Tuition at my fake university will start at $10,000 per year. Tuition will go to $20,000 per year when students are eligible for federal student loans. Tuition will be $60,000 per year if the U.S. adopts Bernie Sanders’ plan to have the “government” pay for college for all. Does that help anyone understand Medicare and health care costs?
There is one reason to keep young Mexicans out of the US. I really do not want to turn diligent, heterosexual Mexicans into lazy, perverted Mexican Americans.
I won’t be surprised if Sanders takes California, he definitely has the enthusiasm and the momentum going for him. And independents can vote in the Democratic primary in our state.
Clinton apparently has the delegates wrapped up, but in a year like this, that probably doesn’t mean quite as much as it otherwise would. There’s bound to be a lot of unhappy people in the Democratic party.
A friend marking up her sample ballot the other day was lamenting that she guessed she’d “have” to vote for Trump, but I told her no, he’s already the nominee (unfortunately) so in the primary you can vote your (true) first choice, if only as a protest, provided that candidate is still on the ballot (I can’t remember if she was Cruz or Rubio, though — I believe Cruz and Carson both remain on our ballot, not Rubio though).
Meanwhile, the conventions will soon be upon us (Republicans, July 18-21; Democrats July July 25-28). Let the games (and riots) begin.
I was praying this morning and it occurred to me that the US today is like the Israelites of long ago, begging for a king. God warned them they wouldn’t like it, but they wanted to be like the other nations.
God told them a king would take the money, their goods and their children. They would complain and God would not feel sorry for them–because they asked to serve someone other than him. (paraphrase).
It put our society into better sense but I’m reminded of all those remnant who did not go along and how that staved off crisis for awhile. I’m afraid we’re past that now, but it was an interesting idea.
I remembered there’s a school teacher friend I know from local dog circles (a collie rescue person) who’s running for one of the GOP delegate slots, I could go vote for her I suppose. 🙂
chas, ultimately (in terms of the nomination), no, but … a win in California would give Sanders more bragging rights, more outrage to harness — and that wouldn’t be great if the goal is to unify Sanders & Clinton supporters by fall. A lot of those youthful Sanders folks might just stay home.
If Clinton wins California, it would be something of a final death blow to the Sanders campaign, although that leftist segment of the party will still bring a lot of clout (and attitude) to the July convention, demanding their due by way of concessions in the platform and/or a VP pick, etc. It’s surprising to me how far left the Democratic party has moved in just a decade.
Are there even any centrists/moderates remaining in that party? I doubt it — but if so, they likely won’t be there for much longer.
Ok, I found my polling place (a new one for me this time, the 1st Presbyterian Church down the street) and I will plan to swing by and vote before going in to work tonight. But this has got to be the most joyless election I’ve experienced.
I tried to let this go, but it’s a bit mind boggling, so………
“There is one reason to keep young Mexicans out of the US. I really do not want to turn diligent, heterosexual Mexicans into lazy, perverted Mexican Americans.”
Really? That’s your one concern? Not the jobs they steal from Americans, not the drain on social resources, or the money they steal from our economy by sending it south, not the rioting, the 86,000 criminal illegals (let’s face it, if you’re here illegally, you’re a criminal, so that number is much higher)…… No. Your one concern is they might turn gay? Seriously?
I mean I get that the WSJ, the newspaper of big business, would advocate open borders and a flood of unskilled labor, they’re simply pandering to their audience. I’m just shocked that you’d agree, especially given it’s effect on your own state.
Actually, kindergarten used to be a place of teaching children to play together and listen to a teacher and investigate the world around them. First grade was for learning letters and numbers and maybe reading.
The link you posted has a pay wall, so no one can read your link unless they’re a subscriber.
And a quick Google search reveals the cost to Texas alone was over 14 billion last year. Plus, by your states count, there are 1.8 million illegals living in Texas, second only to Cali. Neither you or the author can refute that.
The numbers don’t lie, although the press has been known too. 😉
“The United Church of Christ (UCC), a major mainline Protestant denomination, published a Facebook post telling all whites that they are racist against non-whites, no matter what they do.
An infographic posted to the church’s Facebook page over the weekend gives white people a series of 10 tips on how to cope with their white privilege. Suggestions include “Listen when people call you on your microaggressions” and “Stop contributing to gentrification.”
But the tenth suggestion is the most notable one, telling white readers to “Recognize that you’re still racist. No matter what.””
And don’t bother to complain, they’re deleting any posts in response that may be triggering to the special little snowflakes. You don’t get to challenge them.
“The State Department on Tuesday defended its estimate that it would take 75 years to fulfill a request from the Republican National Committee for emails of three top Hillary Clinton aides, and said that length of time is “not an outlandish estimation.”
“That is an incredible number,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner admitted. But he said the estimate is accurate because the RNC’s request is “very complex.”
“It’s a very broad range involving a number of people over a period of four years, and it’s not an outlandish estimation, believe it or not,” Toner said.
The State Department said in a court filing that it would take about 75 years for it to release all the emails to three of Clinton’s former aides: Cheryl Mills, Jacob Sullivan and Patrick Kennedy. The RNC is seeking those emails in a FOIA request.”
Native Anglo Texans have been dealing with Mexicans and Yankees for a long time. We have fought major wars against both groups. We have dealt with large groups of immigrants from both groups along with immigrants from our sister Southern states.
Only a Native Anglo Texan can appreciate the irony and the hilarity of a Yankee telling a Texan that Mexican immigrants are ruining Texas.
Ricky – On one side, we have people saying that illegal Mexican (or other immigrants) are taking American jobs. Another side says they are doing jobs that Americans won’t do, & that our economy would fall apart if they were all deported.
I would suppose that the truth may be somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.
A friend pointed out that immigrants are consumers, too (we all have to eat, wear clothes, etc.), thus adding to the economy, at least somewhat.
A meme I saw on Facebook says something like:
“Illegal immigrants are taking American jobs!”
“Oh? I didn’t know it was your dream to pick strawberries.”
Ricky, your first posts rightly points out the problem with Private-Public Partnerships — the private agency sets the prices and the public pays the tab. A completely public system would eliminate the problem.
I couldn’t read the WSJ article either but a cost-benefit analysis or Mexican et al migration would lean towards benefit. The only drawback is they’re illegal. Simple solution; make them legal. And as Ricky points out, immigrants are usually social conservatives, conservative Christians should encourage migration.
I lived through the recent hype when Ontario changed its health curriculum. Family values groups were all aghast at what we would be teaching, there were protests, and threats of withdrawal. As the grade 6-8 health teacher and the lead health teacher in the school, I read the curriculum and the supporting documents and wondered if the family value groups protesting had read the same curriculum documents. When I finished teaching the growth and development strand, my students asked me is this it? what about what people were talking about last year? To which I said, some people can’t read curriculum documents. People are quick to reach the worst possible conclusions about groups and ideas they don’t understand.
For example; In grade seven, I have to discuss the concept and nature of sexual consent. A conservative family values group claimed that meant I would encourage students to have sex. In fact, its to teach students especially males how consent is given and no means no. Given the behaviour of a certain frat boy in California with a drunk girl and the leniency in which he was treated, its a lesson some people still need as adults. A drunk can’t give consent.
Mumsee — kindergarten in my school is where children are taught social and personal skills they should have learned at home — share, no means no, sometimes you have to wait, turn taking, how to use the toilet, how to dress yourself, etc. Yet they are expected to read independently by the end of grade one.
Given the complexities of FOI request, secrecy rules, etc., it will definitely take along time to fulfill the FOI requests especially if the Republicans asked for everything and the kitchen sink.
Workers like that are a small percentage of illegal workers.
Come to the northeast and talk to the men who used to do construction, drywall, landscaping, and other assorted trades who are now among the 94 million Americans not in the labor force. They’d love to still be there, but they can’t raise a family here on the slave wages now paid, due to corporate greed and an ever expanding illegal worker pool.
“While jobs are always being created and lost, and the number of workers rises and falls with the economy, a new analysis of government data shows that all of the net gain in employment over the last 13 years has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). From the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2013, the number of natives working actually fell by 1.3 million while the overall size of the working-age (16 to 65) native population increased by 16.4 million. Over the same time period, the number of immigrants working (legal and illegal) increased by 5.3 million. In addition to the decline in the number of natives working, there has been a broad decline in the percentage holding a job that began before the 2007 recession. This decline has impacted natives of almost every age, race, gender, and education level. The total number of working-age (16 to 65) natives not working — unemployed or out of the labor force entirely — was nearly 59 million in the first quarter of this year, a figure that has changed little in the last three years and is nearly 18 million larger than in 2000.
Aside from the legalization provisions, one of the main justifications for the large increases in permanent immigration and guest workers in the Schumer-Rubio bill (S.744) is that the nation does not have enough workers. But the data do not support this conclusion. A second argument for the bill is that immigration always creates jobs for natives. But over the last 13 years nearly 16 million new immigrants arrived, 5.4 million since 2008. The last 13 years or even the last five years make clear that large-scale immigration can go hand in hand with weak job growth and persistently high rates of joblessness among the native-born.
Among the findings (all figures compare first quarter employment):
Between the first quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2013, the native-born population accounted for two-thirds of overall growth in the working-age population (16 to 65), but none of the net growth in employment among the working-age has gone to natives.
The overall size of the working-age native-born population increased by 16.4 million from 2000 to 2013, yet the number of natives actually holding a job was 1.3 million lower in 2013 than 2000.
The total number of working-age immigrants (legal and illegal) increased 8.8 million and the number working rose 5.3 million between 2000 and 2013.
Even before the recession, when the economy was expanding (2000 to 2007), 60 percent of the net increase in employment among the working-age went to immigrants, even though they accounted for just 38 percent of population growth among the working-age population. ”
———————————–
Karen, Virtually all of the net job creation in the US since 2008 in the US has happened in Texas, so our system works, but the answer to your question is complicated.
1. Many of the jobs performed by the illegal aliens are jobs that Americans don’t now want to do. Some of these are jobs I had as a youth such as a seasonal agricultural worker or a busboy.
2. Other Mexicans take jobs from lower class whites, blacks and Mexican-Americans. This happens often in construction and maintenance work. It is partially an issue of wages, but primarily because lower class Americans of all races have increasingly become undependable bums. My brother-in-law builds homes. In Texas most of his tradesmen are Mexicans. They work very hard and are very dependable. In the 1990s his company transferred him to another state which had virtually no Mexicans. He had to depend on white and black tradesmen who often were in jail on Monday mornings when they should have been at work. It was horrible.
3. A number of studies have shown that Mexicans contribute greatly to the economy through taxes paid and lower prices of goods and services. One of the points Bret Stephens made in the article is that Social Security taxes paid by illegal aliens are what kept that Ponzi scheme from going bankrupt.
4. Unfortunately, if Mexican families stay here for a generation or two the second and third generations are much more likely to become dependent on food stamps, Medicaid, etc. even as they are also engulfed by the perverted US culture.
The Stephens article noted that hundreds of thousands more Mexicans have left the U.S. to return to Mexico than have migrated the other way over the last decade. He noted that this is because there are good jobs in Mexico. Mexico is not hamstrung by insane tree-huggers or hurt by the costliest healthcare system in the world.
I hope that Mexicans will raise their children in Mexico. The children can grow up to be hard workers with good jobs and the little girls can go to the ladies room without fear of being followed by perverted men.
I understand how Trump is able to make a play for the Sanders vote. Unfortunately, those two sets of voters have a great deal in common. Too many people have been listening to Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow when they should have been reading Milton Friedman.
HRW, I agree with your solution to make the illegals “legal”, but my solution might be different than yours:
1. I would eliminate birthright citizenship, so no more anchor babies.
2. I would reestablish something like the old Brasero (Did I spell it right?) program. We need to allow documented guest workers to travel freely between the U.S. and Mexico. No more dangerous hikes across the desert.
3. The need for guest workers might be reduced after I sharply trim the social safety net, thus giving new incentive to AJ’s idle Northeasterners to look harder for work and work harder when they get a job. Part of the trim would be a re-certification of the “disabled” receiving Social Security. We have people with Down’s Syndrome doing a good job working at restaurants while millions of other Americans are drawing disability checks because they can’t handle “stress” or some other lame excuse.
Since he clinched the nomination, Donald Trump’s campaign has been a train wreck. His criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who presides over the Trump University case, has been a four-alarm disaster. After his initial comments provoked controversy, Trump returned to the subject several times and dug the hole deeper. Finally, earlier today, Trump tried to put the matter behind him …
Hallelujah. But the cows are pretty well out of the barn. Trump’s original comments were not racist … . But they were criminally stupid. No real politician would have committed such an unforced error. Perhaps Trump fans who thought it would be great to nominate a man who is not a politician are now seeing the downside of selecting an amateur.
… in the end, Trump has no one to blame but himself. As Byron York points out, there was no reason for Trump to go off on a ten-minute dissertation on the Trump University case. This is a completely self-inflicted wound, and it results from Trump’s lack of discipline and common sense. That some Republicans are willing to join the jackal pack when Trump slips up should come as no surprise to anyone, let alone Donald.
He had better step up his game if he doesn’t want to be embarrassed in November.
________________________________________
His comments on the judge were a huge blunder — he’s used to saying outrageous things and only getting applause. This time it hit a very sour note.
So many who are Republicans but who don’t like him are watching closely right now, to see if he grows up, to see if he can become a more disciplined candidate, to see if he can seriously address the issues. This latest Trump eruption lost a lot of ground for him, especially among the people he needs.
We’ll see, but as of now — especially after this — I’m back to thinking I just won’t vote for president this time. If I lived in a swing state, I might feel more conflicted. But I live in a deep blue state that will always fall into the Democratic column so it won’t really matter if I vote for president or not, frankly.
After tonight, it looks like the November runoff race for U.S. Senate — to replace Barbara Boxer — will be between two Democrats. That’s the way it is now in California. Disheartening.
Yes, really. That’s what you call it when corporations hire illegals at sub-standard wages to increase their profits. If it’s not greed, then what would you call it?
I have a friend who has Down’s. And yes, he has a job.
But only because the employer that hired him gets tax breaks for doing so. Plus his salary is partially reimbursed by federal and state money. He has a job sure, but only because govt pays. Take away those incentives, and he’d be jobless pretty quick. Then they’d just hire illegals to do it, for sub-standard wages of course.
Ricky, it also might be helpful for you to meet some of the people who are on disability and learn they aren’t just all lazy bums abusing the system. For one thing, as AJ can tell you, it’s pretty hard to get on it in the first place.
And it isn’t sheer laziness that says it’s hard to support a family on less than minimum wage doing manual labor. It’s hard to insist that only feminist wives work while at the same time insisting that six or eight dollars an hour is enough play for a 45-year-old father of six children (and that he shouldn’t have any “social net” in place). My late brother-in-law is one of those people who was reduced to taking any job he could get, and who for a time worked yardwork for hardly any money while his boss got rich. He had five children at home, and the only way they made it financially was a combination of having a mortgage-free home (he’d given up a good job for the move, and had enough cash for a house) and having a wife, my sister, who imbibed frugality in her mother’s milk. But still, their family was often near starvation since they refused to take anything from a social safety net and he simply was not earning enough to support a family. The last couple years of his life, he worked at the town dump, a hard job that didn’t bring in a lot of income, but he was happy to get it. A job injury ended up killing him a month after his 46th birthday. (A complication of a job injury, not the injury itself.) My family has extremely hard-working people, and few of us are poor are entire lives. But take away any element of our family heritage (frugality, intelligence, creativity, fundamentally good health), and we’d be in serious trouble. Now put us in a setting where there are no good jobs, no way to get out of the community, virtually no education, and bad influences everywhere (i.e., the inner city), and “they’re just lazy” isn’t anywhere close to the truth of why many people don’t succeed. (For others, I’m sure it is actually part of the reason. But not for everyone. I know poor inner city folks who work really hard to get ahead. But it’s not the fifties anymore, and jobs aren’t intended to support families anymore.)
A few years ago, my next-door neighbors had a young lady doing office work in their home. She was a sweet 20-something and she loved Misten (Misten was a puppy at the time), so if Misten was in the backyard, she’d come over and lean over the fence and pet her. (One day she said to me in surprise, “She’s a collie?” I said yes, and she said, “I thought she was a sheltie!” But she realized she’d grown too big to be a sheltie.) Anyway, one day I found out from my neighbors that this sweet young woman had a fatal disease that would kill her, that she already had outlived virtually everyone ever diagnosed with the disease and she knew she only had a few months left. But she had to work that $10 / hour job for a few hours a week, and she was only allowed to keep $5 of it, because she didn’t earn enough on SS disability to support herself (she lived with her widowed, elderly mother). So even though it was hard on her body to work, she had no choice but to work a few hours.
It would solve nothing in our system to make people like her recertify that they are actually still sick. And in fact doctors do already have to periodically send in paperwork that their patients still have the disabling condition. But to add an extra layer of recertification would just be more paperwork, and it might at times be a profound burden on seriously disabled people.
Cheryl, The “disabled” people I deal with are not from poor families. They are not from inner cities. They are not poorly educated. They are generally well-educated people from middle-class families living in suburban Texas where jobs are plentiful. They just don’t think there is any job they are capable of performing.
Ricky, you can be intelligent, educated, and so forth, and it still might be reality that there is no job they’re capable of performing. Perhaps they could work a few hours a week from their home if such a job opened up. Perhaps they’re lying and taking advantage of the system, or perhaps you don’t know their limitations.
Wandering Views 
Tuition at my fake university will start at $10,000 per year. Tuition will go to $20,000 per year when students are eligible for federal student loans. Tuition will be $60,000 per year if the U.S. adopts Bernie Sanders’ plan to have the “government” pay for college for all. Does that help anyone understand Medicare and health care costs?
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Bret Stephens is right. Trump and the Trumpkins are deranged.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gops-mexico-derangement-1465254607
There is one reason to keep young Mexicans out of the US. I really do not want to turn diligent, heterosexual Mexicans into lazy, perverted Mexican Americans.
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Any predictions for tonight’s primaries?
I won’t be surprised if Sanders takes California, he definitely has the enthusiasm and the momentum going for him. And independents can vote in the Democratic primary in our state.
Clinton apparently has the delegates wrapped up, but in a year like this, that probably doesn’t mean quite as much as it otherwise would. There’s bound to be a lot of unhappy people in the Democratic party.
A friend marking up her sample ballot the other day was lamenting that she guessed she’d “have” to vote for Trump, but I told her no, he’s already the nominee (unfortunately) so in the primary you can vote your (true) first choice, if only as a protest, provided that candidate is still on the ballot (I can’t remember if she was Cruz or Rubio, though — I believe Cruz and Carson both remain on our ballot, not Rubio though).
Meanwhile, the conventions will soon be upon us (Republicans, July 18-21; Democrats July July 25-28). Let the games (and riots) begin.
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I was praying this morning and it occurred to me that the US today is like the Israelites of long ago, begging for a king. God warned them they wouldn’t like it, but they wanted to be like the other nations.
God told them a king would take the money, their goods and their children. They would complain and God would not feel sorry for them–because they asked to serve someone other than him. (paraphrase).
It put our society into better sense but I’m reminded of all those remnant who did not go along and how that staved off crisis for awhile. I’m afraid we’re past that now, but it was an interesting idea.
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I’m strongly feeling, for now, like just abstaining from voting this year. 😦
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I’ve got the Indepndent ballot and the only items I’m voting (against) are the ballot measures. I should be in and out pretty fast!
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I remembered there’s a school teacher friend I know from local dog circles (a collie rescue person) who’s running for one of the GOP delegate slots, I could go vote for her I suppose. 🙂
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Donna, @ 9:47
I predict that it won’t make any difference at all.
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chas, ultimately (in terms of the nomination), no, but … a win in California would give Sanders more bragging rights, more outrage to harness — and that wouldn’t be great if the goal is to unify Sanders & Clinton supporters by fall. A lot of those youthful Sanders folks might just stay home.
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If Clinton wins California, it would be something of a final death blow to the Sanders campaign, although that leftist segment of the party will still bring a lot of clout (and attitude) to the July convention, demanding their due by way of concessions in the platform and/or a VP pick, etc. It’s surprising to me how far left the Democratic party has moved in just a decade.
Are there even any centrists/moderates remaining in that party? I doubt it — but if so, they likely won’t be there for much longer.
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Ok, I found my polling place (a new one for me this time, the 1st Presbyterian Church down the street) and I will plan to swing by and vote before going in to work tonight. But this has got to be the most joyless election I’ve experienced.
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http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/07/take-a-look-at-the-12495-armani-jacket-hillary-wore-while-speaking-about-income-inequality/
Nice jacket
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Ricky,
AJ here,
I tried to let this go, but it’s a bit mind boggling, so………
“There is one reason to keep young Mexicans out of the US. I really do not want to turn diligent, heterosexual Mexicans into lazy, perverted Mexican Americans.”
Really? That’s your one concern? Not the jobs they steal from Americans, not the drain on social resources, or the money they steal from our economy by sending it south, not the rioting, the 86,000 criminal illegals (let’s face it, if you’re here illegally, you’re a criminal, so that number is much higher)…… No. Your one concern is they might turn gay? Seriously?
Wow.
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I mean I get that the WSJ, the newspaper of big business, would advocate open borders and a flood of unskilled labor, they’re simply pandering to their audience. I’m just shocked that you’d agree, especially given it’s effect on your own state.
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This is really getting ridiculous…
http://www.fpiw.org/blog/2016/06/02/washington-schools-to-teach-gender-identity-curriculum-in-kindergarten/
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AJ, Did you read Bret Stephens’ article? It refutes most of your points.
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AJ, I had two concerns , not just one. I did not want the young Mexicans to be converted to either sloth or perversion. Both are prevalent in the US.
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Actually, kindergarten used to be a place of teaching children to play together and listen to a teacher and investigate the world around them. First grade was for learning letters and numbers and maybe reading.
Homeschool.
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Ricky,
The link you posted has a pay wall, so no one can read your link unless they’re a subscriber.
And a quick Google search reveals the cost to Texas alone was over 14 billion last year. Plus, by your states count, there are 1.8 million illegals living in Texas, second only to Cali. Neither you or the author can refute that.
The numbers don’t lie, although the press has been known too. 😉
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I voted three times today.
It seemed to be some kind of special punishment meted out to me since I dreaded voting even once in this miserable election.
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The United Church of Christ would like you to know that if you’re white, you’re a racist no matter what.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/07/united-church-of-christ-all-whites-are-racist-no-matter-what/#ixzz4AuqU3Gb3
“The United Church of Christ (UCC), a major mainline Protestant denomination, published a Facebook post telling all whites that they are racist against non-whites, no matter what they do.
An infographic posted to the church’s Facebook page over the weekend gives white people a series of 10 tips on how to cope with their white privilege. Suggestions include “Listen when people call you on your microaggressions” and “Stop contributing to gentrification.”
But the tenth suggestion is the most notable one, telling white readers to “Recognize that you’re still racist. No matter what.””
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And don’t bother to complain, they’re deleting any posts in response that may be triggering to the special little snowflakes. You don’t get to challenge them.
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Wow. Just imagine how long the wait would be if they weren’t dealing with the most transparent administration evah….. Might be centuries….
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/state-dept.-75-year-wait-for-foia-request-not-outlandish/article/2593221
“The State Department on Tuesday defended its estimate that it would take 75 years to fulfill a request from the Republican National Committee for emails of three top Hillary Clinton aides, and said that length of time is “not an outlandish estimation.”
“That is an incredible number,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner admitted. But he said the estimate is accurate because the RNC’s request is “very complex.”
“It’s a very broad range involving a number of people over a period of four years, and it’s not an outlandish estimation, believe it or not,” Toner said.
The State Department said in a court filing that it would take about 75 years for it to release all the emails to three of Clinton’s former aides: Cheryl Mills, Jacob Sullivan and Patrick Kennedy. The RNC is seeking those emails in a FOIA request.”
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Native Anglo Texans have been dealing with Mexicans and Yankees for a long time. We have fought major wars against both groups. We have dealt with large groups of immigrants from both groups along with immigrants from our sister Southern states.
Only a Native Anglo Texan can appreciate the irony and the hilarity of a Yankee telling a Texan that Mexican immigrants are ruining Texas.
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Ricky – On one side, we have people saying that illegal Mexican (or other immigrants) are taking American jobs. Another side says they are doing jobs that Americans won’t do, & that our economy would fall apart if they were all deported.
I would suppose that the truth may be somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.
A friend pointed out that immigrants are consumers, too (we all have to eat, wear clothes, etc.), thus adding to the economy, at least somewhat.
A meme I saw on Facebook says something like:
“Illegal immigrants are taking American jobs!”
“Oh? I didn’t know it was your dream to pick strawberries.”
Is that a valid point or is it not a valid point?
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AJ – Often, if you google an article’s title & the name of the author, you can get to the article that way.
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Ricky, your first posts rightly points out the problem with Private-Public Partnerships — the private agency sets the prices and the public pays the tab. A completely public system would eliminate the problem.
I couldn’t read the WSJ article either but a cost-benefit analysis or Mexican et al migration would lean towards benefit. The only drawback is they’re illegal. Simple solution; make them legal. And as Ricky points out, immigrants are usually social conservatives, conservative Christians should encourage migration.
I lived through the recent hype when Ontario changed its health curriculum. Family values groups were all aghast at what we would be teaching, there were protests, and threats of withdrawal. As the grade 6-8 health teacher and the lead health teacher in the school, I read the curriculum and the supporting documents and wondered if the family value groups protesting had read the same curriculum documents. When I finished teaching the growth and development strand, my students asked me is this it? what about what people were talking about last year? To which I said, some people can’t read curriculum documents. People are quick to reach the worst possible conclusions about groups and ideas they don’t understand.
For example; In grade seven, I have to discuss the concept and nature of sexual consent. A conservative family values group claimed that meant I would encourage students to have sex. In fact, its to teach students especially males how consent is given and no means no. Given the behaviour of a certain frat boy in California with a drunk girl and the leniency in which he was treated, its a lesson some people still need as adults. A drunk can’t give consent.
Mumsee — kindergarten in my school is where children are taught social and personal skills they should have learned at home — share, no means no, sometimes you have to wait, turn taking, how to use the toilet, how to dress yourself, etc. Yet they are expected to read independently by the end of grade one.
Given the complexities of FOI request, secrecy rules, etc., it will definitely take along time to fulfill the FOI requests especially if the Republicans asked for everything and the kitchen sink.
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WSJ has a strict paywall, but as Karen noted, you can google it and get to it that way.
That said, it’s sad that we all expect and demand free journalistic content now. 😦
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I used this video to teach consent
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The strawberry picking line is nonsense.
Workers like that are a small percentage of illegal workers.
Come to the northeast and talk to the men who used to do construction, drywall, landscaping, and other assorted trades who are now among the 94 million Americans not in the labor force. They’d love to still be there, but they can’t raise a family here on the slave wages now paid, due to corporate greed and an ever expanding illegal worker pool.
http://cis.org/immigrant-gains-native-losses-in-the-job-market-2000-to-2013
“While jobs are always being created and lost, and the number of workers rises and falls with the economy, a new analysis of government data shows that all of the net gain in employment over the last 13 years has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). From the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2013, the number of natives working actually fell by 1.3 million while the overall size of the working-age (16 to 65) native population increased by 16.4 million. Over the same time period, the number of immigrants working (legal and illegal) increased by 5.3 million. In addition to the decline in the number of natives working, there has been a broad decline in the percentage holding a job that began before the 2007 recession. This decline has impacted natives of almost every age, race, gender, and education level. The total number of working-age (16 to 65) natives not working — unemployed or out of the labor force entirely — was nearly 59 million in the first quarter of this year, a figure that has changed little in the last three years and is nearly 18 million larger than in 2000.
Aside from the legalization provisions, one of the main justifications for the large increases in permanent immigration and guest workers in the Schumer-Rubio bill (S.744) is that the nation does not have enough workers. But the data do not support this conclusion. A second argument for the bill is that immigration always creates jobs for natives. But over the last 13 years nearly 16 million new immigrants arrived, 5.4 million since 2008. The last 13 years or even the last five years make clear that large-scale immigration can go hand in hand with weak job growth and persistently high rates of joblessness among the native-born.
Among the findings (all figures compare first quarter employment):
Between the first quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2013, the native-born population accounted for two-thirds of overall growth in the working-age population (16 to 65), but none of the net growth in employment among the working-age has gone to natives.
The overall size of the working-age native-born population increased by 16.4 million from 2000 to 2013, yet the number of natives actually holding a job was 1.3 million lower in 2013 than 2000.
The total number of working-age immigrants (legal and illegal) increased 8.8 million and the number working rose 5.3 million between 2000 and 2013.
Even before the recession, when the economy was expanding (2000 to 2007), 60 percent of the net increase in employment among the working-age went to immigrants, even though they accounted for just 38 percent of population growth among the working-age population. ”
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They ain’t all pickin’ strawberries
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On Twitter tonight:
Mollie @MZHemingway
America, I love you. But you’re bringing me down.
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Karen, Virtually all of the net job creation in the US since 2008 in the US has happened in Texas, so our system works, but the answer to your question is complicated.
1. Many of the jobs performed by the illegal aliens are jobs that Americans don’t now want to do. Some of these are jobs I had as a youth such as a seasonal agricultural worker or a busboy.
2. Other Mexicans take jobs from lower class whites, blacks and Mexican-Americans. This happens often in construction and maintenance work. It is partially an issue of wages, but primarily because lower class Americans of all races have increasingly become undependable bums. My brother-in-law builds homes. In Texas most of his tradesmen are Mexicans. They work very hard and are very dependable. In the 1990s his company transferred him to another state which had virtually no Mexicans. He had to depend on white and black tradesmen who often were in jail on Monday mornings when they should have been at work. It was horrible.
3. A number of studies have shown that Mexicans contribute greatly to the economy through taxes paid and lower prices of goods and services. One of the points Bret Stephens made in the article is that Social Security taxes paid by illegal aliens are what kept that Ponzi scheme from going bankrupt.
4. Unfortunately, if Mexican families stay here for a generation or two the second and third generations are much more likely to become dependent on food stamps, Medicaid, etc. even as they are also engulfed by the perverted US culture.
The Stephens article noted that hundreds of thousands more Mexicans have left the U.S. to return to Mexico than have migrated the other way over the last decade. He noted that this is because there are good jobs in Mexico. Mexico is not hamstrung by insane tree-huggers or hurt by the costliest healthcare system in the world.
I hope that Mexicans will raise their children in Mexico. The children can grow up to be hard workers with good jobs and the little girls can go to the ladies room without fear of being followed by perverted men.
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AJ, “Corporate greed”? As you say, “Really?”
I understand how Trump is able to make a play for the Sanders vote. Unfortunately, those two sets of voters have a great deal in common. Too many people have been listening to Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow when they should have been reading Milton Friedman.
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HRW, I agree with your solution to make the illegals “legal”, but my solution might be different than yours:
1. I would eliminate birthright citizenship, so no more anchor babies.
2. I would reestablish something like the old Brasero (Did I spell it right?) program. We need to allow documented guest workers to travel freely between the U.S. and Mexico. No more dangerous hikes across the desert.
3. The need for guest workers might be reduced after I sharply trim the social safety net, thus giving new incentive to AJ’s idle Northeasterners to look harder for work and work harder when they get a job. Part of the trim would be a re-certification of the “disabled” receiving Social Security. We have people with Down’s Syndrome doing a good job working at restaurants while millions of other Americans are drawing disability checks because they can’t handle “stress” or some other lame excuse.
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Good night for Hillary.
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Looks like Bernie’s being summoned to the White House tomorrow.
The Dutch Uncle talk?
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_http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/06/trump-backs-down.php
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Since he clinched the nomination, Donald Trump’s campaign has been a train wreck. His criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who presides over the Trump University case, has been a four-alarm disaster. After his initial comments provoked controversy, Trump returned to the subject several times and dug the hole deeper. Finally, earlier today, Trump tried to put the matter behind him …
Hallelujah. But the cows are pretty well out of the barn. Trump’s original comments were not racist … . But they were criminally stupid. No real politician would have committed such an unforced error. Perhaps Trump fans who thought it would be great to nominate a man who is not a politician are now seeing the downside of selecting an amateur.
… in the end, Trump has no one to blame but himself. As Byron York points out, there was no reason for Trump to go off on a ten-minute dissertation on the Trump University case. This is a completely self-inflicted wound, and it results from Trump’s lack of discipline and common sense. That some Republicans are willing to join the jackal pack when Trump slips up should come as no surprise to anyone, let alone Donald.
He had better step up his game if he doesn’t want to be embarrassed in November.
________________________________________
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His comments on the judge were a huge blunder — he’s used to saying outrageous things and only getting applause. This time it hit a very sour note.
So many who are Republicans but who don’t like him are watching closely right now, to see if he grows up, to see if he can become a more disciplined candidate, to see if he can seriously address the issues. This latest Trump eruption lost a lot of ground for him, especially among the people he needs.
We’ll see, but as of now — especially after this — I’m back to thinking I just won’t vote for president this time. If I lived in a swing state, I might feel more conflicted. But I live in a deep blue state that will always fall into the Democratic column so it won’t really matter if I vote for president or not, frankly.
After tonight, it looks like the November runoff race for U.S. Senate — to replace Barbara Boxer — will be between two Democrats. That’s the way it is now in California. Disheartening.
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Ricky,
Yes, really. That’s what you call it when corporations hire illegals at sub-standard wages to increase their profits. If it’s not greed, then what would you call it?
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And also Ricky, a little FYI for ya’.
I have a friend who has Down’s. And yes, he has a job.
But only because the employer that hired him gets tax breaks for doing so. Plus his salary is partially reimbursed by federal and state money. He has a job sure, but only because govt pays. Take away those incentives, and he’d be jobless pretty quick. Then they’d just hire illegals to do it, for sub-standard wages of course.
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Ricky, it also might be helpful for you to meet some of the people who are on disability and learn they aren’t just all lazy bums abusing the system. For one thing, as AJ can tell you, it’s pretty hard to get on it in the first place.
And it isn’t sheer laziness that says it’s hard to support a family on less than minimum wage doing manual labor. It’s hard to insist that only feminist wives work while at the same time insisting that six or eight dollars an hour is enough play for a 45-year-old father of six children (and that he shouldn’t have any “social net” in place). My late brother-in-law is one of those people who was reduced to taking any job he could get, and who for a time worked yardwork for hardly any money while his boss got rich. He had five children at home, and the only way they made it financially was a combination of having a mortgage-free home (he’d given up a good job for the move, and had enough cash for a house) and having a wife, my sister, who imbibed frugality in her mother’s milk. But still, their family was often near starvation since they refused to take anything from a social safety net and he simply was not earning enough to support a family. The last couple years of his life, he worked at the town dump, a hard job that didn’t bring in a lot of income, but he was happy to get it. A job injury ended up killing him a month after his 46th birthday. (A complication of a job injury, not the injury itself.) My family has extremely hard-working people, and few of us are poor are entire lives. But take away any element of our family heritage (frugality, intelligence, creativity, fundamentally good health), and we’d be in serious trouble. Now put us in a setting where there are no good jobs, no way to get out of the community, virtually no education, and bad influences everywhere (i.e., the inner city), and “they’re just lazy” isn’t anywhere close to the truth of why many people don’t succeed. (For others, I’m sure it is actually part of the reason. But not for everyone. I know poor inner city folks who work really hard to get ahead. But it’s not the fifties anymore, and jobs aren’t intended to support families anymore.)
A few years ago, my next-door neighbors had a young lady doing office work in their home. She was a sweet 20-something and she loved Misten (Misten was a puppy at the time), so if Misten was in the backyard, she’d come over and lean over the fence and pet her. (One day she said to me in surprise, “She’s a collie?” I said yes, and she said, “I thought she was a sheltie!” But she realized she’d grown too big to be a sheltie.) Anyway, one day I found out from my neighbors that this sweet young woman had a fatal disease that would kill her, that she already had outlived virtually everyone ever diagnosed with the disease and she knew she only had a few months left. But she had to work that $10 / hour job for a few hours a week, and she was only allowed to keep $5 of it, because she didn’t earn enough on SS disability to support herself (she lived with her widowed, elderly mother). So even though it was hard on her body to work, she had no choice but to work a few hours.
It would solve nothing in our system to make people like her recertify that they are actually still sick. And in fact doctors do already have to periodically send in paperwork that their patients still have the disabling condition. But to add an extra layer of recertification would just be more paperwork, and it might at times be a profound burden on seriously disabled people.
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Cheryl, The “disabled” people I deal with are not from poor families. They are not from inner cities. They are not poorly educated. They are generally well-educated people from middle-class families living in suburban Texas where jobs are plentiful. They just don’t think there is any job they are capable of performing.
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Ricky, you can be intelligent, educated, and so forth, and it still might be reality that there is no job they’re capable of performing. Perhaps they could work a few hours a week from their home if such a job opened up. Perhaps they’re lying and taking advantage of the system, or perhaps you don’t know their limitations.
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