Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Iraq snapshot

Tuesday, December 31, 2024.  Look what left outlet is trying to say Kamala and Joe were as bad on immigration as Trump's about to be (and here's the kicker, they're doing that crap while begging you to give them money), MAGA's war with Chump continues, and so much more.



THE NEW REPUBLIC notes MAGA's war with Donald The Chump continues as Laura Loomer joined Steve Bannon to dish that Elon Musk is "a welfare queen." Stephen Collinson (CNN) reports:

             Donald Trump’s siding with Elon Musk over visas for high-tech workers is the most significant example yet of the president-elect favoring powerful elements in his new MAGA coalition over his base’s anti-immigrant DNA that he twice tapped in his rise to power.    

   

            The boiling holiday feud over H-1B visas exposed new fissures across Trump’s broadened support base and reflected the contradictions between his populist ideology and the self-interests of many of the key players in his refashioned inner circle.    

   

            After several days of silence over the controversy, the president-elect stepped in, making clear he supported Musk’s argument for recruitment flexibility for the tech industry.     

 Musk, the richest man in the world, made his case in a series of outspoken posts on X. “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” he wrote to one critic on the platform that he owns. “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”    

   

            The visa issue erupted into a full-blown storm following comments by Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk’s co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump has set up to slash the size of federal operations. The former GOP presidential candidate criticized American culture, education standards and children’s TV that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” The comments came perilously close to an elitist’s disdain for millions of Americans and their culture that Republicans have long accused Democrats of promoting.     


Last night on MSNBC, Chris Hayes addressed this ongoing war.



This is not making for a cheerful lead up to inauguration.  Add to that, the fact that we're in the F**k Around and Find Out Stage, as people slowly begin to realize just how stupid they were.


For examples, workers who thought the Chump would rescue them.



Four years?  It's going to be like serving time and those of us who got our votes right in 20204 have every reason to laugh during the next awful years at the idiots who didn't know how to save themselves and stupidly thought that a convicted felon with no accomplishments to brag about after his first term would suddenly develop skill and wisdom.  Nope, The Convicted Felon didn't change, some voters just got more stupid.  Erik De La Garza (RAW STORY) reports:

President-elect Donald Trump’s long-held promise to pardon his supporters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is drawing fresh scrutiny from a government ethics group.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, issued a terse statement Monday calling out Trump and his repeated signals that he is willing to grant clemency to those who breached the Capitol as Congress worked to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

“Some things are fights worth having,” CREW wrote in a social media post on X. “Not allowing Donald Trump to pardon January 6th insurrectionists is one of those things. Two-thirds of the country is with us on this.”



And groups like Latinos for Chump who thought they were the good ones and would be spared.


 
As we noted repeatedly last year, to target immigrants, you have to target potential immigrants.  You have to racially profile.  That means, for example, since the US shares a southern border with Mexico, those seen as Latino -- immigrants, citizens, what have you -- would be harassed and stopped more often than those people who appear to be White European.  So to those Latinos for Trump, you were always idiots to support the man planning to depot immigrants.  

You may have thought you were one with Trump's Anglo White supporters but you were a deeply stupid fool.   Edward Helmore (GUARDIAN) reports:

Law enforcement officials in Lincoln county, Oregon, have condemned an anonymous letter encouraging residents to track down and report “brown people” in the Pacific coast community, particularly those believed to be undocumented.

The letter, titled brown round-up part 1, told recipients to write down the license plate numbers of cars driven by people of color in order to identify people who might not have permanent legal status, the New York Times reported. It instructed readers to send that information to the Department of Homeland Security after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“This type of behavior is harmful, divisive, and inconsistent with the values we uphold as public servants and community members,” Curtis Landers said in a statement about the letter. “Targeting individuals in this manner erodes trust and undermines the sense of safety and inclusion that we strive to maintain in Lincoln County.”

[. . .]

The letter comes as Trump has vowed an unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration, including “the largest deportation operation in American history”.

Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, said last week he projects needing at least 100,000 beds in immigration detention centers.

“I’m telling you, at the minimum we need 100,000 beds because we’ve got a big population to look for ... 700,000 criminals alone,” Homan told CNN. Homan said the deportation plans will require help from around the government, including the Department of Defense.

“The landing teams have just started working with the agencies and departments. We’ll be gathering information, a lot of information in the next couple weeks, which will help me in my planning process,” Homan said.


On this issue of targeting people, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) adds:


  Adding to alarm over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's immigration plans, his "border czar" toldThe Washington Post in an interview published Thursday that the administration plans to return to detaining migrant families with children.

    Tom Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term, said that ICE "will look to hold parents with children in 'soft-sided' tent structures similar to those used by U.S. border officials to handle immigration surges," the     Post summarized. "The government will not hesitate to deport parents who are in the country illegally, even if they have young U.S.-born children, he added, leaving it to those families to decide whether to exit together or be split up."

    Since Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris last month, migrant rights advocates have reiterated concerns about the Republican's first-term policies—such as     forced separation of families—and his 2024 campaign pledges, from mass deportations to attempting to end birthright citizenship, despite the guarantees of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    Homan—who oversaw the so-called "zero tolerance" policy that separated thousands of migrant kids from their parents—said: "Here's the issue... You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position."


Chump and Tom Homan are a threat to American families.  Some are only now beginning to realize that.  Some still can't face reality -- but will have to in 2025.  Some opinions on BLUESKY.

Tom Homan wants to take children Who are US citizens And either deport them Or put them into the same type of detention centers where kids victimized by Trump’s family separation policy Which was implemented by Homan Were abused and killed Children Who are US citizens The cruelty is the point

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— Adam Cohen (@axidentaliberal.bsky.social) December 28, 2024 at 10:16 PM

But, of course Tom Homan will profit from his government job of being a dick to immigrants.

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— Freedah Kaylow (@freedahkaylow.bsky.social) December 31, 2024 at 6:14 AM



When Convicted Felon Donald Trump got re-elected last month, did he announce that for all his appointees "ONLY CROOKS NEED APPLY"?  It certainly seems that way   Naomi LaChance (ROLLING STONE) reports:


Donald Trump's incoming "border czar" Tom Homan has led a consulting firm that openly brags about helping private companies secure federal contracts. Asked about this work, Homan says he has recused himself "from any involvement, discussion, input, or decision of any future government contracts."

Homan, who previously directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first Trump administration, has also led a conservative nonprofit group, Border911, alongside an executive for a major federal contractor.

Homan is notorious for orchestrating the first Trump administration's family separation policy, when migrant children and parents were torn apart at the border. According to a Department of Homeland Security report, as of April 2024, there were still about 1,400 children who were not confirmed to have been reunited with their families. 

Last week, Homan made headlines for once again publicly pitching the idea of family separation - this time, with a twist. Homan said he would present families with children born in the U.S. with an impossible choice: separate, or leave America together. 


We didn't spend a lot of time on it -- maybe a day and a half -- but we did learn about Teapot Dome in high school.  Did those people just go along with it?  Because it seems like Chump's setting up something far worse and people are just going along with it.




. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Memorial Prize laureate and economics professor at CUNY's Graduate Center, in a Substack post

  1. "For the most part, immigrants are complements, not substitutes, for native-born workers."

    "So original MAGA is wrong to claim that immigration is impoverishing 'real Americans' in general. But tech-bro MAGA is wrong as well as offensive in saying that we need foreign workers because Americans are stupid or lazy. Furthermore, the availability of less expensive foreign tech workers does reduce the incentive of tech firms to train a home-grown work force and undermines the political incentive to improve our education system.

    I'd still argue that something like H-1B makes America richer and stronger, especially given the spillovers generated by a successful technology sector. But Muskaswamy and friends aren't helping their case by insulting Americans' culture and intelligence."

    2. Robert Reich, a former US labor secretary and member of President Bill Clinton's National Economic Council, in a Substack post

    "Allowing many more skilled workers into the United States reduces any incentives on American business to invest in the American workforce.

    Allowing many more skilled workers into the US also reduces the bargaining power of skilled workers already in America — and thereby reduces any incentive operating on other Americans to gain the skills for such jobs.

    And opening America to skilled workers also reduces the incentive on foreign nations to educate and nurture their own skilled workforces. Why should they, when their own skilled workers can easily migrate to America?

    The major beneficiaries in the US of opening the nation to skilled workers from abroad are CEOs and venture capitalists like Musk and [David Sacks], whose profits and wealth would be even higher if they could siphon off cheaper skilled workers from abroad."


Let's note this.




Some people -- like Tabitha -- told you the truth ahead of the election.  Some people flat out lied to you.  Might be a good time to note COMMON DREAMS.  They're fundraising right now.  And if you donate to them, you can support both-sides b.s.  Yeah, in August, September and the first half of October, they assisted Donald Chump by repeatedly attacking Kamala Harris every day -- multiple times a day.  I have given them credit for finally stopping that b.s. 

But?

That Jessica Corbett story above?  Read after where we cut her off and you'll find that she's a Trumper because only a Trumper -- faced with Donald's planned round ups -- would then try to both sides it by attacking Kamala and Joe on immigration.

That's right, give them your money so that the kind of center-right garbage that you get on the Sunday chat and chews can reign supreme online as well.  



The following sites updated:











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