Here's an important segment from the opinion piece.
I’ve told you before about my dad. Carl came home from the Second World War, finally got a good union job in a tool-and-die shop in Lansing, and on that one paycheck he raised us four boys, bought a house, put a new car in the driveway every couple of years, sent us toward college, took my mom on vacation, and retired with a pension that let the two of them travel the world.
That wasn’t wealth: that was the ordinary American middle class, and in 1981 — the year Reagan decided to destroy our unions, cut those “socialist benefits,” and freeze the minimum wage — two-thirds of us Americans lived in that middle class on a single income. Today it’s closer to only 40 percent of us, and it takes two full paychecks to reach what one paycheck used to buy.
An Australian's reply to Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
Join me on Monday at ON THE AUX, at HomeGrownRadioNJ.com from 3-6pm for "Psychedelic Cowboy," a 3-hour examination of the American cowboy myth and its expression in contemporary pop music. Lots of surprises, some music you've perhaps never heard, but expect lots of fun.
To listen to On the AUX on the Interwebs, go to homegrownradionj.com.com at 3pm Mondays and click the LISTEN LIVE link on the upper left corner of the page.
Mtierney, we’re not opposed to immigration, it just is a complicated process and some people can’t wait.
FWIW, we are tougher on Customs than you are; The list of prohibited items is incredibly long because we are trying to keep out various agricultural and human diseases and poisons that are fairly common in the rest of the world. Plus we have one of the longest coastlines in the world, monitoring that is extremely difficult. Have you not heard about this year’s horrific shark attacks at heavily used beaches?? Or that the deadly bird flu has finally arrived here and might kill all our parrots, cockatoos, lyrebirds etc?? (As well as chickens etc)
in the U.S., the accusations of an "open" or "unpatrolled" border by right wing demagogues is a red herring. The vast majority of undocumented people come in legally through border checkpoints monitored by CBP at airports, sea ports or on roads. They then overstay their visas.
immigration in the U.S. is needlessly complicated and burdensome, and I don't think it's cynical to say the GOP and right wing nativists like it that way. They want to discourage the "wrong" type of people from trying to immigrate here, and they like the fact that a confusing and underfunded process can get chaotic and seem out of control.
I don't know of any serious person who wants "open" borders that aren't monitored. Most people who want more liberal immigration policies want everyone trying to immigrate to go through a process and be in the immigration system. They just want more resources to get people through the process efficiently.
I've written this about eleventy billion times on MOL, but mtierney ignore it. The U.S. would not be "overrun" by immigrants if we had an effiicent legal immigration system. We are a huge country, and can easily absorb 2 or 3 million immigrants a year. And we NEED them to come here and work and pay taxes that grow our economy and help take care of our aging population.
the reason for our messed up system and antagonism toward those trying to come here, work hard, and play by the rules is straight up racism and fear-mongering. It's nothing new in the U.S. For as long as here have been immigrants there have been racist no-nothings stirring up hatred to try and keep them out. It's unfortunate we haven't progressed past the same 19th century prejudices, now aimed at Haitians and Syrians instead of the Irish and Italians.
Popular Comments
yahooyahoo
Remember when socialism bailed out US banks and saved the global banking system in 2008. That was awesome.
Like 7 Likestjohn
Mtierney,
You should read this. It will help you understand the political forces bring Social Democrats into office.
The reckoning coming when the MAGA sleeping giant awakens | Opinion
Here's an important segment from the opinion piece.
I’ve told you before about my dad. Carl came home from the Second World War, finally got a good union job in a tool-and-die shop in Lansing, and on that one paycheck he raised us four boys, bought a house, put a new car in the driveway every couple of years, sent us toward college, took my mom on vacation, and retired with a pension that let the two of them travel the world.
That wasn’t wealth: that was the ordinary American middle class, and in 1981 — the year Reagan decided to destroy our unions, cut those “socialist benefits,” and freeze the minimum wage — two-thirds of us Americans lived in that middle class on a single income. Today it’s closer to only 40 percent of us, and it takes two full paychecks to reach what one paycheck used to buy.
Like 6 Likesmarksierra
(From a post by Marion Pohl on social media)
An Australian's reply to Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
Like 5 Likesmarksierra
And adding - DL;DR = Downloaded, didn’t read.
PVW
On democracy: "It never sinks but, damn it, your feet are always in the water."
Like 3 LikesFisher Ames (18th C), cited in The Language of Politics: Arise, Ye Prisoners of Jargon!, The Atlantic, 1975
GoSlugs
Napoleon: Muskets No Good for the British
General Lee: Cannons are Bad for the Union Army
Tojo: A-Bombs Spell Trouble for the Americans
You do see the inherent flaw in this piece, don't you?
The_Soulful_Mr_T
Just a reminder for Monday at 3pm.
Join me on Monday at ON THE AUX, at HomeGrownRadioNJ.com from 3-6pm for "Psychedelic Cowboy," a 3-hour examination of the American cowboy myth and its expression in contemporary pop music. Lots of surprises, some music you've perhaps never heard, but expect lots of fun.
To listen to On the AUX on the Interwebs, go to homegrownradionj.com.com at 3pm Mondays and click the LISTEN LIVE link on the upper left corner of the page.
Like 3 Likesridski
For those without Threads...
dave
Kimmel is doing well.
ml1
in the U.S., the accusations of an "open" or "unpatrolled" border by right wing demagogues is a red herring. The vast majority of undocumented people come in legally through border checkpoints monitored by CBP at airports, sea ports or on roads. They then overstay their visas.
immigration in the U.S. is needlessly complicated and burdensome, and I don't think it's cynical to say the GOP and right wing nativists like it that way. They want to discourage the "wrong" type of people from trying to immigrate here, and they like the fact that a confusing and underfunded process can get chaotic and seem out of control.
I don't know of any serious person who wants "open" borders that aren't monitored. Most people who want more liberal immigration policies want everyone trying to immigrate to go through a process and be in the immigration system. They just want more resources to get people through the process efficiently.
I've written this about eleventy billion times on MOL, but mtierney ignore it. The U.S. would not be "overrun" by immigrants if we had an effiicent legal immigration system. We are a huge country, and can easily absorb 2 or 3 million immigrants a year. And we NEED them to come here and work and pay taxes that grow our economy and help take care of our aging population.
the reason for our messed up system and antagonism toward those trying to come here, work hard, and play by the rules is straight up racism and fear-mongering. It's nothing new in the U.S. For as long as here have been immigrants there have been racist no-nothings stirring up hatred to try and keep them out. It's unfortunate we haven't progressed past the same 19th century prejudices, now aimed at Haitians and Syrians instead of the Irish and Italians.
Like 3 Likes