My default position is innocent until proven, which I apply to everyone. Almost everyone. Sure, Jesus forgives, but that doesn’t mean you can’t piss him off.
I’m not sure what’s stranger: Trump boasting about calling off military operations on Twitter or the allegations of him raping a magazine columnist in a department store fitting room. I am sure Sanders must be pretty happy to have resigned before this clusterfuck.
And anybody whose facial features indicate possible Amerind ancestry, that being what a lot of Americans identify as “Hispanic” and therefore “immigrant”. You don’t have ID and the goon thinks you look Hispanic? Into the van you go. You have ID and the goon thinks you look Hispanic? Into the van you go; that ID is clearly fake. It won’t matter if you’re a US-born federal judge or if your ancestry is 100% Choctaw with a hint of Greek: into the van you’ll go.
They already have. “Oh, when I said all illegals should be deported I didn’t mean my neighbor!”
I am hoping you mean that people don’t realize indocumented immigrants contribute to the economy, and not that they (either illegally or as a group) contribute more than the legal ones.
I wonder how many people never realize that famous inmigrants are inmigrants too; it’s an argument I’ve seen used against xenophobes in Spain, but it’s always been in conversations among regular people, I haven’t seen it in media anywhere.
The goal is to terrorize the community. Trump’s base probably doesn’t spend a lot of time dining in cities, so they could hardly care less. Terrorizing Hispanic communities and enraging liberal elitists in urban centers plays to his base. It’s gladiator politics, and Trump and his base love it. More than that, though, this is political intimidation. The anti-immigration extremists in Trump’s orbit see an opportunity, which is to intimidate Latin communities into becoming less politically active and less visible. They want Latinos to shut up and get out of sight, and they believe that harassment can be a tool - and unfortunately, it can be an effective one.
In particular, going after families has a special kind of shock value. People in these communities will see the inhumanity of not just going after a father or a son, but rounding up an entire family, the way that Nazis rounded up entire families of Jews in the 1930s. Neighbors see neighbors just…disappear. That is shock and awe. And it’s terrifying and intimidating.
As a landlord, almost a former landlord I know that when AZ was futzing around with their no undocumented people here in the State, can’t remember the Proposition #, tenants were leaving. There is money to be made renting to them, many places offer “all utilities paid” rentals to them as they can’t get utilities in their names.
Empty apartments means no taxes to the city or state for those units.
And in the meantime, the underground economy, with its hairstylists, barbers, dentists, child care etc. etc. etc., thrives and no sales taxes are paid. It’s just poor business.
Maybe ‘blackmail’ wasn’t a good choice of words and I seriously doubt Individual 1 is doing it.
I think the entire Republican Party is somehow dirty - illegal fund raising?, graft?, bribery?, I dunno - and that the information is out there and in someone’s hands - Vladimir?, Saudi? I dunno. Or maybe it’s still in the hands of the Republican leadership. So the word from on high in the Republican party is keep your mouth shut and follow the leader; McConnell et al., or your career as a Republican and politician is over because we will take you down. Hence the resignations and the weird universal talking points.
In other words, any Republican that has accepted assistance from the party (all of them?) is dirty by association and they know it.
The Donald? He has his own mess, and he’s a useful tool for the Republicans because they know which of his sins to dangle over his head and when to do it. Or maybe it is an outside party and he was foisted upon them. But he’s still useful.
The Republican leadership isn’t stupid. They know exactly how much they can manipulate and how often before it gets too suspicious.
In the meantime they can load the courts and as many of the oversight bodies as they can manage with their cronies so that if the piper (US voters?) asks to be paid they’ll pretty much be immune.
Yes. And it’s not just the underground, immigrants buy things at the legit local deli and gas station and restaurant. A lot of these places would go out of business in small towns andd that would affect the white population.
I don’t meant that they contribute more, but they contribute. No one knows exactly how many of the fruit pickers are illegal, but it is a substantial number.
I no longer have the cite handy but there was an orchard owner years ago who tried an experiment: only hire American citizens. He went around to local job placement agencies offering well above minimum wage. He found one worker, who didn’t bother to return after breaking for lunch.
You almost have to feel sorry for a press agent who has to hope that her boss gets accused of rape - again - because it will distract attention away from the worse story.
Then you remember who we’re talking about and you figure she deserves it.
