June 1, 2019

Insect politics.

88 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

This is the 66th post with the tag "insect politics." Click on the tag and scroll for greater understanding. It's very brutal. No compassion. No compromise.

Shouting Thomas said...

Of course, the more humane we make the facilities for illegals, the more we get.

Which is the Democrat's goal.

wendybar said...

WHAT is their solution (besides letting everybody in the world who wants to come here, in???) They don't have any, and don't WANT any. This is what they use to get re-elected.... bashing the people who are trying to do something about this.

sdharms said...

I find this twitter conversation ironic. both of these fossils have been in DC for decades. Not an idea between them.

tim maguire said...

The solution, which they dare not say plainly, though it's plain what they think, is to eliminate border patrols and let whomever in who wants in.

Not an oldster. said...

So long as the detained people are allowed to change their minds, exit yhr facilities and turn back, we must understand that these conditions must be better than what the poor and sick vulnerable and young people are fleeing... Voluntary confinement in emergency conditions. I am glad the casualties are so low, honestly.

stevew said...

Occam's Razor tim maguire. Agree completely.

Not an oldster. said...

(Am I properly hitting the brutal insect politics theme?)

tim in vermont said...

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.


Isn’t it pretty to think so?

Of course to understand that it’s a complete load of bollocks that contains so many assumptions about the nature of mankind and the origins of violence that it’s almost the very definition of hope over experience, but to point that out makes me a troglodyte. But sure, we can change all the rules and incentives and America will still be a rich country!

Bay Area Guy said...

The humane solution would be a fleet of greyhounds taking the illegal aliens to Vermont. Plenty of space there.

Don't listen to Sanders or any Democrat on illegal immigration they encourage it, do nothing to stop it, and then tweet about how inhumane it is.

tim in vermont said...

“whomsoever”

I mean how often do you get an honest chance to use that word? You shouldn’t miss it!

rhhardin said...

let whomever in who wants in

Too many who's. Let in whoever wants in.

Leland said...

I say we tell the other 775 to go home, because we are full.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Worthless lying anti-American piece of shit Sanders has been in government for forty fucking years. Has the son of a bitch solved one single problem? Offered a workable effective solution to any fucking issue? Or has he spent 40 years stirring resentment, whipping up the malcontents and malingerers, and enriching himself at others expense?

Scumbag Sanders is the kind of treasonous commie swamp scum that is killing this country. The USA needs to purge poison like Bernie Sanders and his followers from the body politic.

tim in vermont said...

I think that “let whomsoever in who wants in” works. It’s the “whomever” that is clumsy.

Quaestor said...

OK, so we know John Cornyn isn't quite bright enough to grasp the meaning that long-exhausted trope. But didn't we know that before?

Althouse, you have a cruel streak even the Devil must admire.

Temujin said...

I say we trade even up with Mexico. 1 Mexican citizen for 1 American progressive. We'd get a hard working, earnest, family-centered workforce. They'd get parasites who tell them how they have to live, speak, and think, plus a ready-made media and full university faculties.

I think it could be good for everybody.

Tank said...

We could put them out of their misery

Chuck said...

It's a good question by Cornyn. But it doesn't take much thought to understand that "tariffs" is not a good answer.

David Begley said...

What I have never understood is why more Democrats aren’t wildly opposed to open borders. More unskilled labor drives down wages.

rhhardin said...

The alternative is "Let whoever wants in in."

You can't say "Let who(so)ever in." because the who needs a clause of its own, that is, there's two who's and only one clause.

I'd suspect the inclination to the original is trying to fix the case problem, a let him and a he wants, by making the first who objective case for let and the second who nominative for want. But whoever already means "the person who," and the case of the who goes with the following clause.

Chuck said...

Corrected link.

stevew said...

Perhaps, but tariffs is the only lever Congress is allowing PDJT to use to address what pretty much everyone now agrees is a crisis.

Bernie is pandering, which he doesn't often do. Good on Cornyn to call him out on it.

I did laugh, though, at the juxtaposition of Bernie's "inhumane" and "dehumanizing" talk and Cornyn's suggested "crickets".

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Temujin pushing the fucking lie about "hardworking, family oriented natural conservatives".

There is nothing special or noble or admirable about people illegally entering our country. We've got about a quarter million illegal alien gang members in Los Angeles county alone. The hundreds of thousands of illiterate and ignorant peasants bringing formerly eradicated diseases into our borders, and committing the kind of destructive social behaviors typical of the chronically impoverished do not make us stronger or safer.

It's the same attitude as the libs have toward the illegals, except libs figure the illegals are going to replace conservatives.

traditionalguy said...

The desperate Dems are like the guy setting himself on fire in DC. They have all decided that we must self destruct to get sympathy. They want the USA to be a suicide to atone for sins of

rhhardin said...

Trump is doing tariffs because every other legitimate presidential power is blocked by an Obama judge.

Quaestor said...

Regarding the insect politics tag, it's the United States that is the victim of insect politics. Many tinpot governments in Central America — Honduras and Guatemala in particular — are in the process of exporting their social decrepitudes rather than dealing compassionately with their poor.

When a ravenous mass descends upon you, eager to devour your substance it's called a plague, as in a plague of locusts. Insect politics in dead

traditionalguy said...

...sins of a happy and prosperous Christian middle class that can no longer be fooled by Marxist horse shit.

David Begley said...

The tariff move by Trump is brilliant. Watch the invasion stop in a month.

rhhardin said...

In locust parentis.

Rick said...

On what basis does Sanders refer to them as "immigrants"?

JAORE said...

"What I have never understood is why more Democrats aren’t wildly opposed to open borders. More unskilled labor drives down wages."

Because votes >> economic improvement for the proles.

Also:
"Bernie is pandering, which he doesn't often do."

Doesn't..... what? You have to be kidding.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Bernie doesn't pander? Free Stuff Sanders doesn't pander? ... You've never seen or heard him before, huh? Tax the rich! The 1 percent! Free college tuition! Forgive all college loan debt!

JFC, this fucking asswipes entire political career and personal fortune is built on pandering.

Darrell said...

Leland said...
I say we tell the other 775 to go home, because we are full.


I say we tell all 900 to go home. Because they are all liars about that asylum part. Get in line and take advantage of our incredibly generous LEGAL immigration policy.

Quaestor said...

What I have never understood is why more Democrats aren’t wildly opposed to open borders.

Very simple. Unskilled people can't function in a modern society that demands a skilled workforce, therefore they inevitably become dependent on wealth transfers to the kind most vociferously supported by the Democrats. Eventually, the illegals will exercise the franchise, legally or not, and they can be counted on to vote for the candidate who promises them an ever-growing share of the ever-shrinking earnings of the working class.

Anthony said...

I don’t get it.........

Quaestor said...

Chuck wrote: It's a good question by Cornyn. But it doesn't take much thought to understand that "tariffs" is not a good answer.

Life-long Republican indeed. Chuck is not only a liar but a none too clever one as well.

Quaestor said...

Insect politics in dead

Spellcheck treachery.

Ann Althouse said...

The solution for Bernie must be open borders. There's no other inference. But when he's confronted he says things like: "If you open the borders, my god, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re going to have people from all over the world... And I don’t think that’s something that we can do at this point. Can’t do it."

Ann Althouse said...

"at this point"

What does that mean? At this point before I have more power?

Temujin said...

Michael Fitzgerald: I did not call the Mexican citizens 'conservatives'. You projected there. I said they were hard working, family centered. Nothing to do with conservative or liberal.

Let's call a thing what it is. Yes, they are all illegal, and I was speaking tongue in cheek. Obviously we're not going to just open up the borders, letting in all who want to walk through, and sending all of your liberal neighbors down south.

But...look all around the US. Who is doing the cooking of your food in restaurants? Building the homes in your neighborhoods? Cutting the lawns. Fulfilling orders in warehouses. Cleaning your homes. Watching your kids. Hauling scrap around the city. Landscaping. Painting. Delivering goods. Pouring drinks at the bar. Cleaning that bar. Housekeeping thousands of rooms in the hotels you stay at. Pouring and laying cement. And on and on and on. You think it's the kids with rings in their noses from Seattle or Madison doing the hard work that you live with? I've watching for 20 years as our workforce has shifted from American citizens to Mexican (or Central American) citizens.

I am not saying it's OK to leave the borders open. You have no idea how much it pisses me off to watch the Dems fuck around with trying to remove Trump instead of doing their primary job, which is to secure the nation. But we have millions here now, doing the work that keeps this country moving every day. What are you going to do with those here doing that work? You gonna do it?

We have to shut down the border. But we have to deal with those here as well. I say- they are much more productive neighbors than those fuckwads ruining Seattle.

stevew said...

"Bernie doesn't pander? Free Stuff Sanders doesn't pander? ... You've never seen or heard him before, huh? Tax the rich! The 1 percent! Free college tuition! Forgive all college loan debt!"

Oh, I've heard or read about all those things. We just disagree on what constitutes pandering. My definition is someone, usually a politician running for office, states a policy preference for the sole purpose of securing votes. They don't believe in the policy. In many cases, they know the policy cannot ever be enacted.

I think Bernie believes all that stuff he says and offers, which I say makes him crazy, just not a panderer.

Tank said...

rhhardin said...

Trump is doing tariffs because every other legitimate presidential power is blocked by an Obama judge.


Not to mention all the help he isn't getting from Congress.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Temujin speaking truth here about the illegal alien workforce that has been encouraged and nurtured in the USA. Sorry to jump down your throat, T, it's kinda what I do around here.

Years ago I was working for a landscaper in LA. Most jobsites I would be the only laborer who spoke English. I'd wonder, what do all the working class American kids do for work around here, cause they aren't in construction.

Cleaning homes, cutting lawns, taking care of children... The borders are open so that middle class Americans can have servants.

h said...

I wish some politician would actually present the argument in favor of open borders. Republicans (or Trump, if you wish) at least have a coherent plan: First get control of illegal immigration; then increase the number of legal migrants. But Democrats favor open borders and refuse to say so: Continue to have limits on immigration, but refuse any effective way of enforcing those limits; that way will get open borders without having to say that we support open borders.

alanc709 said...

Trust Chuck to complain that what Trump's doing won't be effective. How often have you been correct with that litany, Chuck? Think Mexico has no economic interest in avoiding lost trade dollars over abetting illegal immigration and asylum-seeking? You're a shill for the Dems.

Automatic_Wing said...

Temujin - I don't know where you are from, bro, but here in the greater St Louis area you'll see regular old white and black Americans doing all the stuff you listed. There are not a lot of Central American immigrants here. Once we do get a lot of Central American immigrants, I'm sure they'll be doing all that stuff, because they'll do it for less. But the "jobs Americans won't do" canard is bullshit. Americans will do those jobs if wages aren't undercut by cheap foreign labor.

mccullough said...

Americans do these jobs, just not as cheaply.

Immigration is to ensure the wealthy get wealthier. Fuck them.

Send their kids to Afghanistan to fight our wars. They’ve benefitted a lot from these stupid bipartisan policies. So have the politicians. They’ve gotten richer as well.

Send 75 of those people at the detention centers to Bernie’s houses. His dacha on the lake should be good for them.

mccullough said...

Since when did Cornyn give a shit about Americans? Guy was a a W stooge.

Chuck said...

If the tariffs are enacted, both national economies will suffer. Two-thirds of American imports from Mexico are between related parties, where one partner owns at least 10% of the other, so any tariff will cause problems along tightly integrated supply chains. A working paper by Alonso de Gortari of Princeton University published on May 27th estimated that America contributed 30% of the value of its imports of manufactured products from Mexico. Carmakers are particularly vulnerable—just as demand in America is softening anyway. The experience of tariffs so far suggests that the heaviest burden will be on American importers. A depreciating peso could soften the blow for them—if they can renegotiate contracts to reap the benefits of the lower currency.

In response to the threat, the peso fell against the dollar by around 2%, making Mexican exports fractionally more competitive. Futures capturing the expected value of the S&P 500 stockmarket index sank by around 0.9%. Yields on American government debt dipped, too, a sign of investors seeking a haven. The damage could spread beyond the direct economic hit, if it reduces the likelihood of passing the USMCA (the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), a trade deal between the three North American heavyweights. Chuck Grassley, an influential Republican senator, called the threat “a misuse of presidential authority”, and has noted that tariffs would “seriously jeopardise” the USMCA’s prospects. Embarrassingly, both Mr Lighthizer and his Mexican counterpart had sent a draft of the deal to their respective legislatures for approval that same day.

The damage could go further. Mr Trump was supposed to stop threatening Mexico with tariffs once it had agreed to the USMCA. Now he appears to have pocketed that agreement, and to have used the same threat to try squeezing out a separate batch of concessions. All this while the Trump administration attempts to force unrelated concessions from the Chinese, the European Union and the Japanese. They will surely ask: what is the point of conceding to a negotiator who does not keep his word?


From The Economist.

Darrell said...

Who's holding up the USMCA? Who's to blame?

Ask cocksucker Chuck who told you to vote Democrat in the Midterms.

Gahrie said...

Think Mexico has no economic interest in avoiding lost trade dollars over abetting illegal immigration and asylum-seeking?

I don't know about Chuckles, but I do. Money sent back to Mexico by Mexicans living in the US is Mexico's biggest source of foreign income. If the Central Americans pass through Mexico and go to the US, they don't stay in Mexico and become Mexico's problem. I'm betting actually stopping illegal immigration into the US would cost more for Mexico than the tariffs will.

Gahrie said...

Mexico City is Mexico's largest city. What is its second largest?

Los Angeles.

Automatic_Wing said...

The funny thing about the "but muh landscapers" argument is that it's usually put forward by people who believe in "market based solutions" for anything and everything. But somehow markets won't work when it comes to getting somebody to mow their lawn.

Michael K said...

Blogger David Begley said...
What I have never understood is why more Democrats aren’t wildly opposed to open borders. More unskilled labor drives down wages.


It is decades since Democrats cared about wages. They are a "top and bottom coalition." They saw Tony Blair start it in UK and it seemed to work so they adopted the immigration-vote fraud strategy.

Look at California,.

narciso said...

Yes the loss of coal mines in the north and automakers like Leyland made that possible:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/06/the-week-in-pictures-its-mueller-overtime-edition.php

Rory said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Francisco D said...

Chuckles seems desperate.

He is cutting and pasting, posting it in bold.

It's not even noon in Detroit Chuckles. Even a bit early for you.

wendybar said...

Tank said...
rhhardin said...

Trump is doing tariffs because every other legitimate presidential power is blocked by an Obama judge.

Not to mention all the help he isn't getting from Congress.
6/1/19, 7:40 AM

Hear, hear to both of these points!!!

tim in vermont said...

If you really want to increase income inequality in the US, you flood the low end labor market with cheap labor.

Kevin said...

But it doesn't take much thought to understand that "tariffs" is not a good answer.

It takes even less thought to realize the answer lies with the Dems in Congress and this is the best available option.

Those who discuss the effects of tariffs in purely economic terms don’t even understand the problem.

Kevin said...

Bernie will have more flexibility to deal with the border after the election.

Kevin said...

If you really want to increase income inequality in the US, you flood the low end labor market with cheap labor.

And if you want to install a high-tax socialist utopia, you really want to increase income inequality in the US.

Wince said...

Chuck said...
But it doesn't take much thought to understand that "tariffs" is not a good answer.

What if we call it a Pigovian externality tax?

Those are all the rage right now across the ideological spectrum.

tim in vermont said...

Chuck believes that getting Trump out of office is more important than any so called “border crisis” or than anything really. If it came down to it, I bet that Chuck would rather the US lost an existential war than Trump serve out his term.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left don't want it to stop.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

So hand them all asylum? 100,000 a month? Is that a good idea, Bernie? WEll sure - if we can sign them up as democratic voters.

wendybar said...

Dan Crenshaw will make a fine President after President Trump is done!!!https://www.facebook.com/CrenshawforCongress/photos/a.518665935192825/869507530108662/?type=3&theater

mockturtle said...

Asylum from what? Poverty? There are plenty of people in your town wanting asylum from poverty. Why not just invite them into your house? Feed them and let them stay in your guest room. For free! Pay for their college tuition, too. Hey, this is America!

chickelit said...

Temujin wrote: But...look all around the US. Who is doing the cooking of your food in restaurants? Building the homes in your neighborhoods? Cutting the lawns. Fulfilling orders in warehouses. Cleaning your homes. Watching your kids. Hauling scrap around the city. Landscaping. Painting. Delivering goods. Pouring drinks at the bar. Cleaning that bar. Housekeeping thousands of rooms in the hotels you stay at. Pouring and laying cement. And on and on and on. You think it's the kids with rings in their noses from Seattle or Madison doing the hard work that you live with? I've watching for 20 years as our workforce has shifted from American citizens to Mexican (or Central American) citizens.

Are you speaking for yourself or for others? Are you too lazy or busy to tend your own lawn, to clean your own house and toilet? Seriously?

Chuck said...

EDH said...
Chuck said...
But it doesn't take much thought to understand that "tariffs" is not a good answer.

What if we call it a Pigovian externality tax?

Those are all the rage right now across the ideological spectrum.


...Or you could keep it simple and just call it a "tax." Like Congressman Amash did.

Clyde said...

If they stayed in their home country where they belong, they’d have plenty of space. Something to think about.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I want all of hollywood to open their walls and gates and mega mansions to the universal poor.
then, perhaps they can ponder why so many people want to escape their corrupt socialist hell holes.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Just wait until those detention facilities are on the other side of the border. I look forward to the breathless reports of the horrific conditions.

Anonymous said...

Automatic_Wing: Temujin - I don't know where you are from, bro, but here in the greater St Louis area you'll see regular old white and black Americans doing all the stuff you listed. There are not a lot of Central American immigrants here. Once we do get a lot of Central American immigrants, I'm sure they'll be doing all that stuff, because they'll do it for less. But the "jobs Americans won't do" canard is bullshit. Americans will do those jobs if wages aren't undercut by cheap foreign labor. [emph added]

Yeah, no kidding. Funny how those jobs still get done in parts of the country with little immigration. Even funnier how little time it takes from the first Spanish-only roofing crew to appear in a town for whole categories of jobs to mysteriously enter the "but Americans just won't do them!" category. Why, people losing their work ethic practically overnight is, like, totally a plausible explanation for why things are the way they are!

Temujin - resentment of nose-ringed Seattle-ites isn't a sound basis for thinking about immigration. Who, by the way, whatever their vices, aren't obligated to provide you with servants and restaurant meals at the price you happen to want to pay. As A_W pointed out, that's not how free markets are supposed to work.

Your attitude is also goddamned insulting to the millions of Americans still doing the "jobs Americans won't do". As this group includes my and other citizens' kids in my locale picking crops, cleaning hotel rooms, working in restaurants, construction, etc., this attitude tends to really piss me the hell off.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

so what are they saying?
Electrify the border wall and turn it into a giant bug-zapper?

chickelit said...

so what are they saying?
Electrify the border wall and turn it into a giant bug-zapper?


It's what the Dems aren't saying. They aren't saying much. And the few who are saying things -- like AOC -- are saying that these people have a natural right to move here. I betcha that AOC hires illegals to clean her toilet and that she feels empowered doing so.

chickelit said...

Of course Hollywood celebutards aren't gonna be caught dead mowing their own lawns...can you imagine the paparazzi opportunities? They'd rather be caught dead Climbing Everest and pooping at 29,000 feet.

chickelit said...

They'd rather be caught dead Climbing Everest and pooping at 29,000 feet.

Better yet, let's poop in outer space (space tourism) and jettison that waste into pristine space. Let's call that a jolly good experience to boast about.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Better yet, let's poop in outer space

at least you will have privacy. In Space, No One Can Hear You Poop

mockturtle said...

The Progressive train of thought is crossing a very unstable trestle right now.

Bill Crawford said...

Angel-Dyne, Are you against foreign workers who are in the US legally and legally able to work doing those service industry jobs?

For over 20 years I have been talking to 1000's of landscapers annually. There is a government program to bring in H2B workers for landscaping and other seasonal industries. To participate the companies wanting to hire such workers need to show a good-faith effort to advertise for and hire local workers. The workers need to apply to the US Embassy in their countries to be vetted and approved. The company pays for them to travel to the US and also arranges their housing. The workers are here for 8-10 months and then return home. The vast majority of workers return home and then come back the next year.

This system worked well until someone screwed with it in 2016 or '17. Because of these changes hundreds of AMERICAN OWNED landscaping companies have closed their doors in the last two years because they could not hire reliable workers.

I talk to landscapers who successfully hire locals at a decent wage and other companies that pay the same or more and cannot find reliable workers locally.

And this is just one industry. The Maryland crab industry is another.

The liberals are not the only ones who use "immigration" without distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants.

Steven said...

The overcrowded conditions in the housing for asylum-seekers is dictated entirely by the people who refuse to appropriate more money to house them in the face of a massive increase in the number of asylum-seekers. So, all this suffering is the fault of Congressional Democrats, who are the ones who keep blocking bills appropriating the necessary funds.

And no, just releasing asylum-seekers on to the streets in the US is not a compassionate alternative; the current pace of releases have entirely overwhelmed the capacity of shelters. Living in El Paso, I see the news reports of the crisis overwhelming our local facilities regularly.

What is needed is more funds to house the asylum-seekers. Thus, how much someone actually cares for asylum-seekers can be measured, simply and directly, by how much money they're directing to the issue. By appropriating zero dollars to the relief of asylum-seekers, Congressional Democrats have demonstrated they care precisely zero about asylum-seekers.

In the face of this inhuman obstructionism by people such as Senator Sanders to provide decent accommodations to asylum-seekers, Trump has been forced to find some sort of leverage to apply to Mexico in order to reduce the flow. Tariffs are a poor tool, but they're the only one the monsters who constitute the Democratic Party haven't cut off.

C R Krieger said...

The solution to illegal immigration is close. All we have ro do is all register as Democrats and then vote for Senator Bernie Sanders in the Primary, and again in the General Election. Four to six years later no one will wish to come here. Heck, you don't see people clamouring to get into North Korea, Cuba or Venezuela.

Bilwick said...

Hey, illegal immigrants, here's the solution: enter the US through legal means, or stay home!

Birkel said...

I like soon-to-be-former Congresscritter Justin "sellout" Amash just as well as the next globalist, big government, regulatory capture loving billionaire buy he's gone in 2021.

Fen said...

"We must end the dehumanization of immigrants and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum."

Great idea.

Maybe we should have rules.

Maybe those rules should be followed.

Just spitballin here...

Gahrie said...

Your attitude is also goddamned insulting to the millions of Americans still doing the "jobs Americans won't do".

A huge problem that is going largely unremarked upon (except by Mike Rowe) is the fact that our schools are now telling our kids that those are shit jobs that are beneath them. If you don't go to college you're a failure. All the general education classes have long been cancelled, and the lowest courses available are college prep. They're now trying to get us to use AP strategies in those college prep classes. Every year we lose at least one vocational program. ROTC, Home Ec, Wood Shop, Metal Shop, Masonry, Public Safety, Culinary Arts...all long gone. Next year we'll have half as many sections of our most popular elective..autoshop.