Sorry to always comment. I was one of the unneeded sons who were exiled from Iowa in the late sixties. I wound up it a climatically unbearable place near Houston Texas. I stayed in the trade that put me through College because NASA had their quota of white scientists. The first Hispanic Crew that I worked on was in Houston in 1978 doing concrete work.They jabbered and were obtuse about working with me. Only five years out of College and having six Semesters of German, I started speaking German.”Speak English, Speak English!” They cried. Once the ice was broken, I found myself in the Company of displaced Farmers. They were pouring concrete because they were forced off of their Farms by US Economic policy.
Eight years later , I was a partner in a Commercial Construction Company. Nearly all of the Labor force was Hispanic. That year, Reagan created his Amnesty Program. Fill out the paperwork and get a Permanent Resident Document, There was even paperwork to transfer your Social Security and Medicare accounts to your new, authentic Social Security account. (They knew how many digits and simply made up numbers). The Director of Immigration (pre ICE) had four others paying in on his number.
To me, this was the only good thing Reagan ever did. I think it needed to be repeated every five years. Just keep in mind, most of these folks are like me, they came from Farms and wish they were still at home farming.
Their incompetence coupled with their insatiable appetite for cruelty will be their undoing. In the meantime innocent men, women, and children will continue to suffer.
The inconsistency, the incompetency, the hypocrisy. Just make sure you get a few high-profile deportations that make the news and remind otherwise uninformed and politically naive citizens that we are tough on crime (so says the convicted felon) and we carry the news cycle. Little or no due process. This practice is evil at its core, as is this administration.
Thank you for writing about the tragedy that is happening in the lives of so many decent people under the current administration. There was a call-in on MPR this morning that helped explain something: the caller has worked with Hispanics who are legally here, and learned that many of them had been getting their information from Tik Tok. He learned that Tik Tok had been broadcasting pro-Putin propaganda at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that more recently it was giving an unrealistically rosy picture of Trump and his plans than the work crew would have received from the mainstream media. And as a result, many if not most voted for Trump.
Please continue to call out Trump’s lies and hypocrisy. We need more people to do it on TikTok and X. We need journalists in newspapers and TV news NOT to pussyfoot around and “present both sides.”
On a positive note, the Tuesday DMRegister has a front-page article about the DOJ department that argues lawsuits for Trump; it has lost 69 of its roughly 110 lawyers. Some staffers had become demoralized and exhausted defending Trump. My interpretation: they joined the DOJ to defend the constitution but left because they could not with any conscience defend lies and cruelty.
Unfortunately Fox “News” doesn’t have such moral and ethical standards. Nor do some members of the Supreme Court.
More people need to read Substack, Iowa Capital Dispatch, and Axios.
"You don't get ahead by getting even." That statement is as old as the hills and it's true. While you're focused on getting even, the world can go to shit.
For example, while we're building fighter jets and bombers that run three for $1 billion, the Ukrainians built 1000 drones for $1 million and took out billions of dollars worth of Russian jets. Things have changed. The problem is that China builds the parts for those cheap drones--and we don't have the manufacturing capacity to build the drones. The only capacity we have is to spend $1 trillion on the military, even if it's equipped with outdated technology.
Sorry to always comment. I was one of the unneeded sons who were exiled from Iowa in the late sixties. I wound up it a climatically unbearable place near Houston Texas. I stayed in the trade that put me through College because NASA had their quota of white scientists. The first Hispanic Crew that I worked on was in Houston in 1978 doing concrete work.They jabbered and were obtuse about working with me. Only five years out of College and having six Semesters of German, I started speaking German.”Speak English, Speak English!” They cried. Once the ice was broken, I found myself in the Company of displaced Farmers. They were pouring concrete because they were forced off of their Farms by US Economic policy.
Eight years later , I was a partner in a Commercial Construction Company. Nearly all of the Labor force was Hispanic. That year, Reagan created his Amnesty Program. Fill out the paperwork and get a Permanent Resident Document, There was even paperwork to transfer your Social Security and Medicare accounts to your new, authentic Social Security account. (They knew how many digits and simply made up numbers). The Director of Immigration (pre ICE) had four others paying in on his number.
To me, this was the only good thing Reagan ever did. I think it needed to be repeated every five years. Just keep in mind, most of these folks are like me, they came from Farms and wish they were still at home farming.
“Unneeded son” as a farm kid - not a boy
Their incompetence coupled with their insatiable appetite for cruelty will be their undoing. In the meantime innocent men, women, and children will continue to suffer.
The inconsistency, the incompetency, the hypocrisy. Just make sure you get a few high-profile deportations that make the news and remind otherwise uninformed and politically naive citizens that we are tough on crime (so says the convicted felon) and we carry the news cycle. Little or no due process. This practice is evil at its core, as is this administration.
Thank you for writing about the tragedy that is happening in the lives of so many decent people under the current administration. There was a call-in on MPR this morning that helped explain something: the caller has worked with Hispanics who are legally here, and learned that many of them had been getting their information from Tik Tok. He learned that Tik Tok had been broadcasting pro-Putin propaganda at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that more recently it was giving an unrealistically rosy picture of Trump and his plans than the work crew would have received from the mainstream media. And as a result, many if not most voted for Trump.
Art, if only people would listen to your words instead of Trump"s & his minions… maybe you need to have your own show!
You said it well, Art...fear and dancing with the devil. History repeats...
This administration lies like the ugliest rug.
Please continue to call out Trump’s lies and hypocrisy. We need more people to do it on TikTok and X. We need journalists in newspapers and TV news NOT to pussyfoot around and “present both sides.”
On a positive note, the Tuesday DMRegister has a front-page article about the DOJ department that argues lawsuits for Trump; it has lost 69 of its roughly 110 lawyers. Some staffers had become demoralized and exhausted defending Trump. My interpretation: they joined the DOJ to defend the constitution but left because they could not with any conscience defend lies and cruelty.
Unfortunately Fox “News” doesn’t have such moral and ethical standards. Nor do some members of the Supreme Court.
More people need to read Substack, Iowa Capital Dispatch, and Axios.
"You don't get ahead by getting even." That statement is as old as the hills and it's true. While you're focused on getting even, the world can go to shit.
For example, while we're building fighter jets and bombers that run three for $1 billion, the Ukrainians built 1000 drones for $1 million and took out billions of dollars worth of Russian jets. Things have changed. The problem is that China builds the parts for those cheap drones--and we don't have the manufacturing capacity to build the drones. The only capacity we have is to spend $1 trillion on the military, even if it's equipped with outdated technology.
I know what you mean