It's Simple, Stupid

https://overcast.fm/+AAMzRnlXMU0

 

The Underlying Problem With MAGA: Childish/Magical Thinking

One major trait of Trumpers/MAGA is childish/magical thinking. Everything is black and white. There is no room for understanding that reality can be much more than good or bad/right or wrong in many serious topics/circumstances. Unsupported certainty can be the enemy of nuance, humility, and understanding

There is a reason why fear works so well on them: they are easily blocked from considering that they may be incorrect in their opinions. The majority probably were raised within a religion and that religion poisoned their brains from challenging the dogma to which they were exposed.

Below is an emblematic of this problem: 

• "I am afraid of the 'other' that I was taught to hate. Those immigrants will harm me and take my job. I must support deporting them as fast as we can, to Hell with due process/the Rule of Law."

They Are Traitors And Not Hiding It

Following are excerpts from a recent article by Heather Cox Richardson, my favorite American historian, focusing on JD Vance's statements at the recent Munich Security Conference, the world’s leading forum for talking about international security policy:

" - - - Vice President J.D. Vance launched what The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour called 'a brutal ideological assault' against Europe, attacking the values the United States used to share with Europe but which Vance and the other members of the Trump administration are now working to destroy.

"Vance and MAGA Christian nationalists reject the principles of secular democracy and instead align with leaders like Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. They claim that the equal rights central to democracy undermine nations by treating women and racial, religious, and gender minorities as equal to white Christian men. They want to see an end to the immigration that they believe weakens a nation's people, and for government to reinforce traditional religious and patriarchal values."

Click here for the full article.

Immigration: Democrats Have A Model For Reform

"New Democrats believe both parties need to work together to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We can smartly secure our border and create a modern immigration system that reflects our American values, creates a process for undocumented immigrants with long ties to the U.S. to earn citizenship, revamp our visa system and support U.S. businesses and farmers. Comprehensive immigration reform has the potential to reduce the deficit by over $900 billion and create hundreds of thousands of American jobs."

Click on this link for information regarding the group of 100 House Democrats (the New Democrat Coalition) who have been working for decades for practical solutions to immigration reform. MY QUESTION: why aren't programs like this by the Democrats being publicized more? It is just another example of poor media exposure of the good the Democrats are doing. 

Immigration Plans Under MAGA

 "The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the policy playbook for a second Trump administration, and its impacts on immigration would be far more complex and destructive than previously reported. It isn’t simply a refresh of first-term ideas, dusted off and ready to be re-implemented. Rather, it reflects a meticulously orchestrated, comprehensive plan to drive immigration levels to unprecedented lows and increase the federal government’s power to the states’ detriment. These proposals circumvent Congress and the courts and are specifically engineered to dismantle the foundations of our immigration system."

Click on the link below for another reason why the Republicans need to be avoided like the Plague:

The Far Right's plan to demolish immigration

The Disease Of Anti-Immigration Continues To Spread

"Border security around the world continues to take turns for the dark and dystopian as right-wing sentiment against migrants and refugees continues to escalate to the extreme."

Click on the link below for a 2-hour in-depth podcast addressing the rational and irrational fear of "The Other."

Migrants and Refugees on Fortress Earth: Our politicized, fortified, industrialized borders in the US and Europe.

Immigration Is A Positive

"An increasing number of Americans are becoming concerned about immigration. As am I. And I am an immigrant. But my concern isn’t tied to the specter of hordes of criminals crossing our borders, as Donald Trump and many of his supporters insist, or to immigrants causing the cost of urban housing to soar, or to low-skilled or unskilled workers driving down wages.

"I’m worried instead that our changing attitudes about immigration, our rhetoric and our behavior, will ultimately curtail immigration policy to the point where we cause serious damage to our nation. In a fast-developing, fast-urbanizing world in which a fierce global battle for labor and talent is well underway, America is already underperforming. We have one thing going for us, though: robust immigration rates. And we’re about to give it up."

Click on the link below for more:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-immigration-lies-hide-americas-real-immigration-problem-rcna152421 

Chinese Immigrants: Hate & Fear Under The Radar

"In the New York Times today, Amy Qin and Patricia Mazzei reported on the new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying property in Florida, especially near important infrastructure like airports, refineries, and military installations. Qin and Mazzei note that more than three dozen states either have enacted or are crafting laws to restrict the purchase of land, businesses, or housing by Chinese nationals, even if they have legal residence in the United States. The justification for the laws is that Chinese investment in the U.S. is a national security risk, although Chinese nationals own less than 400,000 acres in the United States.

"It was an odd echo, for on this day in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese workers, but not scholars, businessmen, or diplomats, from immigrating to the United States for ten years. This was the first federal limitation of voluntary immigration to the United States, and it would be extended for more than 60 years."

Click on the link below for more:

A History of US Bigotry

Immigration: A Look At How Trump & Biden Handled It

"We’re excited to share the first conversation in our WITHpod 2024: The Stakes series. For the first time since 1892, we have an election in which both candidates have presidential records, which provides a unique opportunity to cut through messaging and rhetoric and culture war flotsam and actually take a hard look at what each man has actually done as president. On The Stakes, WITHPod will choose specific areas of policy -- immigration, taxes, climate -- and talk to an expert about the two candidates' records on the topic. We’re starting with one of the highest salience and most complex policy areas: immigration. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, joins to unpack immigration policies under Trump vs. Biden, border enforcement, the state of the asylum system and more."

I have posted previously about the fact that Immigration is not only good for the USA, but is needed (link). The above series of podcasts begins with the issue that polls show is the number one topic for Republicans. Click on the link below for the stated podcast:

The Stakes of Immigration

Conservatives: Get Over It, Immigration Is Good And Needed

"While immigration remains a hot-button political issue that focuses on illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, it is crucial to move the discussion to a serious analysis of the importance of immigration for the nation’s demographic and economic growth, and how broad policies such as comprehensive immigration reform can address our future needs. The new census projections should play a central role in those discussions."

Click on the link below for the details "THEY" don't want you to know (to borrow a phrase from the pseudoscientists):

New census projections show immigration is essential to the growth and vitality of a more diverse US population

US Immigration And Crime: Beware Of Republican Gaslighting

"Across a variety of studies that use different years of data that focus on different areas of the United States – with some exceptions, there’s some nuance there. I don’t want to deny the nuance – in general, on average, we do not find a connection between immigration and crime, as is so often claimed. The most common finding across all these different kinds of studies is that immigration to an area is either not associated with crime in that area, or is negatively associated with crime in that area. This means more immigration equals less crime. It’s rare to find studies that show crime following increases in immigration or with larger percentage of the population that are immigrants."

Click on the link below for more:

What EXPERTS Say About Immigration And Crime

The Monroe Doctrine, Immigration, And Republican Evil

"It is evident that the immigration debate is more about acquiring raw power than about immigration as demands from the Republican Party change along with whatever strategies they feel are most likely to get Republicans elected and in the age of Trump, that means the most draconian, harmful and, ultimately, pointless demands to date."

Click on the link below for how the Monroe Doctrine set the stage for the immigration problems the USA has today:

The Border Crisis is Manufactured (by Republicans)

A Look At US Immigration Reform

"The Biden administration has attempted to mitigate illegal immigration at the border by launching a system, called the CBP One app, for migrants to try and schedule appointments at ports of entry and announcing a new process for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans to be temporarily paroled into the U.S."

Click on the link below for more:

Poll: Voters Believe Illegal Immigration Is Increasing, Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The Truth: Immigration Is A Net Positive

If one is deluded by conservatives, one probably is thinking that immigration is a great negative for workers and society at large. Click on the several links below for the reality:

Immigrants are vital to the US economy

Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants Would Boost Economic Growth

Immigrants and the Economy

Immigrants Provide Huge Benefits to US Taxpayers

Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy

Undocumented Immigrants

Positive impact of illegal immigration on the US economy

One Of The Worse Effects Of Anti-Science Thinking: The USA's Immigration Disaster

"Today, we take a look at the current state and deep context for why our immigration and asylum system is broken, and why our policies have made it worse rather than better, all while stoking anti-immigrant hatred."

Click on the link below for a podcast presenting the total failure of the USA Immigration Policy. And, no, it is not just Republican or conservative blindness, as the vast majority of all people are magical/antiscience thinkers:

Why Our Immigration and Asylum System is Broken

Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash

Immigration: An Issue That Requires Bipartisan Action

"Republicans and Democrats differ over the most pressing priorities for the nation’s immigration system. Republicans place particular importance on border security and deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally, while Democrats place greater importance on paths to legal status for those who entered the country illegally – especially those who entered as children, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

"Still, there are some areas of overlap between Republicans and Democrats, and there are sizable ideological differences in immigration goals within each partisan coalition, with conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats expressing more intense views than others in their parties."

Click on the link below for the result of a recent Pew Research survey:

Republicans and Democrats have different top priorities for U.S. immigration policy

A Deep And Wide Look At US Immigration

"How has American immigration policy shifted over our national history? What can these changes show about how the U.S. defines 'us' and 'them'?

"Heather and Joanne discuss the politics and prejudices surrounding the two 1790s Naturalization Laws, the Immigration Act of 1924, the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, and the current Republican rhetoric about migrants at the Southern border."

Click on the link below for details:

Immigration: Defining "Us" and "Them"

Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Undocumented Immigrants

"On June 6, 2022, a caravan of over 6000 migrants, including many from Venezuela and Guatemala, embarked on a 1,270-mile journey from the southern tip of Mexico to the United States. News coverage of their journey has re-ignited fears about the types of immigrants entering the U.S. But Americans need not fear. In fact, our perceptions about undocumented immigrants are generally very wrong."

Click on the link below for a fact-based look at an easily misunderstood issue:

How We Are Wrong About Undocumented Immigrants

Immigration's History In The USA

"Once you begin to notice examples of how the past is still present, they become difficult to ignore. Trump enacted the most stringent border closure of his administration by citing the threat of disease, even though COVID‑19 outbreaks were far worse inside the United States than just outside its borders (in fact, Americans were actively deporting the virus abroad). His persistent blaming of the Chinese for outbreaks in the U.S. helped incite violence against Asian Americans that continues today, mirroring similar attacks from centuries past.

"In moving toward the more inclusive system that some elected officials now say they want, the country would be not returning to traditional American values, but establishing new ones." 

Click on the link below for a humbling expose of the hypocritical history of immigration in the USA.

U.S. Immigration Policy Has Always Been Exclusionary

An Objective Look At Illegal Immigration In The USA

"Apprehensions on the Southwest border peaked in 2000 at 1.64 million and have generally declined since, totaling 303,916 in 2017."

Illegal Immigration Statistics

UPDATE 2/5/2021:

The Trump administration was on the wrong track