The Words of Charles P. Pierce

I don't know how many of you watched the recent Senate hearings in the confirmation process for the new Supreme Court Justice.  The interviews and the resulting outcome was so discouraging and sad that I thought to avoid any mention on my blog.  This is not a political blog, after all,  and I don't want to offend readers whose opinions are different from mine.

But then I read the words of Charles P. Pierce on Facebook.  

Those words are worth repeating here.

  I hope you feel they are worth reading.

I must warn you ... it won't make you feel any better!

"In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, "And we shall overcome." I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing "Amazing Grace" in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.

And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.

The scion of a multi-generational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. Watch him again, behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now." ~Charles P. Pierce

********************************

I couldn't have expressed this better, Mr. Pierce.

Per Wikipedia
Charles Patrick Pierce^[1] (born December 28, 1953) is an American sportswriter, political blogger, liberal pundit^[2] author, and game show panelist.^[3]

Immigration - Worth the Read

Found this on Facebook.  Its rather long, but it puts more facts to our current immigration issues with the US American border.

Facts are always good!

Mike Harlos

June 26 at 7:10 AM

So I have almost completely avoided political posts for over a year now.

Today, I take a break from that. 

Tornillo, TX is on the US/Mexico border. There is a “tent city facility” setup there. The facility is housing 326 children (312 boys, 14 girls). 

Of the 326:

162 are from Guatemala

117 are from Honduras

40 are from El Salvador

4 are from “other countries”

3 are from Mexico

SOURCE for these numbers:
https://www.msnbc.com/…/joy-reid-and-cal-perry-get-a-first-…

(And apologies, I would love to post a Fox News link but they don’t seem to be trying to get into these facilities to release these kinds of statistics, but if it happens someone please let me know!)

I think it’s a fair assumption that the percentage of children would also be fairly close to the percentage of adults that came to the border. 

So if less than 1% are from Mexico, what exactly is happening?

The reason that 98% are from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala is that, out of 195 countries:

El Salvador has the 2nd highest rate of violent deaths.

Honduras has the 4th highest rate of violent deaths.

Guatemala has the 17th highest rate of violent deaths.

SOURCE for rate of violent deaths:
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/…/U-R…/SAS-Report-GVD2017.pdf

I’ve included a map for those unaware of the locations of each of these countries.

We are being told that all these people “pouring into the US” are Mexican drug dealers, rapists, murderers, “bad hombres”. 

But it just isn’t true. 

Think about when a major hurricane comes to Florida and people pack up their vehicles and evacuate, out of caution, especially those with children... just in case. Depending on the situation, people typically traveling 50-500 Miles (driving to inland Florida or Atlanta/Tennessee) 

Now imagine it’s a hurricane that is firing bullets randomly and people are dying all around you in your neighborhood every day. And you have children. 

To quote President Ronald Reagan, from his final Oval Office address to the nation: 

“The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.”

SOURCE for Reagan quote:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29650

The VAST MAJORITY of the people coming to the United States are coming, in the ways discussed so much lately, are seeking refugee status or asylum. 

US Legal Definitions of both “refugee” and “asylum”:
https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum

Stop getting caught up in just agreeing with everything someone says or does because you voted for that person and if they do something wrong, it’s human nature to defend the choice you made in that voting booth. 

Don’t put pride and ego ahead of intellect. 

Every situation should be judged based on fact, not on who is saying it or doing it and not just because it’s “your team”. 

Parents aren’t taking their children and leaving everything else and everyone else they’ve ever known to walk, raft, swim, hide in vehicles, etc for ~2,000 miles to get to our border and request refugee or asylum status just to “get free hand outs” and “take our jobs”. 

(1 little sidenote, if “Mexico” (And we’ve already established it mostly isn’t Mexico) is really sending their worst (no one is sending these people, and I can’t imagine that most people that really care about their children this much are “the worst”) that are “murderers, drug dealers, rapists” and you’re worried about one of these people taking your job, what the hell is it you do for a living?)

Yes, any time you have a large number of people, there will be some bad apples. But there’s a reason you’ve never been shown actual statistics that show that someone coming here as a refugee or seeking asylum is any more likely to commit a crime than anyone else. Because it isn’t true.

MOST are doing it for the same reasons people evacuate. 

They’re doing it to protect their loved ones.

And they’re doing it in a way that is consistent with the United States Refugee & Asylum laws. 

I can explain it to you

I cannot understand it for you.

Immigration - Thoughts to Consider

By now the firestorm of citizen feedback regarding our nation's actions at the Mexican border has changed some of the terrible practices we have witnessed.  How to repair the damage that has been done (i.e. returning over 2,000 children to their families) is yet to be determined.

But I came across this piece.  I know the immigration problem has many sides and it is complicated with many strong emotions, but this piece seems to narrow down some simple facts ... setting aside the fact we are historically an immigrant nation - unless you are Native American or were just lucky enough to be born here.

Thoughts worth thinking about.

”Post by Wyeth Ruthven

So, I did immigration casework for Senator Fritz Hollings, studied immigration law at law school under a former INS general counsel, and worked for a border Congressman in the district that included the Rio Grande Valley. So hear me out:

1. These people in detention have not committed a crime.
2. I don't mean that in a moral or a figurative sense. I mean literally. It is NOT a crime to ask for asylum.
3. These people didn't jump a fence, they didn't sneak into the back yard. They are knocking on the front door and saying "People are trying to kill me in my home country, will you let me in?"
4. Now, I didn't fall off the turnip truck. Some of these people are lying. That's why you have a hearing. And because they might wander off, these people are held in detention until the hearing.
5. This hearing is NOT in a criminal court. It's in an immigration court. Because these people have not committed a crime.
6. Immigration court is not like criminal court. You don't have a right to an attorney.
7. So these people are waiting around, separated from their children, with no attorney, until they get a hearing.
8. In 2015, the median wait for an immigration hearing was 404 days.
9. Here's where it gets even more twisted.
10. If people plead guilty to asylum fraud, they get their kids back and get deported.
11. So these people knock on the front door, which is perfectly legal, and we take their kids, and tell them the quickest way to get them back is to confess.
12. If someone committed a crime - shoplifting, armed robbery, murder - and you took their kids away to make them confess, that confession would be thrown out.
13. But these confessions are lawful, because this isn't criminal court.
14. Because these people haven't committed a crime.
15. Now some people think that if we make it so unpleasant for these people, they will stop trying to cross the border.
16. But the message this sends isn't "Go Home." The message it sends is "Sneak in."
17. If they go home, they think they will be murdered. If they request asylum, they are separated from their children.
18. If they sneak in successfully, they're safe. If they sneak in and get caught, they are no worse off than if they sought asylum legally.
19. And remember, these people haven't committed a crime.”

A Rant: Time to build that wall!

Fair Warning 
to readers.
If you are a Trump supporter, please stop reading now.  
This is a rant.  It is my personal opinion.  
It won't be repeated in the future on this blog,
 but it needs to be said.

I am putting up my own "wall,"
 on the crazy and depressing political scene,
 on this day,
 with this blog post.

I have lived in a state of disbelief that Trump was elected President.   My gut said this man was wrong for this job.  But in the beginning - without a track record to measure against - it seemed unfair to judge him.

Over the first year, I have watched all the repeated 'political fire storms' of this administration on the news and in social media daily.  Every single day!  It never ends.  This President intentionally creates most of his own problems and seems to thrive on it.  He has made terrible picks for many of his most important positions.  He says things that have to be 'translated' by his staff, because the general population finds his words at times shocking.  This past week I watched "Trump: An American Dream" on Netflix.  The series followed him in his business and personal life up to the point he entered politics for the Presidency.  It highlighted the fact that his ideas, his words, his behavior,  has not changed a smidge since he learned to walk and talk.  Granted - you can argue that any sources of information can be slanted.  But I have heard enough words said from his own mouth on camera  over and over and over again to know that my gut was right all along.  This is the wrong man for the job of leader of the free world! (which, by the way, we are not any more.)

This month, in a string of upsetting stories (as if the threat of a nuclear war with North Korea and making friendly nations adversaries while admiring our historical adversaries ... if that wasn't enough), I saw a video clip where Trump was admiring the North Korean dictator's followers - all those people who sit up and take notice when their dictator speaks.  Setting aside the fact this dictator will kill you if you don't 'sit up and take notice,' our President (in his own words - on tape so that there can be no misunderstanding) wants "his people" to do the same for him.  The President's interpreters wanted us to think he was "joking."  Joking - no one with two brain cells would believe that after the last year.  Then the stories of immigrant children being separated at the border from their parents.  And from the UN yesterday - we have withdrawn our representation on the UN Human Right's Counsel.

And that, folks, was just this last month!

I am just done.

I can't continue to watch our country sink to a new low - every single week - for another 3 years.  I have all the information I need to confirm that my gut was absolutely correct in 2016.

So I am building my own wall - a virtual wall to separate me from the grim drama in our government and the man who creates it.  I am banishing all Trump information as much as possible - from my life.  I have seen enough to know that I will vote against him and against anyone who supports him.  I don't need to hear more.   I deleted all Facebook postings (including a few 'friends') from my newsfeed ... people who routinely push Trump stories.  I will not forward any more Trump posts on Facebook.  I just add to the stress of others by doing so.  I no longer watch CNN. I agree with their point of view, but it is Trump, Trump, Trump - 24/7!  Just can't have a steady diet of it anymore.

And I will take the only action available to me - I will vote!

It must look to some like I am sticking my head in the sand.  They would argue that all citizens remain continually informed and ready to fight against America's wanna-be dictator.  They believe keeping the electorate in a constant of agitation and frustration is the way toward change.  Maybe ... I hope so.

But for me personally, and for my own health and peace of mind, I must look at this situation through a different lens.  I will vote.  I will encourage everyone to VOTE.  My elected representatives already reflect my point of view.   They are doing what needs to be done: RESIST.  In fact, our Governor, Larry Hogan, (a Republican Governor in Democratic Maryland) has pulled our National Guard Troops and a helicopter from the Texas border until the current policy of separating immegrant children from parents is changed. Thank you Governor Hogan.  It isn't a large gesture because our commitment wasn't that big.  But it is a stand and a statement!  Governor Hogan has my vote.  I look for other states to take the same stand.

Voting - the only tool I have.  I leave all the rest to younger more energetic citizens.

VOTE is my mantra!

And as for my wall ...  for the record - I am not asking for anyone else to 'pay' for it or to join me in building one.  What I am asking of everyone is to

VOTE
 everyone!!

 VOTE!

Stepping down off my soap box now.  I won't be tarnishing my blog with his name ever again.

VOTE

An apology and a disclaimer:

My apologies to any readers who are ardent Trump supporters.  

It is not my aim to make your position somehow wrong.

  But, this is my blog, and my peace of mind has been negatively affected by this elected official

 and I have a right to express my opinion on it - on bended knee if I choose

because the Constitution allows it ... 

at least at this point it does.