Seeking Asylum is Legal

Without question we have a large number of people living in this country who entered outside of legal channels, as well as many who entered legally but overstayed their visas and never went home. A burning question facing our politicians, and indeed everyone in this country is "What do we do about it?"

First, a little history.

For the first half of our country's history, there were restrictions on who could apply for citizenship, but virtually none on who could actually enter the country. Quite the opposite, the United States actively encouraged immigration. It wasn't until the 1880's that laws began to be passed regulating immigration. The first restrictive immigration law was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Exclusions were added bit by bit in subsequent years excluding the mentally ill, those with infectious diseases, those "likely to be a public ward" (unable to work) and after President McKinley was assassinated, those with anarchist connections. In 1921 immigration quotas were put into place. The quotas were based on the percentage of people from a given nationality already living in the United States at that time. Naturally, since these numbers tended to skew toward Northern European whites, the quotas in practice restricted non-whites from immigrating.

In 1943 the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed and in 1952 all racial references were removed and in 1960 national origin quotas were eliminated. Preferences would now be given to those with skills that were needed, asylum seekers, refugees and family members of previous immigrants.

Despite changes made in recent decades, it's not difficult to see that immigration law in this country has an undeniably racist background.

So what about the supposed crisis at our southern border? For years, the number of apprehensions of people attempting to enter the United States illegally had been going down. During Trump's first year in office he bragged regularly about how the numbers had fallen, taking credit for a years-long trend. But the number of attempts to enter the country illegally have shot up again to near record levels. Why? An entirely predictable reason for this increase is the Trump policy of making it more difficult for asylum seekers. Seeking asylum is perfectly legal. You present yourself at a US port of entry and declare your intention to seek asylum. You are then allowed into the country and given a court date. (Trump claims that virtually none of these asylum seekers show up for their court dates, in reality the number of no-shows is around 25%) But the Border Patrol has been instructed to turn people away and have them wait in Mexico for their applications to be processed. The conditions in which these asylum seekers have been forced to wait are unsafe, so naturally many will seek to cross over illegally.

The Trump administration has responded to the crisis by arresting those who have been caught, and keeping them, including their children, in unsanitary and frankly barbaric conditions.  The flood of asylum seekers has been characterized as an invasion. They have been painted as drug smugglers and human traffickers. Trump and his administration somehow think that the rest, the ones who aren't drug smugglers and human traffickers (oh, and rapists) are here to take advantage of our social programs and live tax-free off of the rest of us hard-working 'Mericans. But think about what it must take to pack up your family, with few possessions or resources beyond the clothes on your back, to walk thousands of miles to an uncertain future...how terrible, how horrible must it be back home. It used to be that a large percentage of immigrants from Mexico and Central America were single men looking for work, but now it's whole families. If your son was being threatened with mutilation or death if he didn't join a gang, if your 13 year old daughter was going to be the "girlfriend" of a gang leader. If the government and police  just accepted their bribes and let it happen, what would you do? What American wouldn't do what ever it took to keep his loved ones safe, yet we judge these refugees from violence as parasites.

And even those who cross the border illegally and settle here. The right-wing chorus would have us believe that they are receiving benefits that could go to citizens. Other than free school lunches, those who are undocumented can't get government benefits...because they're undocumented. However, they do pay taxes, taxes that are taken out of every paycheck, including FICA, which they won't be able to claim upon retirement...because they're undocumented.

What's the solution? There is no simple solution. But the solution isn't simply to build a giant wall and further militarize the Border Patrol. Perhaps make it easier for those fleeing poverty and violence to apply for and receive asylum. Perhaps spending money on more immigration judges, advocates and lawyers, developing a system, like tracking devices, to ensure that asylum seekers show up for court. We spend so much time and money trying to hold back the tide that we lose sight of the fact that many of these people who we are so quick to bar the door for could be productive members of American society. There are already millions who are undocumented who go to work every day, pay their taxes, take their kids to school, spend money in our local businesses and are virtually indistinguishable from those of us who were born here.

Let's stop looking at these people as a foreign "other" and treat them as fellow human beings worthy of compassion. Let's drop the divisive and hateful rhetoric and include a humanitarian concern for the asylum seekers and refugees as part of any solution.

Election Interference

Let's set aside for the moment the question of whether Trump or his campaign actively coordinated or conspired with Russia to interfere with and influence the 2016 presidential election, or whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice in his attempts to discredit and hinder the investigation. These are important questions, but the discussion will have to wait for another time. Today's post is about Russia's actual interference and what Trump is doing about it.

Several agencies in the United States intelligence community expressed "with high confidence" their assessment that elements of the Russian government had engaged in a disinformation campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. There is no question that this took place. There was no dissension within the ranks of the intelligence agencies. Robert Mueller's Report confirmed that this took place. When it became known in 2016 what Russia was attempting , President Obama took action that, although criticized as weak and ineffectual by some, nonetheless recognized the gravity of the situation. Trump's campaign was informed. Senate majority Leader McConnell was offered the opportunity to make a joint statement with President Obama regarding Russia's actions. McConnell refused. Obama declined to make a unilateral announcement for fear that it would look like a partisan attack.

Trump was elected.

So what were some of the initial reactions by the Trump administration? Open back-channel talks with Russia to remove the sanctions that the Obama administration had placed on Russia in answer to the interference. Tweet that Putin was "smart" not to retaliate for the sanctions. Show unusual deference to President Putin, even while insulting and deriding our allies. Trump's continued attempts to kiss up to Putin's Russia are explained by saying that it makes sense to be on good relations with Russia, which only makes sense if you ignore his continued belligerence toward China and even his on-again-off-again tariff war against our long time allies.

Face-to-face meetings between Trump and Putin are usually accompanied by the press asking Trump if he will confront Putin about election interference. In the past Trump's response has been that he brought it up and that Putin denied it, implying strongly that he believed Putin over our own intelligence agencies. But this time Trump treated it as a big joke, turning to Putin with a smirk on his face and asking him to "Don't interfere, please" in a jovial tone. (Another related subject is Trump's "joke" about Russia not having a "fake news" problem, I guess the joke is that Russia kills off their dissenters, so "problem solved")

It's obvious that since Trump benefited from this attack by Russia he doesn't see it as a problem and will do nothing to discourage it from continuing.

Trump & Iran

There were very few things about Donald Trump's "policies" that I liked when he was campaigning for president. Even the things that kinda-sorta sounded good were more like vague platitudes than actual plans, and could be dismissed as bullshit, like most political speech. However, he seemed sincere in his stance regarding entanglements in foreign wars. Most presidents, no matter how pacifistic they seem, manage to get us involved in some kind of war. Even Obama, supposedly against our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan failed to get us out of Afghanistan. Even though we withdrew from active military operation in Iraq, the instability and weakness of the government allowed the proliferation of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq & Syria. Our support for anti-government rebels in Syria at times inadvertently aided Islamist terrorist groups and the air support for Libyan rebels helped to lead to the chaos that reigns there today. Two of our allies in the region, Turkey and the Kurdish militias, would gladly obliterate each other.  No matter what we do, no matter who we support, it all seems to go to shit. Of all the idiocy coming out of Trump's twisted mind, at least he wouldn't be getting us involved in another Middle East quagmire.

Haha, how naive I was!

At complete odds with Trump's stated aversion to getting us involved in yet another war is his tendency to beat his chest and make threats. The concept of diplomacy is completely foreign to him, even the head of the State Department, which is the department that is supposed to do diplomacy, is headed by someone who can best be described as a war hawk.

Since the Islamic Revolution of the seventies, Iran has been a thorn in the side of American interests in the region, mainly in opposition to our main allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iran has supported groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which have worked to destabilize the region and are currently engaged in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen. International pressure, including sanctions had been ineffective in subduing Iran's disruptive tendencies. This is where the Obama era Iran Nuclear Agreement comes. The Unites States, along with several major European nations, China and Russia, negotiated an agreement whereby economic sanctions would be loosened and eventually completely lifted, in exchange for Iran's limiting their nuclear production, making it more difficult for Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. The agreement, although far from perfect, was the best that could be attained at the time, and had the advantage of support from, not only the Western powers, but China and Russia as well.

Then along came Trump.

It is a virtual certainty that Trump was not familiar with the details of the Iran Nuclear Agreement, but that didn't stop him from calling it a "disaster" (one of his go-to words for policies that he doesn't like) or "the worst deal ever". Many of Trump's "policies" are simply slogans designed to get his base riled up, positions such as building a "big, beautiful wall" and "ending the war on coal". That's Trump playing populist. Another side of Trump's decision making was his focus on erasing anything that President Obama accomplished, just because Obama accomplished it. Trump, through his son-in-law Jared Kushner, also seems to have business interests in Saudi Arabia, Iran's arch-nemesis, which might explain a policy that weakens their enemy. So Trump cancels the agreement, without consulting with the other signatories, somehow believing that bullying and threats will accomplish his ephemeral goals. Not only does he believe that threatening Iran will cause them to suspend their nuclear program, which they had already done, but he also believes that threatening the other signatories, including our allies will make it all better.

What Trump doesn't understand is that other nations also have national pride. The fastest way to get kicked out of office is to roll over for America. The Iranian government, in order to save face with their own people, and more importantly with the hardliners among their leadership, will not acquiesce to American provocation, but very predictably will return to their old ways.

Another thing that he doesn't understand is that he's like the Boy Who Cried Wolf with his threats. He has threatened military action against North Korea and Venezuela and now Iran. In the case of North Korea he has rolled over for Kim, ignoring clear provocations because he's received a "beautiful letter". With Venezuela, despite tweeting that the United States is "with" the Venezuelan opposition, he has chosen to ignore Maduro's actions. Failing to follow through on threats was a major criticism that Obama faced during his administration. Eventually, Trump will accede to his own hardliners and go to war with Iran to "solve" the problem that he created.

McConnell

Sure Trump is an incompetent, ignorant narcissist, but there's a very competent, very knowledgeable guy who is aiding and abetting him every step of the way.

Senator Mitch McConnell.

Mitch McConnell is, and has been, as far back as 2008, a hyper-partisan. Mitch McConnell stated, out loud for everyone to hear, that his goal was to make Barack Obama a one term president. He failed in that goal, but succeeded in hamstringing Obama, preventing him from accomplishing much of anything during his two terms.

McConnell was the Senate Minority Leader when Obama was elected. Obama rode to victory along with a majority in the House of Representatives and a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Those 60 votes were extremely important since, until recently any Senator could hold up a vote by filibustering (basically talking without end). It took 60 votes to invoke cloture, i.e. an end to a filibuster and initiate a vote. In practice, the Senate began to look at 60 votes as what was needed to pass a bill. McConnell took full advantage of this once the Senate Democratic majority fell below 60 votes when Senator Kennedy died and a Republican was elected in his place; holding up legislation with delaying tactics. When the Republicans regained the majority, McConnell had free reign to stymie Obama's agenda with impunity. In his most egregious partisan move, he refused to grant a hearing, let alone confirm, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court in 2016, rationalizing that a president should not be allowed to pick a Supreme Court justice in an election year. Not at all concerned about the appearance of hypocrisy, he recently stated that should an opening occur in 2020 he would confirm Trump's pick.

While the Senate remained in Republican hands after the 2018 elections, the House of Representatives flipped to Democratic control. McConnell persists in his obstructionist ways, refusing to bring up for a vote over 100 bills passed by the House of Representatives. The one bit of business that Mitch has no problem conducting is confirming the many judicial appointees; positions that are open due to eight years of refusing to confirm Obama's appointees.

Trump may be a danger to the country, ignorant and incompetent, but he is extremely useful to partisan hack, Mitch McConnell

Incompetent and Ignorant

This particular post will not be about impeachment, obstruction of justice, conspiracy or other criminal activity. While that's definitely a subject ripe for discussion, this morning I want to ruminate on incompetency, ignorance and narcissism.

One of the recurring themes in politics is that somehow the outsider is to be preferred to the insider. If you are of the opinion that government is hopelessly corrupt, then perhaps it makes sense for someone who isn't involved get an opportunity to try to run things. This is one of the reasons that governors and former governors do so well in presidential elections. George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan are some modern day examples. George HW Bush was the only in that time frame who hadn't been a state governor. However, governors do have government experience, as an executive who has to work with a legislature to get things done. Although it often takes them a while to get the hang of things, since they often come to the governorship after having run a business...where there is no legislature.

Donald Trump was an exception. He was the only president who was elected having absolutely no government or military experience. Many people who voted for him did so believing that his lack of experience was a point in his favor. A large percentage of eventual Trump voters had been Tea Party supporters disenchanted with the Tea Party wave of Representatives and Senators who ended up getting absorbed by the system that they promised to change. Ted Cruz is a prime example. He was one of the first Tea Party Republicans to be elected, but was derided by Trump and his supporters as "Lyin' Ted" and a tool of the corrupt system.

Trump appealed to many of the former Tea Party voters because he said all the right things and pushed all the right buttons. He eschewed talk of fiscal conservatism and balancing the budget because it wasn't going to get any applause at his rallies. He stuck with the social issues that got the Tea Party worked up: immigration, jobs and hatred of Hillary Clinton. He appealed to the Evangelicals by promising to appoint conservative judges who would eventually overturn Roe vs. Wade, he appealed to big business by vowing to cut taxes on corporations.

I didn't agree with most of his positions, but even if I did, it should have been obvious that he had no plan for accomplishing any of it. President Obama, during a campaign stop, wondered aloud of Trump would be using a magic wand to accomplish his goals.

Once Trump was in office it became even more obvious that he had no idea how to get anything done. One of his favorite methods is executive orders. An executive order is action that a president can take without involving Congress. It usually involves modifying an existing rule or regulation within an executive department. Trump has used executive orders to undermine environmental regulations especially, but the multitude of signing ceremonies was more photo op than actions as this LA Times article shows:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-executive-orders-ineffective-20190327-story.html

Trump, even when his party controlled both houses of Congress, was able to accomplish little legislatively. In the two years when the Republican party had complete control, the only thing of any significance that he was able to get done was the 2017 corporate tax break. And the only reason it passed was some questionable math by House Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell. Trump seems to not understand that being president is not like being king, or even the head of a family-owned company. He can not govern by fiat. Rather than working with Congress, he threatens and blames even those in his own party. He doesn't understand or care about international alliances, he is woefully ignorant of economics, especially how tariffs work and who ends up paying them.

And with Trump, everything is personal. "The people" love him, anyone who criticizes him is a traitor, an enemy of the people, he and vicious dictators "have a great relationship". He can't seem to separate his ego from the act of governing. He creates problems, then claims to solve them, puffing up his ego.

Trump, even if you agree that we need a wall, or any of his other half-baked ideas, is clearly incompetent and accomplishing them, and ignorant of how anything works.