Monday, March 04, 2024
Americans Don't Like The Policies Trump Would Impose
The charts above are from the CNN / SSRS Poll -- done between January 25th and 30th of a nationwide sample of 1,212 adults, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
GOP Should Heed The Words Of Reagan - Not Trump
Donald Trump based his 2016 election on immigration. He demonized the immigrants crossing our southern border, and frightened Americans with that demonization. He is repeating that for the 2024 election.
Trump has called the immigrants "vermin". They aren't. Most are just desperate people escaping repression or abject poverty. They just want to provide a safer and better life for their families.
Trump has said other countries are dumping their worst people on America. The truth is no country is "dumping" anyone. They would love for their citizens to stay and help build their own country.
Trump has said the immigrants will commit crimes once in this country. But the crime rate of immigrants is far below that of American citizens.
Trump claims the immigrants are bringing in drugs (like cocaine and fentanyl). Not true. The immigrants entering on foot cannot carry much and would be much easier to find the drugs by Border Patrol officials. The truth is the drugs are being brought in by trucks, planes, and boats in much larger quantities than immigrants could carry.
Trump doesn't care about the truth though. He just wants immigration to be an issue in the 2024 election. That's why he successfully pressured Republicans to abandon a compromise border bill - a bill that gave Republicans almost everything they wanted, and would have radically improved the situation at the border.
Instead of the lies by Trump, Republicans would be better served by heeding the words of a man they claim to revere - Ronald Reagan. Here is some of what he said in his last speech to the American people:
"Since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it's fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said: ``You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.''
Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it's the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.
This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people -- our strength -- from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation.While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.
It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, they make it come true for themselves, for their children, and for others. They give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. And often they are entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American."
We do need to control our southern border. And we need to revise and update our immigration laws. But we must also recognize that we need the immigrants trying to come to this country. They solve our worker shortage, and benefit our society in many way - including paying billions in taxes.
Demonizing them doesn't help anyone. A sane immigration policy would help everyone.
Sunday, March 03, 2024
Most Think Trump's Trials Should Be Before The Election
The chart above reflects the results of the CNN / SSRS Poll -- done between January 25th and 30th of a nationwide sample of 1,212 adults, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
The Hope For A Better Future For Russia
The following post is by Serge Schmemann in The New York Times:
The spectacle of Alexei Navalny’s funeral on Friday must have filled Vladimir Putin with fury.
He had done everything to silence Navalny, to crush any hint of disobedience from his followers, to eradicate any questioning of his war. And yet Putin could do nothing to prevent thousands of Russians from lining up in a dreary, remote Moscow district to pay their last respects to their fallen hero, to chant “No to the war!” and to defy the massed police in full riot gear.
I remember a similar outpouring of silent defiance in the Soviet Union, after the enormously popular balladeer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky died, when thousands of grieving Muscovites spontaneously gathered outside the theater where he worked. Vysotsky’s ballads spoke to the misery of ordinary Soviet lives, and at that moment popular grief overcame fear. The grief for Navalny was even greater: He spoke to an acute, simmering frustration among many Russians with what Putin has done to them and their country.
They may not be the majority in Russia. Putin still seems to command support among the millions of rural, less-educated Russians who believe in his propaganda about a hostile world out there that only he can hold at bay. But the mile-long line of people, most of them young and many with a clutch of roses, inching across the colorless, slush-covered streets of the southeastern Maryino district, were the people Putin continues to fear.
They gathered in other Russian cities, too, though they knew they would be photographed; they knew that Putin in his fury would seek revenge against them. Yet they walked past the lines of police officers and piled their roses at the grave and nodded to Navalny’s parents, sitting stoically alongside, some whispering, “Thank you for your son.” It was the mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, who had demanded that Putin release her son for burial in Moscow, rather than in a hole at the remote Arctic labor camp where he died on Feb. 16.
When Mr. Navalny’s coffin was lowered into the ground, Frank Sinatra’s defiant version of “My Way” blared from loudspeakers. “I did what I had to do … I did it my way….” That was what people loved in Navalny, his refusal to bend. One Russian interviewed by an independent Russian online broadcaster said the long line of defiant mourners were evidence that “hope remains, that Russia has a chance for a future.”
Saturday, March 02, 2024
Who's To Blame For Palestinians Killed Trying To Access Aid?
Another tragedy occurred in Gaza on Thursday. While trying to access food, over 100 starving Palestinians were killed and over 700 were wounded. Who's fault is it?
There is a dispute about what happened. Palestinian spokespeople said it was because Israeli soldiers fired on the people trying to get food. Israeli spokespeople claimed it was just because the people trampled each other while trying to get food. A person who was on the ground there said most of those killed or injured were hit by aid trucks (that were trying to flee Israeli shooting).
It really doesn't matter which story you believe. The Israeli government is to blame.
Let's take the Israeli story as true. Why were those people starving and so desperate to get to the limited amount of food on the aid truck? It's because Israel invaded Gaza, and now controls it -- and has not allowed sufficient food (and medicine and shelter) to entered. There are a couple of million civilians in Gaza, but only a few aid trucks have been allowed to enter -- not nearly enough to feed all of them.
The residents of Gaza (half of whom are under the age of 18) are starving, and starvation deaths are beginning to happen. That should not be. When Israeli troops took over Gaza, that made them responsible for the well-being of the people living there. Not allowing enough food (and other necessities) to enter is a dereliction of the duty they assumed by seizing Gaza.
It is a violation of international law (and common decency) to starve a population. But that's what the Israelis are doing. And they need to stop it.
Israel had the right to strike back against Hamas. But they don't have the right to starve the civilian population. They need to allow enough humanitarian aid into Gaza to feed all the civilians living there, even if they have to initiate a cease-fire to get it done. Not doing so is just an inhumane form of genocide.
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