The Real Public Charges

The hardest-working and most economy-supporting people in this country have the lowest-paid jobs.  Those would be the jobs the rest of us literally can't live unless somebody else does them:  the lettuce-pickers and all the other food crop harvesters, the toilet cleaners and the garbage collectors, the diaper-changing, vomit-mopping-up caretakers of our infants and our elderly.

They are the ones who keep this country running.  They are the ones whose hard-earned taxes repugs are giving to the real public charges:  the oxygen-wasting idle rich.

One desperate guatemalan refugee cleaning hotel rooms while hiding from ICE does more real work in A SINGLE HOUR than Ivanka fucking Trump has done in her entire grifting, cheating, pissing-on-the-poor life.

Wonkette: 

One of Stephen Miller's top priorities for fucking over America's legal immigration system is finally about to take effect, assuming it survives the many lawsuits that will be thrown at it. The new rule would sharply restrict the ability of low-income people to get permanent residency or even temporary visas by screening out virtually all applicants who have ever used federal assistance like Medicaid, food stamps, or public housing. The rule will be published in the Federal Register Wednesday, and then go into effect in October, despite an overwhelming majority of public comments opposing the change.

 

The rules are an attempt to inject steroids into a relic of the Immigration Act of 1882, which prohibited immigration by anyone deemed likely to become a "public charge" -- that is, likely to become a burden to the taxpayer. That term was never explicitly defined by Congress, so Miller and his allies in the Trump administration decided it should be defined as restrictively as possible, to keep out anyone who's used any of a whole raft of public assistance programs for any amount of time.

Let's emphasize right up front that this is not about undocumented immigrants: This is an attempt to punish legal migrants who legally received benefits that Congress said they legally qualify for.

Just for shits and giggles, because reality doesn't exist in the Pumpkin Traitor's America, have some facts:

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

Like all of this president’s immigration policies, this one is based on lies. Here are the facts.

–  Legal Permanent Residents (LPR’s)–sometimes referred to as green card holders–do not have full access to all public benefit programs and are subject to limitations before being eligible for federal means-tested benefits…such limitations include the “five-year bar,” which requires the individual to have maintained LPR status in the U.S. for five years before being eligible for benefits…

– Legal immigrants use federal public benefit programs at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens…

– Both documented and undocumented immigrants pay more into public benefit programs than they take out ...

Not infuriated yet?  Have some Rude Pundit.

Only White Penis-Havers Who Kill Black Teens Get to Claim Credible Threat

Brown children bearing scars from attacks in their home countries need not apply, because BROWN.

Political Animal:

As the White House heralded the “four pillars” they required for any DACA fix, most of the attention was focused on their attempts to end the diversity visa lottery and family-based visas. What was not as widely reported were the changes they sought to U.S. policy on asylum seekers, which would include many of those traveling in the caravan. Here are some of the items included in their proposal:

* Significantly tighten standards and eliminate loopholes in our asylum system.

* Elevate the threshold standard of proof in credible fear interviews.

* Impose and enforce penalties for the filing of frivolous, baseless, or fraudulent asylum applications, and expand the use of expedited removal as appropriate.

* Ensure only appropriate use of parole authority for aliens with credible fear or asylum claims, to deter meritless claims and ensure the swift removal of those whose claims are denied.

When Trump tweets about how we need to change our weak border laws, this is the kind of thing he has in mind. They want to severely restrict the ability of migrants to claim and prove the need for asylum, which is what David Leopold told Greg Sargent yesterday.

“He’s saying that is a bad border law — that the legal way for them to enter temporarily should be ended,” Leopold tells me. “He’s saying that in order to have effective border laws, we need to cut out the asylum process. That’s a radical shift.”

It is a radical shift that happens to be a significant part of Stephen Miller’s white nationalist agenda.

The Resistance: Rally For the Issues You Care About

Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, our all-repug General Assembly is preparing legislation to make the national fascist trainwreck look like a liberal festival.

Don't let them think you don't care and aren't going to fight.

From the ACLU:

The General Assembly returns from break soon, and we're preparing to challenge legislation that seeks to limit reproductive freedom and legalize discrimination against LGBT Kentuckians.

There are three upcoming opportunities to meet with your legislators and raise your voice on these important issues.

I ♥ Repro Rights Lobby and Rally Day Tuesday, February 14
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register using Google Docs

Kentucky Fairness Lobby and Rally Day Wednesday, February 15
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register using Google Docs

Ally Event: Refugee & Immigrant Day at the Capitol Thursday, February 16
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register at the SurveyMonkey website

If we learned anything from the first week of the session, legislators are rushing bills through the legislative process faster than ever before. It's important they answer questions and hear feedback from their constituents before these measures are signed into law. Let's build on all the great energy from the Women's March and pack the Capitol three days in a row — February 14, 15, and 16.

Five Fucking THOUSAND Resistance Fighters in Louisville

UPDATE:  My pictures below.

I was there.  InsiderLouisville has the story and great pictures.

“In Louisville and around the country, these are people who start businesses, join the PTAs, pay taxes and make valuable contributions to their communities,” Mayor Fischer said. “And last week’s travel ban on anyone entering the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries runs counter to the America we know and love — a strong, courageous, outwardly looking, optimistic, multicultural nation.”

He encouraged attendees to get to know one another and “just be a good neighbor.”

Following the ban, some U.S. mayors, including those in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., restated their commitment to serve as “sanctuary cities,” meaning they would not use city funds or resources to enforce immigration laws. Fischer has not declared Louisville a sanctuary city, a largely symbolic title, but said previously that city officials would not start rounding people up.

During his speech at the rally, Fischer again stopped short of calling Louisville a sanctuary city. However, he stated that Louisville Metro Police Department’s main objective is public safety. It is not the police department’s job to enforce immigration laws, and no resources will diverted from public safety initiatives, he said.

Ky. Rep. Attica Scott tweeted out a petition Monday afternoon calling on Fischer to designate Louisville a sanctuary city. The petition had more than 1,000 signatures as of 8:30 p.m. Monday.

It was amazing.  The rally was set up for the plaza in front of the Muhammad Ali Center, but the crowd quicky overflowed the plaza, overflowed the pedestrian bridge across Sixth Street, overflowed the roof of the parking garage, and filled Sixth Street from the river to Main Street.

There was a lady there with a sign saying "Bosnian refugee" and arrows pointing to herself.  I went over and asked if I could hug her, and she said yes, and I hugged her and said "thank you for coming to America, thank you for coming to Kentucky, and thank you for coming here tonight." 

At the end of the rally, we sang the national anthem a capella, then marched down to Jefferson St. and rallied again on the steps of Louisville Metro Hall and around the statue of Thomas Jefferson.

5,000 people.  This is just the beginning.


 

The Resistance: Skittles

Wonkette:

And then there was this response to Donald Trump Jr.’s goddamned stupid “poisoned skittles” meme:

So say we all.

Eating the Skittles

Via Wonkette:

Anti-Terrorism Immunization in Louisville

They're all Americans now.

From the Courier:

The children — from Somalia, Burma and Iraq — had only been in the United States for weeks or days. They're refugees, forced to leave their homes because of war or persecution.

Now they were experiencing their first summer camp.

As part of a five-week Kentucky Refugee Ministries program, more than 40 children, ranging from kindergartners to seventh-graders, are taking morning classes in science, math, art and English. They'll also partake in field trips, an art show and other activities planned by the resettlement agency, which has run the camp for at least a decade.

For the students, the program provides an opportunity to learn English, socialize in the language and experience American classrooms, where they are expected to participate and ask questions.

For parents, who worry about the language barrier their child will face in school, it'll ease their kids' transition this fall.

Refugee children — who numbered roughly 600 last year in Louisville — often struggle to integrate into their schools, said Meagan Floyd, youth services coordinator for the agency.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety and learning difficulties, she said. And because their schooling abroad faced frequent disruption, they also begin below grade level, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article85982022.html#storylink=cpy

How to Fight ISIS

Via Juanita Jean:

War on Christmas

Via Wonkette:

How Appalachia Needs Syrian Refugees

The refugee "debate" is backwards.  The question isn't which state will take the risk and spend the money to help refugees; the question is which state gets to enjoy the economic, social and moral power that refugees and other immigrants have brought to this nation from the beginning.

Appalachia needs all the immigrants it can get.

Dee Davis of the Daily Yonder:

Rural America is falling further behind. Farms don’t need farmers. Manufacturing moved offshore. And the rate of rural kids living in poverty is worse than it is in the inner cities.

Here’s a solution. Let’s take in the Syrian refugees. Make them rural Americans. As many as we can feed.

I live in a small town. The billboard says welcome to Whitesburg, Kentucky, population 1,534 friendly people plus two grouches. We are losing industry, businesses and people with alacrity. We are losing alacrity too. Small towns often struggle to hang on to critical mass to keep a tax base or to have enough tuba players for the school band. In small towns everyone is necessary. Not even the grouches are expendable.

We’ve got room here for more folks. Rural downtowns have empty buildings where dime stores and haberdasheries once catered to customer needs.

SNIP

 In the Appalachian Mountains, Syrians, Lebanese, Persians and Palestinians came in throughout the 20th-century booms and stayed through the busts. They were coal miners and merchants and soldiers in the great wars. This nation welcomed strangers then, and strangers pitched in. Steve Jobs’ people were Syrian. eBay’s Pierre Omidyar is Iranian. There is an upside to an open-door policy.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article46837720.html#storylink=cpy

SNIP

But why should rural people be scared of new neighbors now? This is no time to buckle. Sharing the future with people who want to be here cannot be as daunting as preserving a present that’s straining under the load. The Statue of Liberty’s plaque plainly states: “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.”

That sounds like a plan. And it’s a more thoughtful rural policy than any we have now.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article46837720.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article46837720.html#storylink=cpy

Mayors Fischer and Gray: Are You Going to Let Matt Bevin Push You Around?

Kentucky's governor-elect is a racist, motherfucking moron.  Mayors of Louisville and Lexington are not.  They should follow the excellent example of their counterparts in Michigan and Texas.

Crooks and Liars:

The mayors of Detroit and Austin said Monday they are welcoming Syrian refugees despite pushback by their states’ Republican governors following the deadly attacks in Paris.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said his city can support 50 Syrian families annually for the next three years and is “moving down that road.” Mayor Steve Adler said Austin has accepted three Syrian refugees in the past two years and another is coming.

The Democrats spoke during a White House-arranged conference call, a week after numerous Republican governors spoke out against federal refugee policies.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has instructed refugee-resettling organizations to stop helping Syrians. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, who has lobbied federal officials for refugees and immigrants, urged a pause in the resettlement program until security concerns are addressed.

Duggan, who discussed refugee issues with Obama administration officials last month during a two-day Washington trip, said he remains comfortable with the refugee-vetting process. He said the city has vacant housing that could accommodate refugees, as well as support agencies and a large Syrian and Middle Eastern community in the surrounding area.

He said all mayors are “conscious of this terrorist threat,” which is “very real.” But he called accepting refugees a “very human issue.” Providing “refuge” to victims of terror, he said, “is what this country is all about.”

“We stand in Detroit prepared to do our share,” he added.

Bevin to Bankrupt Kentucky on Refugee Lawsuits

Our repug guv-elect said Kentucky won't accept them. That stupidity is going to cost Kentucky taxpayers millions.

TPM:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Monday against Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) on behalf of the refugee agency that redirected a Syrian refugee family from Indiana to Connecticut at the request of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to keep the governor from withholding any state or federal refugee resettlement funds from Exodus Refugee Immigration, Inc., and states that Pence's rejection of refugees from Syria is unconstitutional.

"This lawsuit is calling out Governor Pence on his unconstitutional bluff," Judy Rabinovitz, deputy legal director of the ACLU's immigrants' rights project, said in a statement. "He does not have the power to pick and choose between which lawfully-admitted refugees he is willing to accept. Singling out Syrian refugees for exclusion from Indiana is not only ethically wrong, it is unconstitutional. Period."

Governors do not have the authority to block refugees from living in their states, since the federal government sets immigration policy. And experts say that targeting refugees from certain regions is unconstitutional and could invite lawsuits.

But the lawsuit filed by the ACLU notes that when Exodus had to redirect a Syrian refugee family to Connecticut at the last minute, the agency had to spend its own funds to find the family a new home.

"Exodus Refugee Immigration had expended both staff time and resources in preparing for the Syrian refugee family who did not come to Indiana. These resources were necessarily diverted from other projects and from assisting other refugees," the complaint reads.

SNIP

In a statement issued in response to the ACLU lawsuit on Tuesday, Pence's office said that the state will continue to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana.

Moron.  Stand up, Hoosiers and impeach this idiot before you lose everything.

It's come to this. And it's just the beginning

White racists shooting unarmed and peaceful African-Americans?  Check

Police pepper-spraying the victims while the shooters get away?  Check

Authorities blaming the unarmed, peaceful protesters for bringing white violence down on themselves?  Check

Presidential candidates inciting the racist hatred and celebrating the violence?  Check and check and check.

Think Progress:

A group of white supremacists opened fire on an encampment of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis on Monday night, according to witnesses. Five protesters were shot and sustained injuries.

The police are seeking three white male suspects. They were reportedly “wearing masks and bulletproof vests.

“I am obviously appalled that white supremacists would open fire on nonviolent, peaceful protesters,” Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, said from the site of the shootings.

The encampment was in response to the shooting of of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, who was fatally shot by the police on November 15.

The New York Times reports that some witnesses claimed “they had been sprayed with Mace by the police following the shooting.”

What's this?  A white mayor in Texas says that white supremacists are a greater danger than scary browns?

The mayor of Dallas is pushing back against politicians who say Americans should be skeptical of Syrian refugees, saying he is “more fearful” of armed white men than people fleeing civil war in the Middle East.

Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was asked to discuss the growing anxiety over Syrian refugees entering the United States, purportedly over concerns they could be potential agents for militant groups such as ISIS. Rawlings staunchly rejected the assertion that Syrians are somehow uniquely prone to violence, saying he is more concerned with the rise of white supremacy and the recent flurry of mass shootings committed by white men.

“I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,” Rawlings said.

George Does It Again

Just. Nails. The. Motherfuckers. To. The. Wall.

Vox:

On Wednesday, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, wrote a controversial letter explaining why his administration won't be welcoming Syrian refugees. The letter from Mayor David Bowers invoked America's history of interning Japanese Americans during World War II as a precedent for his own actions. He wrote, "President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then."

Star Trek actor turned internet celebrity George Takei takes this subject very personally, because he was one of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were targeted by Roosevelt's policies. And in a powerful Facebook post, he pointed out that the lesson Bowers has drawn from this history is totally wrong:

1) The internment (not a "sequester") was not of Japanese "foreign nationals," but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.

2) There never was any proven incident of espionage or sabotage from the suspected "enemies" then, just as there has been no act of terrorism from any of the 1,854 Syrian refugees the U.S. already has accepted. We were judged based on who we looked like, and that is about as un-American as it gets.

3) If you are attempting to compare the actual threat of harm from the 120,000 of us who were interned then to the Syrian situation now, the simple answer is this: There was no threat. We loved America. We were decent, honest, hard-working folks. Tens of thousands of lives were ruined, over nothing.

Cowards Who Think America is Weak

The Rude Pundit:

This is simple: If you say that the United States or your state or your city or your little shithole by the ditch should ban refugees from Syria because ISIS fighters or Islamic terrorists or Sharia-packin' mules might get into the nation. you are a pussy. Because what you are saying is that you are so afraid of a couple of goatfuckers getting through and blowing themselves up that you would rather cringe in the dark and hide. And you think the nation is so pathetic and weak that those goatfuckers could actually have a shot at destroying Our Way of Life (spoiler: they don't).

Repug Pants-Wetters Determined to Create Radical Muslims in America

Their hysteria over muslinterrists under the bed is pure projection: America's real domestic terrorists are the very right-wing, freakazoid gun nuts repugs have been growing and cherishing for 60 years.

And now their screaming hate-mongering is going to create in reality the myth they lie about.

 

Digby:

Michael Cohen makes a good point in this column about the various myths surrounding the Paris attacks and US policy toward ISIS:

Myth No. 1: America Is Next

From the pages of Politico to the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” this argument has been made repeatedly since Friday night, and it demonstrates a glaring ignorance about the differences between the U.S. and Europe when it comes to vulnerability to terrorism.

The biggest difference is that the United States simply doesn’t have a radicalized Muslim population, as is the case in France and elsewhere in Europe. That matters a lot because foreign terrorists operating in the United States, especially in a post-9/11 environment, would need local assistance, safe houses, access to weapons and explosives, logistical support and more. In short, they would need Americans, or people who know American culture and who can operate in the country freely. Yet, in the 14 years since 9/11, there’s been no serious emergence of radicalization among American Muslims. The Fort Hood shooter and the Boston Marathon bombers are obvious exceptions, but exceptions nonetheless.

Europe is a very different kettle of fish than the US. They have large Muslim populations with long-standing social unrest and cultural alienation. It's quite possible that the radicalization, at least among some of them, has as much to do with their own issues as Europeans as it has with their religion or solidarity with the aims of ISIS.

We have not had this in the US. But from the way the Republicans are acting, it appears we're jealous and would like to get some. At the very least they seem petulant that we aren't in the center of the  fight. Treating Muslims like aliens and talking about closing mosques and rounding up and interning or deporting them is one way to get there.

Keep it up boys. This demagoguery may very well keep out Syrian refugees but if you want to create some American homegrown Islamic radicals you're doing a heckuva job.

Choosing Brave and Smart Over Scared and Stupid

Ever notice how real heroes are never the ones screaming "OMG we're all gonna die!"

Digby:

I've been aghast at the panic stricken bellowing coming from mainstream US media in the wake of Paris and needless to say, Fox News has been worse than most.  But once in awhile someone surprises you. Here's Fox's Shep Smith:

In the face of terror, will we panic or be calm and deliberative in approach?” Smith asked in a 90-second monologue. “Confronted with those who want to change our way of life, will we abandon our freedoms and the rights granted to us by the creator, or will we welcome huddled masses, yearning to breathe free? Will we take extreme measures to fundamentally alter who and what we are?” 

“Our shining city on a hill is vulnerable,” he continued. “We’ve always known that. If we change it to accommodate the savages, have they won? And what then would be left to protect? We profess to stand as an example for all the world. Our unique experiment in freedom, tolerance, openness, and equality, is our gift to societies and peoples everywhere. Come, join us. Enjoy a chance at the American dream.” 

He concluded, “Today we mourn but we cannot allow ourselves to become like those who want to destroy us. We cannot resort to tactics of the barbarians. We must fight for what we believe in and who we are. Guard our freedoms faithfully for the generations to follow. And we must not let the rhetoric of potential and political extremists among us lead us to self-destruction. When there’s panic, we show resolve. When there’s calm for extremism, we resist. We are America. We must lead.”

QOTD: Refugees

If America is not the beacon of freedom to every oppressed person on earth, then it is nothing at all.

 

Paul Campos at LGM:

... the proper response to calls for an end to accepting Syrian refugees is to point out that such a policy is grotesquely inhumane, as it buys Americans an infinitesimal decrease in the already infinitesimal risk that we as individuals will be victimized by jihadist terrorism, at the cost of failing to do anything to ameliorate the vast suffering of the actual victims of ISIS, 99.99% of whom are in Syria and Iraq.

Not Gonna Be Nice: The Mother Fuckers Are Wrong

Via Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:

Doctor Zoom at Wonkette crystallized the absurdity:

Of course U.S. America should take in refugees. It’s our fucking job. The alternative is to leave them stuck in hell, where they will either die or become radicalized against the United States. Or else we might as well replace the plaque on that nice welcoming statue in New York Harbor with one that reads, “Sucks to be you.” The lesson of World War II was supposed to be “Never Again,” not “leave ’em to die because they’re scary foreigners with the wrong religion.”

John Nichols ‏@NicholsUprising

If only they weren't so very wrong, so very often, perhaps we could take the fear-mongering politicians seriously. 

 

Saladin Ahmed ‏@saladinahmed

Jewish refugee ship turned back by USA. 254 passengers died in the Holocaust. ht @mlvwrites http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/june-4-1939---jewish-refugee-ship-turned-away-from-florida-coast.html …

Will Jordan ‏@williamjordann

A cartoon from the New York Daily Mirror at the time (June 6, 1939). https://twitter.com/GlennThrush/status/666440453487779840 …

Pat Bagley ‏@Patbagley

Republican America is mean, narrow, ill-informed, bigoted, angry, self-destructive ... and incredibly well-armed.

Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part 1

First, you moron, refugee policy is set by the President, not by faux-libertarian bros who think a governor's race makes them king. If President Obama wants to send five million Syrian refugees to Kentucky, there's not a fucking thing Bevin can do about it.

And as has been pointed out by others, ISIS is what the Syrian refugees are running away from.  You want to hurt ISIS and help America?  Welcome the refugees with open arms and make sure they become grateful American citizens.

 

You know, like the immigrant ancestors of every single fucking person in this country.

From the Courier:

As Kentucky refugee advocates worked to calm fears and stave off a backlash against Syrian refugees, Gov.-elect Matt Bevin on Monday joined with a chorus of governors, including Indiana's Mike Pence, calling for suspending the refugees' resettlements to their states.

"The recent terrorist attacks in Paris serve as a warning to the entire civilized world that we must remain vigilant," Bevin said in a statement. "It is imperative that we do everything in our power to prevent any similar attack by evildoers from taking place here in America."

Bevin, who is to be inaugurated Dec. 8, said his primary responsibility as governor would be to protect Kentuckians.

About the same time, Kentucky's outgoing governor, Steve Beshear, issued a statement saying the commonwealth would be following federal immigration laws under him. "In terms of the impact of this violence on refugees, obviously, these are women and children and people who are in desperate need, and if America needs to help out, we will help out," he said. "But we have to be very careful and make sure that we screen people so we only bring folks into the United States who are truly looking for a safe haven.”