10/18/2022

27 Responses to “Homeland Security To GOP: Leave Us Alone, We Have Work To Do!”

1. Hello.

   Dana (1225fc) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:11 am

   
   

2. In a more normal political environment, I think an impeachment of the Homeland Security chief would be a good idea, and maybe an impeachment of the president. The idea that there is an immigration law on the books has been shredded over the last few decades, and there is an argument that the President has not taken care to faithfully execute the laws of the United States.

   Something like this has the feel of a stunt — but it would force a discussion of the issue that even the media would have a problem ignoring. I don’t have a problem with addressing an actual unresolved national problem.

   Poblem is that our Trump-y GOP would find a way to make this a disgraceful circus. They’s make it abut Hunter Biden’s laptop somehow. Or appoint Donald Trump as an impeachment manager (or MTG or Jim Jordan — almost as good)

   Appalled (5ab414) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:23 am

   
   

3. It’s basically guaranteed that if the Republicans retake the house, both mayorkas and Biden will be impeached.

   aphrael (fbd367) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:30 am

   
   

4. Aphrael,

   From all the chatter going on, if MAGA assumes power in either the midterms or in 2024, their entire agenda will be little more than a long list of impeachments, up one side and down the other.

   Dana (1225fc) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:34 am

   
   

5. The most disheartening development over the past 40 years or so has been the increasing ease with which weasels in both these parties run to impeachment as the go to political weapon of choice. It has cheapened the value of it. Which speaks volumes about the low caliber of candidates being presented by these parties for elected office. It’s what keeps folks like Vlad and Xi grinning, making it easier to peddle their systems.

   “Lawyer Daggett… she draws him like a gun.” – Ranger LaBoeuf [Glen Campbell] ‘True Grit’ 1969

   DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:50 am

   
   

6. 60 years ago today, October 18, 1962- The Cuban Missile Crisis; tick-tock, tick-tock…

   President Kennedy is visited by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who asserts that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive and does not represent a threat to the United States. Kennedy, without revealing what he knows of the existence of the missiles, reads to Gromyko his public warning of September 4 that the “gravest consequences” would follow if significant Soviet offensive weapons were introduced into Cuba.

   https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct18/

   DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:19 am

   
   

7. #5 Clinton should have been removed; Trump should have been removed. Clinton set back sexual harassment law by a couple of decades, simply because the party had to rally around him. Trump — well, let’s not talk about that today.

   The system as designed by the framers is not what we have today. The executive can legislate by simply refusing to enforce the (overly complicated) immigration law as a matter of policy. I believe Congress generally connives with the Executive on that most of the time.

   Immigration needs to be addressed somehow. We need to have the law we are willing to enforce discussed and passed and then really enforced. The non-enforcement of the current law is what allows both parties to posture endlessly.

   the House can force a disussion on immigration via an impeachment motion, based on the failure to faithfully execute the law on the books. There’s no way removal happens. But a “trial” does occur, and that is the beginning of that conversation on immigration that everyone dodges.

   Appalled (5ab414) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:27 am

   
   

8. The system as designed by the framers is not what we have today.

   Golly. Who changed it and when was it modified? Oh. Right. It hasn’t been. The problem rests solely w/t insidious ideologues who have infested and infected these major parties. Remove the rodents living it; don’t burn down the house doing it.

   DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:33 am

   
   

9. From all the chatter going on, if MAGA assumes power in either the midterms or in 2024, their entire agenda will be little more than a long list of impeachments, up one side and down the other.

   If the mere ‘threat’ of impeachment hearings runs the rodents out of the barn, so be it. Certainly preferable to another January 6. Unfortunately, some will fail upwards- and Nancy will likely be rewarded with a government financed post to the Vatican. Life is not fair.

   DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:42 am

   
   

10. Homeland Security???

    Heritage Foundation Releases 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength, Gives U.S. Military First-Ever ‘Weak’ Overall Rating

    https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-releases-2023-index-us-military-strength-gives-us-military-first-ever

    https://www.heritage.org/military

    This is the most costly, expensive military that human beings have ever created on Earth. And they try to peddle that it is ‘weak?’

    But hey, MIC shills gotta shill for more toys.

    When you’re selling aircraft carriers for scrap literally for a penny a piece rather than wisely budget to refit them for use as storm/disaster relief vessels, the problem is w/management, not hardware procurement. Little wonder goat and sheepherders drove it out of Afghanistan and from Vietnam w/cheap, bamboo pungie stick dipped in poop.

    DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:54 am

    
    

11. #8 It’s not just a matter of personnel, DCSCA, as I think you know. The framers never imagined the administrative state we have evolved into and never thought the legislative branch would willingly convert itself into the weakest of the three. Y’know, back when the right complained about Big Government, this problem was one thing that was much discussed. When the parties are populist vs quasi-socilalist, this structural problem suits both parties, so forget about changing it.

    Appalled (5ab414) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:58 am

    
    

12. From all the chatter going on, if MAGA assumes power in either the midterms or in 2024, their entire agenda will be little more than a long list of impeachments, up one side and down the other.
    Dana (1225fc) — 10/18/2022 @ 10:34 am

    unlike nevertrump, MAGA actually has border security accomplishments to point to

    Remain in Mexico, Title 42, and ceasing the catch-and-release nonsense

    but yeah, nobody can predict the future and this time they might say screw all that and follow nevertrump’s example with impeachments, special counsels and prime time hearings up one side and down the other

    what did Liz accomplish in her six years other than get massively richer?

    JF (df691d) — 10/18/2022 @ 12:54 pm

    
    

13. Mayorkas should be impeached for hanging his own law abiding border patrol out to dry with the ridiculous whips lie, when he was aware of the truth

    more than a year later those agents remain in legal jeopardy

    JF (df691d) — 10/18/2022 @ 1:08 pm

    
    

14. @11. We certainly managed to go 100 years w/o a looming POTUS impeachment from Andrew Johnson until the Big Dick nearly brought it on himself– and the potential for that nickel dropping was taken with tenacious and deliberate reserve- if you were alive to recall- in an era much more turbulent than recent times. Now the impeachment threat is ‘pistol drawn’ like ‘True Grit’s’ Lawyer Daggett- what, how many times since 1974? And w/t likes of ideologues Newtie and Nancy accelerating the devalue to the point of Pelosi crowing, ‘he’s impeached! he’s impeached’ – and nobody cares as it’s now little more than inside baseball political prattle. Lose a vote? Impeach! It’s been cheapened to a mere go to sound bite tool by rigid ideologues. And the fault lay totally w/them- the party hacks- as it is a political process to begin with. It’s like eating peanuts– once you start, the next one is just a little easier.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 10/18/2022 @ 1:09 pm

    
    

15. It’s basically guaranteed that if the Republicans retake the house, both mayorkas and Biden will be impeached.

    That depends. Senator Grassley, not a Trumpbot, asserts that the FBI has a strong case against Hunter Biden and the Biden family regarding corrupt dealings with Chinese entities. He asserts that the DoJ is sitting on these to protect the Bidens.

    If this is even close to being true, it’s obstruction on a scale not seen since Nixon and would be worthy of impeachment, at least of Biden and the DoJ leadership.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 10/18/2022 @ 7:10 pm

    
    

16. Eh, given the number of border crossings these days, I don’t think migrants or smugglers care one way or another about what Republicans are saying, at least not while there is a Democrat sitting in the Oval Office:

    They are saying don’t believe Biden. (he’s actually sending mixed messages)

    Nobody is giving accurate information

    Some of this is caused by policy enacted into law – that people who ask for asylum and are tentatively admitted or allowed to stay on that basis, cannot get permission to work for (at least) 180 days.

    This is supposed to discourage migration because if someone needs asylum, they will ask for it even if they can’t work, but if someone can’t legally work, and just wants income, but doesn’t need asylum, the thinking is, that will stop them.

    And anyone who says people should just come through the normal system is either an ignoramus (if repeating what they heard) or aliar.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/19/2022 @ 12:58 pm

    
    

17. 10. DCSCA (86cf95) — 10/18/2022 @ 11:54 am

    This is the most costly, expensive military that human beings have ever created on Earth. And they try to peddle that it is ‘weak?’

    Not capable of accomplishing at the same time all the missions it might undertake Maybe can’t even fight 1 1/2 wars at the same time. That’s the extent to which that might be true.

    The biggest shortfall may be in equipment. There are very few NATO personnel in Ukraine

    When you’re selling aircraft carriers for scrap literally for a penny a piece rather than wisely budget to refit them for use as storm/disaster relief vessels, the problem is w/management, not hardware procurement.

    Yes stupid stupid things are done. Bt here you’re not arguing for not decommissioning them, but just for treating them as more valuable than scrap.

    It has maybe the same thing preventing it. Greater operating expenses if they are scrapped..

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/19/2022 @ 1:06 pm

    
    

18. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/nyregion/nyc-asylum-seekers-bronx.html

    The United States does not maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela’s authoritarian government and had not been sending most migrants back. But on Wednesday, amid intense pressure to address record numbers of illegal border crossings, the Biden administration announced that it was closing the border to Venezuelan asylum seekers. Instead it will require Venezuelans to apply remotely for a limited humanitarian parole program.

    Earlier NYT spin on this:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/biden-venezuela-migrants-humanitarian-parole.html

    The humanitarian parole program would be available to up to 24,000 Venezuelans who have a U.S. sponsor. However, a pandemic-era rule will be extended to expel Venezuelans who enter the country illegally.

    ….The administration said its plan for Venezuelans was based on what it described as the success of the Uniting for Ukraine program, which was instituted after Ukrainians — fleeing the Russian invasion — made their way to the U.S. border from Mexico. The Biden administration has since welcomed more than 100,000 Ukrainians, through the parole program and other resettlement measures. The Department of Homeland Security says there are no limits on the number of Ukrainians who can come to the country under the program.

    They are actually proposing to close the border and leave them in Mexico or Panama. Outside of those two countries, and excluding any people from Venezuela admitted at the border till now, who will not be able to apply to convert to this other system, there is this limited immigration program, which they put a cap on just in order to say it limited.

    . But they want people to think it is open.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/19/2022 @ 1:22 pm

    
    

19. https://nypost.com/2022/10/02/nyc-migrants-pile-into-vans-they-say-are-headed-to-florida-for-hurricane-ian-cleanup

    The migrants had scant information about whom they would be working for, but they still piled into vans in Queens that they said were headed to the Sunshine State over the weekend.

    “They want us for hurricane cleanup, we’d get paid $15 an hour, overtime and $15 for food daily, I think,” said Javier Moreno, 37, noting that a woman named Camila “from an organization” approached him with a flier….

    …The migrants were leaving city shelters in droves to try to catch a ride — and garner work — down south.

    One migrant woman said she learned of the vans and the potential work from group chats that the migrants are in.

    “We all decided we would go,” she said.

    Asked who was offering the work, she said, “I don’t know anything, sweetheart.”

    They will probably work off the books, or maybe somebody else will be on the books, and they will split the money.`

    A rep for FEMA told The Post on Sunday that the agency is not involved.

    A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said City Hall was not involved in the transport of any migrants. Florida officials did not return requests for comment.

    Another migrant said he wasn’t aware of the offer but that he’d definitely like to get in on it “because it’s difficult to get papers to work here.”

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/19/2022 @ 1:28 pm

    
    

20. The same propaganda point is being made in a lot of places (who organizes it?) to the effect that:

    The tent city on Randal’s Island is too good.

    At the same time it does not comply with all shelter regulations (beds are too close together) and is on a flood plain (but is elevated and if a flood comes they can be evacuated)

    They will have lots of telephones (landlines) in order to make plans for going somewhere else.

    I think people know how to quickly build cheap housing that is better than living on the streets and safer than a shelter. It could be that real estate interests do not want the competition so this is not normally done, but this is not intended for the base population, and they want to get rid of it as soon as they can.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/19/2022 @ 1:35 pm

    
    

21. They are busy like the “Wizard” pulling levers, doesn’t really know how any of this works

    steveg (8bbb90) — 10/19/2022 @ 10:20 pm

    
    

22. New York Daily News front page headline today”

    Expecting a flood
    city gets barely aa trickle

    EMPTY
    FEELING
    ON RANDALLS

    The shelter was/is limited to single males. It was built to house 1,000

    The Daily News saw only two migrants going through the intake process on Wednesday and less than half a dozen on Thursday. The city says the figure is higher.

    The city had been receiving 10 busloads a day. But only two busloads came on Wednesday and another two on Thursday, according to Mayor Adams.

    Mayor Adams attributes it to a change in border in policy by the Biden Administration – Venezuelans now need a sponsor to not stay in Mexico, the paper says..

    Other possible reasons for the drop could be:

    1) Migrants have gotten wise to the lies told by the Gov Abbott, and are not going to New York unless they have a definite place to go.

    2) The weather has been bad along the U.S.-Mexican border

    3) Most of the people coming to New York area families with children and single women, who are directed to existing shelters or hotel rooms rented by the city.

    4) Some are accepting offers to work (probably illegally) in Florida. .

    Altogether above 21,000 migrants from Central and South America came to the city (as homeless?) sine the spring and nearly 16,000 are currently in city shelters.

    4

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/21/2022 @ 12:51 pm

    
    

23. Biden is trying very hard to satisfy everyone.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/21/2022 @ 12:52 pm

    
    

24. Biden is trying very hard to satisfy everyone.

    Biden is trying very hard to get away with being an authoritarian while his supporters point at Trump.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 10/23/2022 @ 1:00 am

    
    

25. The anti-Biden anti-migrant propaganda (more anti-migrant than anti-Biden really) is really going strong.

    This morning, on WOR,I hear as a news item – one of the top 5 – that a record number of migrants were caught crossing the border.

    It turns out this an annual figure for foicalyear 2022 that ended on September 30.

    No mention that Biden changed policy on October 13, reaching an agreement with Mexico to take back people from Venezuela (and who knows what else?)

    Daily News Op-ed Saturday October 22,2022

    https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-what-about-the-venezuelan-migrants-20221022-jggb3kbvafc2lchqpawpzcfdwq-story.html

    “Here there is no life, Dalton.” A tired exhale followed.

    That is the WhatsApp voice note that Edis, a 56-year-old Venezuelan manicurist, sent me last Wednesday after the U.S. announced its brand-new immigration policy to handle Venezuelan migration.

    In recent months, the U.S. southern border has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of migrants crossing into the country. For the first time ever, the number of “irregular” crossings topped 2 million in 2021. Many of these migrants are Venezuelans who flee both the political dictatorship and extraordinary economic crisis that has left people like Edis with no path forward. Since the start of the crisis, more than 6.8 million Venezuelans — more than a fifth of the entire country — have fled seeking refuge elsewhere, making it the world’s largest migrant crisis.

    In response, the Biden administration last Wednesday developed a new migration process for Venezuelans: They reinforced border control presence and closed nearby refugee centers, executed Trump-era deportation protocols for newly arrived migrants, and announced an application-based, quota system allowing 24,000 Venezuelans in total to come to the U.S.

    Politically, this policy serves the Biden administration well. It creates a program that will allow thousands of people to flee Venezuela and find refuge in the U.S., appealing to Democrats — but it also tightens our border policy and begins mass deportations of virtually anyone crossing our southern border, appealing to Republicans.

    {Biden thinks. He won’t get any credit for that.]

    But for the Venezuelans making the harrowing trek to the U.S. border right now, the new migration policy is cruel….

    …My concern is Luis, a 26-year-old Venezuelan and Edis’ nephew, who was supposed to cross the border into the U.S. last week but called in tears when news of the new law broke. Luis is now alone and stranded in Mexico. He does not have the money to return to Venezuela, and if he tries crossing into the U.S., he will be deported and automatically made ineligible for the quota program. Luis’ nearly two-month trek on foot, boat, and bus — passing through Panama’s treacherous Darién Gap, dealing with extortion from Guatemalan gangs, overcoming the repeated threats of deportation by corrupt Mexican police officers, sleeping under bridges, and selling bracelets to finance the trip — was taken in vain.

    My concern is Marby, a 41-year-old Venezuelan woman and close friend of mine, who has spent the last several months saving all her money to pay for a Colombian passport. Since Mexico now requires visas for Venezuelans, those with Colombian parents go through great lengths to prove their descent. A Colombian passport means they can travel directly to Mexico with no visa requirement, skipping the worst parts of the trek to the U.S. border that others like Luis had to face. However, the Biden administration’s new migration program bans any Venezuelan with dual nationality from applying. In other words, Marby’s months of effort and money spent is now precisely what will block her from being part of the program.

    And my concern is Irving, a 31-year-old Venezuelan who I met a few months back and is, as I write this, passing through the dangerous Darién Gap with his 6-year-old son. I have still been unable to contact him and tell him the news, as there is no service in this jungle. This part of the trek is often what Venezuelans fear the most, with rape, murder and extortion being all too common in this uncontrolled wilderness. Venezuelans exit the gap filled with joy after having survived it. Now? They will be told to turn back.

    The Biden administration’s devised “solution” to the Venezuelan migration crisis envisions the start, Venezuela, and the finish, the U.S., but nowhere in between. They have created an immigration policy, not a migration policy — and they are failing to adequately support those most in need.

    And for now, this grace and uncoordinated decision of the Biden administration will only exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian disaster in the Americas.

    The Republicans are not just lying about the need for this policy – and the cost of doing nothing – – they are lying about what Biden’s policy is,and about what it would take to avoid it

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/24/2022 @ 1:32 pm

    
    

26. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/23/opinion/kari-lake-martin-luther-king.html

    She parrots Trump’s disgusting generalizations about immigrants, saying last month: “The media might have a field day with this one, but I’m going to just repeat something President Trump said a long time ago, and it got him in a lot of trouble. They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime, and they are rapists, and that’s who’s coming across our border. That’s a fact.”

    Saying that is a fact doesn’t make it a fact.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/24/2022 @ 1:34 pm

    
    

27. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/us/politics/venezuela-immigrants-border.html

    Illegal Border Crossings by Venezuelans Plunge in the Face of New Policies </b

    The number of Venezuelans entering the United States illegally dropped from about 1,200 a day to 150 in the first days after the Biden administration rolled out the new policies.

    Anyone have a clue any of this is happening from the right wing media complex?

    And they don’t say something like “Biden could have done this along time ago” but hide that it is happening at all.

    Because they don’t want sympathy for the migrants, which would happen were any reality injected into this.

    You’d also realize there is much that is arbitrary and irrational about all this. And it is designed to sound open without in fact being so.

    More from the NYT srticle:

    An overwhelming number of Venezuelans trying to escape poverty and political instability have been making their way in the past year to the United States. Most were being released into the country temporarily to face deportation proceedings in immigration court; Washington cannot repatriate them because of strained diplomatic relations with Caracas.

    Last week, before the administration announced the new policies, about 1,200 Venezuelans a day crossed the southwestern border illegally, officials said. In recent days, that number has dropped to about 150 Venezuelans a day. The administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday to describe the early results of the program.

    The steep and immediate drop in the number of illegal crossings was good news for the Biden administration as it tries to deflect Republican attacks ahead of the midterm elections.

    No it isn’t, as they are trying to keep it somewhat hidden.

    So,weread:

    But immigration advocates who campaigned for Mr. Biden in 2020 have been critical of the measures the administration put in place for Venezuelans, which expanded its use of a Trump-era public health rule that was put in place at the beginning of the pandemic and gives border officials the authority to quickly expel migrants who cross the border illegally, even those seeking asylum…

    …“At its core, the Biden administration remains focused on deporting asylum seekers back to danger, and outsourcing its obligations to Mexico,” Oscar Chacón, executive director of the Alianza Americas advocacy group, said in a statement last week. “This is another example of a Biden immigration policy that suffers a bad case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: From one angle, it looks humanitarian, but from another, it is ugly and abusive.”

    If you try to satisfy everybody, you’ll satisfy nobody. Least of all political opponents who have an interest in misleading people.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 10/24/2022 @ 1:45 pm