The insanity of Republican opposition to accepting immigrants blows my mind. Here are some facts:
There is a huge worker shortage across many sectors of employment. This from the US Chamber of Commerce:
"We hear every day from our member companies—of every size and industry, across nearly every state—they're facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only around 6 million unemployed workers."
"The transportation, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food sectors have had the highest numbers of job openings."
OK, all together now, does anyone see a sensible solution to a crisis in worker shortages? Do I hear a roar of "DUH". Hundreds of thousands of people are banging on our doors to enter this country. They are escaping the impacts of climate change (can't grow food) and violence in countries run by mobsters.
They want to work hard, pay taxes and raise their families in safety. I say give them a big hug and a job. BTW, every study I have ever read suggests that immigrants work harder than native born Americans and they commit less crime. Why do you think that is? DUH. Because they are so grateful to be here. They value the opportunity. We need workers and we turn them away when they ask for a job. One more time so Rethuglican bigots can here us: DUH!
But you have to hand it to the gop, they have crafted a perfect scheme: Fearmonger about the “invasion of the Others”. Hype the numbers by supporting a law that allows and encourages multiple border crossing attempts. Claim falsely that eliminating the law and funding orderly processing of immigrants will creat MORE successful crossing attempts. Push to have the weak law made permanent to insure the inflated numbers increase. Control the immigration narrative by pressuring MSM to “not ignore the crisis”. Rinse. Repeat. Win elections.
YES! Yes, yes, yes to everything you have said here! I just don't understand why there is such resistance to immigration (other than the relatively baseless fears of >replacement theory< and losing their >superior< position in this white patriarchic society). Sigh.
Where do immigrants end up? Do they end up in red state's counties as farm labor, but voting blue? Or do they end up in blue state's city/counties as entry level service industry workers, construction labor, factory workers that vote blue? Either way, R’s do not win. Fearing a loss of their majority, the GOP links up with fascists. I think this is where we are now.
Down the road I mean, their kids, and once they become citizens. That’s the rub. Keep the mirage of an ‘immigrant crisis’, maintain uncertainty for dreamers and all immigrants in general. Obstruct all immigration policies. This way, it slows down and or ceases the pathway to citizen ship, thus less threat to R power. Get it?
Ditto on your "yes, yes, yes" to Bill's post. Not only do immigrants work harder than native born Americans, they also have higher rates of entrepreneurship.
You can bet that if the immigrants were coming from, say, Switzerland, immigration wouldn't be an issue for Rethuglican bigots.
The insanity and inhumanity of inaction, indifference, and obstruction in place of debate, compromise, and clear policy. I’d like to correct Stephen (baby Goebells) Miller, the real factors decaying our democracy into Oligarchy. Libertarian billionaire Robert Mercer signs his checks, not the American people.
I'd love to hear from HCR readers who live close to our southern border - San Diego, Nogales, El Paso, Matamoros, etc. Are there big logistical problems causing feelings of being invaded, are local border town jobs being taken by immigrants, local taxes paying for increased welfare and sheriff budgets in response?
This morning's conversation with a neighbor whose daughter designs space-going rockets. She gloated that private industry is doing it (rocket science) all so much better and spouted that government should stay a fast away as possible from that Industry. She then went on to brag about her daughter's latest contract job which was a multibillion dollar defense contract.
To what end to Republicsns want to stop government from working? To the specific end of making it work great for themselves while avoiding taxes to cover program addressing g marginalized peoples needs.
If you give the ultra wealthy a series of massive tax breaks, sideline anti-trust and write laws that foster and protect corporate interests over the common weal, wealth becomes a form of governance in itself.
If money was poring into NASA at anything remotely close to the rate it pours into mega-corps, you would expect to be seeing more ambitious projects. Considering the overall state of technology in the 1970's, the successful moon missions were a triumph. But that was before "Reagan Revolution" tax cuts (mostly for the rich) and budget cuts. It's doublethink to believe that Republicans "hate government"; that's just a ruse. They really want exclusive control over government, and ham fisted control over everyone else, as in overturning Roe or "Don't Say Gay". Reagan pretended to hate government but what he really blasted was democracy, codes of conduct for business, and spending money on the common good.
Reagan getting elected was a sad day for America. The ordinary middle class person has been losing ground ever since. Voodoo economics that Republicans are such fans of is not logical, plus it's just a damn lie. Most things Republicans say are damn lies in pursuit of power for themselves. Their platform is greed.
"Voodoo economics that Republicans are such fans of is not logical, plus it's just a damn lie."
Yep, Voodoo economics. The funny thing is that Bush Sr. (a senior repub.) is the person who told Americans that Reagan's economic plan was "Voodoo economics." It was the best thing Bush Sr. did for Americans. That was the summer of 1980. Then, Reagan chose Bush Sr. as his VP running mate, and Bush spoke no more of Voodoo economics because he himself became part of it. Junk bonds, corporate hostile takeovers, anti-union hostilities, looting of the Social Security Fund, selling missiles to Iran to get the hostages back, starting wars in Central American, et al. And the beat goes on....
Alas, Kathy, this has been the Ghastly Oligarch Party's theme song for decades now: obstruct the proper functioning of government in order to spread chaos in order to get more Rethuglicans elected and forward the fascist agenda. Sowing fear, as we all know, is a great strategy if autocracy is the goal.
The "events" will continue dramatically through the end of the year (J6 Select Committee final Hearing;Today at 11 am AM Eastern) & into 2023. There is a real possibility that the Special Prosecutor will indict tf'g upon his return to the Country. JACK SMITH: "The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag or under my watch",
Where is TFG? Is he out of country? That’s interesting. Considering he stole classified docs, has a jet and a fresh million cash from digital clown cards, a private jet…seems like a flight risk to me. Maybe he is just working on a new Mara Largo, Venezuela.
Neither does TFG. For legal analysis read Joyce Vance’s Substack today. Former US Attorney lays out the 3 biggest expected criminal referrals to be announced this week.
Me too & YES ... another Professor. I am Interested in Professor Vance`s analyses after the J6 Select Company publishes their voluminous evidence this Week.
"to what end, I cannot say." I can! The party of minimalist government, the minority party, has everything to gain and nothing to lose by sabotaging our government. The American people, in general, at least enough of them, are dumb enough to see such skullduggery and blame the current administration.
that's the question I keep asking myself. Power - retaining power. But how do you use power if there is no government? that's anarchy. They may want to look at history - power in the hands of a few never ends well - the 'peasants' always revolt.
Kathy, far too many Republican Americans hate and fear immigrants, a reflection of the awful divide we have lived with ever since Reagan. It's all part of white supremacy and truly ugly anti-semitism, bigotry and systemic racism that has plagued our country for three centuries.
We may be the best of the worst, but many of my friends are moving elsewhere, like Portugal.
Their purpose is obvious: a democracy is a government of, by, and for PEOPLE. They want a government by, for, and of the elite, the privileged, and white male.
They hate government, and can't stand the idea that it would use regulation to protect the people (especially workers and minorities) from corporations, to protect the environment from the depredations of corporations, to enforce equality, and to provide services to ALL the people. They tolerate government only insofar as it protects corporations from regulation, pays corporations through rebates on taxes corporations have never paid, and suppresses the will of the people.
And all of the above, replacing "corporations" with "the wealthy," as well.
Aside from that, they believe the only legitimate function of the government is national defense, which primarily involves keeping wrong-colored* people out of the country and fighting wars that protect the interests of capitalists.
In other words, to Republicans, proper government is not the servant of the people, it's the handmaiden of the wealthy.
The fascists want to put most tax revenue into maintaining and growing the world's biggest military force. This is often left out of the conversation when it is the most important thing that needs to be looked at very closely. In fact, most Americans actually have no idea of how gargantuan the US military is. Our arsenal could blow the planet to smithereens, yet the military is given the lion's share of the budget while Americans can't afford health care or a university education. We kill people all over the world, every day, yet no one reports it in the media.
I wish more Americans would see how intent Republicans are on making sure the government does not work - to what end, I cannot say.
I wish we could make a trade: take in the asylum seekers and export the Boebert types.
The insanity of Republican opposition to accepting immigrants blows my mind. Here are some facts:
There is a huge worker shortage across many sectors of employment. This from the US Chamber of Commerce:
"We hear every day from our member companies—of every size and industry, across nearly every state—they're facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only around 6 million unemployed workers."
"The transportation, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food sectors have had the highest numbers of job openings."
OK, all together now, does anyone see a sensible solution to a crisis in worker shortages? Do I hear a roar of "DUH". Hundreds of thousands of people are banging on our doors to enter this country. They are escaping the impacts of climate change (can't grow food) and violence in countries run by mobsters.
They want to work hard, pay taxes and raise their families in safety. I say give them a big hug and a job. BTW, every study I have ever read suggests that immigrants work harder than native born Americans and they commit less crime. Why do you think that is? DUH. Because they are so grateful to be here. They value the opportunity. We need workers and we turn them away when they ask for a job. One more time so Rethuglican bigots can here us: DUH!
https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage-the-most-impacted-industries
But you have to hand it to the gop, they have crafted a perfect scheme: Fearmonger about the “invasion of the Others”. Hype the numbers by supporting a law that allows and encourages multiple border crossing attempts. Claim falsely that eliminating the law and funding orderly processing of immigrants will creat MORE successful crossing attempts. Push to have the weak law made permanent to insure the inflated numbers increase. Control the immigration narrative by pressuring MSM to “not ignore the crisis”. Rinse. Repeat. Win elections.
Fictional narratives always travel faster than policy. When it’s better to be first and wrong, than second and right, policy will always be
trying to catch up. We have a nefarious minority mucking everything up. We need to move the Statue of Liberty to the southern border.
😥 Pretty much.
YES! Yes, yes, yes to everything you have said here! I just don't understand why there is such resistance to immigration (other than the relatively baseless fears of >replacement theory< and losing their >superior< position in this white patriarchic society). Sigh.
Where do immigrants end up? Do they end up in red state's counties as farm labor, but voting blue? Or do they end up in blue state's city/counties as entry level service industry workers, construction labor, factory workers that vote blue? Either way, R’s do not win. Fearing a loss of their majority, the GOP links up with fascists. I think this is where we are now.
Except that immigrants don't vote, only citizens have that right.
Down the road I mean, their kids, and once they become citizens. That’s the rub. Keep the mirage of an ‘immigrant crisis’, maintain uncertainty for dreamers and all immigrants in general. Obstruct all immigration policies. This way, it slows down and or ceases the pathway to citizen ship, thus less threat to R power. Get it?
They've been sold a script and are not going to put it aside.
Ditto on your "yes, yes, yes" to Bill's post. Not only do immigrants work harder than native born Americans, they also have higher rates of entrepreneurship.
You can bet that if the immigrants were coming from, say, Switzerland, immigration wouldn't be an issue for Rethuglican bigots.
The insanity and inhumanity of inaction, indifference, and obstruction in place of debate, compromise, and clear policy. I’d like to correct Stephen (baby Goebells) Miller, the real factors decaying our democracy into Oligarchy. Libertarian billionaire Robert Mercer signs his checks, not the American people.
Sometimes the Canadians are way ahead of us. And not just on the ice. Check out this article (no paywall)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/world/canada/quebec-immigrants-xenophobia.html?unlocked_article_code=SKVRNcX8DXHtPF_ucL-CmWWTr-Xezb4hVo8_VO4VDM88U73-uey6U113iFB7RHhUVCcgKCpiCPGG2c1zVmDXfXwv6p8XaYPF-3XYisX7xtQWlhgax7NTi2GJRMgXy2wuRepqbtZHw0q2Tc4mw5_OgGlvwtExV6eRx9mmfiP8yA24ZKwzFtkVf4JcTjdP7AYesTPgDS0Kj07MSk5TECXQ2t-yY_XBJ2KQo1uAb0Mbe52dh5oruIK9bj3bPLJkR0DJk4XCnjFbOpUh3k-PLBCtDa_MEsr6egPnjl_0NlYJPmO_aMtUkFIp6wv2TXRRyP0bwkB1Y9dtfwvuZMF12zUIA-Gr40QhNY2mIRcb&smid=share-url
I'd love to hear from HCR readers who live close to our southern border - San Diego, Nogales, El Paso, Matamoros, etc. Are there big logistical problems causing feelings of being invaded, are local border town jobs being taken by immigrants, local taxes paying for increased welfare and sheriff budgets in response?
Duh, and thanks for that link. great info.
Word!
Excellent thought! I agree...but can't think who else would want even one Boebert, let alone an entire posse of them.
Seems like she is qualified to carry Putin’s water all day, all night, uphill, and barefoot through the snow.
barefoot
Edited with the edit button! Thanks MP
Now that's a thought. Thanks, Ted!
I'm OK with replacing Boebert & company with Dreamers. The latter sure understand better what America is about than the former.
A vignette to illustrate:
This morning's conversation with a neighbor whose daughter designs space-going rockets. She gloated that private industry is doing it (rocket science) all so much better and spouted that government should stay a fast away as possible from that Industry. She then went on to brag about her daughter's latest contract job which was a multibillion dollar defense contract.
To what end to Republicsns want to stop government from working? To the specific end of making it work great for themselves while avoiding taxes to cover program addressing g marginalized peoples needs.
Great example, just wait til egomaniac and narcissistic bastard Musk trashes SpaceX like he had Twitter.
If you give the ultra wealthy a series of massive tax breaks, sideline anti-trust and write laws that foster and protect corporate interests over the common weal, wealth becomes a form of governance in itself.
If money was poring into NASA at anything remotely close to the rate it pours into mega-corps, you would expect to be seeing more ambitious projects. Considering the overall state of technology in the 1970's, the successful moon missions were a triumph. But that was before "Reagan Revolution" tax cuts (mostly for the rich) and budget cuts. It's doublethink to believe that Republicans "hate government"; that's just a ruse. They really want exclusive control over government, and ham fisted control over everyone else, as in overturning Roe or "Don't Say Gay". Reagan pretended to hate government but what he really blasted was democracy, codes of conduct for business, and spending money on the common good.
Boy, have to say that's it in a nutshell! Wow!
Male, white, "christian" corporatocracy. Yup.
Well said, JL!
Reagan getting elected was a sad day for America. The ordinary middle class person has been losing ground ever since. Voodoo economics that Republicans are such fans of is not logical, plus it's just a damn lie. Most things Republicans say are damn lies in pursuit of power for themselves. Their platform is greed.
Yet, when a storm hits, they are FIRST in line with their hands out for anything at all that our government can provide.
Can you spare a Bonus for a Bankrupted Banker?
"Small government" in Geopese means plenty of benies and control for ME, and none for you.
"Voodoo economics that Republicans are such fans of is not logical, plus it's just a damn lie."
Yep, Voodoo economics. The funny thing is that Bush Sr. (a senior repub.) is the person who told Americans that Reagan's economic plan was "Voodoo economics." It was the best thing Bush Sr. did for Americans. That was the summer of 1980. Then, Reagan chose Bush Sr. as his VP running mate, and Bush spoke no more of Voodoo economics because he himself became part of it. Junk bonds, corporate hostile takeovers, anti-union hostilities, looting of the Social Security Fund, selling missiles to Iran to get the hostages back, starting wars in Central American, et al. And the beat goes on....
Greed, hate, fear, and hubris; the "four horsemen" of Geopee.
Power with someone to blame for the mess. Then the rich rule with no accountability
Government of the people, by the people, for the people..." What if that was the law?
Alas, Kathy, this has been the Ghastly Oligarch Party's theme song for decades now: obstruct the proper functioning of government in order to spread chaos in order to get more Rethuglicans elected and forward the fascist agenda. Sowing fear, as we all know, is a great strategy if autocracy is the goal.
It IS their goal.
I wish all these events were not happening in one week......right before Christmas.
The "events" will continue dramatically through the end of the year (J6 Select Committee final Hearing;Today at 11 am AM Eastern) & into 2023. There is a real possibility that the Special Prosecutor will indict tf'g upon his return to the Country. JACK SMITH: "The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag or under my watch",
Where is TFG? Is he out of country? That’s interesting. Considering he stole classified docs, has a jet and a fresh million cash from digital clown cards, a private jet…seems like a flight risk to me. Maybe he is just working on a new Mara Largo, Venezuela.
Yup, Jack is near full recovery after an encounter of a bike and a scooter in The Hague; Jack was on the bicycle. All better.
Dang it! I was hoping…
Neither does TFG. For legal analysis read Joyce Vance’s Substack today. Former US Attorney lays out the 3 biggest expected criminal referrals to be announced this week.
Me too & YES ... another Professor. I am Interested in Professor Vance`s analyses after the J6 Select Company publishes their voluminous evidence this Week.
Here's the link to Joyce Vance Substack for those who need a quick link to save for later...
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-163
To let corporations do what they eant to workers, and to the earth. Simple.
"to what end, I cannot say." I can! The party of minimalist government, the minority party, has everything to gain and nothing to lose by sabotaging our government. The American people, in general, at least enough of them, are dumb enough to see such skullduggery and blame the current administration.
that's the question I keep asking myself. Power - retaining power. But how do you use power if there is no government? that's anarchy. They may want to look at history - power in the hands of a few never ends well - the 'peasants' always revolt.
To keep their jobs while doing nothing but making partisanship worse.
Kathy, far too many Republican Americans hate and fear immigrants, a reflection of the awful divide we have lived with ever since Reagan. It's all part of white supremacy and truly ugly anti-semitism, bigotry and systemic racism that has plagued our country for three centuries.
We may be the best of the worst, but many of my friends are moving elsewhere, like Portugal.
Keep the faith!
Hate and fear are GOP tools to preserve power.
Their purpose is obvious: a democracy is a government of, by, and for PEOPLE. They want a government by, for, and of the elite, the privileged, and white male.
100%
The GOP actively wants chaos at the border. This is a red meat issue for them, and if they can make things worse it just feeds the outrage machine.
And it protects their power when it delays and denies them their path to citizenship.
For the chaos
They hate government, and can't stand the idea that it would use regulation to protect the people (especially workers and minorities) from corporations, to protect the environment from the depredations of corporations, to enforce equality, and to provide services to ALL the people. They tolerate government only insofar as it protects corporations from regulation, pays corporations through rebates on taxes corporations have never paid, and suppresses the will of the people.
And all of the above, replacing "corporations" with "the wealthy," as well.
Aside from that, they believe the only legitimate function of the government is national defense, which primarily involves keeping wrong-colored* people out of the country and fighting wars that protect the interests of capitalists.
In other words, to Republicans, proper government is not the servant of the people, it's the handmaiden of the wealthy.
*i.e., non-white
The fascists want to put most tax revenue into maintaining and growing the world's biggest military force. This is often left out of the conversation when it is the most important thing that needs to be looked at very closely. In fact, most Americans actually have no idea of how gargantuan the US military is. Our arsenal could blow the planet to smithereens, yet the military is given the lion's share of the budget while Americans can't afford health care or a university education. We kill people all over the world, every day, yet no one reports it in the media.
The end is the ret of the late 19th century: a society dominated by rich white men.