Wondering on Wednesday 8/26/26

I've wondered, more than a few times, what it would be like if we treated American citizens the same as we treat undocumented immigrants (see note below). What if the luck of our birth, the fate that made us a citizen, did not protect us from the treatment we give others who aren't so lucky?

In the old days - back when we tended to see the best in others, rather than the worst - we didn't think or worry about it. I never wondered or cared whether the person cleaning the hotel I stayed at was a citizen; I just saw a hard-working person doing a job I wouldn't want. 

When out and about on a drive through the agriculturally rich areas of Central and Upstate New York, I'd see farm workers, and sometimes their living quarters, and maybe wondered if they could be working here illegally, but it didn't bother me; they're doing insanely hard work that I'm grateful for, and glad I don't have to do. 

The vast majority of people I know, and probably the vast majority of people they know, are equally grateful for the efforts of immigrant farm workers, hotel workers, and others, and wouldn't voluntarily take those jobs if they had the chance to.

But now?  After years of having it beaten into our heads that "those people" have invaded our country not just for those backbreaking, low-paying jobs we love having someone else do, but supposedly for snapping up all the houses we can't afford to buy and the benefits we're fortunate enough not to need (and, especially lately, hate providing to the least of our citizens), and even to eat the dogs and cats of Springfield, how do we feel? 

Well, like ICE agents and most members of the current administration, we're encouraged not only to wonder whether but to assume that folks doing the jobs we don't want, speaking a different language, having darker skin, wearing different clothing, and worshipping differently than we do are quite possibly, or even probably, not citizens. And we're encouraged to report them, even without any evidence.

In the government's efforts to rid our country of the "worst of the worst" of the so-called invaders, we've rounded up all kinds of people, including:

• people with tattoos, whether on their faces, arms, hands, or other body parts, including those we've granted asylum because they could be killed in their home countries;

• business owners, particularly those owners of ethnic restaurants;

• people who, years ago, were charged with misdemeanor traffic offenses, including DUI, served their sentences, and have been out of trouble ever since;

• people who, years ago, bounced a check to purchase groceries, were caught and charged with misdemeanors, paid their fine, repaid the shop owner, and have had a completely clean record for all the years since;

• military spouses, the wives and husbands of servicemembers who were promised  that their family members would be safe from immigration action as part of their recruitment; 

• former members of the military who served honorably even though they weren't citizens, who have a clean record since their discharge; and

• people who are reporting as required to immigration appointments.

Are we really better off with those folks in detention, or deported? 

And if we're better off without them here, it's hard not to wonder how much better off we'd be if we got rid of all the birth-lucky bad actors, right? 

Think of how much better America would be:

• Without folks trying to make their dreams come true by operating a little pizza-and-wings joint, or a corner bar, maybe a car detailing place? They're paying their taxes, they're giving jobs to kids who need them, they're providing services that we like and want, but they're gone.

• Without people who choose to decorate their bodies with art we don't like because it's scary, or unattractive, or weird. Gone.

• Without petty offenders - panhandlers, the loosie-sellers, the windshield cleaners, folks who don't license or clean up after their dogs, litterers, speeders, and especially folks driving rolling boomboxes or otherwise violating noise ordinances. Oh - and every single illegal fireworks user, too. Off they go.

• Without first offenders with a conviction for  DWI, a sex offense, a domestic violence charge, a gun law violation, or any kind of fraud? Gone, under cover of darkness, or maybe perp-walked out of their jobs.

• Without people who have served their time and are on parole. When they show up for their check-ins, schedule their trip to a detention center several states away. And those small business owners? Grabbing them as they walk or drive their children to school sends a strong message, for sure.

• Without the worst of the worst in our prisons - the drug dealers, the murderers, the gang members, the sex traffickers - they clearly belong in a bug- and disease-infected prison somewhere, not here in America with free meals, free education, free medical care, free gym memberships, and more. They're the easiest to round up; after all, we know where they are, as opposed to all the hardened criminals ICE *knows* are here but can't locate.

• Without me. That's right: 50 years ago, I accidentally bounced a check ($5, my weekly college allowance). Before that, in seventh grade, I succumbed to peer pressure ("go ahead, Goody-Two-Shoes, your daddy's not watching, just grab it, no one will know"!) on a school trip organized and chaperoned by my Dad, and stole a trinket from a gift shop. (Someone did know, of course, and yes, my punishment at the time seemed much worse than deportation).

Are you already prouder to be an American just reading this, I wonder? 

Are you wondering how hard it would be to make this happen, or how fast we could do it?  And if you're a person of faith, or one who otherwise believes in second chances and redemption, do you wonder where to draw the line? Or, maybe you're wondering what on earth kind of America we'd be if we did this? 

Maybe you're just wondering if I've lost my mind... but here's one more thing to think about. The  administration is now turning its attention to deporting perhaps as many as 200,000 people who came to the US on tourist visas but have since sought asylum here, which elevated my sense of wonder to new heights:

Can you even imagine how wonderful America could be if we could deport every politician who lied to us, the first time they did it?

Drop a comment, and let me know what's on your wondering mind, whether it's about this post or anything else. 

Note: By 'undocumented,' I mean folks who truly are without any immigrant documentation - no TPS, not visa, no asylum application, and no tax ID number -  as well as those who are visa overstayers, people gainfully employed by American companies who have taxes withheld from their paychecks, people who have scheduled immigration hearings, people who own businesses and are paying their taxes, and so on.

Random Thoughts 6/4/24: Hunting Hunter

Drinking my coffee, listening to the birds chirp, and trying to corral random thoughts.

• Should Hunter Biden be given the same "It's lawfare, targeting a political opponent, it's rigged, it's a scam prosecution, no one else has ever been prosecuted for this, if his name wasn't Biden this would never be happening, a Trump judge tossed his plea deal because House MAGA Campers made her, the special prosecutor was appointed because Republicans demanded it (and then bitched about it when they got what they wanted and it wasn't what they wanted), the judge is biased, Biden can't get a fair trial because of the publicity, everybody does what he did, wah wah wah wah wah wah wah" treatment as Donald Trump was given?

• Should the judge, her family, the prosecutors, witnesses, and jury members be hounded? Doxed? Plastered all over TV?

• Should Hunter have a media perch outside the courtroom so he can cry a river every day to salivating media figures?

• Should prosecutors pursue cases without fear or favor? Or should they base their prosecutorial decisions on the name/fame of the defendant?

• Someone found that data for fiscal year 2019 - which includes October 2018, when Hunter checked a box saying he wasn't a drug addict on his ATF form - 478 people were referred to the FBI for lying on their forms; 298 of them were prosecuted. I didn't find details on what lies the folks who were prosecuted told, if they ever used their gun (Hunter didn't) or if they owned it for two weeks or more (Hunter didn't).

• The judge, on a vaguely similar case, sentenced the defendant to a year in jail, double what the prosecution asked for. Some info I've seen suggests that probation is the typical sentence. If Hunter's found guilty, will he be given the usual sentence, or will he be sent to jail, to make an example of him to damage Joe Biden's re-election bid?

• Biden could have just pleaded guilty to the charge (oh wait, he did that) and negotiated a deal (oh wait, he did that, too). Which is likely what most of the other folks did. Will he wake up and do that now, instead of trying to fight it?

• Since the prosecution plans on using text messages and Hunter's laptop as part of their evidence, what's the over/under on whether any of his nude shots will be entered into evidence?

• Can the members of the jury who have experience with drug addiction, gun ownership, or both, be fair?

• Why wasn't the woman who found Hunter's gun and tossed it in a trash can at a grocery store charged with something?

Stay tuned - maybe I'll get answers to my questions.

Wondering on Wednesday (v181)

Meandering through the muddle, and wondering, this Wednesday, about stuff like this:

• Whether anyone will ever be able to show us conclusively, with forensically verified photographic evidence, where Donald Trump was on 9/11?  The story changes, and changes, and changes, and I know it's not the most important thing in the world, but everyone remembers where they were when they heard about the attacks, and to my knowledge no one has three or four versions of where they were and what they did that day. And I don't know if anyone believes that Trump was at Ground Zero - and if he had been (which is highly doubtful) there would absolutely be a photo. About that I don't wonder one bit. 

• If the Republican legislators in North Carolina reached out to Scott Walker and the rest of the Wisconsin Republicans to get a page out of their playbook?  Incredibly, the GOP, the party of patriotism and flag-waving and chest-thumping and all that, decided that the best time to override the Democratic governor's budget was to call a vote while Democrats in the legislature were attending a 9/11 memorial service, guaranteeing them the requisite majority to blow up the budget. I've long wondered where all the Republican cojones were, and it seems I don't need to wonder about that one bit, either.

• Why the president expressed concern about "very very bad drug dealers" who could be hiding among the refugee, when our own data shows that there's actually more risk of drugs flowing from the US to the Bahamas than the opposite?  

And I wonder if the country will ever remember what it felt like on 9/12, when everyone was of one heart, and stood together, and was kind to each other, no matter what our differences may have been on 9/10. 

Is that lost forever?

TGIF 2/1/19

The first TGIF of February, and it's all good news - how does that sound?

First up,  a shout-out to new Congressman Anthony Brindisi, who represents the district next to mine here in Central New York. Brindisi was named one of the co-chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 27  moderate-to-conservative Dems. In his role, he'll be the whip, the one responsible for helping ensure members stick together - and vote together - in support of the caucus's ideals:

The Blue Dogs are dedicated to pursuing fiscally-responsible policies, ensuring a strong national defense for our country, and transcending party lines to get things done for the American people.

Brindisi's already made a dent in his first few weeks in Congress - first, he kept his commitment and did not vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker; and he and John Katko, my Congressman, managed to spend bipartisan time recently calling for an end to the #trumpshutdown.  Good on both of them for that.

A Crisis by Design

The national news media has succumbed to the threat of being yelled at by the biggest bully in the whole damn valley, and all of the major networks will give free airtime to the president so he can tell us all about the crisis at the southern border that, frankly, is entirely by design - his design.

Now, don't get me wrong - we have long had an immigration problem, and it needs to be fixed - about that, there should be no question. But, that immigration problem is not defined by the need for a wall, and it won't be fixed by the construction of a wall, whether it's a big beautiful concrete one (about which the president knows more than anyone) or some variation on a theme of steel slats that is equally aesthetically pleasing (about which the president knows more than anyone) or even just concertina wire and chain link fence (about which the president surely knows more than anyone).

Since he announced his candidacy, "Build That Wall" has been the cry around which his supporters will reliably rally, because we are meant to fear the dark skinned people who cross the southern border.

It matters not whether they have crossed legally or illegally really - because just by looking at them, we are unable to tell which is which, just like we can't tell a good black person walking down the street, or shopping in a store, or making a phone call in a hotel lobby, or swimming in a pool, or hailing a cab, or driving down the highway or doing any number of other things that human beings do, from a bad one.

That's the point of fear. And that's the basis of this 'crisis' that the president has created, embraced, and exacerbated, and which he now must trying and convince us is real.