Assuming you are fully informed on Trump's racist characterization of other countries and continents, and that his lawyer's pay-off of a porn star in October 2016 has made it to your news source:
When do you think Congressional Republicans will conclude:
- they've gotten everything they're going to get with their tax "reform,"
- that nothing more will be done in this session of Congress,
- that Trump is destroying the Republican party,
- that it's time to bring him down.
Human nature and original sin being what they are, there has got to be a building, critical mass of congressionals who will act if only out of self-respect.
What are the chances?
We wring our hands and wait for Sen. Tom to take the Cotton out of his ears and Sen. Collins to notice she ain't getting what she was promised. And Paul Ryan pussyfoots instead of telling us what he really thinks: That Trump is worth every tweet because he is bringing about what the Rs have labored for 30 years to achieve:
ReplyDelete1. Rich layabouts will not have their inheritance taxed.
2. The rich can legally pay a tax rate lower than even a good accountant could have gotten them in the past...
3. ... Except the rich people who will pay a blue state penalty.
4. There will be more money for investors and executives and less for "entitlements," which means ...
5. Medicare and Social Security will have to be cut to pay for Nos. 1,2 and 4. Ryan has already said so.
6. Medicaid is set up to fail when the public is convinced it's Medicaid's fault that Mama was turned out of her Assisted Living bed and told to get a job.
7. Nobody is going to mess with the oil industry. Or the coal industry. Or the gas industry. Climate change? What climate change?
8. What despots do to their people is none of our business unless the despot happens to be an enemy of Israel.
9. Most of the regulatory agencies have to say to violators, "Mother, May I?" before enforcing the few rules that remain to be enforced.
10. And the private prison companies and private schools are back at the federal tax banquet table, which is bad news for prisoners and children, who don't vote anyway.
And that's one year as Congress enacts or the White House mandates every Republican platform since Ronnie rode off to the West and some earlier platform items that even he couldn't bring to pass.
Do you really expect a bunch of politicians rubbing their hands over what they have accomplished, fat yam or not, to suddenly reach a critical mass of self-respect?
Call me a Pollyanna, if you wish.
DeleteBut some Congressional Republicans (fleeing as some are from running in November) must think of their future existence as lobbyists, governors, dog catchers. Why won't this faction abandon a sinking presidency?
Then, there are the ones who will be running in 2018. How many of them want to stand in front of their constituents and defend this language and behavior, and straight-out racism?
A critical mass need not be a majority. The right critical mass can create a majority. Though I consider Tom Cotton an over-rated, over-educated jerk, I am a bit surprised at his being hard of hearing.
Don't forget to add self-important and arrogant to Tom Cotton's list of accomplishments.
DeleteI think you are right that there is going to be a tipping point. Unfortunately Trump embarrassing them bothers them worse than the real damage he is doing. IMO the best bet for getting rid of him is having him decide to resign. It could happen if he decides the presidency is more trouble than it is worth (and if the Mueller investigation turns up something particularly damning).
ReplyDeleteSelf-respct? Congressionals??? Shirley, you jest!!!!
ReplyDeleteSurely, Shirley is a jest.
DeleteEven villains have a modicum of self-respect. My question is when will Congressional Republicans feel its need?
The trough from which ALL congressionals feed ... while in office and for life thereafter ... is a very good inducement to NOT upset their apple carts nor bases and keep the gravy pouring for as long as possible. “It is difficult to get a (wo)man to understand something, when her/his salary depends on his/her not understanding it.” (Upton Sinclair)
DeleteHmm. On what grounds would a contingent of GOP leaders try to persuade Trump to quit? And would that make the party more powerful than the electorate? That is, the party removes someone whom the people have elected by claiming that he is a boob and a boor (or immoral, or unlikable, or whistles in the shower)? Sounds kind of subjective. And somewhat dangerous.
ReplyDeleteCriminal activity or mental/physical unfitness for office can't be proved. As yet.
I'm too young to remember! but didn't Nixon get told to depart by members of Congress. Refresh my memory.
DeleteIt was a trio from Congress -- Sens. Hugh Scott of Pa. and Barry Goldwater of Ariz. and Rep. John Rhodes of Ohio, who was the minority leader in the House -- who trooped over to the White House and told RMN that he had lost Congress. By many accounts, that was the tipping point.
DeleteBut the point was reached, remember, after the House impeachment special committee voted to impeach, and the issue was on its way to the floor. By then Archibald Cox (Nixon's Robert Mueller) had been fired, and the AG and assistant AG had quit, and John Sirica had reopened the Watergate case, and the Supreme Court had told Nixon to hand over the Oval Office tape recordings. A lot of words had had to flow, and the entire process took more than a year before the Congressional Three did their thing.
As I recall, impeachment was imminent and there was no more wiggle room for Tricky Dick. The deputation basically told him he didn't have the support to survive it. Time to go.
DeleteTrump isn't at that point yet. But Republicans may find more to criticize if they do badly in the mid-terms this year. If they lose the Senate, and pick up votes in the House, they may start trying to distance themselves, and diminish and discredit his clout.
That might rein him in to some extent.
But short of wrong-doing, I can't see him getting escorted to the front door by a contingent of GOP leaders.
As someone who was a card-carrying member of the Republican party for years, only officially re-registering after the rise of the Tea Party, I do not think the GOP in Congress is going to do anything about Trump. As McConnell says, if we put a bill in front of him, he will sign it. They have realized that they can manipulate him, just as many of the world's leaders figured out some time ago - including the leaders in Russia, China, Japan, N. Korea, France and elsewhere. They manipulate him through his vanity, and because they are all way, way smarter than the self-proclaimed "stable genius" in the White House. It took McConnell, Ryan etc longer to figure out the game than it did the foreign leaders, but they eventually caught on.
ReplyDeleteThen, there are the ones who will be running in 2018. How many of them want to stand in front of their constituents and defend this language and behavior, and straight-out racism?
They don't care because they have figured out that most Republican voters in their own [carefully gerrymandered] districts don't care. As some of Trump's allies have noted, he is saying what they think in the same kind of language they use. Most of those "retiring' - running for the hills are in purple districts, where they fear the Dems might be able to grab the seat. In the meantime, those lobbying jobs are waiting and are very lucrative. These men are no longer upset by Trump being Trump, because they have no more moral and ethical integrity than he has. And now that they've figured him out, have learned how to put up with him so that they can manipulate him, they unconcerned with his public displays of disgusting-ness. Because it doesn't disgust "the base".
A round-up of 19 Republican Congressionals who call the comment into question, some in strong terms, others not so much.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/12/us/politics/republican-statements-trump-shithole.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
From a Facebook share:"Is Trump mentally ill? In the short time he has been in office, the stock market has climbed to heights never seen before, the economy is booming, and ISIS has nearly been defeated. Maybe we need more mentally ill people in Washington." A lot of exaggeration, not to mention confusion of correlation with cause. And seeing what they want to see. If the economy took a turn for the worse we might see a lot of people wavering in their support. It is unfortunate that cruelty to other human beings doesn't carry nearly so much weight as money as long as they are getting theirs.
ReplyDeleteOkay skeptics! You may be right.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I can't help thinking that the accumulation of alarming events and "unacceptable" language is going to take its toll on nerves and, in some cases, on consciences. The fake alarm Saturday in Hawaii about incoming missiles has reminded everyone of the threats back and forth between Trump and Kim Jung-Un, including "my nuclear button is bigger than yours" and the possibility, however remote!!!, that this could really get out of hand.
Words have consequences as much as deeds.
Wash Post (Sunday) on Trump and the missile scare (sorry, can't get the link).
ReplyDelete"Should a state be informed that a missile is inbound, it seems self-evident that the president should be made aware of this as rapidly as possible — even if golfing — and act quickly to confirm or rebut the claim. To then quickly inform the public that the story is not true and insist that a review will be undertaken nationally to prevent such a thing from happening again. Perhaps a photo of the president, stern look on his face, speaking with the governor of Hawaii.
"An assurance that the government recognizes that a mistake was made and that it is handling things. That didn’t happen."
Trump doesn't care about Hawaii just like he doesn't care about Puerto Rico.
Politico says much the same thing. Here's the link:
Deletehttps://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/13/hawaii-missile-warning-white-house-339520
Thanks, Margaret. From Politico:
Delete--Even though Hawaii’s governor called it a human error during a shift change, a White House spokeswoman said the incident was part of the state of Hawaii's emergency management exercise. "This was purely a state exercise," she said in a statement.--
Hoo boy! The White House was unable to get the story straight. Meantime, the Prez was blithely golfing while Hawaiians were in duck-and-cover mode for 38 minutes. He's said nothing about the incident. Just checked his feed, and he is in a snit saying the Dems are not serious about DACA and their calls for reduced military spending is tantamount to demanding paycuts for servicemen and women; and he is happy about Fox and Friends creding him with economic prosperity.
What a wombat.
These kinds of incidents might, cumulatively, help the cabinet make a case for unfitness for office. Were the cabinet so inclined.
I guess I see several questions:
Do the majority of Americans want Trump gone? How would this be measured?
Should there be a means for removing widely unpopular presidents in addition to the 25th Amendment (which basically relies on the VP and cabinet to petition Congress for the president's removal, fat chance of that)? Would that involve recall elections? Congressional votes of no confidence?
Do we want to burden the presidency with additional removal mechanisms that could be used for politicking and creating more governmental gridlock?
Fix: Don't mean to imply that the 25th allows cabinet to remove for unpopularity, only "unfitness for office," which could be inability or simply refusal to do the job.
DeleteNot so strangely, I didn't in the least expect leadership from this so-called president following the Hawaii incident. Margaret's comment actually caught me by surprise. "The president should have said something about the nuclear attack false alarm? Oh. That's right. Presidents used to do that sort of thing."
ReplyDeleteStanley, another thought occurred to me regarding the incident. Maybe we were better off with Trump golfing. One would hope that he would verify that it was an actual attack before getting trigger happy (yes I know he doesn't really have a nuclear button). One would also hope that our military leaders would have vetted the situation before he got involved. Maybe they did and decided to leave him playing golf and away from nuclear buttons, figurative or otherwise.
DeleteYeah, Katherine, Trump-out-of-the-loop has a comforting ring to it.
DeleteOkay how many of our fellow Christians who happen to be Congresssionals or Cabinetaries went to church this Sunday and sang this hymn--as we did to the tune of "Westminister."
ReplyDeleteHere's a youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYJeGHmCjM
Verses 1 and 3:
For the healing of the nations,
Lord, we pray with one accord,
for a just and equal sharing
of the things that earth affords.
To a life of love in action
help us rise and pledge our word.
…
All that kills abundant living,
let it from the earth be banned:
pride of status, race or schooling,
dogmas that obscure your plan.
In our common quest for justice
may we hallow brief life's span
…
How deaf are they? How hard their hearts?
I get your indignation, certainly.
DeleteBut I think the Republican party at prayer believes that tax cuts for their wealthy friends will create abundant living for all. That their idea of a blind meritocracy will eliminate racism.
I go back and read Winthrop's sermon on the Arabella sometimes. It's lovely. But it's also clear that their Christian utopia didn't include Africans or Native Americans. Or Quakers. Or Catholics.
One of my students, a kid whose parents came from Puerto Rico, once observed that if they'd paid attention to what Winthrop said, we would be living in paradise now.
The human ability to rationalize and lay down its head and sleep soundly is pretty amazing!
Also, I know that tune in the YouTube as Cwm Rhondda, William Williams. It's lovely, and I have never heard those verses, which are also lovely.
DeleteMargaret, that is a beautiful hymn. I wish we had sung it this mormning, but we didn't. It is in the OCP Music Edition that we use, with the hymn tune, St. Thomas, known to those of us of a certain age as Tantum Ergo. I had fun surfing the youtube versions of it. The most common tune was Cwm Rhondda, followed by Piccardy and Westminster Abbey. Basically any tune with the meter 8.7.8.7.8.7.
DeleteIt is interesting that the second verse cited by Margaret doesn't appear in the OCP version. It goes on to this second and third verse:
Delete"Lead us now, Lord, into freedom,
From despair your world release,
That redeemed from war and hatred,
All may come and go in peace,
Show us how through care and goodness
Fear will die and hope increase.
You, Creator God, have written
Your great name on humankind;
For our growing in your likeness
Bring the life of Christ to mind;
That by our response and service
Earth its destiny may find."
We sang El Pescador (Lord, When You Came to the Seashore) in English and Spanish. And Here I Am Lord (with a fervorino between verses). We don't wander often into the tough stuff at noon.
DeleteI mention this to take your mind off Addison Mitchell McConnell and the goggle-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin.
While I have your attention, contrails marked an X this morning over the subtropical "Winter White House." We thought it might be a target for Kim Jung Un, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, the Palm Beach Town Council has asked the Chief of Police to ask the White House if there was a law violation over New Year's when a Trump corporate jet sat on the helipad where only Marine One is permitted to be. The chief will have to give it a lot of study because if he determines a law was violated there will be a counter-suit and tweets, and no business will get done for months while the council deals with its most obnoxious (and for Palm Beach, that's saying something) resident, his flunkies, lawyers and attachments.
We sang "For the Healing of the Nations" at 11 Am Mass. Pre-Brunch; still sober.
DeleteTom, the rest of us are blessed not to live in Palm Beach, and fortunate that you're there to keep the lid on things.
The lid came off last January. So sad. Some of the idle rich got up a $1-a-chance lottery for lunch with POTUS. I didn't chance it. Generally, though, he is thought to be doing very well for an idiosyncratic billionaire. We don't mention Deutschebank or Russian plutocrats here. Not nice.
Delete"But I think the Republican party at prayer believes that tax cuts for their wealthy friends will create abundant living for all. That their idea of a blind meritocracy will eliminate racism."
DeleteI agree regarding what Republicans think about the tax cuts. I guess we will find out now whether or not they're right.
The racism question is interesting. The Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act didn't end racism (obviously), but they addressed some of the worst external effects of racism, and insofar as the law is a teacher, they probably stand as monuments to the better angels of human nature, American edition. In a similar way, if there is such a thing as a corporate blind meritocracy*, I might make some of the same claims about corporate diversity policies. As a denizen of the corporate world who works for a large multinational, I would say that large, publicly-traded corporations don't have a choice except to be meritocracies, if they hope to succeed in the marketplace. The companies I've worked for recently are extraordinarily diverse, albeit not in the way that Dr. King may have envisioned: the mega-trend toward offshoring means that large multinationals are employing people of all races, ethnicities and linguistic groups (so long as they also speak English).
To be sure, offshoring-driven diversity is not driven primarily by a desire to become diverse, although diversity is a genuine corporate value, of a sort, these days. But the effect of the twin mega-trends of offshoring and meritocracy is that American workers are working with people of many different backgrounds and nationalities every day. It pulls people out of their comfort-zone bubbles, and I really believe it is opening minds and hearts that otherwise may have stayed closed.
* The thing about corporate policies, especially those that pertain to hiring and promotion, is that they are "macro" policies that are an aggregate of "micro", personal decisions: they depend on individual managers being willing to consider candidates on their merits who may be of other races, genders, etc.
Global corporations may have global reach, but they are based in some nation-state. Recent charges of corruption in South Korean corporations involving a son or daughter of the chairman point to lingering tribal behavior. Small example.
DeleteBut then I think of those factories in Bangladesh, and other countries, part of a global network (e.g., Adidas) but exhibiting all of the local patterns of non-diversity.
So my question, Jim, any data on the diversity of global companies at the factory, middle management, and corporate levels? I speculate that the higher you co in the food chain, the more likely one might see signs of diversity, but perhaps not of meritocracy.
Peggy - your instincts seem sound, at least as it pertains to boardroom diversity. This article may be of interest.
Deletehttps://www.cnbc.com/2015/04/24/the-10-global-companies-trying-to-lead-on-diversity:-study.html
FWIW, my own little corner of the corporate universe is the high tech world. By some measures, my program is pretty diverse - in fact, I'm proud of it. But by others, it's severely lacking: in particular, gender diversity. I am open to hiring women, and have hired some, but most of the jobs get filled by men. These are engineers, project managers and similar roles. Still a lot of work to do on gender diversity, at least in my world.
The Congressional Republicans figured out that they needed to get rid of Trump in the early months of 2016, i.e. primary season.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, their party's voters didn't get the memo, and they gave Trump their party's nomination. They've been pretty much stymied ever since.
Now we're told that the government may shut down on Friday. Maybe that will wake people up, or change some hearts. Or not. Every showstopper event turns out to not stop the show. The nightmare just continues on.
Of course they're saying that if the government shuts down, it's going to be the Democrats' fault, because they keep moving the goalpost, that they don't really want a deal.
DeleteThe Republicans shut down the govt 3+ years ago. I know how it impacted people in DC, but I am curious as to whether or not any of you actually were impacted.
DeleteSocial Security continues, as does mail, as do food stamps. The National Security agencies and the military don't close down. The Smithsonians were closed, as were National Parks. Tax refunds could be delayed.
The federal workers here will not get paid "on time", but they will get paid if this shut down works the same as the last one. Their paychecks were delayed, but they did get their back pay, full pay, even though they did not work during the shut down.. The locals most hurt were the small businesses that depend on the federal workforce downtown and on tourists going to the Smithsonians etc - the food carts, restaurants, services such as dry cleaners, etc.
The tweet that it is going to be the Democrats' fault when the government shuts down without Congress acting on DACA-- "all talk, no action" -- which has been repeated with a straight face at least six times since Sunday in my local paper, is nuts. The state of play is: Trump said he would sign anything reasonable; he was presented with a bipartisan plan [bi-partisan means Ds were aboard, ainna?] that seemed to fit his definition of reasonable; he rejected it. The Ds acted; the "all talk" was Trump's dirty-word rejection.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans, trying their best, now tell us Trump wasn't expressing a preference for white over black when he called for more Norwegians and fewer Haitians. He was merely recognizing that the employment needs of our new, sophisticated economy call for a higher level of education than Haiti offers. Um-huh. But Norwegians are educated in a socialist system which charges no tuition through college, leaving graduates debt-free. Mr. Trump obviously wants to get the benefits of socialism without the costs, which would be a good deal for us. But why should any Norwegian fall for it?
Perhaps travel in the other direction would be more rational. Eighteen year olds head to Norway for higher education. And over 65s get you there for good health care coverage!
Delete"The state of play is: Trump said he would sign anything reasonable; he was presented with a bipartisan plan [bi-partisan means Ds were aboard, ainna?] that seemed to fit his definition of reasonable; he rejected it."
DeleteAs a man of the cloth, I feel I shouldn't throw around personal insults like "idiot" and "bonehead". But does he realize what he could have accomplished politically had he simply *shut up and accepted the deal on the table* last week? I completely agree with Jean (or what it Peggy?): the Democrats seemed prepared to sell out. Trump would have come off as a effective negotiator and strong executive - he might have enjoyed a spasm of being presidential. Instead, he shoots himself in both feet for the umpteenth time. What was it that was once said of Arafat and the Palestinians - that they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity? Trump is that, on stilts.
I post again the NYTime's updated count of Republican response to Trump's ***hole comment:
ReplyDelete22: "unfortunate," "unfortunate if he said it":
6: "didn't hear it," or "wasn't there";
28: "no known comment."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/12/us/politics/republican-statements-trump-shithole.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1
Sen. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz), retiring, let's loose on Trump's "fake news."
ReplyDelete"Flake compares Trump's treatment of press to Stalin's"
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/14/flake-trump-stalin-media-fake-news-340605
Thank you for the link, Margaret.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010, there were approximately 1000 immigrants to the US from Norway. I would imagine that one would find that the reasons include romance/marriage, or reuniting with family that had emigrated, and, perhaps for education - especially grad school. Many Europeans seek out American grad schools, before returning to their home or other EU countries.
There were many tweets from Norwegians responding to Trump, essentially asking why they would want to move to a s.....country like the US,or, a popular variation, why they would move to a country with a s..... president.
Education is not the reason that Trump is attempting to reduce legal immigration to this country, as he is going after the visa program used heavily by corporations to bring in qualified technical and engineering staff - especially the Silicon Valley companies who hire tech experts from countries such as India, S. Korea, Malaysia, China etc.
With weather and cuisine like theirs, why would anyone want to leave Norway?
ReplyDeleteIf I could handle the weather, I might move there. [You can get good food everywhere.] There are reasons Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark regularly top the "happiest" countries lists in spite of long, cold, dark winters.
ReplyDeleteI need sun, and I don't deal well with temps below freezing for very long. So, the northern climes are not for me, not even the part of the country where you live, Jim. Brrrr. ;)
Anne, we're getting something like 5 inches of snow today. I'm coming over for a lengthy visit :-)
ReplyDeleteJim, what do you have against lutefisk? Or moose?
ReplyDeleteAnne, I don't know if Trump is thinking of Norwegians for their education. It could be for their color. Education is just something some Republicans -- Rich Lowry, don't slouch down back there -- came up with to promote something better than racism to explain him.
I would suspect Norwegian immigrants wouldn't vote for the Great Femtobrain or his party. There are only 5M Norwegians. How many would it take to flip our country by moving them into red states?
ReplyDeleteFemtobrain?
DeleteWhatever it means, I don't think Deacon Jim, as a man of the cloth, should be exposed to it. He might repeat it.
A couple of seconds on Wikipedia leads me to conclude that the prefix "femto" means "one quadrillionth of". I assume Stan is estimating the Commander in Chief's cranial capacity. As an enthusiast of the church's traditional support for the sciences, I don't think I need call for the smelling salts yet. :-).
DeleteYeah, Jim. A quadrillion. Take a normal brain. Divide by 1 followed by 15 zeroes. To put it in perspective, we have commercially available lasers that put out pulses that are fifty femtoseconds long. This is to a second as a second is to 500 million years. Another year of Trump and I may be calling him "attobrain".
DeleteSorry. Correction. 500,000 years. Trump just got smarter.
DeleteStanley, apropos of nothing in particular, did you ever go by "Stosh"?
DeleteYes, Jim, on occasion. In the 70s, my place of work was in the Bridesburg section of Philly, a Polish neighborhood, and I got that a lot. Helped distinguish me from the other two Jewish Stanleys in the place. One was my boss. The other was an electronic technician who, in the 40s, had the job of changing vacuum tubes in the ENIAC, the first electronic computer housed on a whole floor at the University of Pennsylvania.
DeleteYes, Tom, I do think the preference for Norwegians has everything to do with race and not education. I referred to education because I thought someone else had already mentioned it as one of the excuses - it's about education and not racism they claim, as their noses grow longer and longer.
ReplyDeleteAnytime, Jim. We have lots of empty rooms these days in our B&B. Many friends have stayed here as their DC area sightseeing base.
ReplyDeleteBut I would recommend waiting until the coast is clear for open museums!
Anne, good point, the Femtobrain is going to close them all on Friday.
DeleteIf Trump's comment about "sh*thole" countries wasn't blatantly racist, what was he thinking?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that this is what he was reaching for.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visa-and-immigration/donald-trumps-merit-based-immigration-plan-may-benefit-indian-professionals/articleshow/59893130.cms
Note who the two sponsors of the bill are.
To be sure, the story I've linked to, not to mention the Republican boilerplate it recites, manages to avoid the term "sh*thole". I suspect that characterization was a Donald Trump Original.
Jim, reading your link, I see that one of the selling points the bill is touting is that it gives American workers a raise by severely limiting the lower skilled people coming in, and favoring the more educated highly-skilled (read professional) workers. That being the case it certainly isn't going to give American professionals a raise. Already most of the doctors one encounters who are specialists are from foreign countries. Not that I'm saying that's bad. But we tell young people that a college degree or an advanced degree is their ticket to the good life, and some of newly graduated can't find jobs as it is.
DeleteAnother thing that seems to be a bee in their bonnet is so called "chain immigration". So they want to prevent families from being together. Nice. I don't know Perdue but I am well aware of Cotton, and I'm not impressed.
"I see that one of the selling points the bill is touting is that it gives American workers a raise by severely limiting the lower skilled people coming in, and favoring the more educated highly-skilled (read professional) workers. That being the case it certainly isn't going to give American professionals a raise."
DeleteYes, you're right. Even so, there are some professional categories with genuine shortages of skilled people (including medical professionals in some geographies), and there is a lot of dissatisfaction among employers because they would like to hire people from overseas with the requisite skills, but our immigration system doesn't permit the numbers that employers want.
Among the unskilled and low-skilled workers, I think we shouldn't underestimate the possibility that competition for jobs exacerbates resentment toward immigrants. It is certainly true that immigrants fill some jobs that most Americans don't want; but (being human) they also would take jobs that some Americans do want, if those jobs are made available to immigrants. Personally, I think the road from resentment to racism or discrimination can be a distressingly short one.
Somehow, that resentment needs to be offset by the spirit of "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free." I guess that balance we'd seek to strike is called policy.
Just fact-checking here:
ReplyDeleteHealth care varies throughout Scandinavia. Iceland, for instance, has a big shortage of doctors, and, contrary to what Americans think, there is no free national health service. Icelanders complain about this incessantly. In other Scandinavia countries your state or municipality controls your access to health care.
Despite their designation as the "happiest" countries, various places in Scandinavia have high rates of alcoholism and depression. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland are among the top 10 highest users of anti-depressants. Norway is 12th on the list.
The only country that extends national health service benefits to American expats is Mexico, where retirees can get landed immigrant status very quickly and, thus, benefits that they never paid into. This may have changed since relations with Mexico have, ahm, "cooled." The rest of the world knows our oldsters are trolling for cheap places to live and often won't take immigrants over 35 because they won't have paid into the national safety nets what they are likely to draw out.
Medicare does not pay for benefits outside the U.S.
There are about half a million moose in northern Scandinavia, none in Iceland. Canada's moose population is about a million.
Lutefisk is Swedish and Norwegian. Icelanders eat fermented shark, called hakarl. It is said to be inedible to anyone not Icelandic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhmuBRRmxqY
If you have a grandparent who was born in a country you want to emigrate to, you may be fast-tracked to citizenship. You will need documentation, of course. This varies from country to country.
I have researched all this extensively.
My grandpa came here from Denmark in 1916 because there wasn't much of a future for the youngest son of a tenant farmer (I understand that most farming land there is still owned by landlords rather than the people who farm it). He got fast tracked for citizenship by joining the army during WWI. My grandparents sent a lot of stuff during WWII to the family over there because they were dealing with severe shortages and poverty. Grandpa never saw his parents again. They were going to visit there after the war was over, but the older folks had died meantime.
DeleteThings have gotten a lot better since the war. I am in touch with some cousins on Facebook and it seems like they have a pretty good life now. I think the country made a conscious effort after WWII to try to improve things in an egalitarian way.
Hakarl isn't the only delicacy only an Icelander would eat. Check out this little gastronomic treat.
DeleteI don't know how Iceland became a factor here, but No. 1, its president is not Donald J. Trump. And No. 2, it put 29 bankers in prison for acts of commission and omission that contributed to the Great Recession. ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-03-31/welcome-to-iceland-where-bad-bankers-go-to-prison ). No other country can match the second point.
DeleteSour rams' testicles? Mm-mmm!
DeleteIsn't it interesting that so much trendy food is what the native developers of that fare would have deemed
"stuff to help us survive"? There is one level of human ingenuity in taking the entrails, heads and other 'leave-behinds' and rendering them edible, and then another level in turning into something that is actually tasty.
Jean, very often the "happiest" country list is really a list of countries with the best social safety nets, best access to education, decent incomes, universal access to health care no matter how poor (subsidized via taxes for those who can't afford to pay into the system), low poverty rates, low infant/maternal mortality rates, life expectancy and other measures of overall well-being. Besides using anti-depressants, I think a lot of the folk in northern countries head south in winter when the SAD gets too bad!
ReplyDeleteMost European countries do not have "free" healthcare, as you note. However, healthcare expenditures/capita are significantly lower than those in the US and copays are usually also either non-existent or much lower than ours. The US spends twice as much/person as the next closest country in the OECD, and probably four times the average of all OECD countries. Although Mexico may grant almost instant buy-in to their healthcare system in order to lure rich retirees from the US and Canada, other countries also permit buy in. Costa Rica gives access to the public health facilities for a small buy-in fee, and there are private insurance companies that sell medical policies for access to private hospitals and clinics. I suspect Panama makes it affordable for American and Canadian expats also. France permits buy-in even for retired people IF they live there for six months with an intent to live there for at least six months and one day/year. There has to be some kind of residence, whether rented or owned, and there is a minimum income requirement for unemployed retirees. I'm not sure how they check the six months plus a day - maybe for entry/exit dates. I calculated what we would have to pay to buy in - it is a percentage of income, and it adds up to about the same as our Medicare payment + our supplemental policy. Although medicare does not cover medical care overseas, the supplemental policy we have does cover medical care overseas, with a $300 annual deductible. I haven't read the fine print on that - I don't know if there are time limits for retirees living overseas. We travel a lot, including usually a couple of trips/year overseas, and since the supplementary policy covers, we don't have to buy travel medical, which is pretty pricey for we old folk who travel outside the country. I am most familiar with France's system, since that is the country we might flee to at some point.
Margaret, just for you! Eisen and Painter were just on NPR in usual high dudgeon about Trump. They were ethics lawyers for Bush2 and Obama, and have been making the rounds together making a case that Trump has reckless disregard for the Constitution and needs to go. No link because the show isn't archived, but these guys are really in high dudgeon and have been making the rounds on PBS-NPR. Always does Raber's heart good when they show up on the NewsHour.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Jean. As you well know, I can be a high dudgeon citizen(*example to follow). In this particular case of Republican Congressional and Cabinetarians, I am out hunting with rational expectations. I am expecting the "critical mass" to form and do the right thing. Let's see where we get with Jeff Flake's promised comparison of Trump's characterization of the media, "enemy of the people," to Stalin and Hitler. This may take time, which makes it hard to maintain a state of high dudgeon. Even Republicans can be decent if they think about it: they too have consciences; they too think they are good citizens who want to do the right thing. Now's their chance.
Delete*High dudgeon story: Yesterday looking out our living room window (on the 5th floor looking west), I did what I often do: count the cars. There is room for ten cars, and if some are small, maybe 11. When I counted yesterday, I was shocked (shocked) to see that there were only eight!!! Why??? Because there were two motorcycles parked in two separate spaces: one was at a right angle to the curb between two cars (barely acceptable since they could have parked at the corner). The other was parallel to the curb taking up car space-and-a- half!!! "Outrageous," I declaimed to the man in the living room sitting quietly reading.
But it gets worse. This wasn't just some ignoramus, who doesn't think of the commons. About an hour later, a car drove up beside the parallel parked motorcycle, the driver got out, climbed on the motorcycle, and moved it up next to the parallel parked one. The drive returned to HIS car and parked in the space just vacated by the motorcycle. I know the rest of America has more parking spaces than it needs, but in NYC parking spaces are precious, usually free, and sought-after amenities. This GUY was a cheat, taking more space with a motorcycle than needed so he could come later an park his car. What a jerk! I was certainly in High Dudgeon.
Like Raber, it does my heart good to fume at people who are breaking the rules, ignoring the norms, and getting away with it. I went back to my writing!
Correction: he moved the parallel-parked cycle next to the cycle parked at a right angle (for those trying to diagram the situation).
DeleteDon't me started on looking out the window and freaking out over the selfishness of common humanity. Between the riding lawnmowers, illicit burn barrels, and those damn dryer sheets that vent into the street and make my throat close up, ai'm ready to move to my shack in the U.P., and never come back.
DeleteIt sounds like it's more interesting to look out of windows of New York than to share the road with the POTUS golf course motorcade.
ReplyDeleteMight be! Of course, in high dudgeon I am only in danger of throwing myself out the window.
DeleteBut you, if you are in the long line of cars sharing the road with the POTUS motorcade AND in high dudgeon, who knows what you might do. Sounds dangerous, possible life-threatening.
I gave $25 via gofundme to the women who lost her job after giving Trump the high sign while driving by in his motorcade. I think she got $150,000.
DeleteHere's the link to Risen and Painter on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/16/578247224/report-trump-administrations-first-year-has-been-unethical
ReplyDelete