Making the case for the Detroit Lions as America’s next favorite sad-sack perennial-loser franchise.
“Donald Trump is Marion Barry for rural white people.”
RIP, Leon Russell, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician and songwriter.
RIP, Robert Vaughn, versatile character actor best know for The Man From U.N.C.L.E..
“According to two sources with direct knowledge of the company’s decision-making, Facebook executives conducted a wide-ranging review of products and policies earlier this year, with the goal of eliminating any appearance of political bias. One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people’s feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It’s unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed.”
“If all undocumented workers were immediately removed from the country, Edwards and Ortega forecast a decline of 9 percent in agricultural production and declines of 8 percent in construction and leisure and hospitality over the long term.”
RIP, Gwen Ifill, prominent political journalist and Presidential debate moderator.
“You, a good-hearted, well-intentioned, America-loving person, can publicly and loudly demand that the President-elect and all of his surrogates and appointees denounce all hate groups who are celebrating this win as a win for their agenda.”
“I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now.”
“It’s a tremendous problem when it’s completely obvious how someone seeking governmental action from the United States can provide substantial benefit to its chief executive.”
“There’s a reason that IOKIYAR—It’s OK If You’re A Republican—has become such a widely-used acronym.”
Well done, Brett Gelman. Well done.
“Much has been written about financial hardship turning afflicted white communities into breeding grounds for white supremacist politics, but what about when dissatisfaction has little to do with economic circumstance? It’s hard to know what can be done to combat this phenomenon, but surely we have to start by taking the link between online hatred and resentment of women and the rise of neofascism seriously.”
What Fred says.
Fewer NBA teams will be staying at Trump hotels.
“So, frustrated with Washington dysfunction, the voters have just rewarded the obstructionists.”
RIP, Ruth Gruber, who accompanied 1,000 Jews to the shores of the United States during the Holocaust. A truly amazing woman, do yourself a favor and read her obituary.
RIP, Dr. Denton Cooley, renowned heart surgeon.
RIP, Sharon Jones, amazing Grammy-nominated soul and funk singer. 2016 just keeps getting worse.
If anything, Marion Barry can be most closely compared to Bernie Sanders. After all, both of them have probably uttered the phrase, “b**** set me up” a few times.
“There’s a reason that IOKIYAR—It’s OK If You’re A Republican—has become such a widely-used acronym.”
Well, perhaps for the very first time, I agree with Mother Jones on something. the lawsuits need to proceed.
“If all undocumented workers were immediately removed from the country, Edwards and Ortega forecast a decline of 9 percent in agricultural production and declines of 8 percent in construction and leisure and hospitality over the long term.”
Maybe we should concentrate on first deporting illegals in NYC, Houston, and other big cities where crime is high and agricultural production is low.
Bill, I know you are very happy with the results but at least be consistent, construction is very high in those cities, need I remind you that you wrote agricultural and construction. If not for those cities the economy in the U.S. would not be as good as it is, after all jobs in rural areas suck (not existing).
Besides your boy is already backing down about all those deportations, he is talking Obama numbers now. Did you lose your yard mowing job or something like that?
He took you all for the fools that most of you are, he can’t keep most of those promises. He can only B.S. about it.
Bill I did not say you are a fool, but if you think he will build a wall and deport 11 million people, wait to see if he does. If he doesn’t than were the hat with pride.
wear
@Neither:
If Trump doesn’t ramp up deportations, I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong. However, I don’t see how anyone who pays taxes would be opposed to deporting illegals that are a net drain on our society. Criminals, users of the county hospitals, anchor parents who don’t contribute enough in sales tax and property tax via apartment rent to cover the cost of the anchor kids’ tuition, etc. If an illegal gets stopped for driving with no license, and, after investigation, it is determined that no income taxes were filed, or worse, income taxes were filed only to net benefit the illegal with EITC welfare, it would help balance our budgets to get rid of that illegal. And all those “unaccompanied minors?” They cost the taxpayers money from day one. Simply immediately returning them to their home countries, vs. the Obama program of flying them to parts unknown in the American interior would be cheaper for the taxpayers.
How many unlicensed and uninsured motorists could we take off the streets of Houston if we sent illegals back to where they belong? Want safer streets? Here’s an excellent way to start.
Bill, my view is that even if the points you make are factual (my doubts are high) these folks are net contributors and human beings and that mass deportation of people whose only “crime” is an almost superhuman drive to work is insane and morally wrong.
For those who want to claim that the immigration issue is strictly about economics/ following the law, and there’s no racism/xenophobia to see here, nope, none at all, riddle me this? Where is the equivalent outcry over all the Americans who hire under the table?? Bill here has not one word about them, nor does anyone I’ve heard from the Trump crowd. The demand matters as much as the supply. Where are the calls to lock these people up, especially the ones who steal wages and flout safety regs?
@Voter:
Let’s just look at numbers. A woman illegally enters or overstays a visa in the US. She has a child. That child is born at the county hospital, and the bill is not paid by the illegal alien mother. How much does a birth at Ben Taub or LBJ cost? $ 12,000 or so, assuming nothing went wrong? Something goes wrong, and now we are talking several hundred thousand, or more. Now we sign up that baby for WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, and then, 4 or 5 years later, 12-13 years of schooling, that costs well over $ 9,000 a year before we even start talking about the costs of free breakfast, free lunch, and free “take home” food on the weekends.
What does a year’s worth of WIC/food stamps for one anchor baby cost? $ 1,000?
What does a year’s worth of Medicaid cost? $ 3,000?
Conservatively, in year one of an illegal alien giving birth here, the taxpayers just got hit up for $ 16,000.
In 4 or 5 years, the taxpayers are getting hit up for $ 13,000 a year for 12 or 13 years, not including what it costs for the free meals at school.
Those are conservative estimates for ONE child, most illegals have a bunch, not one.
Now, how much income, property and sales tax does that woman (or man and wife couple pay each year? Do they pay $ 16,000 a year, combined? $ 13,000/year combined? What if they have 3, 4 or even 5 kids? Multiply that $ 13,000/year time 5. Ouch.
We haven’t even begun to talk about other costs that taxpayers incur…roads, courthouses, police, fire, etc. Has this illegal family paid over the $ 16,000/year to pay for some of that, too?
I’m just spitballing, but I think you will find that most illegals are net takers, not net providers to the government,and we already have more than our share of citizen net takers. Booting out net takers that don’t belong here seems not just sane, but also very moral……moral to the people like you and me who are footing the bill for them, against our will. It isn’t moral to take things by force, which is what happens when US taxpayers support illegal aliens and their offspring.
Cost to taxpayers to house people at immigrant detention centers per day:
http://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-17-at-3.12.43-PM.png
So, in 2013 figures it cost taxpayers $159 per day per person to hold them in immigration detention centers. $58,000 a year for one person held in a detention center. And people would be–are–held in these places for long periods of time before deportation would take effect. from this link:
http://immigrationforum.org/blog/themathofimmigrationdetention/
Median US household income in 2013: $51,939
from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
So to hold a family of 4 in a detention center for a year costs over $200,000
I’d say the private prison corporations are the takers here.
In 2013, the average daily cost to hold a detainee in an immigration detention center was $159 a day. Just over $58,000 a year. So holding a family for a year is over $200,000. The median household income is still less that $60,000 a year. The big thieves are the private prison corporations – because they are without a doubt being paid by taxpayer dollars.
@Bill, your comments on schools are disingenuous. Almost no one pays enough in property tax to cover the cost of their kid’s public schooling. I have a child in an HISD middle school, and my HISD tax bill this year is $3,114.18. I suppose that makes me a taker in your world, since the cost of schooling is more like $10k per child.
@Ross:
Extrapolate. Do some quick math. One kid is directly costing taxpayers near a half million dollars over an 18 year period, assuming the Medicaid and food stamps don’t continue forward into adulthood. Most illegal aliens have more than one child. Say the two parents will be here for 55 years. They would have to pay almost $ 7,800/ year, per kid, just to break even on what we are spending on one child. I haven’t adjusted for inflation, and haven’t included the parent’s “free visits” to Ben Taub with their Gold Cards, and also haven’t included the value of society’s shared costs….military, police, fire, roads, libraries, courts, NASA, food stamps, the Border Patrol, Section 8 housing, Medicaid, etc.
The majority of illegals will NEVER begin to cover the costs that the taxpayers pay directly for their kids.
@matx:
Those jailed families should have the option to be freed immediately…..and put on a bus or airplane back to where they belong, unless they have been previously deported, in which case, punitive punishment is required to discourage recidivism.
There are cheaper alternatives to detention centers – monitoring while immigrants stay with their families for example. If the government and law enforcement truly cracked down on employers who exploit undocumented immigrants it would probably go a lot further than any amount of deportation efforts for a lot less tax dollars – people would “self deport” if they could not find a job.
This is very unlikely to happen because undocumented workers are good for business’bottom lines, which means it is good for politicians’ bottom lines.