Tag: immigrant

Need to Know 7/25/18

They can dish it out… Days after Sacha Baron Cohen’s “gotcha” show started airing, Democrats are up in arms over a video poking fun at Ocasio-Cortez.  Cohen’s show puts mostly GOP former politicians in a bad light through trickery, fake IDs, and playing on those individuals tendencies.  For example, to trick Sarah Palin into a gotcha moment, Cohen impersonated a disabled vet.

Allie Stuckey of CRTV figured turnabout was fair play.  Stuckey is known for using humor and satire in her videos.  She made a video of a satirical interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, using actual footage from Ocasio-Cortez’s disastrous real interviews where she fumbled on questions about Israel and unemployment.  Dems are not happy.  For example, the Independent complained that Stuckey’s video had gone viral and reached 1.5 million viewers before the Facebook police labeled it as satire.  Others have dubbed the satirical video “fake news”.  Cohen’s show debut only got 700,000 views.

Maybe they are jealous?

Democrats upset about being the butt of political satire

Trump is now the target of an incredible political attack from former Clinton attorney Lanny Davis.  Davis has secret tapes that Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen made discussing how they would pay a Playboy model for her story of an affair with Trump.  Cohen is working with US prosecutors in an investigation that has quickly turned into a Kenneth Starr type hunt into Trump’s past sex life.  Lanny Davis is representing Cohen and delivered the tapes of their private privileged conversations to CNN to air publicly.

New York is a one-party consent state, making the recordings legal.  Trump also waived his attorney-client privilege in the matter because paying off someone for a non-disclosure agreement is not illegal.  Cohen is being investigated for fraud, and Trump apparently didn’t want any shadow of that investigation hanging over him.  So far, Trump has not actually been the target of any of the investigations surrounding his campaign, Russian connections, or Cohen’s potential fraud.

Clinton lawyer gives secret Cohen/Trump tapes to CNN

ICE protesters have a race problem.  It turns out the people who showed up to protest ICE in Portland might be advocating for illegal immigrants, but they hate African Americans and citizen Hispanics.  Emails received by The Oregonian detail conversations between officers on site and their supervisors.  The protesters, according to the emails, barraged the African American officers with hateful language and slurs including the N-word.  Another officer, a Hispanic woman, was called a “weak female” and “traitor”.  “I was berated for so long I can’t even remember everything that was told to me.”

ICE protesters use racism and hate speech in Portland

Need to Know 7/24/18

Maryland is joining other states in rejecting single payer universal healthcare systems after discovering the cost.  The program would cost the state $24 billion and would be paid for by an automatic 10% tax on everyone’s income and a flat $2,800 tax on every man woman and child.  For an individual making $50k a year, that would amount to $650 a month, compared to current plans averaging $475 per month.  Maryland Democrats were reportedly shocked to discover that universal healthcare isn’t free.  Wait until they see the price tag for universal income.

Single Payer could cost state $24 billion per year

All is quiet on the northern front, that is the North Korea front, as North Korea dismantles one of their nuclear sites.  North Korea has also not launched missiles or tested nukes in 9 months.  The press has suggested that North Korea wasn’t holding up their end of the bargain or that the deal was off, but that seems to not be the case.  It seems that North Korean denuclearization is proceeding.

North Korea dismantling important launch site

The ACLU gets what it wants, though they won’t admit it.  Political Brief reported 6 days ago that the ACLU had won a hold on deportations so that parents could choose to be separated from their children and deported while their children stayed.  Now the ACLU is complaining that 463 parents were deported without their children.  But this is exactly what they were fighting to achieve a week ago.  The ACLU admits they have no idea how many of those 463 parents signed consent forms requesting to be deported without their children.  So far 897 parents have been reunited with their children, 538 more have been cleared and are in the process of being reunited, and 454 have been deemed to be ineligible for reunification either because they are unrelated human traffickers or violent criminals.

ACLU gets what they want, parents deported without their children

 

7/21/18 Comics

head on backwards

Maybe you’ve run into this argument.  Generally, I think Democrats don’t want a border wall and don’t want illegal aliens charged with a crime because they support open borders.  But if you challenge them on it, they get offended.  Ever try pointing out that Hillary Clinton supported a border “fence”? Like when she voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006?  Oh look, here’s video of her bragging about voting for it:

 

So let’s talk about the cost.  $21.6 billion.  That’s no small amount.  That’s almost twice as much as it costs to build an aircraft carrier.  So some, perhaps Libertarians and Conservatives, have a reason to think a border wall, fence, barrier, or whatever you want to call it, would cost too much.  But not Democrats.

In 2016, Obamacare cost taxpayers $110 billion.

But let’s ignore Obama’s previous spending. Let’s ignore his average deficits of $900 billion a year.  Let’s talk about the future.  Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and nearly every other potential future Democrat Presidential candidate supports guaranteed jobs or universal basic income.  The only one who doesn’t is Joe Biden, who at his age might be struggling reading internal party polls.

A government guaranteed jobs program would ONLY cost $543 billion.

So Democrats really have no credibility when it comes to the argument that a wall costs too much.  Here’s an idea for Democrats to think about.  Guaranteed employment means people need something to work on.  Why not have them build a wall?

A Different Way To Look At “Illegal”

Here is a different way to look at illegal immigration. I saw a post from Dan Rather the other day about how Spanish speaking people rescuing others from Houston shouldn’t be thought of as anything other than American. Sure, why not? I mean, assuming they actually are Americans.  If the President of Mexico offers aid to Houstonians, we don’t automatically grant him citizenship.

The problem is that the Left has defined the debate. On their terms “citizen” means “white dude”. Immigrant means “Hispanic (regardless of citizenship)”. Illegal immigrant means you are simply a racist, privileged white dude for using that term. Nobody is “illegal”. They are “human”.  Right?

Instead of using the often confused terms of immigrant and illegal immigrant, let’s replace those terms with “Taxpayer” and “Tax Cheat”. After all, that’s what an illegal immigrant has done. They have cheated on their paperwork, or not filed at all. See how the stories change in that context.

Take today, there is a story about how immigrants are battling detection and deportation after Harvey. Really? We are deporting citizens because they emigrated to the USA? No, they mean illegal immigrants, but nobody is illegal so that is a racist term. Let’s try this instead, “Tax cheats battle detection and IRS penalties after Harvey”. Still feel so much sympathy?

Trump considers ending the Dream Act (which wasn’t actually an act, just a regulation) for children of immigrants. What? We are deporting citizen children because their parents came here legally from other countries??  No, of course not.  But again, illegal immigrant is a racist term used by citizens (privileged white dudes). So let’s try it differently. Trump considers crackdown on tax cheats filing illegitimate child tax credit claims. Ah, suddenly it doesn’t sound so bad.

So that’s the assignment. If you see an article that says “immigrant” but means “illegal immigrant”, just substitute “tax cheat”. If you see an article that says “immigrant” and means “legal citizen who emigrated”, read it “taxpayer”.

By the way, if you think this is a ridiculous idea just remember that anyone who is here illegally is either dodging taxes, committing identity theft, or filing the wrong return. Most are paid under the table or with a false tax ID. The reason businesses use their labor is because they are illegally paid less than minimum wage and don’t operate under the same overtime and labor laws that citizens…sorry, taxpayers do. So if you read every story in that lens, taxpayer and tax cheat, you won’t be that far off.

When the Left does it

What do you do when there is a class of Americans who are refused services, discriminated against in public, and made to feel unsafe in what are normally safe spaces?  If you are wearing a safety pin, you rush to their aid.  Right?  What do you do if you are a conservative?

Time for conservatives to put their money where their mouth is. When someone refuses to bake your cake or make your dress, you recognize that person for what they are and take your business elsewhere. We are Americans. We don’t need safe spaces, safety pins, or the government forcing people to serve us. If Sophie Theallet is too bigoted and hateful to take Melania’s money, why would she want to give it to them? There are plenty of dress designers in the world who will be happy to serve the First Lady of the United States.

All that aside, oh the irony. Sophie Theallet writes a letter about how she wants to overcome bigotry and prejudice because she is an immigrant to this country. Her method of overcoming? Being bigoted and prejudiced by refusing to serve an immigrant.

Another incident came last night when Mike Pence took his family to see Hamilton on Broadway.  If there is one thing the Hamilton experience has taught us, it is that we are far more alike than we thought.

The crowd booing Mike Pence demonstrated the sort of hatred that the alt right had of Obama.

Victor Dixon demonstrated the sort of ignorance that many right wing radio and cable commentators had about Obama bringing Sharia law to the US. The fact that he actually felt like he has to lecture Pence on their administration representing all Americans demonstrates the sort of bigotry and bias that Republicans have been accused of for the last 8 years.  

Funny side note, the thing that scares the Left the most about Pence is the Religious Freedom Act.  That could actually be used to protect Sophie Theallet if Melania decided to sue her for refusal of services.

Trump’s call for the theater to be a safe space is a reaction to their hatred and ignorance. But it’s also the same sort of snowflake behavior we have mocked the left for over the last 8 years. Republicans aren’t supposed to call for safe spaces and apologies. We’re supposed to put our big boy pants on and ignore it, stand up to it, or decide we don’t want to spend $1,000 a seat to be discriminated against and move on. Maybe we should give him a pass. He was a Democrat up until recently.

A theater in Broadway is going to be full of liberals. This isn’t a surprise to anyone.

The Hamilton incident was a great role reversal. I could picture the exact same thing happening in an all white church in the south in 2008. Obama and his family come to that church one Sunday morning. The parishioners boo him, they all voted for McCain. Most of them believe Obama is secretly a Muslim. All of them believe he is a racist.

The pastor gets up and admonishes them to stop booing. And then he turns to Obama and says this:

“We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our religious freedoms, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope this sermon has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us.”

Obama leaves. The interaction is widely reported in the media. Vice President Joe Biden gets on his twitter account and types:

“Our wonderful President was harassed at an all white church in the South this morning. Church should be a special and safe place. The pastor was very rude to a very good man, Barack Obama. Apologize!”

So view this whole incident through that lens. And then ask yourself if you are one side of the same coin, or something different and better.