Category: Social Behavior

Huddled Masses Are Not Welcome Here!

This is a title I really hated to post.

Statue of Liberty in New York harbor

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Words on the 1903 bronze plaque located in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

President Biden on Friday said the treatment of Haitian migrants this week was “beyond an embarrassment.” “It sends the wrong message around the world,” Biden said. “It’s simply not who we are.” But what he said was a lie.

America’s history on its treatment of immigrants trying to escape life threatening situation proves that fact.  Irish in the 1800s, Iraqis after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mexicans and Central Americans for decades — have encountered a hostile environment.  Mexican farm workers have been allowed into the Untied States to pick our fruits and vegetables but never given legal status to live in the United States.

On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. On the voyage were 937 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. The US State Department in Washington, the US consulate in Havana, some Jewish organizations, and refugee agencies were all aware of the situation. The passengers themselves were not informed; most were ultimately compelled to return to Europe where many died at the hands of the Nazis.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

A month before the 2020 presidential election, Biden stumped in Little Haiti in Miami. Biden promised Haitians that he would ensure that Haiti and the Haitian people are treated with the “respect and dignity that they deserve.”

Mr. President you and your predecessors have failed to be uphold the promises made.  You should be ashamed but you probably aren’t. Someone should take President Biden to the Statue of Liberty.

America’s Billonaires

According to Forbes magazine the United States has more billionaires than any other country in the world, 724. The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755–660 more than a year ago.

The world’s richest person is Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $113 Billion.

There is something wrong with a society that has hundreds if super wealthy citizens while thousands of citizens are struggling to pay for housing, food, and health care. What do you do with $100 million dollars? How many parties do you go to? How many cruises do you take?

I don’t expect our government to do anything about the issue. Congress can’t even agree to pay the bills for programs that have already been approved.

Boston is About to Elect a Non-White Mayor

This is what scares White supremacists more than anything else.  White people are a shrinking part of America’s population.

Leading candidates for mayor of Boston

As reported in the Washington Post all the leading candidates are women of color.  The leading candidate for mayor of NYC, Eric Adam, is Black.  The leading Republican candidate, Larry Elder, in California’s recall election is Black.

Many states are passing voting restrictions to limit minorities ability to vote.  Those states are either in the South or are primarily rural agricultural with relatively small populations.

The next political battle is likely to be the congressional redistricting based on the 2020 census.  Look for many court battles.

What is worse is the divide that between White supremacists and the rest of us.  Those Whites actually fear their lives are in danger.

Hate is hard to combat!

Shame on the United States

What will Tuesday August 31, 2021 look like at Kabul’s airport?  Will it look like this?

My guess the answer is yes.  With a population of 38 million people and a Kabul population of 4 million people where were the defenders of their city?

The United States has failed to protect those in Afghanistan who were our guides, interpreters and coordinators. My country is racing to leave that country as if it was a burning building and everyone is piling onto others to reach the exit.

Our exit date was not set by the Taliban.  It was set by President Joe Biden.  While he and his predecessor were correct in wanting to withdraw from Afghanistan, the execution of withdrawal will go down in history as a major failure.

America’s “allies” are all wondering if the United States will stand by its commitments.  Would this country come to the aid of Taiwan if attacked by China?  Or will we stand by as Russia continues to annex more parts of Ukraine?

The foreign policy of the Joe Biden administration emphasizes repairing the U.S.’s alliances, which Biden says have been damaged under the Trump but our actions in Afghanistan send a different message.

Biden at the age of 78 has probably decided not to run for a second term.  That decision frees him to do the things that past presidents were unable to accomplish.

Mister President, have you no shame?

Last Days in Afghanistan

For most Americans who remember it, the end of the Vietnam War is inextricably linked with images of chaos: desperate residents of Saigon climbing the walls of the U.S. embassy, sailors on navy vessels pushing helicopters overboard to make room for more refugees. Few people know the full story behind the city’s controversial mass-evacuation in April 1975. Told by survivors and key figures in the exodus, Last Days in Vietnam unearthed new footage and reexamines those events in a way that raises questions about contemporary conflicts in Irag, Afghanistan, and with ISIS.

The final 24 hours of the Vietnam War were no less ugly than all the years that preceded them. This grainy photo says it all.

It was reported repeatedly that Afghanistan’s army was four times the size of the Taliban’s fighting force. That the Afghanistan army had all of the latest weaponry. The army had 20 years of training by the United States army. Despite those facts the Afghanistan army disintegrated when confronted by Taliban forces.

The American flag has been taken down at the Kabul embassy. The president of Afghanistan has reportedly left the country. Afghan aides to the US military (translators, interpreters, and other who worked in the US embassy) fear for their lives and are searching every avenue to leave their country.

Afghanistan is a tribal tribal country that historically was governed by an Emir. An Emir is not a king. He is selected by the tribes. The population of the country consists of numerous ethnolinguistic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Qizilbash, Pamiri, Kyrgyz, Sadat and others.

The Western world has tried to install democracy in Afghanistan for more than 100 years. They are happy with their way of life that is guided by the Koran.

Undoubtedly there will be a movie titled “Last Days in Afghanistan.”

A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021.

The Devil went down to Texas

Re-write of Charlie Daniel’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. Words by Eric Hanke and posted on Facebook.

The Devil went down to Texas, He was lookin’ for some votes to steal.’Cause the cities and towns, are more black and brown And they tend to keep it real.

Said I know that folks are dyin’, I’m just here to run my race. If people freeze, or get some disease At least they know their place.

I’m in a band of demons, We were forged in hell. If you’ve got the coin, we’ll let you join But if not, you’re SOL.

You see we lost in Georgia, So we gotta make a stand. I’m building walls, ’cause if Texas falls That’s it for our little band.

If you want to beat me, If you think there’s any hope, Have all your friends defeat me Get em registered to vote.

Abbott you can play your fiddle, call your sessions too. But the people here in Texas, are dyin’ ’cause of you. You sold your soul, so long ago, of that there is no doubt, Come this next November, we’re gonna vote you out.

Canada vows to resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan, as Taliban sweep country

Canada has become the destination for many people fleeing violence in their home country. Has the United States relinquished its moral authority? Was the Statue of Liberty given to the wrong nation?

By Alex McKeen Vancouver Bureau, Toronto Star Fri., Aug. 13, 2021

Canada has announced an expanded program to resettle Afghan refugees as territories in Afghanistan fall rapidly to the Taliban.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday the program will welcome 20,000 Afghans, targeting those who belong to groups vulnerable to persecution by the Taliban.

Those groups will include: “Women leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, persecuted minorities, LGBTQI members, and family of previously resettled interpreters,” Mendicino said.

The government made the announcement amidst pressure to expedite its program to resettle those who were employed by Canada during its efforts in Afghanistan, such as interpreters.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday acknowledged what she called Canada’s “moral duty” to help resettle Afghans who have worked for Canadian Forces and the Canadian Embassy.

On July 23, under pressure from the veteran community and advocates, Ottawa announced a new program to expedite the resettlement of its former employees including translators, drivers, cleaners and cooks.

The effort has been plagued by questions and controversy, including whether the extended families of those who previously came to Canada are eligible for assistance.

Under the newly extended resettlement program, those families will be eligible. Mendicino said they will be able to come to Canada through family-class sponsorship and refugee programs.

Census: decline in the white population for first time in history

What will the likes of Orval Faubus (past Governor of Arkansas), Strom Thurmond (past senator from South Carolina), George Wallace (Former Governor of Alabama) do in the 21st century? It was Wallace who said, “Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever.” It was President Eisenhower, a Republican, who sent who sent troops to Little Rock to enforce integration of their high school.

U.S. Census officials released data Thursday revealing the most sweeping picture of America’s racial and ethnic makeup in a decade.

“These changes reveal that the US population is much more multiracial, and more racially and ethnically diverse, than what we measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, the director of race, ethnicity, research and outreach for the Census Bureau’s population division.

The white, non-Hispanic population, without another race, decreased by 8.6% since 2010, according to the new data from the 2020 census. The U.S. is now 57.8% white, 18.7% Hispanic, 12.4% Black and 6% Asian.

“The presence of the Hispanic or Latino population as the second-most prevalent group spanned the entire continental United States, with large numbers of counties in every region,” census officials said.

White Supremacists are frightened about what will happen as the White population declines. What will the country look like racially in 2030? Whites will have dropped to 55.8% of the population, and Hispanics will have grown to 21.1%. The percentage of black and Asian Americans will also grow significantly. Predictions are that White people will be less than half the population by 2045 an will continue to decline.

My guess is White segregationists will be moving into gated communities.

Job Openings Exist – No one Wants those Jobs

The Labor Department’s Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows that by May, the economy had more than 9 million unfilled job openings, the highest number since the survey began in 2000, and double the number available as recently as 2014. The unemployment rate in July was 5.4 percent and presumably would have been lower if job seekers had taken some of the many available positions.  Explain  what is the reason for a rental eviction moratorium?

I feel badly for those who lack the skills to obtain nothing more than a  minimum wage job but life isn’t fair.  I cannot be a lawyer or doctor because I lack the ability to pass the bar or meet the standards to be a doctor.  That is simply a fact.

Many people are receiving more unemployment benefit aid than the money they would earn in their previous job. Millions will lose pandemic unemployment in September—many have already been cut off. … The programs, which support people who’d normally fall through the cracks of the unemployment system, were established in the March 2020 CARES Act and extended until Labor Day 2021 through the American Rescue Plan.

Roughly 7.5 million workers who’ve relied on pandemic-era unemployment benefits will be cut off from jobless aid altogether when they are set to expire on September 6, according to estimates from The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank.  Rising Covid cases due to the contagious delta variant make finding a job difficult but how difficult when retail and hospitality businesses are clamoring for workers?

A consequence of low paying jobs means a lack of affordable housing.  This is not a Covid-19 issue.  The poor have been confronted with this issue all of their lives.  It begs the question: Is it the government’s responsibility to provide housing for everyone?  I believe the answer is yes.  Many cities do provide public housing.  Most Democrats say the answer is YES and most Republicans say NO. But it’s not that simple.  There are unfilled jobs available now.  I won’t be surprised if many of those unwanted openings are filled after September 6.