Patterico's Pontifications

11/4/2021

Joe Biden: Reports of Huge Payoffs to Illegal Immigrant Families Is “Garbage”; White House: Here’s What He Meant to Say

Filed under: General — JVW @ 3:46 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Another shining moment for “the adults in the room.” At the end of last week, reports from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times declared that the Biden Administration was considering a plan to pay up to $450,000 per child to illegal immigrant families who were detained at the border and separated from their children during the previous administration, with some families with multiple children receiving as much as one million dollars. Naturally, Republicans responded with utter dismay (Oops! I guess the word I am supposed to use is “pounced”). Luckily for the President, he had by then jetted off to Rome (4,500 mile trip) on Air Force One where he made use of an 85-vehicle motorcade en route to The Vatican to share a laugh with the Pope before then swinging up to Glasgow (1,560 mile trip) to join with 30,000 other attendees who had traveled (mostly via airplane) to Scotland to watch the U.S. President nap through a series of speeches demanding that we peons who don’t work for the almighty government drastically reduce our carbon footprint, and thus did not have to immediately answer questions about the proposed payouts to illegal immigrants scheme.

At least, that is, until he returned home yesterday (3425 mile trip). In his first press conference back, Fox News (naturally) reporter Peter Doocey asked the President if the proposed payouts might incentivize more foreigners to attempt an illegal border crossing, and was met with this reply: “If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah. But it’s not true.”

When Mr. Doocey followed-up by asking the President if he does believe this is a “garbage report,” the President replied, “Yeah. Four-hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person, is that what you are saying?” When Mr. Doocey responded in the affirmative, the President retorted emphatically, “That’s not gonna happen.”

The report is “garbage”? Well, not according to the ACLU who has apparently been working with members of the administration on this very issue. The original article in the WSJ quoted Lee Gelernt from the ACLU’s immigrant-rights division saying, “President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied. That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”

And are the payouts, according to the President, really “not gonna happen”? The people whose job it apparently is to tell Joe Biden what he believes are now indicating otherwise. Today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters that the President is “perfectly comfortable” with settlements if that is what his handlers tell him he needs to believe in order to appease today’s designated preferred activist group (ok, I probably made up that last part myself). Thus, yet again, President Biden displays his uncanny ability to suggest that he isn’t really the decision-maker in the Oval Office, he’s just the public face of what an unelected bureaucratic/media/academic cabal decides is good policy for holding together the increasingly-factious Democrat coalition.

By now it is a well-worn platitude to assert that Joe Biden lacks the intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job he has been given. But just because the idea is shopworn doesn’t make it any less true. The punishing defeat that Democrats suffered last night (alas and alack, incumbent New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy appears to have squeaked out a narrow win in a race everyone thought he would win going away, but on the bright side the President of the New Jersey Senate lost his race to a truck driver who spent $153 on his campaign) ought to give Democrats pause about pursuing their avowedly left-wing woke agenda, but between Nancy Pelosi’s challenge to Joe Manchin yesterday and today’s acknowledgement that Joe Biden doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about and payments to illegal immigrants is still on the table, it seems pretty clear that Democrats expect to lose the House and/or the Senate in the next year and are simply going to load up on left-wing agenda items while they still can. So much for the aging dinosaur who has spent a half-century helping to make things in Washington so awful somehow becoming a unifier and a healer of our divided nation.

– JVW

103 Responses to “Joe Biden: Reports of Huge Payoffs to Illegal Immigrant Families Is “Garbage”; White House: Here’s What He Meant to Say”

  1. I could have constructed an entire post about the folly of Joe Biden traveling over 10,000 miles round-trip and employing an 85-car motorcade in order to meet up with 30,000 other concerned citizens (including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who picked up a case of COVID as a souvenir of his UK trip, very likely paid for by Los Angeles taxpayers one way or another), all to tell the rest of us that we need to use far less fossil fuels. These clowns really expect us to take them seriously. John Kerry no doubt arrived via private jet. The average private jet emits as much carbon every hour as the average person generates over a six-week period.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  2. We don’t have a President. We have a figurehead. The ACLU’s simpaticos in the Politburo will slip it through during his nap, he will continue to insist it never happened, and the media will cover the story with a pillow until it stops moving.

    nk (1d9030)

  3. What thwy will telll Biden:

    Biden made a camapign promise to – well it wasn’t to pay $450.000 to lawyers to be split with the persons suing

    Biden also said he would not interfere with decisions made by the Department of Justice.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  4. Why do I have a feeling that the GOP will take back both Chambers of Congress next year?

    nk (1d9030)

  5. Whether they do or not depends on Donald Trump.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  6. Next year is a long time in the hackarama, nk. Besides even if they do take back both chambers, blanks is what will be fired.

    mg (8cbc69)

  7. Remember the Obamacare Lesson: if it gets into law, it’s damn hard to get it back out.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  8. unelected bureaucratic/media/academic cabal

    The term you were looking for is “politburo.” And Biden isn’t the figurehead; he’s the Zeppo.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  9. Why do I have a feeling that the GOP will take back both Chambers of Congress next year?

    And then they will impeach Biden for senility if he doesn’t take the 25th amendment route. Trump will probably want them to add a charge of election-stealing.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  10. Another Trump thread…

    😞

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  11. Remember the Obamacare Lesson: if it gets into law, it’s damn hard to get it back out.

    Yes indeed. There’s something to be said for the strategy the Democrats have been taking since the Obama years: When you have control of the White House and Congress, push through as much big government nonsense as you possibly can in your two year window. Sure, you’re going to lose at least one house of Congress in your first midterm election, but the programs you put in place are going to be permanent. When Republicans get control of the White House and Congress, they like to respond with — be still my heart! — tax cuts.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  12. I wrote a 107-word sentence in the first sentence of this post. I believe that is a new indoor record for prolixity from me. Then I utterly smashed that record with a 141-word sentence in the last paragraph. Good Lord, how do you people even read this crap?

    JVW (ee64e4)

  13. “Yeah. Four-hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person, is that what you are saying?” When Mr. Doocey responded in the affirmative, the President responded emphatically, “That’s not gonna happen.

    One-hundred and seventy thousand dollars per person, maybe.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  14. One-hundred and seventy thousand dollars per person, maybe.

    Somebody, I forget who, on Twitter had the funny line that we should just give each one of them a Hunter Biden painting, since those apparently have a value that ranges between $75,000 and $500,000.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  15. “When Republicans get control of the White House and Congress, they like to respond with — be still my heart! — tax cuts.”

    The tax cuts cost $2.3 trillion.

    Davethulhu (80a3a8)

  16. it’s been a bad week for all those smart biden voters

    JF (e1156d)

  17. Regrettably, after the last five years, I’m becoming accustomed to a president who lacks the “intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job.”

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  18. Regrettably, after the last five years, I’m becoming accustomed to a president who lacks the “intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job.”

    Mostly agree, but I’ll unreservedly give Trump the nod over Biden in terms of stamina. I was always amazed that a guy who was carrying around so many extra pounds always managed to seem invigorated.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  19. One-hundred and seventy thousand dollars per person, maybe.

    Plus we look the other way about their BS asylum claims.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  20. The tax cuts cost $2.3 trillion.

    You have that backwards. It would have been the LACK of tax cuts that cost $2.3 trillion.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  21. Regrettably, after the last five years, I’m becoming accustomed to a president who lacks the “intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job.”

    We’ve been going downhill since Reagan left office. God only knows what 2024 will bring. I think our string is now worse than 1836-1860.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  22. Mostly agree, but I’ll unreservedly give Trump the nod over Biden in terms of stamina.

    I was thinking along the same lines, JVW, but then I thought about all those hours Trump spent in “executive time”.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  23. I was thinking along the same lines, JVW, but then I thought about all those hours Trump spent in “executive time”.

    Yeah, but it pales in comparison to Biden’s 2020 campaign summer of placing a lid on activities by 11:00 am each day.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  24. I agree that Trump was more energetic in office than Biden is now, JVW, but I’ll say this: There’s a good argument that Trump was one of the laziest presidents in our history, because: (1) a huge chunk of his schedule was in “executive time”, defined as tweeting and watching FoxNews instead of actually doing his job, (2) he spent way more time golfing than any other president, and it wasn’t even close, 298 days, so 20% of his days as POTUS he was hitting balls down fairways, and (3) not only did he not read, he seldom attended Presidential Daily Briefings.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  25. I’m being told this administration is so much better than Trump’s, but it’s kind of hard for me to see. What a clown show.

    Hoi Polloi (ade50d)

  26. So, when someone comes and claims their seeking asylum and we take their children away, and they can’t find them again, what should be the outcome? That’s the claimed harm here.

    It seems like we should be able to not do that, it also seems like we owe something to the people harmed, if the claims are true.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  27. Also, if I were the Biden White House the message would be; The DOJ is handling these claims. We oppose any settlement and have communicated that to them.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  28. So, when someone comes and claims their seeking asylum and we take their children away, and they can’t find them again,

    From the article:

    The lawsuits claim the separations caused lasting mental-health problems for the children from the trauma of months spent without their parents.

    I guess they did “find them again.”

    As far as “comes and claims asylum,” you may have meant to say “breaks the law by not entering through a recognized port?” If that is the case then should citizen criminals, who go to jail every day for the typical host of crimes, get separated from their children? Bank robbers, rapists, murderers, etc, and their children, should be compensated for the state separating their families.

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  29. The “asylum seekers” that were deported apparently had no valid claim for asylum when the broke into this country. The DOJ should be suing them for the costs associated with apprehending, housing, prosecuting and deporting them. The illegal alien is the moving party and none of this “trauma” would have happened without their deliberate actions.

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  30. If that is the case then should citizen criminals, who go to jail every day for the typical host of crimes, get separated from their children?

    Trump changed the border policy, making every illegal border crossing a felony, thus mandating the separation of children from their parents. They could’ve kept it kept it to a misdemeanor for illegal immigrants with minor-aged kids, but Trump was just too immoral to have that.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  31. Too bad, Paul. The seekers had a safe haven in Mexico. They chose to commit a felony.

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  32. I agree that Trump was more energetic in office than Biden is now, JVW, but I’ll say this: There’s a good argument that Trump was one of the laziest presidents in our history, because: (1) a huge chunk of his schedule was in “executive time”, defined as tweeting and watching FoxNews instead of actually doing his job, (2) he spent way more time golfing than any other president, and it wasn’t even close, 298 days, so 20% of his days as POTUS he was hitting balls down fairways, and (3) not only did he not read, he seldom attended Presidential Daily Briefings.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 11/4/2021 @ 10:17 pm

    Frankly, the Bidens, Trump and Obama of the world… I WANT them to be lazy. The more downtime = less time to mess up.

    whembly (7e0293)

  33. “When Republicans get control of the White House and Congress, they like to respond with — be still my heart! — tax cuts.”

    The tax cuts cost $2.3 trillion.

    Davethulhu (80a3a8) — 11/4/2021 @ 7:04 pm

    Yeah, that’s not right.

    Tax cuts don’t “cost” anything. It’s more money to those who creates it.

    It’s framed as a “cost” because then Congress has less money to spend on things.

    whembly (7e0293)

  34. The seekers had a safe haven in Mexico. They chose to commit a felony.

    No, BuDuh, Trump made it a felony. Unnecessarily.
    Sad, that you’re endorsing Trump’s blatant immorality.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  35. Frankly, the Bidens, Trump and Obama of the world… I WANT them to be lazy. The more downtime = less time to mess up.

    True, whembly. I’ve said in the past that I don’t fault presidents for playing lots of golf as it keeps them away from effing things up.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  36. Buduh, sounds like in some cases it’s been much more then a few months. Am i correct that you feel that separating families is an appropriate or acceptable outcome in this instance?

    Meanwhile, the Biden administration has worked to reunite the separated families and has thus far reunited 52 families. It is reportedly in the process of reuniting about 200 more.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  37. Whembly, As long as we’re running a deficit both spending increases and tax cuts are effectively a cost.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  38. @30 it has been a felony to unlawfully enter the country after being deported since 1929

    trump had nothing to do with it

    a nut job obama judge made that unconstitutional only this year

    get your facts straight

    JF (e1156d)

  39. Sad, that you’re endorsing Trump’s blatant immorality.

    I guess that means you are endorsing the immortality of the parents.

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  40. …immorality…

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  41. montagu and Time123 only refer to generalities cuz if you consider individual cases the details turn out to be not so “immoral” in terms of immigration policy

    the aclu suit is class action for a reason

    the child who was photoshopped onto the Time magazine cover with trump had been taken from the father in honduras without his knowledge and dragged across international borders in harsh conditions by the mother for economic reasons

    any american parent doing the same would be separated from the child permanently

    payouts like these only encourage this abusive and immoral behavior, for those that actually care

    JF (e1156d)

  42. the aclu suit is class action for a reason

    So the lawyers will get the lion’s share of the settlement. Like Sammy said. And like I said in a previous thread, it’s not a payoff to the illegals. It’s a payoff to the ACLU and to its “volunteer” lawyers from their leftist … ahem excuse me … I meant to say Democratic Socialist cronies in the DOJ.

    nk (1d9030)

  43. JF, it’s funny that your complaint about lack of specific details on the claims has no specific details on the claims.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  44. @30 it has been a felony to unlawfully enter the country after being deported since 1929

    False. Trump started this “zero tolerance” policy, deciding to criminally prosecute every single illegal border crossing (first-time border crossing offenses are misdemeanors, not felonies), thus forcing parent-child separation, a policy that he reversed some months after implementing it.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  45. @39, Buduh, there are more then 2 possible choices in this situation. But it starts with how acceptable you feel the long term (I was wrong before when I described it as permanent) separation is.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  46. BuDuh (4a7846) — 11/5/2021 @ 6:40 am

    The “asylum seekers” that were deported apparently had no valid claim for asylum when the broke into this country.

    The grounds for asylum are quite narrow, and Attorney General Jess SEssions made them even narrower. For instance, fear for your life is a good gounds – the fear for your life has to come from the “right” reason – usually the government, not gangs or domestic partners. Still, the reason often is family reunification. All you can really tell is the degree of desperation, you can’t objectively determine the nature of the desperation, and it is foolish to attempt to.

    The U.S. government violated its own laws, and also, in many cases, did not attempt to keep track of where the children were so that they could stay in contact.

    Of course, there are o lawsuits yet against child protective services and foster care because they are protected by state law, and privacy regulations prevent the creation of class action lawsuits. But here there is no such privacy and there was violation of established asylum and other law.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  47. I guess that means you are endorsing the immortality of the parents.

    False. They can be processed through our legal system with introducing evil into it.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  48. Without introducing, not with.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  49. * fear for your life is NOT a good grounds for asylum. The fear for your life has to come for the “right” reason.

    People who are entitled to asylum on “good” grounds it may not claim it because there is something else more important to them that is not a legally valid reason.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  50. @44 nice changaroo there, montagu

    your exact words @30 which i responded to:
    “Trump changed the border policy, making every illegal border crossing a felony”

    False

    JF (89b937)

  51. 48. What are you talking about? The legally valid system is evil. It will knowingly send people back to their deaths or to a dangerous place.

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/asylum-seeker-killed-in-mexico

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  52. Time123 (9f42ee) — 11/5/2021 @ 5:41 am

    if I were the Biden White House the message would be; The DOJ is handling these claims. We oppose any settlement and have communicated that to them.

    He can’t do that. Joe Biden made a campaign promise not to interfere politically with decisions by DOJ. (there may be an exception for general policy)

    That’s why the White House had to gin up that letter from the National Association of School Boards so that Merrick Garland would have some non-political reason to order the FBI to investigate domestic terrorism in connection with schools. They couldn;t just tell Merrick Garland to do it.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  53. Still pretending you don’t know why they were being “processed through our legal system?”

    Haha.

    If nothing else, I am pleased that you are an advocate for the Jan 6th defendants and the “evil” that this administration has introduced the process.

    Some more links for you to act like you don’t understand:
    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/11/04/jan-6-defendant-released-after-investigation-finds-mistreatment-of-prisoners-n470246

    https://mobile.twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1456439395536580615

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  54. if I were the Biden White House the message would be; The DOJ is handling these claims. We oppose any settlement and have communicated that to them.
    He can’t do that. Joe Biden made a campaign promise not to interfere politically with decisions by DOJ. (there may be an exception for general policy)

    Good point Sammy.

    New proposed messaging “I wouldn’t settle any of these claims. If they have a valid claim they should take it court. But I promised not to interfere with the Department of Justice. I’m going to keep my word here even though I don’t agree with a settlement.”

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  55. Trump didn;t make it a felony – Jeff Sessions started prosecuting some more cases so that he would have an excuse to de[arate children from their parents. (he alternative was releasing the parent along with the children, who could not be legally detained more than 21 days according to a court settlement. The only way to take away custody was to criminally charge the parent.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  56. @53, A agree we need prison reform. Did you just become aware that this treatment is normal this year?

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  57. I’m not sure what Je Biden;s exact campaign promise was. He also promised to go easier on migrants.

    The big bill also does something along those lines:

    https://www.chugh.com/build-back-better-bill-passes-house-committee-would-provide-pathway-to-green-cards-for-daca-tps-other-immigrants

    The Build Back Better reconciliation bill has passed the House Judiciary Committee without any amendments. The plan contains a pathway to green card status for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), farm workers, and essential workers. It is unclear whether the bill will be passed into law, and if so, whether it will change from its current form.

    That’s something not liable to be able to pass Congress (60 votes in the Senate) on its own and accounts for some of the stubbornness of the progressives. Manchin apparently has no objection to this, but it’s not clear how many progressives care enough about this to give up other things.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  58. I think Joe Biden didn’t know about these negotiations but may have thought he would be told about it if anything like that was in the works.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  59. “Tax cuts don’t “cost” anything. It’s more money to those who creates it.”

    Let’s eliminate all taxes.

    “It’s framed as a “cost” because then Congress has less money to spend on things.”

    Conservatives have been saying this for 40 years now. Reducing taxes has never been linked with reduced spending. It’s a dishonest talking point. Taxes were reduced, the deficit went up. That’s a cost.

    Davethulhu (6e587c)

  60. “If nothing else, I am pleased that you are an advocate for the Jan 6th defendants and the “evil” that this administration has introduced the process.”

    Nothing was “introduced” for the 1/6 rioters. This is how our justice system works. I’m sorry you’re just finding this out now.

    Davethulhu (6e587c)

  61. Still pretending you don’t know why they were being “processed through our legal system?”

    Mindreading is an intellectually lazy and dishonest practice, BuDuh. One standard, applied to all, including the MAGA zealots criminally charged in Insurrection Day.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  62. Since you are agreeing doesn’t that mean I read your mind correctly?

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  63. The legally valid system is evil. It will knowingly send people back to their deaths or to a dangerous place.

    I was talking about Trump’s parent-child separation policy for illegal border crossings, Sammy, not the ins and outs of applying for asylum.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  64. Dave, good luck.

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  65. The only way to take away custody was to criminally charge the parent.

    Which is what Trump did. Sessions worked under Trump, and the buck stops you know where.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  66. Was there nothing the parent could have done to avoid this heinous separation? Nothing at all??

    BuDuh (4a7846)

  67. @65 the law was applied, equally to all

    what do you think happens to kids whose american parents commit a felony?

    a felony that’s been on the books since 1929

    JF (e1156d)

  68. but then I thought about all those hours Trump spent in “executive time”.

    “Work, work, work, work”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  69. a felony that’s been on the books since 1929

    You were already fact-checked on that, JF. You need to move on and figure out a different narrative.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  70. So, when someone comes and claims their seeking asylum and we take their children away, and they can’t find them again, what should be the outcome? That’s the claimed harm here.

    It seems like we should be able to not do that, it also seems like we owe something to the people harmed, if the claims are true.

    The law that existed allowed adults to be immediately sent back, but not kids, who were allowed to stay with parents or relatives while awaiting a formal hearing. To some this meant “make sure you bring some kids, they will anchor you.”

    As far as harm, what do we pay someone HERE who is arrested for a charge, held for 30 days in jail, then has the charges dropped for lack of evidence? I’m thinking “nothing.” Sometimes the law sucks.

    The correct thing to do, and what Trump eventually did, and what Biden is still doing, is to send the entire family back across the border to wait for their hearing. But it was thew law that was the ass, not (in this case) Trump.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  71. He can’t do that. Joe Biden made a campaign promise not to interfere politically with decisions by DOJ. (there may be an exception for general policy)

    Yeah, his hands are tied by his promises. Right. And that will be true until it ceases to be a convenient excuse.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  72. Was there nothing the parent could have done to avoid this heinous separation? Nothing at all??

    Yes, come to the official border crossing point and say “We want asylum!”

    And they all knew that. They also knew that getting asylum was hard. They ALSO knew that if they crossed illegally and got caught “We want asylum!” were magic words that would get them released into the US while they “awaited” their hearing.

    Then Trump ordered *horrors* actual enforcement of the law, and ICE started sending the parents back, but not the kids, and until the word got out there were these separations.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  73. I would be interested to know what percentage of these kids were reunited, and what percentage were not. Of either set, how many were actually not related to the adults who brought them? It may be that some had parents that were already here, and being brought up by others.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  74. @69: just the opposite, montagu

    see link @50

    or are obama judges such nut jobs that they overturn laws that never existed?

    JF (e1156d)

  75. Conservatives have been saying this for 40 years now. Reducing taxes has never been linked with reduced spending. It’s a dishonest talking point. Taxes were reduced, the deficit went up. That’s a cost.

    Thank you for clarifying that it isn’t tax cuts that are the cost, but spending that’s the cost.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  76. “Thank you for clarifying that it isn’t tax cuts that are the cost, but spending that’s the cost.”

    Cut all taxes, there’s no downside.

    Davethulhu (6e587c)

  77. You’re both right, but Davethulhu is righter. Without concomitant cuts in spending, the cost of tax cuts is passed on to our kids. To quote Billy Joel, “you oughta know by now”.

    nk (1d9030)

  78. JF, you’re mixing things up. It is not a felony for a family to illegally cross the border. Trump ordered that all those families be criminally prosecuted, thus forcing separation parent-child separation. It’s a felony if that family illegally reenters the country, and we’ll see if Judge Du’s ruling is upheld or tossed.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  79. @78 a first crossing was never a felony, nor was it ever a felony under trump

    you asserted otherwise @34, so don’t try to disown what you wrote

    you’re the one mixing things up and getting fact checked

    as for Du’s nut job ruling, it would need to be appealed by the biden DOJ

    guess what will happen… think hard, biden voters

    JF (e1156d)

  80. 77. nk (1d9030) — 11/5/2021 @ 10:28 am

    Without concomitant cuts in spending, the cost of tax cuts is passed on to our kids.

    The debt will never be paid back, and will not be redced except through inflation. (and per capita debt, by rises in nominal GDP, which includes bth inflation and economic growth.

    I can see a problem happening about 200 years from now (U.S. population and.or economic growth might be declining)

    If some elected officials decide not to run up the debt, that’ll just make things easier for their successors.

    The only thing is, interest rates must be kept near 0.00% and the U.S. dollar must remain the word’s reserve currency. East npw because nobody trusts the Chinese government and the dollar is more trusted than the Euro.

    Cities and states have run into trouble.

    To quote Billy Joel, “you oughta know by now”.

    The United States government has been running deficits for almost a century now – well, it’s approaching ninety years – without it causing any problems.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  81. and in some cases they didn;t want to be reunited outside the country, and others have sued because they were offered that choice.

    June: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/more-2-100-children-separated-border-have-not-yet-been-n1269918
    FebL
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-have-found-parents-105-separated-migrant-children-past-month-n1258791

    The parents of 506 separated migrant children still haven’t been found, however. Lawyers say the parents of 322 of them were likely to have been deported.

    …The steering committee of pro-bono lawyers and advocates working on reunification said it had yet to find the parents of 506 children, down from 611 on Jan. 14, the last time it reported data to a federal judge overseeing the process.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-children-family-separation-border-60-minutes-2021-10-10/

    Migrant children separated from their parents at the border were supposed to be reunited with their parents by the government within 30 days, according to an order from a federal judge. That was in 2018. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on the “ad-hoc” record-keeping that’s led to continued separation.

    ….Michelle Brane: We estimate that over 1,000, somewhere between 1,000, 1,500 maybe more remain separated. It’s very hard to know because there’s no record.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: How do you separate a child from their parents, and there’s no documentation?

    Michelle Brane: It is shocking. And really, what happened was that there was no system in place for documenting separations. So there’s nowhere to go to find out who was separated or not. It really is case-by-case detective work.

    A federal investigation described the government’s record-keeping during child separations as “ad-hoc.” One border station “used a basic whiteboard” to keep track of the children. Phone numbers, addresses and names for parents were missing. The federal judge who ordered the U.S. government in 2018 to reunite the families wrote, “migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property.”

    …One of the parents his search team found in El Salvador was this woman. Her name is Sulma and she is the mother of those two boys we met in Indiana.

    The stories of separated families are rarely simple and neither is theirs. Sulma told us she first sought asylum in the U.S. in 2014 with her two daughters because they were threatened by a gang leader. But a year later, she returned to El Salvador because she says her estranged husband failed to care for her two boys and the gangs were now targeting them. Sulma decided to flee to the U.S. again, this time with Adonis and Jaime – who were 5 and 9 years old.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: So, what happened when you presented yourself to the border agents?

    Sulma (Translation): When I got across with the kids, they saw my file and they said I was trafficking people and those children were not mine. That the birth certificates that I showed were not originals and that I had made them up.

    …A report filed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection supports her story. It says the family crossed legally at the bridge and Sulma told officers she was afraid to return to her country and requested asylum. But U.S. border officers took her boys from her. What Sulma had no way of knowing is that the Trump administration had already started quietly separating children from their parents at the border. The practice wouldn’t become public for another five months.

    Sharyn Alfonsi: When they said they were going to deport you, did you say, “I want my kids to come back with me”?

    Sulma (Translation): Yes, with me. Yes, I told them and they said no and that I couldn’t do anything because I had brought them and turned them into immigration.

    [I think that means they had a case that couldn’t be dropped.]

    Sulma says an immigration judge warned her if she tried to cross the border again, she’d be banned from the United States for life.

    ////Jaime and Adonis were sent to New York where they spent five months in a group home before they were ultimately sent to Indiana to live with their sister, Katherine.

    She was one of the daughters Sulma brought to the U.S. seven years ago and is still waiting for her own asylum claim to be resolved.

    Even though Sulma and her sons spoke constantly by phone, they somehow were lost in the system. Because of that shoddy government record-keeping within U.S. Immigration, their names didn’t appear on any of the lists given to search teams. So for two years, they were separated and no one was trying to get them back together. When their file was finally discovered, it was incomplete. There was no phone number or address for Sulma or her boys in Indiana. It took the ACLU and the team in El Salvador three months to track her down through relatives and friends.

    This summer, the U.S. government brought the parents of 42 of the children into the country to be reunited. Sulma was one of them. She whispered a prayer of thanks as she made her way to the arrivals area at the Indianapolis airport and into the arms of her sons, for the first time in three and a half years.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  82. Biden as a lot of pressure to do things differently:

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/01/opinion/biden-should-compensate-families-separated-border

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Essay-To-fix-our-abusive-border-policies-first-16538010.php (starts with something that happened in 1914 when there was no immigration quota from Mexico – there wasn;’t until 1968)

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6474826

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  83. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/5/2021 @ 9:50 am

    I would be interested to know what percentage of these kids were reunited, and what percentage were not.

    https://www.kxan.com/news/political-news/us-identifies-3900-children-separated-at-border-under-trump

    I think 497 of 2,000 plus were not reunited at a certain point. The U.S. government took absolutely no notice of what happened to those deported (some by agreement, sometimes under a misapprehension that ther children would go with them) while their children, who had their own separate asylum case, remained in the USA. They are apparently a lot of the still separated parents.

    There is not too much faking of identity although there may be more faking of age.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  84. @81 Sulma’s story doesn’t make sense but don’t expect the reporter to confirm the details

    she had already come before and had a case open, but what was the status?

    she came with her daughters cuz they were threatened by a gang but left her sons

    yeah ok

    what is the father’s position on the migration?

    doesn’t matter, i guess

    let’s imagine how this works if Sulma was an american parent

    JF (e1156d)

  85. Regrettably, after the last five years, I’m becoming accustomed to a president who lacks the “intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job.”

    5 years? More like 50 or so. Regardless of whatever point of the compass you sail from, it’s arguable that the two who sported a solid range of ‘intellect, stamina, awareness, or temperament for the job’ were JFK and– tapes aside venting rage- The Big Dick.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  86. Ugh.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  87. R.I.P. Pat Martino, jazz guitar master

    Icy (6abb50)

  88. Joe Biden: Reports of Huge Payoffs to Illegal Immigrant Families Is “Garbage”; White House: Here’s What He Meant to Say

    Clearly this plane is on autopilot– but who switched it on and set the course; the co-pilot? The stews? The ground crew? T’was not Joe.

    They don’t care; it’s not their $, it’s ours. If any aspect of this succeeds, it’ll just be another plank nailed into to the platform to support the longer term effort to legitimize claims for reparations. So you can file this with their rationalizations for other head-shaking decisions.

    A government that abandons $85 BILLION in military equipment TO THE ENEMY [the sucker budget pitch being it cost more to return the toys to the store then leave’em out of the box] and sells off two multi-billion dollar supercarriers for scrap literally FOR ONCE CENT A PIECE—- ships which, BTW, given the largess of the Pentagon budget, could have been refitted for further use [perhaps 20 years] as hurricane/disaster relief vessels stationed on the East & West coasts… a government shutting down pipelines and freezing/terminating leases for energy exploration, deliberately forfeiting U.S. energy independence… a government abandoning millions of dollars of steel meant for a border wall and paying off the contractors for NOT building it.

    The list goes on and on…

    These people are wholly unqualified to be setting any “fiscal policies” given it’s utter incompetence in managing our money. And they work for you and me. Keep it all in mind when you pay your taxes snd ‘fees’. These people aren’t very good at handing America’s finances- especially when they know it’s not their money, but ours.

    “There’s only one thing I love more than money. You know what that is? OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.” – Lawrence Garfield [Danny DeVito] ‘Other People’s Money’ 1991

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  89. @86. Pfizer: COVID-19 Pill Cuts Risk of Severe Disease by 89%

    U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced Friday its new COVID-19 pill showed an 89% reduction in risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization or death in clinical trials and they plan to submit the drug to U.S. regulators for emergency use approval.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/pfizer-covid-19-pill-cuts-risk-of-severe-disease-by-89-percent/6301477.html

    “Ugh.”

    Told ‘ya.

    =mike-drop=

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  90. Sitcom entrance applause of the type reserved for Fonzie, Steve Urkel or Kramer.

    urbanleftbehind (17ee0f)

  91. These antivirals have also shown anti-DNA activity. Maybe if you’re dying of Covid that’s not an issue, but without moire information I wouldn’t take one prophylactically.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  92. The parents of 506 separated migrant children still haven’t been found, however.

    Indeed, they might not have been here in the first place.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  93. Cut all taxes, there’s no downside.

    Take 100% in taxes, there’s no downside there either.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  94. @91: I stand corrected. The Merck drug Molnupiravir (approved in the UK but not the US) shows mutagenic activity, but the Pfizer drug works differently and according to Pfizer has no similar activity:

    PF-07321332 inhibits viral replication at a stage known as proteolysis, which occurs before viral RNA replication. In preclinical studies, PF-07321332 did not demonstrate evidence of mutagenic DNA interactions.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  95. 🍻DCSCA

    mg (8cbc69)

  96. Cut all taxes, there’s no downside.

    Never forget- Joe Manchin, (D) is a senator representing West Virginia.

    The distance from, say, Wheeling, WV to Washington, DC is 276 miles by car. The flight distance is 213 miles and takes about 57 mins. And if you want to ‘Go Joe,’ Amtrak train tickets between Wheeling and Washington are priced at usually $34, per ticketio.com. But rather than do the Biden commute thing or lease an apartment alone or buddy up– or secure a good government rate on a residential hotel room, he resides in a house boat in the DC area that was reportedly bought for $220,000, insured for $700,000– and drives a pricy Maserati.

    Yet keep in mind, West Virginia is ranked the second to sixth poorest state in the Union, depending on your source and metric. It’s classic disconnect.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  97. The U.S. Constitution contains 4,543 WORDS, including the signatures of 39 of the 55 delegates representing the states and Preamble. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. -source, constitutionfacts.com

    Yet Joe, Nancy and Chuck’s $3.5 TRILLION [or TBD whatever $ figure]’Build Back Better’ legislation alone is roughly 2,500 PAGES.This is absurd. And it’s a safe bet most of our legislators have not read this monster.

    I believe there should be a law/amendment/rule- whatever it takes, to LIMIT the text of all Congressional legislation to the number or words or less of the U.S. Constitution itself. If you can’t present a proposal in 4,500 words or less, you’re gaslighting something. [Hell, even Twitter limits character and folks manage to zap messages, barbs and POVs successfully w/ease.]

    It would make the legislation readable by the legislators in a timely fashion. And before anybody shouts- ‘no- that limits speech– actually, it doesn’t; it merely breaks out any lengthier legislation into smaller parcels of text to allow the content of the legislation to be read and understood by both the legislators– and the electorate. [Even your mother told you to chew your food thoroughly and eat smaller bites.]

    Sure- they’d have to read more but in smaller bits, work 5 days a week or longer, and perhaps curtail these extended monthly vacations and such– but hell, that’s what they’re paid so handsomely for– and with generous bennies.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  98. Congress should have to read the US Code out loud each year, on TV, before they can begin passing new ones. They can take turns. If I was mean I would add the CFR.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  99. So, any guesses on who’s actually running things at the whitehouse? Because it’s not Biden.

    And I don’t think the 25th will save us from this. It’s not a soft-coup option.

    frosty (f27e97)

  100. “Take 100% in taxes, there’s no downside there either.”

    I’m not the one making the claim that tax policy is cost free.

    Davethulhu (fb44c3)

  101. 84. JF (e1156d) — 11/5/2021 @ 12:29 pm

    she came with her daughters cuz they were threatened by a gang but left her sons

    yeah ok

    Se came with her daughters seven years ago. She took her sons later and said they were threatened by a gang. We don’t get the full story.

    what is the father’s position on the migration?

    That could vary from case to case. And there might be more than one father.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  102. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 11/5/2021 @ 4:55 pm

    Yet Joe, Nancy and Chuck’s $3.5 TRILLION [or TBD whatever

    The compromise reached Friday is that they would vote on the big bill by November 1, proided that the Congressional Budget Office scored it as not increasing the deficit.
    One way they can do that is to offset 5 or fewer years of spending with 10 years worth of taxes, and some one shots.

    $ figure]’Build Back Better’ legislation alone is roughly 2,500 PAGES.This is absurd.

    They have to put everything into one bill in order to pass it with only 51 votes in the Senate. Joe Biden says he’s for including anything that will get 50/1 votes in the Senate, and tat will determine what’s in it and what’s not.

    And it’s a safe bet most of our legislators have not read this monster.

    But there are many people reading parts. The thing is, there is no finalized version of the bill yet. And it will probably be changed in the Senate.

    I believe there should be a law/amendment/rule- whatever it takes, to LIMIT the text of all Congressional legislation to the number or words or less of the U.S. Constitution itself. If you can’t present a proposal in 4,500 words or less, you’re gaslighting something.

    That’s not really a bad idea, but here it is caused by the desire to avoid a filibuster. The small bill was big too because they wanted to get as much into a “bi-partisan” bill (that needed 60 votes in the Senate) as possible. I’m not sure why.

    [Hell, even Twitter limits character and folks manage to zap messages, barbs and POVs successfully w/ease.]

    It would make the legislation readable by the legislators in a timely fashion. And before anybody shouts- ‘no- that limits speech– actually, it doesn’t; it merely breaks out any lengthier legislation into smaller parcels of text to allow the content of the legislation to be read and understood by both the legislators– and the electorate. [Even your mother told you to chew your food thoroughly and eat smaller bites.]

    Sure- they’d have to read more but in smaller bits, work 5 days a week or longer, and perhaps curtail these extended monthly vacations and such– but hell, that’s what they’re paid so handsomely for– and with generous bennies.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  103. [Hell, even Twitter limits character and folks manage to zap messages, barbs and POVs successfully w/ease.]

    You could do it. The objection would be that you maybe might deleate too much discretion to the executive.

    Another reason for these gigantic bills is logrolling (and sometimes, a president’s signature, but more often votes in Congress)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)


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