(Wrongoâs taking a bit of a Christmas break, so after Monday, posting will be light. We’ll be back on a normal schedule NLT Monday, January 6th. Wrongo truly appreciates you guys sticking around for all these years!
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year â letâs hope it brings change we can believe in.)
A succinct summation of the weekâs news:
Branding has consequences:
The never ending story:
Who to believe:
Rollerball broke out at the Dem Debate:
2019âs alternative âAway in the Mangerâ story:
âJudge George B. Daniels, of the US District Court in Manhattan, ordered preliminary injunctions Friday afternoon in two related cases against the administrationâs new âpublic chargeâ rule that could have denied legal permanent residency and other forms of legal status to many immigrants in the country who are deemed likely to use public assistance.â
Daniels wrote that he found cause to grant the motion because the plaintiffs had sufficiently demonstrated that they would suffer irreparable harm if the rule went into effect:
“Overnight, the Rule will expose individuals to economic insecurity, health instability, denial of their path to citizenship, and potential deportation….It is a rule that will punish individuals for their receipt of benefits provided by our government, and discourages them from lawfully receiving available assistance intended to aid them in becoming contributing members of our society…â
Separately, the fourth Homeland Security Director resigned on Saturday. The entire DHS needs to be rethought and reformed from the ground up. On to cartoons.
This was the DHSâs âpublic chargeâ argument:
How did Rudy fall so far?
Trumpâs brain trust circles the wagons:
Both sides try using platitudes to help make decisions:
His strategery rarely works out:
Another of this weekâs best decisions was facilitated by Erdogan:
Monsoon season, AZ – September 2019 photo by FHatcher
The immigration crisis has many threads, but one that hasnât gotten the focus that it needs is the ongoing problem with the immigration courts. From the NYRB: (brackets by Wrongo)
âTrumpâs attempts to close possible paths to immigration have meant ramping up activity in [Immigration] court. Some immigration judges operate out of courthouses, others work out of detention centers, and some have been transferredâboth in person and virtuallyâto courts along the border. Over the course of a week in the Rio Grande Valley….It was common to see people be forced to leave the US after hearings lasting minutes.â
According to the AP, the Trump administration has hired nearly 200 new judges and plans to add at least 100 more. Nearly half of currently sitting immigration judges were appointed by Trump, and about half of these new judges had previously been attorneys for ICE.
Immigration judges are employed by the Justice Department, not the judiciary. They make the decisions about who gets to stay in the US, and who has to return to their home countries.
Weâve all heard about the immigration court backlog. Itâs becoming so large that the government may have to suspend asylum hearings until it can be brought under control. Â The Hill reports about the backlog:
âIt was 542,411 cases in January 2017, when President Donald Trump took office, and it increased to 1,007,155 cases by the end of August 2019, with an average wait for a hearing of 696 days. In addition, there are 322,535 pending cases that have not been placed on the active caseload rolls yet. When they are added, the backlog will be more than 1.3 million cases.â
The three largest immigration courts are so under-resourced that hearing dates were being scheduled as far out as August 2023 in New York City, October 2022 in Los Angeles, and April 2022 in San Francisco.
One result is that judges have been taking a harder line under Trump than in the Obama administration, denying 65% of asylum cases during the 2018 fiscal year, compared with 55% two years earlier.
Trumpâs transformation of immigration law started under former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Now, under William Barr, the DOJ has taken legislation passed over the years and used it to drive large-scale changes to immigrant rights.
Unlike the judges in federal or state courts, immigration judges can be fired or reassigned by the AG, and they face sanctions if they donât process cases rapidly.
Currently, the AG can override decisions issued by immigration judges once they are appealed to Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). An interim rule, issued by the DOJ that took effect Monday, delegates that responsibility to the EOIR director. The director, who is not confirmed by the Senate, can now decide cases pending before the appeals board.
The new rule has caused an uproar among career employees who said their independence has been usurped by a political appointee. In fact, the NYT reports that the union representing the nationâs immigration judges filed two labor complaints against the Justice Department last week. The National Association of Immigration Judges, representing the 420 judges, filed one of the complaints after the Justice Department moved to decertify the union.
DOJ claims that the judges were management officials and therefore ineligible for collective bargaining, an argument they pursued unsuccessfully in 2000. The judges and the Trump administration have frequentlyclashed, and the union has for years pushed for independence from the Justice Department altogether.
The simple fact is that as more and more cases are placed on a single judge’s docket, immigrants assigned to that judge are inevitably required to wait longer and longer before an available time slot opens up for their hearing. And the asylum seeker isnât represented by a lawyer, and the case is usually decided in less than five minutes.
The entire immigration problem needs to be addressed, and Democrats must go further than just talking about the humanitarian crisis at the border. Taking a hard look at the immigration judgesâ backlog, and funding at least on a temporary basis, many more can partially alleviate the humanitarian problems.
We have to act to prevent a catastrophic collapse of our immigration court system, a collapse that could force America to stop accepting asylum applications until the backlog can be brought under control.
Wake up America! That just may be what Barr and Trump are angling for.
Wildflowers at St. Marys Lake, Glacier NP – July 2019 photo by zjpurdy
Wrongo arises from his sick bed to discuss Trumpâs war on the four Democratic Congresswomen. Saying âAmerica, love it or leave itâ, or, âGo back where you came fromâ are almost as old as the country itself.
âLove it or leave itâ was a popular bumper sticker during the late 1960s. It was aimed at the anti-Vietnam War protesters who claimed that America was wrong to be fighting in Vietnam. The slogan possessed an internal logic. If you really hate where you are, why donât you go someplace else?
The reality is that wanting policy change isnât the equivalent of hating your country. Nixon and his supporters said that the (largely) student protesters believed that America itself was evil. That justified the slogan for the right, and we saw it everywhere.
Fighting for policy change today is perfectly acceptable. It says nothing about your love of country. Despite Trumpâs shouting, dissent in no way equals hate of country.
By using âGo back where you came fromâ, Trump is tapping into one of the old reliable political tools, the fear and vilification of immigrants and their descendants. Heâs using deeply entrenched roots in American history: Why don’t you just go back where you came from?
Or, as Trumpâs North Carolina crowd said, âSend her backâ. Send her back doesn’t just apply to Rep. Ilhan Omar. It means your black neighbors, the Guatemalan family at church, and the Hmong kids your son plays soccer with. It means your Indian co-workers; it means the Chinese couple in the park.
From the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 to “No Irish Need Apply” signs in the 1830s, to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, America has loved to hate immigrants. They were not only seen as competing for jobs, but as threatening the social, cultural and political order. Even in the 1830s people thought that they were taking jobs that should belong to Americans, and that they clung to their native language and refused to assimilate.
Sound familiar?
And once we stopped allowing Chinese immigrants, some of the jobs denied to the Chinese were subsequently filled by Mexicans. They were also viewed as different, clannish and hard to assimilate.
“Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ whether made by supervisors or by co-workers…â
Isnât Trump a government supervisor? Sure, but these rules donât apply in Republican administrations. Robert Kagan in the WaPo:
“Trump has given us a binary choice: Either stand with American principles, which in this case means standing in defense of the Squad, or equivocate, which means standing with Trump and white nationalism. It doesnât matter how you feel about Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The truth is, they have done nothing and said nothing about the United States or about an ally (in this case, Israel) that has not been done or said thousands of times.”
Now, heâs going up against the entire Democratic Party. Theyâre quoting him directly. And the pit bulls at Fox News are saying that calling him out is grossly unfair.
Itâs time for Democrats to stop debating Trump about whether heâs a racist. They simply need to keep saying it. Every day. Until November 2020. Along the way, which ever Democrat is nominated should say they have no intention of debating the liar and racist Trump. He doesnât deserve the dignity and respect that the debate forum implies.
Instead, the Democratic nominee should buy time on all networks including Fox, and on all social media outlets in 5, to not-longer-than 10 minute pieces. In each, they can point out what Trump said he would do, and what actually happened.
Think how it might work for domestic policy: Trump gutted Obamacare with no plan for helping the people who lost insurance. His tax cuts helped corporations and the 1%, while doing nearly nothing for the rest of us. His tax cuts also blew a hole in our budget. Heâs weakened our education department, and our environmental regulations.
The candidate would then present the solutions. Clearly, without the need for any ninety second rebuttals by the liar and racist Trump. The GOP will say weâre not following the rules, but Trump never follows ârulesâ of presidential behavior, why should Democrats?
Heâs already proven that he will say anything (and possibly do anything) to get elected.
Grand Tetons Sunset â June 2019 photo by Shaun Peterson
A protracted discussion started when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) used the term âconcentration campsâ to describe the places on the US-Mexico border where âillegal migrantsâ are being held, and where some of them have died.
This got started when AOC was sharing an article from Esquire, which quoted journalist and concentration camp expert Andrea Pitzer:
âThere have been concentration camps in France, South Africa, Cuba, the Soviet Union, andâ with Japanese internmentâ the United States. In fact, we are operating such a system right now in response to a very real spike in arrivals at our southern border.â
Immediately, right-wing individuals and organizations lashed out at AOC, not Esquire Magazine, calling her “silly”, and launching a debate about definitions while drawing attention away from the actual storyâ the conditions under which child refugees are being kept on the US border.
Others defended AOC as technically accurate. They lauded her for drawing attention to conditions in today’s migrant camps. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General has warned of dangerous overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at processing facilities for migrants at the border. The military has been asked to construct tented camps for thousands of migrants at military bases surrounded by chain link fence and topped by barbed wire. CNN, in discussing AOCâs remarks, reported that:
âThe Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of concentration camp (which was their top trending term Wednesday) is: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard âused especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners.â
Liz Cheney and others who have denounced Ocasio-Cortezâs word choice claim they are concerned for the âreal victimsâ of historyâs abominable acts, those who suffered under the Nazis.
As bad as the Holocaust was, no one should have the exclusive right to use the term âconcentration campâ. Could AOC have done better by using âinternment campsâ? Maybe, but she was going for the shock effect, and we shouldnât be normalizing what is happening at our Southern border.
Five migrant children have died since December in detention facilities described by politicians, legal advocates and human rights organizations as overcrowded and unsanitary. The âinmatesâ experience meager food and extreme temperatures. Some in the administration have suggested that they donât need soap or toothpaste. A Justice Department attorney argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that withholding basic amenities, like soap and toothbrushes, from detained migrants does not violate the governmentâs responsibility to provide âsafe and sanitaryâ conditions to detained children.
Those who spend time parsing whether conditions in these camps (which are, for civil, not criminal custody) are bad enough to qualify as concentration camps and who berate anyone who dares to describe them accurately, are more concerned with protecting those directing the acts than they seem to be with the acts themselves.
This is another effort by the Right to rebrand something for their propaganda. Weâre the country where âKentucky Fried Chickenâ became âKFCâ to make us forget that our chicken is fried. Where âtortureâ was called âenhanced interrogation,â by GW Bush. Where some Congressmen are now calling natural gas âfreedom gasâ.
Of course Republicans will happily rebrand them âimmigrant children internment campsâ. Theyâll call them anything but âconcentration campsâ.
The argument about these two words is not an argument about definitions. Ocasio-Cortez and her opponents agree that the term âconcentration campâ refers to something so horrible as to be unimaginable. AOC is choosing the term to show that whatâs happening is by definition, fundamentally incompatible with our concept of ourselves, and is therefore, unimaginable.
What America needs today are more young people like AOC. We need fewer Bidens, Trumps and Pelosis. America needs our young people to speak up, because the old guard will never take the risk to do what AOC has done.
AOCâs focus is different from our older generations, but you shouldnât hold that against her. Sheâs not trying to insult WWII victims, or their legacies.
Sheâs trying to wake America up to the moral issue on our Southern border.
Iranâs solution to possible war with the US. If this happened, Trump would say he got a love letter from the Ayatollah:
Little-known technology shows Pentagon the best story to use about its reasons for war:
This week, the Trump administration argued in court that detained migrant children do not require basic hygiene products like soap and toothbrushes in order to be held in âsafe and sanitaryâ conditions:
Mitch ainât willing to discuss reparations:
Reparations are a difficult subject. As the historian Howard Zinn said, âYou canât be neutral on a moving train.â He meant that you either abide the status quo, or you oppose it. You either commit yourself to be the best anti-racist you can be, or you donât. Whichever you choose, you should be honest in how you frame your choice. Saying that reparations are not worth pursuing, or simply doing nothing about them, is an implicit defense of the policies and systems that have created our present-day racial inequities.
The Supremes held 7-2 that a cross located in a war memorial could be displayed on public property (at a traffic circle). They said that some crosses are merely historic icons. Their decision favors one religion over others, and it seems hostile towards religious minorities. And why wonât Christians act like Christians?
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado – 2019 photo by VincentLedvina
Whomever the Democrats nominate for President must share their vision on immigration. Democrats need to have clear answers about how we got here, and how Trump is making it worse. And they have to say what we should do about it.
The American voter barely pays attention, but they are persuadable by big ideas that are communicated clearly.
The UN reports that a quarter of a billion people worldwide are immigrating. Moral considerations aside, the developed world needs to deal with migration on an epic scale over the next 20 years. This is partly due to climate change in the global South, and is partly due to mass destabilization caused by tribal warfare throughout the third world.
These factors create two kinds of migrants: economic migrants seeking a better life, and refugees fleeing personal danger. The WaPo reports that weâre seeing huge numbers of migrants: (brackets by Wrongo)
US Customs and Border Protection statistics …show more than 144,000 migrants were taken into custody [in May], a 32% jump from April. It was…the largest one-month arrest total since…Trump took office, and it was the highest monthly figure in 13 years….May was the third month in a row that border detentions topped 100,000, led by record-breaking levels of illegal crossings by Guatemalan and Honduran parents bringing children.
Some 45 million foreign-born people now make their home in the US. About 12 million live here illegally. Globally, immigration is remaking nations on a world-altering scale.
Politicians throughout the developed world are aware of these trends, and either deny their existence, or are calling for draconian policies to protect their borders and keep migrants out. In America, we see some people who want open borders and many who want the borders closed.
Wrongo witnessed how open borders work in Eastern Europe last year. The EU has the Schengen policy that allows cross-border migration throughout Europe. Poland and Hungary continually lose educated, younger workers to Western Europe, because pay and working conditions are better. Open borders have caused Poland’s and Hungary’s populations to skew older, and less skilled.
America needs a comprehensive policy that deals humanely with all types of migrants, but we must secure our borders. We canât have open borders.
How should we secure our borders? We need physical border control in all high traffic areas, and we have to add border enforcement wherever it is easy to cross unimpeded.
Democrats should take Trump’s wall off the table for 2020. Its cost is a rounding error in the annual budget, and more security is better than less.
We need a hard annual cap of immigrants to the US. It could be high, say 1 million, or lower. The level is worth a serious debate.
Once the cap is exceeded, anyone trying to enter will be returned to their home country.
We should give preference to those immigrants who have demonstrable skills or educational preparation. American economic growth relies on the skill and productivity of our people. When an immigrant joins the American economy, that person is asking us to honor a multi-generational commitment to him/her and to each of his/her descendants. We should be selective.
We should continue having geographic quotas that apply against the overall hard cap.
We should expand work, temporary work and student visa quotas.
We should deport any immigrant convicted of a serious crime either in the US, or in their home country.
We should provide amnesty to all law-abiding illegal immigrants now resident in the US.
Any illegal migrant who is physically in the country must be treated humanely and with respect until their case is adjudicated. Cages must go.
To accomplish this will require a substantial financial investment to support migrants who the border patrol is apprehending. Weâll need more case workers, immigration judges, medical staff, and substantially increased, and humanely built and operated facilities.
This will cost billions, but eventually, the bulge of migrants attempting to enter may decline, and we will then be able to cut back on the level of services.
Pushing our border control back on Mexico is a partial solution. Trump is correct about that. His gratuitous brutalities shock our conscience, and fail even on their own terms. Intended as deterrents, they are not deterring.
If Mexico can cut off a portion of the illegal immigration before migrants try to enter the US, we are better off, but Mexico is worse off. It would be easier to get Mexicoâs support via cooperation, rather than by coercion via tariffs.
Democrats want to restore development funding for Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Thatâs a fine idea, but we should not expect that it will achieve much of a decrease in economic migration. Most of the funding will be siphoned off by the governments and by local criminals. Little will reach the target.
America needs a bipartisan immigration solution. If we werenât paralyzed by partisan rancor, we would already have one. Controlling immigration, and selecting the immigrants more carefully, enables us to quickly and successfully absorb those who come here, and to ensure equality of opportunity to both the newly arrived, and the rest of us.
Our goal must be to make everyone feel that they belong to one nation.
âPresident Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to impose new tariffs on Mexico if the country does not step up its immigration enforcement actions, combining his boiling border-related frustrations with his preferred method of punishing foreign countries.
Trump said in a White House statement that the first round of tariffs would begin on June 10 at 5% âon all goods imported from Mexico.â The statement said Trump would carry out his threat under authority from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and that he would lift tariffs only âif the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico.â
The statement warned further that if Mexico does not act as Trump demands, tariffs would go up to 10% by July, 15% by August, 20% by September and reach a permanent level of 25% by October.â
Mexico probably does need to do more to stop migrants crossing their country.
OTOH, they like America, have rules that safeguard migrants. Itâs doubtful that the Trump administration has studied those rules or cares about them, any more than they care about ours.
According to Forbes, The US imported $346.5 billion in goods from Mexico last year and for the first three months of 2019, they increased 5.4%. At that rate there would be $365 billion imported in 2019. At a 5% tariff, companies would have to either raise prices or take an $18 billion hit to profits. And it is companies and eventually consumers that will pay these new Trump tariffs, not the exporting country as Trump consistently misrepresents.
This is why the DOW fell 355 points on Friday.
Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as his legal basis to place tariffs on Mexico. Itâs a Cold War-era law that actually vests the presidency with absurdly broadly defined, near-dictatorial powers in many areas. But, prior presidents, even Reagan and Bush 43, never conceived in their wildest dreams of using them except in an ACTUAL emergency. And they didn’t.
Trump doesn’t care, he sees a hammer, and decides that it isn’t for driving nails; it’s for breaking Mexican kneecaps. Matt Yglesias explains that thereâs an easy climb down for Trump in this. Migration from/through Mexico is very seasonal, peaking in the spring, and declining sharply in the summer.
Trump will probably pretend to get some concessions from Mexico and declare victory in a couple of months. His moron supporters will surely applaud that.
At some point, Democrats will have to frame these and Trumpâs other tariffs for what they are: a national sales tax on imports. Dems need to start explaining to the public that these tariffs are a national sales tax on everything from Mexico, including cars and components for US car manufacturers. Maybe saying this:
âTrump is making Americans pay a sales tax on imports until illegal immigration stops. How will Americans paying higher taxes force Mexico to stop illegal immigration?â
That’s how it should be framed.
Enough! Weâve been Mueller âed and Trump âed all week, and itâs time for your Saturday Soother!
On the first day of June, Wrongo hopes that you are in short sleeves, and thinking of getting outdoors, and that doesnât mean shopping at the mall.
Letâs start by brewing up a vente cup of Hawaii Kau Champagne Natural from Paradise Roasters ($19.95/12 oz.). This coffee tied for the highest rating in Coffee Reviewâs May 2019 tasting report of Hawaiâi-grown coffees. They say that its tropical and floral aromas lead into a sweet and complex dessert-like cup.
Paradise has experimented with yeast fermented coffees that produce a more intense and complex flavor than traditional methods. It evokes Champagne, fruity but dry, and not effervescent. They only roast this coffee on one day: June 3rd, 2019. So you have been alerted to act fast.
Now, move outside, assuming you live in a part of the world that isnât suffering from rain or tornadoes. Put on your wireless headphones, and listen to a Philadelphia-based Irish band, BarleyJuice, play their tune, âWeekend Irishâ:
Sample Lyric:
And the blood runs deep,
When the booze is cheap,
Long as you ain’t got an agenda to keep,
You can be a Weekend Irish, hey!
Aye, aye, we’re the Weekend Irish
And we’ll raise a hand,
To the motherland,
Best part of being an American,
To be a Weekend Irish
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
The Wrongologist does not condone identity politics, unless it involves weekend singing, dancing and drinking.
We should talk about the Democratsâ unwillingness to articulate an immigration policy. Wrongo has shied away from talking much about immigration, because it is a very complicated problem without a school-book answer. Itâs an emotional issue, but it is also a complex problem that isnât easily addressed.
Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report says that immigration will be a key issue in 2020, since Trump will surely stoke more immigration fear to hold on to his base while trying to peel away working-class white voters who might otherwise be voting for Democrats.
Despite historical data that show border crossings are relatively low, weâre faced with a genuine border crisis. The number of people attempting to cross the border and seek asylum rose to about 100,000 in March. If sustained, that would be more than a million asylum seekers a year.
There are now 800,000 pending cases in immigration courts, and each case requires about 700 days to process. Most of these families have woefully inadequate resources for housing, food and medical care. And now, Trump plans to ship them from detention to Americaâs sanctuary cities.
Weâre at a critical juncture. Trumpâs Immigration policy based on incarceration, deportation, and border militarization has proven to be a disastrous failure. But what should replace it? As the crisis grows, maybe the possibility for political change can improve. The NYT’sDavid Leonhardt said this about Democrats:
â…not so long ago. The partyâs leaders knew what they favored and felt comfortable saying so. Their platform generally included: 1) a path to citizenship for immigrants who came to this country illegally but had since obeyed the law; 2) deportation of undocumented immigrants who had since broken the law in significant ways; 3) fairly robust border security and investigation of companies employing undocumented immigrants, to hold down current and future levels of illegal immigration.â
In the past, Democrats were also willing to talk about limiting immigration. David Frum has a must read article in Aprilâs Atlantic. His biggest point is that âIf Liberals Wonât Enforce Borders, Fascists Willâ. He feels that we are at an inflection point, and that Democrats in particular, need to promote policies to prevent Trump from riding the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment into a second term.
Democrats, including some 2020 presidential hopefuls, have expressed ever greater unease about removing unauthorized border-crossers. JuliĂĄn Castro wants to decriminalize the very act of crossing the border illegally, by repealing 1325, the section of the US Code that makes unauthorized entry into the US a federal crime. No other Democrat is willing to go that far.
âOur view of how we go forward is if we can….give [the American] people confidence, end some of their insecurities about their own economic situation, there will be a better atmosphere among some who are opposed to immigration in the country….â
This is why Democrats are more focused on their economic agenda than rewriting immigration laws.
When it comes to immigration, public sentiment is not on the Democratsâ side. A Gallup poll from early March found opinions largely split on how much voters worry about illegal immigration:Â 36% of those surveyed said they worried a âgreat deal,â followed by, âonly a littleâ at 24%, ânot at allâ at 21% and a âfair amountâ at 18%.
A different Gallup poll in February found that 47% of respondents felt that large numbers of undocumented immigrants entering the US was a critical threat. Another 30% said it was important, while 22% said it was not important. That 77% who view undocumented immigrants as a threat was up by 8 points from a year earlier.
The pressure on Democrats will be to run as pro-immigrant in 2020 since it contrasts completely with Trumpâs position. But with so many people concerned about border security and illegal immigration; that may not be a wise political decision.
Dems can make a case that it would be destabilizing and impractical to remove all who have been living peaceably in this country for many years. But they canât support a position like Castroâs that says any non-felon who sets foot in the US should be allowed to remain here.
Wrongo favors setting hard overall quotas for all immigration, and a hard sub-quota for asylum requests.
We canât solve the illegal immigration problem overnight, but we can warn potential migrants that once the yearly quota is reached, all will be denied entrance.
And Wrongo is in favor of letting in fewer low-skills immigrants and more high-skills immigrants. That could help reduce poverty among immigrants while also potentially lifting domestic economic growth.
Tax day! Wrongo got the Wrong family taxes finished, and submitted with a few days to spare. Last week was one of the many that will make you scratch your head. Here are three amazing things from last week:
Scientists unveiled an image of a black hole
That image is 50 million years old
Millions of Americans still believe the Earth is 6,000 years old
And just when you thought Americaâs cities couldnât be any more corrupt, check out NYCâs Hudson Yards, Manhattanâs mega-project that is the largest private real estate development in the US by area. Private? City Lab reports that Hudson Yards was partially bankrolled by a federal investor visa program called EB-5, which was meant to help poverty-stricken areas:
“Specifically, the project raised at least $1.2 billion of its financing through a controversial investor visa program known as EB-5. This program enables immigrants to secure visas in exchange for real estate investments. Foreigners who pump between $500,000 and $1 million into U.S. real estate projects can purchase visas for their families, making it a favorite for wealthy families abroad, namely in China. EB-5 is supposed to be a way to jumpstart investment in remote rural areas, or distressed urban ones.”
The threshold for these EB-5 visas can be reduced to $500,000 if investors place their capital in a “targeted employment area” (TEA). The TEA can be either a rural community or distressed urban area with a high unemployment rate (at least 150% of the national average).
Investors typically obtain visas for two additional family members, so Business Insider thinks the development likely created about 10,000 EB-5 visas, the maximum permitted in any year.
These are the kind of immigrants both parties can agree should be let in!
But is Hudson Yards a distressed neighborhood? It is bordered by expensive neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. It sits at the start of the High Line, and is too wealthy to qualify for the EB-5 program. To solve the problem, the state included a few census tracts from Harlem as part of the Hudson Yards TEA. Hereâs a map of the TEA:
This looks just like a gerrymandered Congressional district in North Carolina. And it tells you all you need to know about how our local, state, and federal politicians are in the pocket of private industry. Money is always the driving factor, and it engulfs our politicians of both parties in a stew of questionable ethics.
America can’t be bothered investing in our own people, so we sell visas to bribe foreigners to do the investing for us.
Time to wake up America! This is the tip of the iceberg for the rot in our political process. To help you wake up, listen to âWhy We Build the Wallâ from the 2010 album âHadestownâ by AnaĂŻs Mitchell. This “folk opera” opens on Broadway on Wednesday. The play is inspired by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here is âWhy We Build the Wallâ, featuring Greg Brown. Wrongo is seeing the play in the middle of May:
Note that this song was written in 2010, long before Trump, or any politician had any interest in building a wall.
Sample Lyric:
Who do we call the enemy?
The enemy is poverty,
And the wall keeps out the enemy,
And we build the wall to keep us free.
That’s why we build the wall;
We build the wall to keep us free.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
