clarify (for non-lawyers), Trump would be a party to the declaratory relief action and would have full opportunity to defend himself. That would remove some of the complications and objections of the Colorado and Maine decisions.
No, I haven’t. I know what the court ruled, why it did so, and I agree with its reasoning. I believe that the Supreme Court should affirm the Colorado court and go further to rule that Trump is ineligible to serve as president again (absent a 2/3 vote of each house of Congress). I am hopeful that the justices will bend to their duty, but I appear to be in a distinct minority. And what if the justices whiff? What if they rule that the Colorado court was justified, but that that is not binding on other states, and do not rule on whether Trump may serve again? What if this year’s election is as close as 2020 or, Heaven forbid, Trump wins? We would then need a suit to bar him from serving filed and decided in a couple of months. And if such a suit were successful, wouldn’t we then be stuck with Trump’s VP pick (Kari Lake?) as the next president? Also, if a suit such as I suggest were filed before the Supreme Court hears or decides the Colorado case, news of its existence might steel the justices to their duty in the case now before them.
If Trump is an insurrectionist, issue preclusion would bar him everywhere. That was a period. Arguably, Congress could grant him amnesty or Biden could pardon him.
The Republican Party would pick the candidate, and they will have a convention.
Not so clear that issue preclusion (still res judicata to us old folks) would apply or, worse, would be applied. We need to lock down every possible alternative, because Trump and his gangsters will reach for them all.
All good points but the courts will rule against taking him of the ballot because he has not been convicted of insurrection and has not had the appropriate opportunity to defend himself. The issue needs to be decided and how ex presidents are treated legally has to be decided in case we have another dishonest and crooked president.
Jon, I really appreciate your offer of possible actions/solutions. It's encouraging to me since I can read and speculate about the many causes of this multitude of problems, but I have NO ideas about how to solve them.
Unfortunately fear is driving our politicians especially Republicans and our Judicial system. Politicians who know first hand that Trump is unqualified and a threat remain silent and the courts are giving Trump the opportunity to speak and blatantly lie and attack the prosecution and judges as his followers harass the families of the judges with bomb threats and other insults. Too many people are scared of Trump and his followers and as long as they fear the backlash and delusional theory of an uprising or another attack they are letting fear dictate their actions. This has to stop. The only way this happens is to stand up and push back and treat Trump like any other defendant and keep pushing towards starting the trials. The image the voters need to see is Trump in a courtroom.
The photos of huge immigrant crowds, day after day, look alarming so I can see how some folks can be worried. But it's one thing to say, "Whoa, our town doesn't have the resources to house, feed, and process all these people. Can the federal government help us out here?" It's something else entirely to let White supremacists convince you that said immigrants, as a class, are greedy, unclean, lazy, violent, etc. etc. I spent my professional life teaching English as a Second Language and I marvel at the challenges my students face, their hard work at no-status jobs, their responsibility to their families back home, the precariousness of their situations, their desire to do learn our culture and do the right thing, the stress of being in a place where so many fear or disrespect them. Many students would come for the morning class after having worked all night.
I don't know where the Evangelical "Christians" lost their memory of simple Christian charity. You'd think they could at least grasp the principle of a younger group filling job slots as the older workers age out.
I think many MAGAs have actually become Tang Face's cultzombies. No thought, no measured reasoning, just lurching around repeating Tang's more delusional assertions.
While I have been struggling with the issue of keeping Trump off the ballot, I now have to agree with Snyder's concise opinion in today's newsletter: Trump is an insurrectionist and violated the Constitution by attempting to overturn the Presidential election in a violent manner. He should not be eligible to run for any office. The Constitution is clear on this subject.
My dentist is from Ghana, my primary doctor is from India and my mom and husband are from Germany. My neighbor to the east is from Mexico, my neighbor to the west is from Israel, my neighbor across the street is from Finland and her husband is Egyptian-German. My uncle was from Panama, and my best friend growing up had a Pakistani (now Bengali) dad, and Austrian mother. Another good friend's mom was from England. All of them have wonderful children who are growing up bi-or tri-culturally. One of my best friends is from The Philippines, and another from China. Friends in a group that I sing with weekly are from Finland, Austria, Lithuania, Iran and Germany. I live in a neighborhood in Chicago that has embraced supporting immigrants to our city since the Syrian war. My class has held fundraisers where we made things for people to buy such as scarves, hats, and jewelry to bring Syrian refugee families to our community. Now our refugee support, which is supported by the neighborhood interfaith organization of churches, mosques and temples, has expanded to include supporting those who are being sent by the Texan governor to our wintry city. I know that the lies about immigrants are that they take jobs, when the opposite is true. We should be vying not just for Africa's natural resources for our green economy but their people resources, since people on their continent has an average age of 19. Currently we had about a 10 mil job shortage and only 5 mil Americans who were available to fill those jobs. That tells me that these immigrants can help fill the job deficit. I do see some systemic things that need to change, like faster processing of legal immigrants to be able to work, and a system that provides free education through college at least through state universities, so we can be training people into the professions that have a shortage. Not just immigrants, but all. We also need more people going into teaching, medicine and mental health. We need a national health insurance that people pay into on a sliding scale based on their incomes. With these systems set up we will more easily be able to support citizens and those who come here.
Linda,
Thank you for your thoughtful post!
A quick mention about gal pal who we’ve known for years and years.
My pal has lived in Vermont longer than I have (I’ve been here… 40yrs… oh man, HOW did that happen?), she comes from California. One year we were chatting about her nephews who live in Cali. The boys came home from college for the summer and wanted to work at McDonalds. They and she, were resentful because immigrants worked at McDonalds and there were no summer job openings.
I told her that many people immigrate here and those people are workers. They work. Year round, day in and day out – doing what most Americans don’t want to do. They loyally work in the hot sun, construction, fast food. They don’t come for the summer and then hang up their apron to head back to college. They don’t graduate college and leave town to get a ‘real’ job elsewhere. Sorry if that inconveniences the boys… they will have to look harder to find a job that will last the 8 or 10 weeks.
She quickly changed her paradigm about the situation. Clearly. she had always seen immigration through a lens of: what they are taking vs what the are giving. (Um; that lens has been honed to make the ‘us and them’ argument)
Spot on, Karen!
Immigrants work hard because they're making five times what they would be making had they stayed home. Try to look at this from the point of view of an American worker. You can't afford a decent car; you can't afford to own a house, you can't afford a nice vacation, you can't afford a family. Furthermore, the wages they're paying immigrants are less than they'd be paying sans mass immigration. That's because immigrants are easier to exploit. Here's the text of a letter I wrote on the subject that was published in the Boston Globe
Re “Healey: Speed up migrants’ work forms”: We already have a housing crisis and too much traffic — not surprising since we’re the third most densely populated state, after New Jersey and Rhode Island. Faster work authorizations will probably attract more migrants to Massachusetts and encourage more illegal immigration to the United States.
Our country cannot support unbridled immigration. The United States is running out of water. Among much else, an aquifer that waters half the nation’s rice production is losing water twice as fast as nature replenishes its supply.
Climate change will reduce carrying capacity still further. Within several decades, “millions” of Americans will become climate refugees, according to ProPublica.
If anything, we need to stabilize, or even reduce, our population. But the Census Bureau projects that our population will grow by 79 million over the next 40 years, 68 million of that — equivalent to 3.4 New York states — from mass immigration.
If we’re going to save our country for our progeny, we need to face the fact that we can’t save the world.
Click and scroll down. Mine's the second letter
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/22/opinion/state-emergency-massachusetts-migration/
One of the best pro immigrant things I’ve read.
Yesterday I was at an immigration ceremony in Tucson where 50 people became citizens. They were from many countries. It was very uplifting.
I was part of a League of Women Voters and Pima County Recorders Office team registering them to vote as they left the court room. That also was uplifting.
On my way in to the federal building I met an old friend who is an attorney who defends immigrants.
A good day.
I am an immigrant. I came as a three month old baby and my mother and I were welcomed and helped all along the way. We had a hard time, but there were lots of kind people.
Michael, thank you for telling us about your uplifting day - welcoming, supporting and encouraging our newest citizens. And thank you for helping these citizens become immediately involved in our most basic, and most important right - the right to vote!
Here is a quote from an Arizona voter that I spoke with while phone banking in 2022. She said this after I thanked her for being a consistent voter: “You can’t change the world if you don’t vote.”
Truer words were never spoken.
In my opinion, the confusion in the US is not over immigration as such. It is over the apparent widespread acceptance of *illegal* immigration.
Lawful immigration has been good. Acceptance and justification of illegal immigration, no matter how well-intentioned, is acceptance and justification of lawlessness.
Wonderful description! This reminds me a bit of the neighborhood where I grew up in a suburb northwest of Chicago. We had an open field on one side of our house, but on the other three sides, our neighbors were all Mexicans. My own dad was an immigrant from Brazil. I remember the day he came home a citizen, having done his swearing in ceremony in the middle of the work day in downtown Chicago, when I was six. I have taken to signing off of social media discussions that get contentious about immigrants “Signed, Daughter of an Immigrant.” The city where I live now recently elected a black immigrant from West Africa as mayor--first non Republican-backed mayor in our history.
Linda, thank you so much for this. The description of your neighborhood and others in your life demonstrates what we as Americans can be proud of in this nation.
I heard a fascinating interview last month with Dutch sociologist and geographer Hein de Hass, author of his recent book "How Migration Really Works, A Factful Guide to the Most Divisive Issue in Politics". The interview was stimulated by a piece the The Guardian regarding this book by de Hass. "De Haas puts it: 'bold acts of political showmanship conceal the true nature of immigration policies'”. His book is an exhaustive corrective on our distorted ideas around migration. Most people migrate to work and seek opportunity and they migrate to a place where they will be successful at that. The work by de Hass is based on this as a global issue, not just as an issue in the U.S. We cannot have an open market economy without that "which requires a degree of immigration to fill domestic skills shortages."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/03/how-migration-really-works-by-hein-de-haas-review-home-truths
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455478/how-migration-really-works-by-haas-hein-de/9780241998762
People need to become educated regarding truths concerning migration, but it seems an impossibility with the "news" and disinformation silos too many of us insist on inhabiting.
Lynn, I share your frustration with the media's narrative and bias against immigration as evidenced by their negative reporting. All countries benefit from an exchange of ideas with people from different places. It takes tenacity to move somewhere else, something I point out to people I know who say they want to migrate elsewhere but they cannot afford it. I know that many coming here are well off, and want to study, or be employed in high skilled work, but others come here with little more than the clothing on their backs and maybe some food, and some money. It is interesting that a Dutch sociologist is aware of the benefits of immigrants, yet the Netherlands just voted someone into power, who are very anti-immigrant. They are not getting the news either. The liars are playing on people's perceptions, which is sometimes more effective than the truth. The Democratic party still needs to take the narrative on.
Fine — “We cannot have an open market economy without that "which requires a degree of immigration to fill domestic skills shortages."”
However, that does not justify out-of-control border crossings – out-of-control “immigration”.
Yes and amen! I live in a rapidly graying state where the average citizen is retired or about to be! We recently--thanks to the pandemic and some major investments in our wireless networks--have started to get younger families to move here and begin work from home, which is a great thing, however, we NEED more young folk--from everywhere! To hell with the cranky old yt farts who can't stand the idea of the patriarchy slowly fading into the sunset and depriving them of their "natural" spot in society.
Personally, I love the idea of a country with a vibrant multi-cultural presence. Fie on the xenophobic jackhats.
In my case, my dentist is from Iran, my doctor, from the Philippines, which is where my lady friend lives. My son was born in South Korea, and my daughter-in-law is from there. Friends in the Prescott area are from Taiwan, Iran, Mexico, Australia, India, Lesotho and the Philippines.
Vivid, detailed, economical. Wonderful post.
Thank you Linda.
Probably the most outstanding quality of immigrants to the United States is their desire to do well and get ahead. In my opinion, and from my experience, most newcomers work far harder than many American-born citizens.
With the unemployment rate being so low now, people willing to start at the bottom and work their way up are a boon to the economy. They are the future pioneers…
My great uncles sold candy on the Staten Island ferry when they were just eight or nine years old. My grandmother was the first to graduate from high school. My mother was the first in her family to get a college degree. That’s how it works.
And where would we be without pizza, bagels, and General Tso's chicken?
Don't leave out the beloved tacos and burritos!
I agree!
I've been thinking a lot about the anger. There was a picture of Iowans in the audience of a DeSantis campaign stop. All white people, looking so angry. What do they have to be angry about? Who has done them wrong, seriously? What about the anger of Black people? They would have good reason. What about the anger of gay people or trans people who have been wronged for so long? The white Iowans are angry about what other people are doing, but not to them. They want to control other people yet claim they are being persecuted and controlled. I don't understand the anger of these people.
I live in Florida. Iowans are being led by lies. They have not done their homework on DeSantis & what he has done. Taken away freedoms; from women, children, educators, LGBTQ + people, homeowners via property insurance crisis, labor unions, even private business, the list is endless. Shame on them for falling prey to marketing campaigns of lies.
I’m in Florida too. My dear friend and her wife in Portland will never visit me here. Because “Florida does not welcome them.” They refuse to give money to a state that actively rejects their history and existence.
That is the same reason my annual Austin trip switched to “anywhere but Texas” after 20 years of spending money, time, and hundreds of social posts about the gloriousness of Austin sights, shops, bars, music, activities, rivers, trails, and weather.
States that reject human rights are rejecting $$$ from people who want to reward progressive ideals and refuse to support regressive leadership.
My daughter and her wife also consider safety when traveling.
Iowans are being defiant in their ignorance or malevolent in their SELECTIVE obliviousness. What a shame to be wear blinders to the voting booth.
I watched an Interview with a couple of Iowan voters who voted for Trump twice, enthusiastically, but won’t again. Not after the way he behaved after losing in 2020 and has continued to behave for three years. The they went on to say things along the line of “And why would we, when we have this great guy who will defend democracy and is a better administrator many times over and has his act together.” Talking about DeSantis. It’s like they were talking about a made-up version of him.
Oof! I thought that your friends had come around to become Biden supporters before you dropped the “DeSantis” rug-pull.
I live in Florida and I can tell you that Florida had been veering to the Left. DeSantis benefited from the pandemic because he ascended to the governorship of a state that lives outside. Florida therefore was able to continue with business as usual during COVID not because of his leadership but because the virus didn’t spread as readily outside.
Republican U.S. representative Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated Democratic mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum for the governorship, in what some considered an upset. The candidate filing deadline was June 22, 2018, and primary elections were held on August 28.
Gillum had not expected to be the candidate (he had been polling in 3rd place). When he won the primary, he had a very small window to assemble a statewide org for the governorship. It was a very close loss because he wasn’t ready to win. DeSantis is lucky. Not a genius.
Tom Keen, (running to flip Fl House seat D-35 in next week’s special election) and his team have canvassed literally tens of thousands ! (Best poll ever😎)He says the two issues people are most concerned with 1) Reproductive Health Care Rights 2) Property Insurance Rates.So many Floridians are not happy with our part-time governor!
I know! I was watching and thinking they were going to say why should they vote for Trump when they have this great guy doing a great job, Biden, and then DeSantis came out of his mouth!
🤯😱
What I infer from Shawn Shawn Gauthier’s post is that DeSantis won the governorship because the Florida Democratic Party was incompetent. The Party should have been prepared to back the nominee, no matter who he was.
I too, sadly live in Florida. I can't wait for the tax payers to wake up and understand just how he has abused our money. All the money that is being spent on legal fees to expensive DC law firms due to evil, mean legislation that he gleefully signed and the spineless legislators that gleefully wrote the laws. Wake up everyone he is just a snake oil salesman!!
Consider that they actually want those policies.
Me too I've been thinking about the anger. And here's how I understand it. I believe we are born into the world to find out "who-we-are" as individuals, with unique gifts, skills, and talents. Or as the Yogi teabag I taped to my desk says, "There is nothing like you, there was nothing like you, and there will be nothing like you." But that is not celebrated in our culture. We do not have a culture in which the person is encouraged to develop their unique personhood. In fact, the wholesale consumption of television and internet — both the stories people watch and the time LOST to growing oneself at every stage of life, leads to an unconscious sense of something being taken away/stolen. And that leads to anger. Which is easily stoked and channeled.
One reaction to this argument is "television can't be that important." I think it is. On average on 7 hours a days. Dr. George Gebnerr in the 1960's identified the "mean world syndrome" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome. Other than his research the only other research on the effects of television on the person comes from other work. Dr. Putnam of "Bowling Alone" stumbled into televsion viewing as the reason social trust is down. And researchers in the early 60's found that television viewing increased aggression in children. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-TV-Violence-013.aspx. But otherwise there is little real research of the effects of tv on people because it's impossible to isolate and have a control group. I've talked with folks who wanted to do PhD research on such and have been discouraged.
So the anger is real, but so deep that I don't know how we offer a way out. It will take years.
Wrote the above and then watched Heather Cox Richardson's interview of Biden. Biden gets it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGRXnB_GQcM
Just wanted to clarify that this is the second interview HCR had with Biden, having just occurred in January 2024. Thanks, Annamarie!
And it followed the White House luncheon she and other scholars and historians had recently with President Biden. Our president obviously respects HCR greatly, as do we all.
Yes, Mim!
Thanks for sharing this. I listeend to HCR's piece today where she mentioned this but then forgot about it. Eager to watch it.
Anger works in many ways. There are those of us whose anger is being marshaled to fight and push back and to get the truth out there everyday.
Television intoxication has been alleged as an affirmative defense in criminal and tort cases many times. https://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/sociallaw/student_projects/TelevisionIntoxicationandOtherMediaDefenses.htm
My first recollection is Florida v Zamora, who at age 15 was convicted in a televised trial of shooting and killing his 83 year old neighbor. During the trial, Zamora's lawyer tried to present experts who had studied the effects of television on children. The judge allowed neither the testimony nor the novel defense, and Zamora, who admitted the crime to police, was quickly convicted. His accomplice, Darrell Agrella, struck a plea deal and was released from prison in 1986.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article235304812.html#storylink=cpy
https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Photocopy/150860NCJRS.pdf
A potential expert witness who was a principal in a 1974 study was excluded and the jury did not get to hear about research about imitation of film-mediated aggression against live and inanimate victims, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED097975.pdf
Later the Zamora family tried to sue CBS for televising programs that allegedly caused Zamora to kill. https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/zamora-v-columbia-broadcasting-887922500 The allegation was alleged that from the age of five years (he was age 15 when this action was filed) became involuntarily addicted to and "completely subliminally intoxicated by the extensive viewing of television violence offered by the three defendants." https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/480/199/1531301/#:~:text=In%20brief%2C%20the%20plaintiffs%20alleged,offered%20by%20the%20three%20defendants.
The court did not enquire about the psychological studies, because it found that broadcasters have Fist Amendment rights that protect them.
You raise important questions, Kim. "What do they (Iowans) have to be angry about?" They are insulated from much of what they fear and much that angers them. Others have more to be angry about.
Yet, as other posts show, their sense of being wronged and ignored is a carefully nurtured reactions. They being told to be "mad as hell" daily by politicians and the right wing media. But let us realize, they are ignored by the world except for the month leading up to the caucuses every four years. When they travel to NYC or Boston, people they talk to confuse Iowa, with Ohio, and Idaho. What is more, when politicians descend on the state and the media want to interview "true" Iowans, they find some guy in bib overalls and a MAGA hat who cannot articulate why he is supporting Trump and sounds "stupid" to the rest of the country. Why aren't reporters talking to insurance executives in Des Moines, nationally known writers in Iowa City or farmers in Le Mars who understand how global markets work and distrust Trump's affection for Putin, farmers who have traveled the world and are millionaires in their own right with real assets, unlike Donald's. The Republican Party's war on the elites is funded by elites and mouthed by Ivy League trained politicians who would not stop to eat at a Perkin's in Newton, Iowa if they were starving, except every four years during caucus season.
The crowd at a DeSantis rally does not represent Iowa. It represents DeSantis, who is telling Iowans, as he has told Floridians, effectively enough to get him elected governor, that they are victims and he is their savior.
Remember, also, the way caucuses work. They are held in schools and houses and people change their minds and can move from one candidate to another, but in this atmosphere they are also susceptible to the loudest and most intimidating voice. The caucus system is not the same as a secret ballot. We may see some surprises Monday.
I realize rural and small town people all over the country have fallen for the con, by and large. There are reasons for this. We must work hard to understand those reasons and fight the arguments.
Racism, fear of the "Other", fear of change, fear of loss of patriarchy (which guarantees white men a position over others of lesser status--women, children, POC)
Patrick E.White: “The crowd at a DeSantis rally does not represent Iowa. It represents DeSantis, who is telling Iowans, as he has told Floridians, effectively enough to get him elected governor, that they are victims and he is their savior.”
However, Iowans have every *right* to consider DeSantis or Trump their savior. No matter how perverse that view might seem, it is their *right*. “All men are created equal.” It’s wrong to *disparage* others who disagree with us.
My comment in toto was not meant to disparage the DeSantis crowd, but to defend Iowans from being painted with too broad a brush, but your excerpt from my comment shows that I may have fallen into the trap I was criticizing. Certainly people have the "right" to consider Donald Trump or DeSantis their savior and I would urge all of us to treat our opponents with respect. "All men are created equal," yes, but not all opinions or ideas or allegiances are equally praiseworthy. The OPINIONS of people who think the election of 2020 was stolen, who feel that Dr. Fauci should be imprisoned for his work on COVID, that the insurrectionists are heroes and "hostages," and many more held by DeSantis and Trump are dangerous, cruel, and profoundly irrational and stupid and decidedly "wrong" in my opinion, and should be resisted because they infringe on the the rights of others, cause bodily harm and death, and foment hatred and contempt for our fellow Americans. Trump calling political opponents and others "vermin" and DeSantis fostering discrimination certainly need to be opposed for their opinions and ultimately for their content of their character. I hope you would allow that.
I completely agree with your post, and admire your phrasing, “"All men are created equal," yes, but not all opinions or ideas or allegiances are equally praiseworthy.”
Woah! Kim… right????? Interesting isn’t it. I’ve never looked at their anger in that way. For freakin once, wouldn’t it be refreshing if those that have so much could walk out the front door, to the fresh green grass, get down on their knees and say a prayer of thanks for all they have and all they don’t have to fight for.
This is beautifully said, Karen.
I sometimes--without specifically engaging the absurd comments that get posted in all caps--simply say “You seem really angry. That must be really hard to be so angry all the time.” So far no one lashes back at me for acknowledging their anger, and I feel like I made my point. Just stop it.
The immigration issue is a hysteria created by racism and stoked by fascist propaganda. In the 1920s we closed what was called the golden door through the efforts of the demagogues of the day. Race riots and vigilantism ruled many parts of America, it was a time of - isms - antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, Jim Crow, but most of all anti-Asian immigrants with a dose of eugenics. Rampant discrimination towards anyone who could be called not a WASP. Protestant Christianity now called Evangelical is today's root cause, but it's really just religious extremism and scapegoating of 'The Other.' You can't argue with zealots or someone who is driven by fear and win by appealing to the rule of law when they believe that they are adhering to a higher law.
Mass nonviolent movements are the only thing that I believe can turn this situation around.
Agree: "but it's really just religious extremism and scapegoating of 'The Other.'"
I like ridicule. Trump is a loser. He's a wimp, afraid of dogs. He stinks. Fat. Flim flam liar.
The irony in the immigration issue is:
That Trump was the poster boy for employer sanctions for using illegals on his worksites. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/nyregion/trump-tower-illegal-immigrant-workers-union-settlement.html
That he used temporary visas to import foreign workers to displace American workers on his properties.
That he was married to two immigrants, one who may/may not have been kosher when admitted. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318
That both of his immigrant wives were "anchors" to bring in relatives, some who were Communists.
That he promised that Mexico would pay for a wall.
‘Flim flam’… I love it when someone points out that the biggest Loser is a flim flam liar!
OMG; I’m busing a gut laughing … haven’t heard the term “flim flam” in a while. You caught me off guard… hahahahahahah; love it!
More. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCPszvd8Og
🤣
President Biden did a damn good job of ridiculing Trump, calling him "a loser" earlier this week (I think it was at Valley Forge).
It has been, as you say, used to create a hysteria fueled by racism and propaganda. But there is another side to it, one that is well documented, and that we Democrats ignore at our peril.
Big Biz uses immigrants to reduce Americans' wages. There's a whole book about this phenomenon, 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). Two centuries ago, companies were sending boats to Europe to bring back immigrants to take the place of Black employees (don’t forget that before the Civil War, free Blacks were working in the north). Frederick Douglass noted the phenomenon, due to which his sons were downwardly mobile. Black periodicals wrote about it, and the late Barbara Jordan, the Black Democrat from Texas who’d made her name on the Judiciary Committee during Watergate, and who ran the latest commission on immigration reform, under Clinton, noted it in recommending cutting immigration numbers nearly in half, and strict enforcement of immigration laws (which has not happened since the 1986 Reagan amnesty).
In 1980, Meat packers were Black, earning decent middle class wages. By that decade’s end, meat packers were immigrants, toiling under atrocious conditions where amputations were common. That pattern of change—companies hiring immigrants at low wages to take the place of their American workers—appeared throughout most of the low/no-skilled job categories, which is why workers’ wages stagnated for 40 years, and happened in tech jobs as well. This article appeared in the NYT a couple of decades after computer pubs had begun writing about it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
The book gives the lie to the notion there are jobs Americans won’t do. In writing the book, among other things, the author interviewed Black people who had recently been laid off from a poultry plant to make way for immigrant workers. Would they take their old jobs back if offered, he asked them? No, they told him. They did not want to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Biden is criticized for bad messaging about immigration. While the MSM shows picture after picture of migrants at the border, in the cities and bussing to and fro, the actual facts belie the MSM narrative. Why ? Because there’s no story in a declining migration. The plight of migrants is better programming and gets advertisers so the MSM can make more money. Our capitalist system has made news into a business which lives or dies by who watches. Reagan and the Republican Party gave us TV journalism that encourages big lies. TV is corporate business. Journalism takes a back seat to profits. Don’t blame Biden for bad messaging. Blame Reagan, Bush and Bush for corporate greed at the expense of truth.
George you said it perfectly!!! Even my beloved NPR has fallen prey to viewers & profits.
Koch Industries has been a major contributor to NPR and PBS for years.
So? Is there actual *evidence*, not supposition, that their money has skewed NPR and PBS?
I haven’t done nor have I read an analysis of the NPR and PBS news programs. I suppose I’m relying on what I see and hear; increased attribution of conservative donors
like the Kochs and changes in the reporting of the news that fit conservative narratives. I may be wrong or too sensitive to the issue. Nevertheless imany agree with those observations.
Doesn’t make any difference who is to blame we need to deal with it more aggressively and we need a groundswell of voters who say we are the majority and we are taking our country back.
"Revealed: how top pop stars are used to ‘launder the reputation’ of Koch family" is the headline for this column in the Guardian by Geoff Dembicki.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/07/koch-family-stand-together-music?
Tell the mayors of NYC, Eagle Pass, and other cities that “the actual facts belie the MSM narrative” on migration. Actual municipalities are struggling to cope with the influxes of migrants. Their budgets, tax policies, and school systems have not been put in place with migrant influxes in mind.
This is going on in Massachusetts, in no small part due to a "right to shelter" law. We don't have enough shelter, given the numbers of indigent immigrants being bussed here, and some of our own US/Mass citizens are losing out on shelter due to the influx.
Don't forget Tricky Dicky.
Maybe the antecedent is now too far above her to find, but I'm wondering what it is you're referring to about Nixon. My own view is that he was a complex and difficult personality, partly the result of having a father from whom seeking praise was like trying to get blood from a turnip, despite Nixon's having worked early mornings before school at his father's store, and related chores, and who also lost two brothers in childhood. I've read a couple of bios of Nixon, and it's like he started out wanting to be good, and he had some good in him, but his father, and he was arguably cheated out of winning the 1960 election (and then he cheated to win the '68 election and gave us watergate and the Southern Strategy). He also smeared Helen Gahagan Douglas, when he ran against her for Senate. As I, the son of two trained economists, at age 7, told my friend Ralphie in one of my early political arguments, when my mother was driving us somewhere, "You know, Ralphie, you really should't vote for Nixon becauase he called that lady in California something like an economist." My mother told that story so many times--despite her relative lack of sense of humor she thought it was hilarious--that I'm quite certain I'm quoting myself accurately.
But he also told Pat, when he went off to WWII, that he hoped that if he was killed she'd remarry.
Thanks for the brilliant quotes from Timothy Snyder. So disappointed in the California governor and his appointees mouthing the same misreadings Snyder so righteously condemns. Thanks again for what you are doing , Mr Hubbell.
Thanks for the perfect set up, Robert. “Many readers said the Biden administration needs to do a better job of communicating the facts about immigration. Others said, in effect, that statistical arguments won’t change feelings about immigration. Fair point. But when the truth doesn’t persuade people, coming up with a message that does is challenging.”
It is about PERCEPTION. SO, with that, I ask you all to consider this “WHAT DOES A BETTER JOB OF COMMUNICATING LOOK LIKE?” For Biden, the answer... it looks like ENTHUSIASM. No one has to “know” Biden’s immigration statistics are a net improvement... they have to sense that he is doing great things. PERCEPTION. Consider this, we here are all (in our own qualified ways) enthusiastic about Biden. So it is up to us to be the message. Know that PERCEPTION can work in our favor. I wear a Biden T-shirt on EVERY grocery run. Imagine if just two more people wore Biden shirts at the same grocery store... Just three Biden shirts would make it feel like everyone was wearing Biden shirts. There would be a perception of momentum. And perception is reality.
Buy a Biden shirt. I just found another great one that says “DEMS MAKE LIFE BETTER” at IndivisibleMarin.org.
What a spectacular answer to make America great again... Dems aren’t trying to move the country backward they make life better NOW.
Let’s be the message we wish to see about Biden.
A faster link to “DEMS MAKE LIFE BETTER” T-shirt... https://www.indivisiblemarin.org/dems-make-life-better-t-shirt
Hi, Shawn. Thanks for the link. I will promote on Monday!
That’s wonderful. I loved your talk on IndiMarin and have shared it many times over since you shared it.
My in-laws live in Florida (which is why I moved here from LA). And they are staunch Dems surrounded by a community of staunch Trump supporters. They feel very muzzled by their (very wealthy) community.
I have so much hope for 2024 and you are a big part of that.
Thank you, Shawn and Robert, for helping spread the word about the "Dems Make Life Better" t-shirt and Shawn's inspiring example of wearing pro-Biden or pro-Dems shirts every time he grocery shops! Don't miss his great 1-minute video testimonial from Shawn Shawn: https://youtu.be/BRPPgYlmUd4. Let's all follow his lead!
I'm sending this out to my email list of nearly 80, with the subject head, "Spread the Word!"
Thanks, David! I appreciate it. Have a great weekend.
You're welcome. And a great weekend to you!
Don't miss Shawn Shawn's great 1-minute video testimonial on this topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPPgYlmUd4
Again, Robert, you and your work is deeply appreciated.
I agree with Tim Scott that we are living in fear of Donald Trump rather than holding him accountable for not following the rule of law. This has to stop, As he continues to violate the conditions of his bail agreement he should go to jail. Yes it will interfere with his campaign, but he has chosen to run for President to avoid facing the consequences of his actions. It reminds me of the game we played as children, "you can't touch me because I am on safety"
I love the way Biden called Trump "a loser!" Trump IS a loser, and I think Biden can pin that monicker on Trump!
Lynette- exactly right.
It’s nuts. We have company this week. One fellow commented that Biden is allowing all these immigrants, who are criminals being released from jail(s), into our country. The only info Google offers on people from jails coming across the border are people who are jailed in order to testify against the folks who helped them. Any one here know what jails are being emptied of criminals that are slated to go to the USA?
Is that effed up fake news, or BS GOP’rs using the thousand of migrants who are detained in jails to make up a story about emptying ppl from Jails and sending them over the border???
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-thousands-of-migrants-are-being-detained-by-the-u-s-as-witnesses
Yesterday he started with some kinda “Biden’s made $25 millions” blah, blah, blah… My husband asked him if he was so worried about that why isn’t he concerned about Jared Kushner and the $2B from the Saudis. He looked up perplexed. He knew NOTHING of this. He kept saying he knows nothing about this… I took the opportunity to say:
“(Insert name here), how can you not know this? This will be under investigation soon- how can you not know about it?. He looked on line and said it was given to a fund.
I said “A FUND? You mean his fund called Affinity Partners that is Jared Kushner’s business”?
I then added “Where do you get your news, this has been hot news since they left the White House…. “. CRICKETS … no answer
Thank you for having the difficult discussions with friends many of us avoid. If we cannot change minds, we MIGHT just be able to sow some doubt.
People right in your house saying these things ... a captive audience to get corrected!
True… and yet…
I won’t get in a pissing contest with a skunk; juice not worth the squeeze.
Trumpers can be vicious and I won’t allow myself to be on the receiving end of some cruel, cockamamie mental masturbation. No thank you. I just say “don’t take my word for it, look it up”.
It sounds like you at least created some doubt in his mind that not everything he believed was true. That’s something.
I wanted to follow up on my post from earlier this week when I said I had written to the NYT and NPR about coverage of Biden, prompted by Robert's newsletter of Tuesday, Jan 9.
The NYT responded that Biden is more about policy and administration and Trump about personality (read Trump is more exciting than Biden), and that the NYT will cover Trump as his actions merit and matter (no definition of what "matters" as I would posit that a President's actions matter more than an ex-President's). They also said that they get complaints that Trump is not covered enough or prominently enough.
How about if readers of this newsletter write to the Times to request better and more prominent coverage of Biden, his speeches (quotes from them would be great), and actions. We could make a difference!
Darn! Don't you hate it when "policy and administration" are boring but insurrection is exciting?
I take the Times' response as an admission it is agnostic on whether democracy survives. Being fair isn't the same thing as being amoral, indifferent, and uninformed.
Thanks for writing to the NYTimes and for sharing your experience. I hope other readers follow your example.
Does the Times not understand that they will be first on the list of organizations that Yammie will have neutered and/or muzzled??? Do they think they are somehow immune to the actions that Tang Face will take to ruin them or make them into a propaganda puppet? I really don't get their reasoning unless of course it's all about the simoleons (and yeah...it IS all about the money--they make that pretty damn clear.)
Ya; like you said the times will have non stop excitement if ol’ Tang Face gets in and starts going after them (and everyone else that has offended the little baby tang).
You have that right! However, I doubt it will be the kind of excitement that sells papers and makes them money.
What an insipid response from the NYT.
Who did you write to at the NYT? I'd like to do the same. By the sound of their response to you, they need to hear from a lot more of us!
How many newsrooms have stayed in business because of Trump’s antics?
I came to Boston to medical school in 1967. I was in awe of the US - we did not have TV in South Africa at that time - and watching newscaster criticizing Johnson was both exciting and unnerving. When I landed at Logan airport - with resentment and some anger, the immigration official told me I was 'taking work away from 'our boys'' I applied for a green card (they were actually blue) and was part of the first 'induction' of immigrants at Faneuil Hall in Boston's center. The judge, who was African American welcomed us all with open arms and encouraged us not to lose our particular cultural heritage. It was important, he said, for us to cherish what was special about our culture which in turn added to my new country. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the political situation here, I remind myself that I grew up in a one party police state. It was impossible to imagine the kinds of hearings (Like Watergate and January 6th committee) This country remains special - and as Robert encourages us daily - it is up to us to keep it special.
There is a great deal of justified concern over whether the Supreme Court will decide that Trump can be barred from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, and that provision does not, indeed, provide for such a remedy directly; instead, it bars some insurrectionists from serving as president. One way to solve that issue would be a lawsuit to obtain a binding legal decision that Trump is actually barred. That could be done through a suit for a declaratory judgment—a judgment declaring the rights of the parties. The best way to do that would probably be for a state to sue him, because it’s hard to see that federal courts would find that a state lacks a sufficient interest to have standing to sue. But a group of citizens might be able to show that their rights are sufficient to authorize such a suit, which is declaratory in nature. (I recognize the irony of such a declaration then being applied as an actual bar, rather than as advice of what should happen if Trump were to win in November.). Another real issue would be where such a suit could be brought. The Southern District of Florida would be the safest place, as Trump resides there, but perhaps he still has sufficient contacts with Manhattan and the Bronx for suit to be filed in the Southern District of New York. (I don’t believe that if such a suit were brought in Florida it would be assigned to Judge Cannon as being related to the classified-documents case.). Still another problem would be obtaining a decision before the election, but the clear need for such a case to be decided before then would be a powerful spur. Oh, and the trial in such a suit ought to be carried on television.
The above is the cleanest way to present the issue to the Supreme Court--a straight up adjudication of the legal issue.
Just to clarify (for non-lawyers), Trump would be a party to the declaratory relief action and would have full opportunity to defend himself. That would remove some of the complications and objections of the Colorado and Maine decisions.
You miss the importance of the factfinding in Colorado in Trump v. Anderson a/k/a Anderson v Griswold. https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trump-v-anderson/
Oral argument Feb. 8.
No, I haven’t. I know what the court ruled, why it did so, and I agree with its reasoning. I believe that the Supreme Court should affirm the Colorado court and go further to rule that Trump is ineligible to serve as president again (absent a 2/3 vote of each house of Congress). I am hopeful that the justices will bend to their duty, but I appear to be in a distinct minority. And what if the justices whiff? What if they rule that the Colorado court was justified, but that that is not binding on other states, and do not rule on whether Trump may serve again? What if this year’s election is as close as 2020 or, Heaven forbid, Trump wins? We would then need a suit to bar him from serving filed and decided in a couple of months. And if such a suit were successful, wouldn’t we then be stuck with Trump’s VP pick (Kari Lake?) as the next president? Also, if a suit such as I suggest were filed before the Supreme Court hears or decides the Colorado case, news of its existence might steel the justices to their duty in the case now before them.
If Trump is an insurrectionist, issue preclusion would bar him everywhere. That was a period. Arguably, Congress could grant him amnesty or Biden could pardon him.
The Republican Party would pick the candidate, and they will have a convention.
Not so clear that issue preclusion (still res judicata to us old folks) would apply or, worse, would be applied. We need to lock down every possible alternative, because Trump and his gangsters will reach for them all.
I still think Trump is a flight risk, and that his real threat is in New York. While the media and DOJ concentrate on immunity and his Colorado 14th Amendment case, he faces 32 felony counts derived before he was president that could put him behind bars, whether or not he is the Republican candidate, or even wins in November. https://manhattanda.org/district-attorney-bragg-announces-34-count-felony-indictment-of-former-president-donald-j-trump/
The case is scheduled before Judge Juan Merchan for March 25. He could move it up, if the DC case set for March 4 is postponed.
All good points but the courts will rule against taking him of the ballot because he has not been convicted of insurrection and has not had the appropriate opportunity to defend himself. The issue needs to be decided and how ex presidents are treated legally has to be decided in case we have another dishonest and crooked president.
He WAS party to a due process hearing in Colorado and lost.
Jon, I really appreciate your offer of possible actions/solutions. It's encouraging to me since I can read and speculate about the many causes of this multitude of problems, but I have NO ideas about how to solve them.
Please keep your ideas coming.
I do. Elect more Female Democrats.
Unfortunately fear is driving our politicians especially Republicans and our Judicial system. Politicians who know first hand that Trump is unqualified and a threat remain silent and the courts are giving Trump the opportunity to speak and blatantly lie and attack the prosecution and judges as his followers harass the families of the judges with bomb threats and other insults. Too many people are scared of Trump and his followers and as long as they fear the backlash and delusional theory of an uprising or another attack they are letting fear dictate their actions. This has to stop. The only way this happens is to stand up and push back and treat Trump like any other defendant and keep pushing towards starting the trials. The image the voters need to see is Trump in a courtroom.
The photos of huge immigrant crowds, day after day, look alarming so I can see how some folks can be worried. But it's one thing to say, "Whoa, our town doesn't have the resources to house, feed, and process all these people. Can the federal government help us out here?" It's something else entirely to let White supremacists convince you that said immigrants, as a class, are greedy, unclean, lazy, violent, etc. etc. I spent my professional life teaching English as a Second Language and I marvel at the challenges my students face, their hard work at no-status jobs, their responsibility to their families back home, the precariousness of their situations, their desire to do learn our culture and do the right thing, the stress of being in a place where so many fear or disrespect them. Many students would come for the morning class after having worked all night.
I don't know where the Evangelical "Christians" lost their memory of simple Christian charity. You'd think they could at least grasp the principle of a younger group filling job slots as the older workers age out.
I think many MAGAs have actually become Tang Face's cultzombies. No thought, no measured reasoning, just lurching around repeating Tang's more delusional assertions.
While I have been struggling with the issue of keeping Trump off the ballot, I now have to agree with Snyder's concise opinion in today's newsletter: Trump is an insurrectionist and violated the Constitution by attempting to overturn the Presidential election in a violent manner. He should not be eligible to run for any office. The Constitution is clear on this subject.