Politics & Stuff

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

2 hours ago, IMissEden said:

Worth adding that the Haitian mentioned, called BirdmanZoe, can find him on Instagram, isn’t even from down there, and isn’t part of Zoe Pound it ended up. Yet he threatened, to utilise them. Showing that even the spread out diaspora retains its very unique culture, even millionaires still lean into it. 
 

If I moved to Sweden, Australia, China, and in came lots with me because we feel the UK is in a bad state, would we set up BritainTown, and constantly emphasise our different values. Or integrate. 
 

By and large, the influx of Haitians choose not to integrate. They started The most violent gang in America, and from south to north, lean into it. Facts. 

Integrate into what exactly?

 

Black Americans have the same language, religion, and history as white Americans and most white people move out if even one moves into a neighborhood with them.  I live literally less than an hour away from the largest airport in the country(and world) and when I was in high school less than 20 years ago we still had segregated proms. Who do you think is going to allow Haitians to immigrate in with them?  This is still a fundamentally segregated nation.

[robsblubot 3,595]

26 minutes ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

Integrate into what exactly?

 

Black Americans have the same language, religion, and history as white Americans and most white people move out if even one moves into a neighborhood with them.  I live literally less than an hour away from the largest airport in the country(and world) and when I was in high school less than 20 years ago we still had segregated proms. Who do you think is going to allow Haitians to immigrate in with them?  This is still a fundamentally segregated nation.

"the Haitian" may mean that one crazy roaming downtown (plenty of Americans doing that and some are vets too), a family, a small group of people, a peoples. That's the language Trump uses too, and it's intentionally ambiguous.

Now, on the merit, some don't adapt, others do. Some never learn English, while some do. It goes into a number of different factors which are often outside of their control. Some are too ignorant to know what's important, that often takes a generation to change.
Most just want a better life.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

2 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

"the Haitian" may mean that one crazy roaming downtown (plenty of Americans doing that and some are vets too), a family, a small group of people, a peoples. That's the language Trump uses too, and it's intentionally ambiguous.

Now, on the merit, some don't adapt, others do. Some never learn English, while some do. It goes into a number of different factors which are often outside of their control. Some are too ignorant to know what's important, that often takes a generation to change.
Most just want a better life.

Even adaption takes on a different view depending on where you are.

 

In Southern Florida? I mean , if a person is going to live around Haitians, work with Haitians, and live in Little Haiti. Long as they pay taxes I dont care if they ever learn to speak English. Lord knows theres no shortage of Spanish-only speakers in this country who do fine for themselves.

[robsblubot 3,595]

2 minutes ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

Even adaption takes on a different view depending on where you are.

 

In Southern Florida? I mean , if a person is going to live around Haitians, work with Haitians, and live in Little Haiti. Long as they pay taxes I dont care if they ever learn to speak English. Lord knows theres no shortage of Spanish-only speakers in this country who do fine for themselves.

Certainly. It does limit opportunity tho.
Some of their kids would have the opportunity to break away, which is the case for most immigrant families.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

Springfield Ohio is what is making the news. An economically depressed town that went from 80k population to 60k because factories closed and there were not enough jobs. So bring in 16k Haitian refugees over 5 years. When listening to the residents, it has been a positive experience. The Mayor is making waves because the town doesn’t have the resources to meet the demands of a population that does not speak English in large numbers. Some do come knowing English. The MAGAs are blowing this wayyyyy out of reality. This is a PBS report that speaks with residents. Some long standing, some Haitian immigrants 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/ohio-city-with-haitian-migrant-influx-thrust-into-political-spotlight

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,305]

8 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Springfield Ohio is what is making the news. An economically depressed town that went from 80k population to 60k because factories closed and there were not enough jobs. So bring in 16k Haitian refugees over 5 years. When listening to the residents, it has been a positive experience. The Mayor is making waves because the town doesn’t have the resources to meet the demands of a population that does not speak English in large numbers. Some do come knowing English. The MAGAs are blowing this wayyyyy out of reality. This is a PBS report that speaks with residents. Some long standing, some Haitian immigrants 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/ohio-city-with-haitian-migrant-influx-thrust-into-political-spotlight

 

Thats the same here people say areas are 'swamped' and it just deosnt work -it doesnt work because of lack of resources, infrastructure not thought about premeditatively, and thats when it breaks down.

The other thing is in the UK and US, come on, we're all fucking immigrants at some point -unless you can trace your genes back to that fish that flopped out of the ocean 20 million years ago.

[robsblubot 3,595]

6 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Thats the same here people say areas are 'swamped' and it just deosnt work -it doesnt work because of lack of resources, infrastructure not thought about premeditatively, and thats when it breaks down.

The other thing is in the UK and US, come on, we're all fucking immigrants at some point -unless you can trace your genes back to that fish that flopped out of the ocean 20 million years ago.

😅 
Now the part that hurts dems is the "illegal" part, and I have a hard time defending that.

There are a lot of people in South America who could improve their lives by moving to the US. Should the USA take 100m people in just because? Of course the who's responsible for this mess part gets a bit more nuanced, but the situation does benefit the Republican Party more (politically).

[Fulham Broadway 17,305]

5 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Now the part that hurts dems is the "illegal" part, and I have a hard time defending that.

😅👍

6 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

There are a lot of people in South America who could improve their lives by moving to the US.

Much of the reason for that is those countries have been plundered by US corporations, divided by installing puppet regimes - be it Brazil 1964 Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, Guatamala etc. Not blaming the US it was the Cold War and CCCP were doing the same in Cuba, South east Asia, Korea, etc 

The US in terms of geo political terms is the Rome of the Americas, the hub of an Empire -just as the UK ruled two thirds of the World in 1870. Heres the thing, though -all empires collapse. Its collapsing from within now thanks to a massive polarisation partly through billionaires, partly through Russian influence. The most potent weapon for this is Social media.

[robsblubot 3,595]

16 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

😅👍

Much of the reason for that is those countries have been plundered by US corporations, divided by installing puppet regimes - be it Brazil 1964 Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, Guatamala etc. Not blaming the US it was the Cold War and CCCP were doing the same in Cuba, South east Asia, Korea, etc 

The US in terms of geo political terms is the Rome of the Americas, the hub of an Empire -just as the UK ruled two thirds of the World in 1870. Heres the thing, though -all empires collapse. Its collapsing from within now thanks to a massive polarisation partly through billionaires, partly through Russian influence. The most potent weapon for this is Social media.

While that's part of it, speaking of Brazil which is what I'm familiar with, it goes back farther than that. The differences between Brazil and US, for example, go back to independence (Brazil did not get a clean slate) and even the kind of immigration before that.

Brazil is also held back by having had a military dictatorship not so long ago; there are traces of that everywhere still. The economy is growing steadily though, but it's just so very slow to change status quo.

BTW, I know nothing of Mexico and it's very typical for people there to know little about Mexican culture and history given it's really a North American country.

Edited September 10, 2024 by robsblubot

[Vesper 30,118]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

😅 
Now the part that hurts dems is the "illegal" part, and I have a hard time defending that.

There are a lot of people in South America who could improve their lives by moving to the US. Should the USA take 100m people in just because? Of course the who's responsible for this mess part gets a bit more nuanced, but the situation does benefit the Republican Party more (politically).

GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-deal/index.html

Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged in a private meeting on Wednesday that Trump’s animosity toward the yet-to-be-released border deal puts Republicans in a serious bind as they try to move forward on the already complex issue. For weeks, Republicans have been warning that Trump’s opposition could blow up the bipartisan proposal, but the admission from McConnell was particularly striking, given he has been a chief advocate for a border-Ukraine package.

Now, Republicans on Capitol Hill are grappling with the reality that most in the GOP are loathe to do anything that is seen as potentially undermining the former president. And the prospects of a deal being scuttled before it has even been finalized has sparked tensions and confusion in the Senate GOP as they try to figure out if, and how, to proceed – even as McConnell made clear during party lunches Thursday that he remains firmly behind the effort to strike a deal, according to attendees.

“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is … really appalling,” said GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump.

He added, “But the reality is that, that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border. And someone running for president not to try and get the problem solved. as opposed to saying, ‘hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.’”

GOP Sen. Todd Young of Indiana called any efforts to disrupt the ongoing negotiations “tragic” and said: “I hope no one is trying to take this away for campaign purposes.”

“I would encourage (chief Senate GOP negotiator) James Lankford and other conservatives to produce a work product with which they will shortly allow conservatives like myself to review it and take heart that there are a number of us who won’t be looking to third parties and assessing the propriety of passing this bipartisan proposal,” Young said.

It’s an all-too-familiar dynamic for the Republicans who served while Trump was in office, where he could easily derail legislative action on Capitol Hill with the blast of a single tweet or stir up a new controversy that Republicans were forced to respond to. And with Trump now marching toward the presidential nomination, Republicans are once again bracing for life with him as the nominee.

Underscoring just how damaging Trump’s comments and campaign to kill the border deal have been in the Senate, one GOP senator on condition of background told CNN that without Trump, this deal would have had overwhelming support within the conference.

“This proposal would have had almost unanimous Republican support if it weren’t for Donald Trump,” the Republican senator said.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina – who has also been involved in the talks – said he didn’t know if anyone could convince Trump to not kill the deal. But he acknowledged that it would take some “courage” for members to be able to press ahead at this point in defiance of Trump – though Tillis argued it would ultimately be beneficial for Trump for them to pass a border security deal and help address the flow of migrants trying to enter the country.

“I think this is when members of the Senate have to show some courage and do something that at the end of the day will be very helpful for President Trump,” Tillis said.

Asked whether it was a mistake for Trump to be assailing this deal, Tillis said: “I’ll leave it to him to figure out how he needs to get into office. I hope you’ll leave it to some of us who would support that effort to give him the tools he needs to really manage the border and the abuse and the dangerous situation we have today.”

For his part, McConnell – who has had zero relationship with Trump since the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack – downplayed Trump’s opposition saying, “It’s not anything new,” and insisting they were not abandoning the talks.

“We’re still working,” McConnell said. “Trying to get an outcome.”

Sen. John Thune, the no. 2 Senate Republican, said the discussions have reached a critical moment but acknowledged they may need to turn to a “plan B.”

“If we can’t get there, then we’ll go to plan B,” Thune said. “But I think for now at least, there are still attempts being made to try and reach a conclusion that would satisfy a lot of Republicans.”

Status of border talks remains unclear

In the latest sign that the emerging border deal faces an uphill climb, a senior leadership aide to House GOP Leader Steve Scalise told a group of Senate Republican chiefs of staff on Thursday that it was dead on arrival in the House, according to a source familiar.

Senate Republicans on the fence about the proposal may be less inclined to back it, knowing it’s going nowhere in the House and knowing Trump wants a border deal killed.

Frustration reigned inside the Senate GOP on Thursday amid lingering confusion over the status of a deal.

While McConnell has said the talks are still proceeding, Young warned Republican leadership against pulling the plug before they’ve taken a thorough temperature check inside the conference, where a contingent of Republicans are still fighting for a deal.

“I think leadership needs to count noses before they make any impulsive decisions,” he said.

Pressed on whether it was realistic to pass a border deal with Trump opposing it, Young said: “It may be possible. Listen, I’m very much attuned to the political realities, but I think before you make these consequential decisions on behalf of this conference, you’ve got to consult with the conference.”

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who has been openly critical of McConnell, said he was “puzzled” by the leader’s comments during the closed-door meeting on Wednesday, which was supposed to be focused on Ukraine.

“I mean, we were talking about funding for Ukraine and all of the sudden he brings up the border and then, again, lays out what I consider a pretty lame excuse, trying to shift blame to President Trump for, I would say, his failed negotiation, not James Lankford,” Johnson said. “James Lankford has worked his tail off. It’s McConnell that took away the leverage by not tying Ukraine funding to actually securing the border.”

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has made no secret of her frustration with Trump over the years, said members need to remember how big this moment is for the border and for Ukraine and put their own politics aside.

“I’m not giving up. This is not about Trump and this is not about me. This is about our country. This is about democracy around the world. This is about security for our own country and so let’s keep pushing to get this border deal,” she said. “Let’s stand by the commitments that we have made for our friends and our allies so that our word actually means something.”

This is the second time in six years Trump killed or was actively trying to kill a bipartisan immigration deal as it emerged. Back in 2018, Murkowski was part of bipartisan talks over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The bill got 54 votes in the Senate, but not enough to get it over the finish line.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, one of the Democrats involved in the border talks, expressed frustration about Trump seeking to inject chaos into the situation.

“I think over the next 24 to 48 hours, they are going to make a decision as to whether they want to do this, or whether the forces surrounding Donald Trump – who want to keep chaos at the border – win,” Murphy said. “So they have a decision to make. I hope they make that decision very quickly. We have an agreement that is 95% written and is ready to get to the floor if Republicans decide that they actually want to solve the problem.”

[Fulham Broadway 17,305]

Looking forward to the 'debate' tonight.

I think the danger for Dems leading up to the Election is that Harris is a relatively unknown blank canvas in terms of stuff chucked at her. Think about Trump and hes still there, felon, rapist, thoughtless on any substance unless its Donald J Trump, misogynist, the list goes on yet hes Teflon Don. 

If Harris upsets the Capitol Hill billionaire lobbyists, or the Israeli lobby, or corporate media there will be all kinds of shit chucked at her. That said Trump with his mental state is perfectly capable of fucking up his own electoral objective - especially if he goes into tonights debate angry.

[robsblubot 3,595]

13 minutes ago, Vesper said:

GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-deal/index.html

Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged in a private meeting on Wednesday that Trump’s animosity toward the yet-to-be-released border deal puts Republicans in a serious bind as they try to move forward on the already complex issue. For weeks, Republicans have been warning that Trump’s opposition could blow up the bipartisan proposal, but the admission from McConnell was particularly striking, given he has been a chief advocate for a border-Ukraine package.

Now, Republicans on Capitol Hill are grappling with the reality that most in the GOP are loathe to do anything that is seen as potentially undermining the former president. And the prospects of a deal being scuttled before it has even been finalized has sparked tensions and confusion in the Senate GOP as they try to figure out if, and how, to proceed – even as McConnell made clear during party lunches Thursday that he remains firmly behind the effort to strike a deal, according to attendees.

“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is … really appalling,” said GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump.

He added, “But the reality is that, that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border. And someone running for president not to try and get the problem solved. as opposed to saying, ‘hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.’”

GOP Sen. Todd Young of Indiana called any efforts to disrupt the ongoing negotiations “tragic” and said: “I hope no one is trying to take this away for campaign purposes.”

“I would encourage (chief Senate GOP negotiator) James Lankford and other conservatives to produce a work product with which they will shortly allow conservatives like myself to review it and take heart that there are a number of us who won’t be looking to third parties and assessing the propriety of passing this bipartisan proposal,” Young said.

It’s an all-too-familiar dynamic for the Republicans who served while Trump was in office, where he could easily derail legislative action on Capitol Hill with the blast of a single tweet or stir up a new controversy that Republicans were forced to respond to. And with Trump now marching toward the presidential nomination, Republicans are once again bracing for life with him as the nominee.

Underscoring just how damaging Trump’s comments and campaign to kill the border deal have been in the Senate, one GOP senator on condition of background told CNN that without Trump, this deal would have had overwhelming support within the conference.

“This proposal would have had almost unanimous Republican support if it weren’t for Donald Trump,” the Republican senator said.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina – who has also been involved in the talks – said he didn’t know if anyone could convince Trump to not kill the deal. But he acknowledged that it would take some “courage” for members to be able to press ahead at this point in defiance of Trump – though Tillis argued it would ultimately be beneficial for Trump for them to pass a border security deal and help address the flow of migrants trying to enter the country.

“I think this is when members of the Senate have to show some courage and do something that at the end of the day will be very helpful for President Trump,” Tillis said.

Asked whether it was a mistake for Trump to be assailing this deal, Tillis said: “I’ll leave it to him to figure out how he needs to get into office. I hope you’ll leave it to some of us who would support that effort to give him the tools he needs to really manage the border and the abuse and the dangerous situation we have today.”

For his part, McConnell – who has had zero relationship with Trump since the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack – downplayed Trump’s opposition saying, “It’s not anything new,” and insisting they were not abandoning the talks.

“We’re still working,” McConnell said. “Trying to get an outcome.”

Sen. John Thune, the no. 2 Senate Republican, said the discussions have reached a critical moment but acknowledged they may need to turn to a “plan B.”

“If we can’t get there, then we’ll go to plan B,” Thune said. “But I think for now at least, there are still attempts being made to try and reach a conclusion that would satisfy a lot of Republicans.”

Status of border talks remains unclear

In the latest sign that the emerging border deal faces an uphill climb, a senior leadership aide to House GOP Leader Steve Scalise told a group of Senate Republican chiefs of staff on Thursday that it was dead on arrival in the House, according to a source familiar.

Senate Republicans on the fence about the proposal may be less inclined to back it, knowing it’s going nowhere in the House and knowing Trump wants a border deal killed.

Frustration reigned inside the Senate GOP on Thursday amid lingering confusion over the status of a deal.

While McConnell has said the talks are still proceeding, Young warned Republican leadership against pulling the plug before they’ve taken a thorough temperature check inside the conference, where a contingent of Republicans are still fighting for a deal.

“I think leadership needs to count noses before they make any impulsive decisions,” he said.

Pressed on whether it was realistic to pass a border deal with Trump opposing it, Young said: “It may be possible. Listen, I’m very much attuned to the political realities, but I think before you make these consequential decisions on behalf of this conference, you’ve got to consult with the conference.”

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who has been openly critical of McConnell, said he was “puzzled” by the leader’s comments during the closed-door meeting on Wednesday, which was supposed to be focused on Ukraine.

“I mean, we were talking about funding for Ukraine and all of the sudden he brings up the border and then, again, lays out what I consider a pretty lame excuse, trying to shift blame to President Trump for, I would say, his failed negotiation, not James Lankford,” Johnson said. “James Lankford has worked his tail off. It’s McConnell that took away the leverage by not tying Ukraine funding to actually securing the border.”

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has made no secret of her frustration with Trump over the years, said members need to remember how big this moment is for the border and for Ukraine and put their own politics aside.

“I’m not giving up. This is not about Trump and this is not about me. This is about our country. This is about democracy around the world. This is about security for our own country and so let’s keep pushing to get this border deal,” she said. “Let’s stand by the commitments that we have made for our friends and our allies so that our word actually means something.”

This is the second time in six years Trump killed or was actively trying to kill a bipartisan immigration deal as it emerged. Back in 2018, Murkowski was part of bipartisan talks over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The bill got 54 votes in the Senate, but not enough to get it over the finish line.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, one of the Democrats involved in the border talks, expressed frustration about Trump seeking to inject chaos into the situation.

“I think over the next 24 to 48 hours, they are going to make a decision as to whether they want to do this, or whether the forces surrounding Donald Trump – who want to keep chaos at the border – win,” Murphy said. “So they have a decision to make. I hope they make that decision very quickly. We have an agreement that is 95% written and is ready to get to the floor if Republicans decide that they actually want to solve the problem.”

Yeah I am familiar with the bill and you’ve shared it before — not suggesting it shouldn’t be shared again.

It’s really easy to simply ask the same questions the police used to understand situations, “who benefits from this?”

on the other hand, this bill so close to the election was doomed from the get-go; the timing also looks a bit suspicious from the dems—like get something out to help elections.

Edited September 10, 2024 by robsblubot

[Vesper 30,118]

Donald Trump’s Unreality Show

The former president is focused on made-up problems—and terrifying solutions.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trump-unreality-show

 

Donald Trump is very good at highlighting problems that don’t exist, like public schools providing gender-affirming surgery without consent. Look, any time Trump starts talking about “the transgender thing,” you can expect it’ll be bad. But a riff at a recent Moms for Liberty event was particularly ugly—as well as divorced from reality. “Think of it; your kid goes to school, and he comes home a few days later with an operation,” Trump said. “The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”

The supposition here is that kids are routinely getting gender-affirming surgeries at schools, in which—I guess?—doctors are lurking around to perform them. Or maybe it’s that school buses are being rerouted to hospitals? Either scenario is unhinged, and as CNN noted, “Trump’s own presidential campaign could not provide a single example of this ever happening.” Nevertheless, Trump repeated the lie this past weekend, saying, “Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school and your son comes back with a brutal operation.”

There is no world in which kids are going under the knife at school, except, apparently, in Trump’s post-truth world. It’s a dark and scary place filled with problems that don’t exist, albeit with potentially terrifying solutions. And what’s really scary is that if Trump can convince enough Americans that they actually inhabit this place we’ll call Earth Two, he could return to the White House.

Since entering the political scene in 2015, Trump has uttered a dizzying stream of lies. In the four years of his presidency alone, he made more than 30,000 false and misleading claims, according to The Washington Post, and hasn’t stopped lying about his 2020 loss as we approach the 2024 election. “Trump’s lying is most exceptional in its relentlessness, a never-ending avalanche of wrongness that can bury even the most devoted fact-checkers,” one of them, CNN’s Daniel Dale, wrote last week. Somehow the guy who mused about purchasing Greenland sounds even more disconnected from reality as he runs for president again, frequently bringing up fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter and seeming to mix up asylum-seekers and people who have been in mental institutions, or asylums.

Of course, Trump has been demonizing migrants since launching his 2016 campaign, when he suggested that Mexico is “sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

His dangerous rhetoric has continued, with Trump telling Time in April that there will be “as many as 20 million” undocumented immigrants in the United States by the time Joe Biden is out of office, with “many of them from jails, many of them from prisons, many of them from mental institutions.” (Pew estimated, as of 2022, that there are around 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. Though estimates vary, there are not believed to be 20 million—never mind 25 or 30 million, as Trump ally Marco Rubio has suggested, according to PolitFact.)

Beyond Trump inflating the numbers, the scale of such a deportation plan even affecting 11 million people, as the Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted, is “incomprehensible.” Meanwhile, Trump torpedoed a bipartisan bill earlier this year to actually address immigration reform.

On Earth One, where we all live, border crossings are way down. Citing US Customs and Border Protection statistics, USA Today reported last month that the number of migrant apprehensions along the southern border “plunged in July from a year ago, to the lowest level of the Biden era.” Similarly, as the US produces and exports “the most crude oil out of any country, at any time,” Trump portrays the Biden administration as opposed to drilling—to the point that he will be required to be a “dictator” on day one to get the job done. As Trump said in December, “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.” Trump, however, dismisses the very real problem of climate change.

Facts are, of course, irrelevant on Earth Two, where Trump is taking fear-mongering over immigration to a new level. He recently claimed at a Fox News town hall that “Venezuelans are taking over the whole town” of Aurora, Colorado. But the AP reports that police in the Denver suburb “say a Venezuela street gang with a small presence in the city has not taken over a rundown apartment complex—yet the allegation continues to gain steam among conservatives.” (Snopes has more on how a viral video has fueled rumors on the right.)

As Trump took over the GOP, Republicans moved with him to Earth Two, focusing on non-existent problems that they could then “solve.” Earlier this year, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson touted legislation aimed at stopping something that is already illegal in America: noncitizens voting in federal elections. Despite voter fraud being extremely rare, Republicans have become laser-focused on it under the guise of  “election integrity,” presumably to pass legislation to make it harder to vote. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Republicans demonstrated on January 6, 2021 that they wouldn’t hesitate to disenfranchise voters based on election lies.

The trick of Trump’s unreality is that if enough people believe it, it ceases to matter if it’s true or not. According to a 2023 CBS survey, Trump voters trust him more than their own friends and family, conservative media, or even religious leaders. So Trump seems to believe (probably rightly) that he can create his own truth—that if enough of Trump’s people occupy Earth Two it doesn’t much matter what actually is happening on Earth One.

The problem for the rest of us on Earth One is that Trump appears willing to shred the Constitution to address non-existent issues like widespread voter fraud. On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social, “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again … Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

As Axios’s Alex Thompson explained, “Trump is now proposing two of the largest-ever federal arrests of people living in America, including U.S. citizens, if he’s re-elected.” So there’s the proposed mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, which Trump warned this past week “will be a bloody story” if he’s elected, along with jailing people over baseless election fraud claims. This is the stuff of autocrats, and it’s up to the American people to decide if they want to give Trump the power to actually become one.

[cosmicway 1,333]

Why is Trump talking such rubbish English ?
Most politicians talk in a stylized manner and some even like to use old language expressions, like Winston Churchill did.
Trump should be no exception or at least he could hire some tutors to improve his skills.
But he likes to talk like a truck driver who is caught by the police and held overnight for being pissed.
He does that because most of his followers are illiterate and when we say illiterate we mean illiterate.
Those maga folks could be alienated listening to someone who speaks proper English.

Edited September 10, 2024 by cosmicway

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Just now, robsblubot said:

Yeah I am familiar with the bill and you’ve shared it before — not suggesting it shouldn’t be shared again.

It’s really easy to simply ask the same questions police does to understand situations: the main one being, “who benefits from this?”

on the other hand, this bill so close to the election was doomed from the get-go; the timing also looks a bit suspicious from the dems—like get something out to help elections.

It was the most right wing immigration bill in decades, and was partly crafted by some of the most conservative Republicans. Many of the progressive Dems hated it, but enough Dems overall supported it in large enough numbers to get it passed.

BUT Trump, of course, was never serious about doing something concrete, he only wanted the talking point, thus scuppered it with help from the MAGAt crew in Congress.