Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
To continue ( it's even money wether or not I live long enough to learn how to use this infernal device) how I want to raise a family or educate my kids. I am very dismayed, repulsed, and angry with the treatment of children by our federal government. And the reasoning. The right has mastered the drawing of the universal rule from the specific incident. All welfare moms are rich from gaming the system, those on food stamps are lazy, shiftless con artists, Obama care is a deathsquad, gender identity will skyrocket moletations, and now those crossing the border are coming to kill you and your loved ones. The individual incidents are indeed tragic or illegal but the inference that these incidents will become universal is wrong. But these tactics generate fear or resentment and that gets votes. It may indeed be time for good men to something, first to stop the brutality against children, but we must go on to restore sanity to our governing bodies and restore our ideals.
Thx everyone for pointing these themes out... Appreciate all your posts. hope we can also support organizations that help the hungry US citizens children at homeless shlters as well as organizations feeding helping these shelters.... I hope we care for ourselves /our us families before caring for our neighbors
@johnN Spot on. I live in a county that receives hundreds of millions of dollars for the local university sports arenas and teams. I kid you not, hundreds of millions. In a county where 1 in 5 children isn't certain where their next meal will come from. Who are we?
Empathy is lofty (by definition, I guess); we just need simple decency, or the other qualities that are the opposite of plain cruelty, and the policies and mechanisms are in place already, or were, I believe. I do get the point here:
Doesn't matter to me what we call it. The U.S. has let in a total of 11 Syrian refugees in 2018. When a country is suffering from genocide and millions of refugees are displaced--many of them women and children--that shouldn't be a time when our nation turns its back. But it wouldn't be the first time that we have:
Yes, despite all of the feel-good "aren't we great" propaganda the history of the United States in this area has been highly checkered, to put it mildly.
@LB, I know; where did I say or imply otherwise? wtf, man, don't become like everyone else online. Read the article and respond substantively if you care to. I am not debating the worth or virtue or sense or solidity of other NF work.
I am genuinely sorry I hurt your feelings, but you are misinterpreting me. I'm criticizing Ferguson not you as a reputable source as he generally makes my skin crawl. And I honestly think he lives up to that reputation in this article because it's not just Mexican immigrants that are trying to cross the border, but Central American ones facing death squads and starvation back home too: https://npr.org/2016/02/25/467020627/why-a-single-question-decides-the-fates-of-central-american-migrants
"Many of the people who have been rounded up and will be deported, they already know their future," he says. "They'll die of hunger or they'll be killed by bullets."
There is a similar plight for many Syrian refugees. So there are important comparisons to be made with earlier genocides, deportations and internment in American and European history in their case, despite what Ferguson says. The other day Trump said illegal immigrants were "infesting" America and recently called them "animals." That sort of dehumanized language is not dissimilar from the "vermin" language the Nazis would use.
Moreover, Ferguson's comparison of Trump with Angela Merkel is outrageous. Also ridiculous is Ferguson's comparing himself and his wife's situation with those seeking to cross the border illegally. He is a wealthy professor and his wife a former Dutch MP. To compare their legal process of immigration with people dirt poor fleeing death squads and starvation to the U.S. is insulting. And Stephen Miller is truly a "twisted guy" who does seem to enjoy the deportations, despite his heritage. So I think the comparisons to fascist attitudes towards immigrants are apt.
All of that said, yes I agree with you that we need a more rational decent immigration policy, but citing Ferguson as an example of that rationality is not it for me. In any case, I apologize if I offended you.
We subscribed to The Nation for many years, watching it move more and more away from the center.Towards our final years Ferguson and a few others just drove me nuts, so we finally cancelled and replaced it with The Economist.
Huh? no offense and no hurt feelings; how did you get to that? I asked you what was wrong with his argument and you have responded, partly. I hold no brief for NF at all; this seemed a departure. I would be interested in how your 'rational decent' policy would work. You certainly do not need to rehash for me all the things you rehashed. I am interested in specifics and details and any limits. And no, I do not have a policy of my own in mind. It is all wrenching but what concretely to do about it.
There is no easy solution, but one thing I would do is actually prioritize refugees seeking asylum by genuine need, including looking at the conditions they are seeking to escape. People actually escaping violence and starvation from nations prone to such problems should be given at least asylum and if they prove themselves after proper security vetting, a path to citizenship. It is a hierarchy of need in my view. If we see a burning building with people inside, we shouldn't ask whether the people inside are American or not. We should rescue them and at least provide them with temporary shelter till a permanent home can be found. Some nations--Syria being one, El Salvador, which has the highest murder rate in the world, being another--should get prioritized for refugee status. Also, people prone to being victims of specific kinds of violence should also be prioritized. There is already I believe such a hierarchy for instance for domestic violence victims--women and children who if they return to their original countries will probably be murdered by their husbands/fathers. I also think such people will be eternally grateful to their adopted countries if they are welcomed and will make useful contributions as citizens. Refugees have a real sense of what it means to live a better life in a new home and appreciate it.
@Ted You know that maple baseball bat story you posted yesterday that was completely unrelated to mutual funds? Guess where you can stick it.
“A bat out of Hell” I deemed it and refused to read it. By contrast, I read everything @LewisBraham posts. Thanks for setting Ted straight.
Yikes - That second article Lewis linked today is truly terrifying. Verifiable U.S. citizens being denied travel / passport rights because of skin color, family name or other appearance. Where will this *#@!# end?
Comments
how I want to raise a family or educate my kids. I am very dismayed, repulsed, and angry with the treatment of children by our federal government. And the reasoning. The right has mastered the drawing of the universal rule from the specific incident. All welfare moms are rich from gaming the system, those on food stamps are lazy, shiftless con artists, Obama care is a deathsquad, gender identity will skyrocket moletations, and now those crossing the border are coming to kill you and your loved ones. The individual incidents are indeed tragic or illegal but the inference that these incidents will become universal is wrong. But these tactics generate fear or resentment and that gets votes. It may indeed be time for good men to something, first to stop the brutality against children, but we must go on to restore sanity to our governing bodies and restore our ideals.
hope we can also support organizations that help the hungry US citizens children at homeless shlters as well as organizations feeding helping these shelters.... I hope we care for ourselves /our us families before caring for our neighbors
https://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/texas.html
All poor ones suffers (whether immigrants or us citizens imho)
Spot on. I live in a county that receives hundreds of millions of dollars for the local university sports arenas and teams. I kid you not, hundreds of millions. In a county where 1 in 5 children isn't certain where their next meal will come from. Who are we?
https://nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-travel-ban.html
Even though there's this:
https://reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria/syrian-observatory-says-war-has-killed-more-than-half-a-million-idUSKCN1GO13M
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/29/where-displaced-syrians-have-resettled/
https://npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/12/602022877/the-u-s-has-welcomed-only-11-syrian-refugees-this-year
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/06/25/empathy-but-also-realism-are-necessary-facing-immigration/548AC69yrvUXDuAhXjZ1TL/story.html
though, as so often, Ferguson sets up strawmen.
Yes.
https://smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/
nybooks.com/articles/2007/07/19/the-question-of-empire/
https://nytimes.com/2003/04/27/magazine/the-empire-slinks-back.html
nybooks.com/articles/2007/04/26/plain-tales-from-british-india/
Pretty close!
I am genuinely sorry I hurt your feelings, but you are misinterpreting me. I'm criticizing Ferguson not you as a reputable source as he generally makes my skin crawl. And I honestly think he lives up to that reputation in this article because it's not just Mexican immigrants that are trying to cross the border, but Central American ones facing death squads and starvation back home too:
https://npr.org/2016/02/25/467020627/why-a-single-question-decides-the-fates-of-central-american-migrants There is a similar plight for many Syrian refugees. So there are important comparisons to be made with earlier genocides, deportations and internment in American and European history in their case, despite what Ferguson says. The other day Trump said illegal immigrants were "infesting" America and recently called them "animals." That sort of dehumanized language is not dissimilar from the "vermin" language the Nazis would use.
Moreover, Ferguson's comparison of Trump with Angela Merkel is outrageous. Also ridiculous is Ferguson's comparing himself and his wife's situation with those seeking to cross the border illegally. He is a wealthy professor and his wife a former Dutch MP. To compare their legal process of immigration with people dirt poor fleeing death squads and starvation to the U.S. is insulting. And Stephen Miller is truly a "twisted guy" who does seem to enjoy the deportations, despite his heritage. So I think the comparisons to fascist attitudes towards immigrants are apt.
All of that said, yes I agree with you that we need a more rational decent immigration policy, but citing Ferguson as an example of that rationality is not it for me. In any case, I apologize if I offended you.
nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/trump-administration-questioning-citizenship-of-hispanics.html
https://washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-is-denying-passports-to-americans-along-the-border-throwing-their-citizenship-into-question/2018/08/29/1d630e84-a0da-11e8-a3dd-2a1991f075d5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.09f240bc2cc7
Regards,
Ted
Yikes - That second article Lewis linked today is truly terrifying. Verifiable U.S. citizens being denied travel / passport rights because of skin color, family name or other appearance. Where will this *#@!# end?
Regards,
Ted
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-29/american-investors-pile-into-marijuana-etf-as-pot-stocks-boom
A glass of Bogle Essential Red (bottled by Bogle Vineyards, Clarksburg, CA) ain’t bad either.