Part of the problem we’re having with our discussion of voting rights and the SAVE act is that I swear 90% of the people in the US have no idea what the difference between illegal “migrant”, legal immigrant, green card holder and CITIZEN.
Look, I’m going on my own experience going TO Green card holder, then being a green card holder, and then becoming a citizen.
I know it sounds completely insane to most people here. I tried to explain to my husband that there was this confusion out there, and he just stared at me going “What? What do you mean they don’t know?”
But his mom, the day after we got married — I hadn’t yet applied for a green card! — told me my name was pronounced differently because I was “An American Now.” And though in her last years my MIL became a View fan, I want to point out in no way was she a stupid woman, and she had a a bachelor of arts from Oberlin. (Yes, that probably explained the View habit. But again, she was not stupid.) At the time I hadn’t yet absolutely decided I was going to change citizenships even. (Mostly because I didn’t want to hurt my dad. It took me a few years to decide, but hey, when I did I went to it full tilt. It’s sort of how I do everything.) But I kept running into people who told me I was a citizen now, including notably a Yale graduate. They would ask me who I was voting for. They told me “You’re American now.”
Curiously, once I became a citizen, I started running into a different kind of crazy — still do — including the people who tell me that I must still have dual citizenship, because I wouldn’t want to give Portuguese citizenship up. And of course the jokers who tell me all the work I did to become an American citizen doesn’t count; being in the US for my entire adult life; living completely isolated from any Portuguese culture in the US; practically forgetting Portuguese (I no longer speak it as a native, really) none of that counts. I was BORN on the magical dirt, and that’s the only thing that counts.
And then there are the people who understand the LEGAL divisions, but not why it should matter. So you get the rank idiocy of foreigners wanting to vote in American elections, because what we do influences their countries.
And the rank — and self interested, because fraud — stupidity of democrats and extreme leftists (BIRM) claiming that everyone who is in the country should vote because “Why shouldn’t they have a say on what happens where they live???” This has given us crazy cakes stuff like ILLEGALS allowed to vote on local and state elections, because after all they live there, don’t they?
This makes as much sense as my having a say on how a hotel room is decorated because I stay there for a week. I can guarantee that the hotel would have something to say if I got in with cans of paint and painted the room bright yellow to cheer me up, got rid of their carpet for luxury vinyl and brought in all my cats to stay.
The reason they would have a problem with it is that I don’t own the hotel room, yes. But more importantly, it’s that I stay in the hotel for about a week. I’m a guest — supposing at least that I pay the rates. Otherwise I’m a squatter and have even fewer rights — and frankly whether the hotel room gets demolished, or every wall painted black the minute I leave couldn’t matter less to me. It’s there while I need it, and I pay the price to stay there legally (Again, if I don’t, they’re entitled to dump me and my stuff in the driveway, and call the police. At least they should be. Let’s not go into how crazy some local laws have gotten.) But it’s not MINE. I have nothing invested in it, and in the end I leave and go back home.
This is actually roughly equivalent to most illegal (and even a lot of legal) immigrants, yes, even to America. They come here because it’s convenient to them. They come here specifically to make money to send “home” and they fully intend to retire back “home”, if possible by building the most expensive house in wherever they came from and living from some kind of US pension.
Now compare that to people who are born in the US, whose entire LIFE, family, their entire experience of everything is in the US.
They are citizens and have invested in the future of the country, particularly those of us who have kids/grandkids/great grandkids. You live here, and try to steer the country to what you think will be a good future for your kids. Sure, you might admit the occasional foreigner, just like families adopt the occasional kid. But they should very much want to be Americans, fit in America and raise their kids to be Americans. They should, as much as possible, make themselves American and marry their future to America’s. Which justifies them being citizens.
Which is what I did. I suppose you can’t demand that every immigrant marry an American, but I will point out this is ideal. While I was born in a different culture and family, American culture and ideas had a very strong influence on me from just about when I started to read science fiction. (And mystery, but mostly science fiction.) I’m not using this to claim that people who read American fiction/watch American movies/etc. are American or should vote in our elections. Possess your soul in patience.
What I mean is that there were seedlings of American culture in my brain even back then. However they were partial and weird, because fiction — I know this is hard to understand, but trust me — isn’t reality. As is, my ideas were more accurate than if I’d watched Hollywood movies, but not by much. Fiction I read gave me a picture of the US somewhere between the 1920s and the 1970s, but not exactly any place on that time line, and it concentrated MOSTLY on the big cities, particularly NYC and Los Angeles. And the news were no help there.
In fact, the first three years, until I decided I’d become American (or bust) were spent mostly in correcting misapprehensions I had about the US. And this was AFTER I’d finished High School in the US.
It takes time. It takes time and living here, even if you’re fluent, isolated from people from your native country and really want to be American.
For instance, it took me five years to realize crime wasn’t out of control just because I heard sirens all the time: like American policemen turn on the sirens for traffic stops, or (as a cop acquaintance put it, yes, I know it’s a joke) the “fresh doughnuts” sign went on at Krispy Kreme. It didn’t mean it was like the movies, and people were being murdered left and right.
Or take the complete idiocy of our very first house purchase. If I’d been acculturated, I’d know that house would never sell at a higher price, and it was a stupid purchase. Or–
Anyway, the thing is, I came here. I came here as a full speaker of English. And once I’d decided (Might have been two years in. I’m old. The years bleed together) that I was going to become American…. I went all in.
Since I’ve moved to the US, my entire time in Portugal has been maybe a total of three months, cumulative, over FORTY years. My kids have spent maybe a total month there, in one week or less increments.
We got news of the family every week, via my mom. And my kids like the family there. BUT they are very much foreigners (They are to my kids, and my kids to them.) My kids grew up in the US. My kids grew up Colorado Kids. that’s a far greater identification to them than the fact they had a mother who was born abroad. One of the cutest things about my boys is that they don’t hear my accent, but they do identify the ten words or so I still pronounce the British way (because I first learned British English.)
I became a citizen before first son was born. And yes, the reason was pretty much because I was going to have AMERICAN kids and raise them to be American.
I remember one of the moments of frustration my mom had with older son, when she just yelled at him, “You’re so, so so so….” Hands up in the air “American!”
She did not expect the kid — he was fourteen — to give her a slow smile and say, “Why, thank you ma’am.” (One of the rare occasions of communications across languages.)
Anyway, this is the oath I took:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
And I meant every single word of that. When I naturalized, I gave up all allegiance to the place I was born. I love my relatives, of course, but they are foreign. This is the country I married, as much as I married my husband. I built my home here, and I work to make this a country for my children and should I have them, my grandchildren world without end.
I’m not a guest. I’m not spending time here and intending to “return home.” THIS IS HOME. MY HOME. I have no other.
And that’s why I have the right to vote here. Because if this country gets demolished, or turned into a socialist shithole matters very much to me. And to my kids who, G-d willing, will live here after me.
And that’s why citizens are different. Now, can we police citizens to make sure they are wedded to this land of ours, and don’t intend to go back? No. BUT requiring citizenship is the very minimum you can do.
Citizenship and proof there of means there’s at least a chance they’re of us. Not just a hotel guest — or squatter — who wants to paint the walls black, or set explosive charges off in his room.
According To Hoyt 
Such wisdom and such diligence and fervency in delivering it bring honor and delight to those of us who take pleasure in calling ourselves your countrymen.
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we would be 3rd or 4th generation on dads side and probably 6th or 7th on moms far enough that you don’t think Immigrant. I know a bunch of Immigrants of the legal and a few illegal variety.
Legal Immigrants are a lot harder on illegal ones than i am. I just think go back home and get in line. Immigrant friends get hot under the collar about ut and take it as a personal affront.if they out forth the effort you damn well can to. Also dont get in an argument with an immigrant whi just got citizenship. They will clean your clock on the details of how our government works lol.
and the majority of people are deliberately ignorant of reality as you have pointed out. My faith in humanity has been sorely tried in the last decades. I used to see this slowly evolving trend toward a better future buoyed by my indoctrination in heinlein, Asimov, a.e. van Vogt, L neil smith etc..
now i am wondering. So many people seem to be driven totally by illogical emotion, they chose to be ignorant, to live in emotion and deny thinking and logic.
I have come to wonder if the majority of humanity has genetic or environmental brain damage that limits their ability to think logically.
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Well, no one likes thinking that they were a chump, for going through the expense and trouble of immigrating legally, when they look at the freeloaders waltzing over the border and getting free medical care, SNAP benefits and a no-cost apartment lavished on them.
And as for patriotic Hispanic Americans, whose ancestors settled in Texas, New Mexico, California – and other formerly Spanish possessions in North America? It goes over really well with them, when the proggies blithely assume they would naturally be in solidarity with some gangster or child molester from anywhere south of ye-olde-border…
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Ooooh boy. Yes. The first time the La Raza Unida types showed up in northern New Mexico and proclaimed that people who had been in the area since 1700 had completely the same interests as Mexicans (who the locals considered more Indian than Spanish, by the way)? The Hispanos ran them out and used lots of antiquated but still understandable terms about stupidity, ancestry, and so on. The Gringos all sat back and stayed out of the fight.
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The fact that Pretti was shot by by two Hispanic guys is really causing haywire with the narrative in their brains.
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I bet.
Haven’t heard that. No wonder Pretti’s death has dropped off the news, mostly.
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Well that and all the disturbing new information that came out about him. I don’t think the left realizes yet how badly they shot themselves in the foot with the rush to turn him into a martyr. Looking at the footage, I think there is some reasonable arguments there that excess force was used, but it was completely lost in the media’s hysterical claims that he was a selfless saintly nurse everybody loved and who only wanted to help. Then, oops, it came out his wife divorced him for his disturbing, angry behavior. He was fired months ago from his job for inappropriate conduct. His own parents warned him not to let his anger get the better of him because he was going to get himself killed. A video of him emerged attacking ice agents violently before. He was your basic unemployed, leftist, angry weirdo. “But that doesn’t mean he deserved to be shot by the government just for that!” True, but it really undermined your credibility and painted a picture of someone who probably did want to pick a fight with ICE and was heavily armed to boot.
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And one of them was named Jesus, which generated a few borderline jokes about “What would Jesus do?”
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so it is possible I have foreign or academic contacts who would tell me that CBP employs no such men, and that instead that CBP in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas hires nothing but the pure Nordic specimens that so densely populate the area.
I have been told otherwise by another contact.
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Lol, lefties have no idea how much legal and citizen Hispanics loathe the illegals. I know becuase I am one of them.
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I’m at the very least Hispanic-adjacent (Culture is similar enough and I have more Spanish than Portuguese and yes, actually Amerindian (Miniscule amount and I presume from Brazil.)) And yep. Oh, Lord yes.
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I’m just gonna say, if you want to order over a phone in America, learn to pronounce digits in English. I can decipher a heavy accent or your cell phone dropping every third syllable, but not both.
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LOL
More generations (not native tribes, that I know of) as North American residents. Do not know about mom’s side, but someone has the paperwork for Daughters of the Revolution. So, at least that far back.
Dad’s side. Never on the first boat/wagon train, but on the second. Aunt does have the Daughters of the Revolution paperwork copies. The east coast relatives have been reached out to the west coast relatives (Oregon, 1843) for the 450th anniversary of the family arrival on the east coast in 2026 or 2028 (west coast side isn’t sure, or wasn’t at the last annual August meeting minutes). The eastern historical graveyard goes that far back.
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Mom’s great-whatever-direct-matrilineal married a dude off the Third Boat to land at Jamestown. Another Cherokee married in just prior to the undiscussable war.
Pop’s mother was 2 when she arrived from Poland via ship.
And we have multiple instances of various branches with name changes upon arrival, so the cords are largely cut.
So I straddle the whole “I go -way- back” and “relative newcomer”.
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My Dad tried to “back-track” the Howard line in the US.
The fun was that he found the first Howard in Indiana but couldn’t find traces of him in Kentucky (where he claimed to be from).
Dad decided that he only became a Howard when he arrived in Indiana and only G*d knew what his name was earlier. [Twisted Grin]
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Same. Great-grandpa came to Oregon from Scotland through Canada.
Grandma used to say that if her mother and aunts hadn’t married foreigners, they’d never gotten married. In fact, most of her uncles didn’t marry. Why? Everyone was a sibling, first or second cousin.
Do not know about hubby’s extended family. His parents landed in San Diego from the east coast because of WW2. He’s been told he’s met cousins during one trip back east, by his siblings, when he was two or three.
My side? I’m still meeting new cousins, or learning someone I’ve known (went to school or worked with) much later, that we are related. 5th cousin.
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Ah. Dan is descended from someone in the second. You’re probably cousins….
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I’ve heard that the earlier your European ancestors arrived the more likely it is you have Native American ancestry. As far as my own family lore goes, we have a many times great grandmother who was a Creek Indian. I certainly make no claims based on that ancestry or culture though.
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Wouldn’t surprise me, at all. But if so, the ancestors buried it.
Same with dad’s father’s family. We know grandpa and his siblings were born in Oregon. We think great-grands were born in Oregon. But beyond that? No idea. We don’t know because grandma didn’t know. Grandpa died when I was 2. His parents, his twin, were already gone, when grandma met and married him. There was only his one surviving sister, and while she lived into my HS years, she didn’t talk about their parents or grandparents either.
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“Wouldn’t surprise me, at all. But if so, the ancestors buried it.”
Absolutely, if it is there in my family it got genetically and culturally overwhelmed by the European ancestors.
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Those tribes no longer exist so it doesn’t show up in things like 23 and me.
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We’ve not done the 23 & Me tests.
Did have the dog’s DNA done. Mostly Pomeranian and Chihuahua, no surprise there. The 1/8th Great Pyrenees, OTOH …
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I too understood what being a US citizen means more than most. I was born overseas as my parents were serving in the military when I was conceived overseas. Of course Mom got retired out ‘cause pregnant women did not serve back then, apparently. Anyways I had dual citizenship until 18 when I had to choose. How many 18 year olds have had to make that decision? Especially when there was a draft and Vietnam was in full tilt? It made me think about it, for about 30 seconds. The draft was based on a lottery that year and my number was so high there was little chance of getting diverted from my course of premedical/medical training. But I made my choice before that was known.
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Excellent post! It is a shame that so many don’t seem to figure out the differences though I suspect there is a lot of blame due to the leftist control of media and education. History hasn’t really been taught for a long time and the press parrots whatever euphemism the leftists spout to keep people confused about just exactly who is coming into the country and how. Which plays a part in all the stupidity we’ve been seeing lately.
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Lovely summary of my experience as well. Never could get locals to comprehend that some countries never recognize you are no longer a citizen, once born there to native parents, always a citizen.
As to language, being a multi lingual allows for all sorts of shenanigans where spelling and pronunciation are involved.
Dad’s favorite joke was a Latino that knows no English at all, shopping for an item in NYC. Went to the largest men’s haberdasher and tried to get what he wanted. The sales man being accommodating, figured out he would show the customer an item and observe if he nodded yes or no. Well, after a dozen items, pants, briefs, ties, undershirts and so on, with a negative response, finally arrived at a pair of socks.
The customer grinned and said ” eso si que es” at which point the sales clerk exploded and said “if you knew how to spell it, why did you not tell me earlier”. And so it goes.
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“Tube one weapon ready in all respects.”
“Open outer door”
“Door one open”.
“Match generated bearings and shoot!”
WHOOOOSH!
“Carp one away!”
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C4C
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Civis Americanum Sum.
Which is a sentiment not expressed in English, so not something that an American can expect to be successful communication.
I am not roman, my ‘race’ is not toga-wearing, adn we are not the masters of the world.
However, I do have some but most definitely not all of Roman ideas in mind when I think about the public business or thing of the people of my own nation state.
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I was born here, well in Brooklyn anyway, but I spent a good portion of my life abroad. Still … Several years ago, the USA was playing a rugby match against Ireland. I grew up in an Irish rugby family, played for an Irish club, had friends and a cousin who played on that Irish team. I knew no one who played for the USA since they mostly select from the west coast. Further, Ireland was on the ups at the time and the USA has always been marginal at best. D-mn if I wasn’t rooting hard for the USA. We got stomped BTW, but still. IT was very odd.
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In Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise, there is a conflict between the Maurai (a Polynesian-based society spanning the Pacific) and the Northwest Union (basically the states from Oregon to Alaska, plus British Columbia) in a post-atomic-war future. The Northwest Union wants to develop advanced technology; the Maurai are very green and want to stop them. And then it turns into a shooting war, and the Maurai communities on Hawaii are rising up against the war . . . I don’t know how plausible a future it is, but damn it was heartwarming.
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I saw an old video this morning, one of those “man on the street” things. He asked this young woman to name 5 states. She responded with “Brooklyn, the Bronx, New York…”
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Another term for a resident alien, not a citizen, is denizen.
In Greek poleis, the motherspring of our concept of Democracy, especially the prosperous ones, there were many denizens. Sometimes they outnumbered the citizens. They could be hoplites and were allowed to row in ships. They could become very rich, but they could NOT own property and they never, ever could vote or hold office.
There was no birthright citizenship. A denizen could only become naturalized by majority vote of the assembly of citizens.
The Roman Republic had similar laws until Emperors found that selling citizenship was profitable.
Our founders knew this history.
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The technical term is “metics,” from Greek metoikos: meta-, with, and oikos, the house.
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That’s Greek, Denizen is English from French. I’m writing in English. It’s the distinction that counts.
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The word “metic” is actually English from Greek (by way of Latin); the Greek is metoikos. I had never heard of that meaning of “denizen,” but checking Wiktionary, I see it defined with a similar meaning, but as a British legal term for a status granted by letters patent. I don’t know if Greek city states issued formal authorizations in writing.
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I should return to the study of Greek….
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It’s been so long since I read a Political Theory text that used denizen in this context and embedded itself in my brain, that I can’t remember its title and author. It stuck because I really like the word! Rescue it from ossifying in cliche like “Denizen of the Deep.”
It’s definitely a more British kind of a word. Here is the Cambridge Dictionary definition:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/denizen
Sadly, can’t get into Oxford Dictionary
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I want to do that too. C brought me an appealing book, Learning Greek with Plato, to replace my old Greek textbook, which had disintegrated from too many years of occasional use. It’s a matter of finding the time.
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Another term for a resident alien, not a citizen, is denizen.
In Greek poleis, the motherspring of our concept of Democracy, especially the prosperous ones, there were many denizens. Sometimes they outnumbered the citizens. They could be hoplites and were allowed to row in ships. They could become very rich, but they could NOT own property and they never, ever could vote or hold office.
There was no birthright citizenship. A denizen could only become naturalized by majority vote of the assembly of citizens.
The Roman Republic had similar laws until Emperors found that selling citizenship was profitable.
Our founders knew this history.
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My beloved is technically second or possibly third generation, from Canada because great-etc Granddad Shubael’s son got him to move to Nova Scotia before the Revolution. (Shubael was a teetotal Baptist preacher and wouldn’t pay the preacher’s tax, and Connecticut was just about done with him when his son persuaded him to go).
Come to think of it, Mom-in-law was French and didn’t learn English until dropped into elementary school, where she learned through involuntary total immersion.
My beloved is perfectly willing to help folks who want to become American do so. But they have to want to.
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This current crop of ‘immigrants’ want to set fire to the room, and don’t give a rat’s ass that it will burn down the whole hotel. And the Useful Idiots are throwing hairy tantrums in the streets demanding that we let them.
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Ehh i know a fair amount that make great workers and good neighbors. Just made poor choices to come here the way they did. Massive number of not neighbor quality ones though have created a level of problem at a societal level that a lot of everyone is going to be caught up in clean sweep..
Though, it on average feels as if mostly they are targeting criminal record holders. I don’t see thousands of really bad sob stories if those working and raising families with no criminal record other than illegal entry splattered in the news. A few but not an overwhelmingly large number.
Lack of coverage doesn’t mean its not happening but its interesting none the less.
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No, the focus is mostly on notable criminals (and some workplaces). It’s been observed that the states that honor detainer requests don’t have raids in neighborhoods.
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From what I understand, the majority of those who were not major lawbreakers were either family members who chose to go with the deported, or others who were with the criminal alien and got swept up with them, often fighting the arresting officers.
The last number I heard was that it’s about 80/20.
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Yeah, babies and bath water and all that. I know a fair number of good folks I strongly suspect are such. I understand the underlying issue, but the straw man the commies use of somehow deporting all of them is not practical. We are where we are now.
But.
Under the benevolent guidance of the FM Powerful But Mostly Disinterested World Imperium, I would so decree that anyone of those illegal aliens who commits any criminal act must serve all sentences overseas in contract prisons. If the offense was minor they have the chance at getting shifted into a diversion program where they get put on a plane to their home country’s biggest airport. If the crime was serious there’s no diversion possible, so they get tried, convicted, put on a plane to an overseas contract superdupermax, and if they serve their sentence out successfully, they get released in their old age to their home country.
And anyone deported under the slightly-criminal-illegal diversion program who gets caught a second time goes to the superdupermax.
Basically it’s a one strike program (okay two strikes, with the first strike from coming in other than through the immigration process).
So Let It Be Written, So Let It Be Done. (Makes the Imperium Authorization Gesture). Have a Nice Day.
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No. We HAVE to deport them. Sorry. But anything else encourages more walking over the border.
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I hear you. Incentives matter a lot. Especially perverse incentives. I do recall that way back before RR fell for the 1980s amnesty deal, Border Patrol were pretty actively deporting everyone they caught, but that just meant those deported had to walk over again (the vast majority back then were from Mexico).
I actually like the current “generous offer to self-deport, and deport all the criminals” strategy. Given the Federal Judge problem, I am pretty sure it would take way more years that DJT has left in office to make even a small dent in the official total 14 million illegals (hah!) number, let alone the much higher real world number if Autopen let in as many as is rumored on the backchannels.
In 2025 US airlines flew roughly 10 million international trips. 14 million (hah!) is roughly 12% of that. That’s a whole lot of seats.
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Typo:
In 2025 US airlines flew roughly 110 million international trips.
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What bugs me is people who were born here, to parents who were born here, who are apparently far more loyal to a foreign country than to this one.
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Yes. That bugs me too. Unfortunately whipping them through the streets tied to the tail of a donkey wouldn’t be legal.
I say we offer them modest money to move there and renounce their citizenship. Like 50k a piece. Cheap at the price.
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Won’t do any good, even the insane lefties will move back, Ellen did and she is nuts.
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Ellen moved her family back to the US?
Figured she was gone at least until 2029, or longer, depending on who takes the White House.
Wow.
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I guess she did not have a good time in enlightened England…
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Enlightened England seems to be taking the Epstein files a bit more seriously than we are since they might just bring down the Labour government. MAndelson, the prince of darkness and Andrew the former prince. ITs pedos all the way down.
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Re: Epstein, I maintain that there’s a qualitative difference between pedophiles and ephebophiles. (Firefox thinks the latter word is misspelled, but it’s not). I have never heard any allegations that Epstein was providing his “friends” access to 10-year-olds. 16- or 17-year-olds, yes, I’ve heard plenty of allegations of that. But there’s a significant qualitative difference between someone who is attracted to a minor who is physically adult but not yet emotionally ready for adult relationships, vs. someone who looks at minors who have not yet gone through puberty and thinks “I want to have inappropriate relations with that child”.
AFAIK, I say again, AFAIK, Epstein was ensnaring ephebophiles, not actual pedophiles.
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That’s a real slippery slope you got there, mister. ☹️
I heard that Epstein got banned from all of Trump’s properties for assaulting a 14 year old towel girl at Mar A Lago. 14 is definite pedo territory, and from there 12 or 10 is not such a stretch.
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I’m probably the only “right winger” (libertarian, actually, but we get lumped in with the right usually) who doesn’t give a single solitary damn about Epstein or his stupid island.
Those files have been out of sight for so long, with no chain-of-custody (as far as I know) on them, that anybody at all could have meddled with them, adding or subtracting names. Also, just because someone knew Epstein or even went to his goddamn island doesn’t mean that that person did anything we think of as improper. I’ve seen a picture of Rosalyn Carter shaking hands with none other than John Wayne Gacy, after all. Epstein was a major-league networker and met a lot of people.
I also don’t think that s*x with post-pubescent teens is “pedophilia,” no matter how hysterical we get on that subject. Somebody has to like teenage girls—just because I consider them annoying vermin doesn’t mean that everybody has to dislike them. When I found out about the “cannot give consent” thing when I was about fourteen (I was reading something that mentioned “statutory rape,”
and my father-the-lawyer explained to me that it did not mean unlawful carnal knowledge of sculptures) I was more furious than my parents had ever seen me. I couldn’t quite put it into words then, but I was enraged at the explicit denial of my status as a human being with free will. Particularly since I knew damned well that if I were accused of a serious enough crime, I’d likely be thrown into the adult justice system—juvenile courts be damned.
Both sides have been using this as a distraction from their misfeasances, malfeasances, blunders, and outright theft. I want to know how it happened that a bunch of Somali savages took the taxpayers for billions of dollars, not who did what on Epstein’s island.
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No!
Tell me that is not true!
England probably said “Visa expired. Goodbye.” Surprise. England meant it.
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Dear Hostess thank you for ascribing to our particular American form of Madness. In genral every last one of the folks I know (and it’s at least in the dozens, Computer Science draws/drew on a lot of other countries) has been a stalwart supporter of the USA even if they of a more liberal political bent. I suspect it’s because it’s such a large effort to become a US citizen, if you’re willing to do that you buy into the shared viewpoint. Myself, my nearest immigrant is a Canadian (likely loyalists returning as they were distantly related to my CT ancestors) in the late 1800’s my maternal grandfather’s family (grandfather was born in US, just barely) . Wife’s side far newer on average, paternal side grandfather came here in the 20’s (also a Swede), maternal side are Italians, but they came in the mid 19th century same time as my Irish ancestors and likely for a similar reason, Europe/ Great Britain/Ireland had rolling famines due to some really bad crop failures. Others of my ancestors date to mid 1630’s Boston (English) or early1600’s New York State (Dutch). As I often point out EVERYONE in the Americas is an Immigrant, it is merely WHEN that matters.
What matters more is that you accept the base concepts of America. To me these are
Point 2 is getting violated by more clannish imports. Not to say this hasn’t happened before, running afoul of the Cosa Nostra or the Boston Irish Mob was probably just as lethal (if not more so) than violating Somali Clans or South American gangs.
Point 1 is being violated by our Brahmandarins/Bluegoisie.They don’t like the laws but are unwilling/unable to do the work to change them. They LIKE rule by Diktat (when they are in charge, They use judges with VERY liberal legal interpretations to block it’s use when they are out of power.
The Brahmandarins/Bluegoisie also dislike point 3. I find calling Obama President or Hilary or Mr. Kerry Secretary of State offensive. I’m similarly opposed to that nonsense on or side so Mr. Bush or Ex president Bush if you must.
The constitution is VERY clear on this
The use of President (as well as senator or representative for retired members of Congress) in this manner is essentially granting a life title which is opposite to clause 8
Part of me would like to see every American take the oath of citizenship at some point. Honestly, I know it’s pointless, folks on both side of the Aisle in Congress as well as the Executive branch, feel free to break their oaths regularly.
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https://babylonbee.com/news/minecraft-introduces-civil-rights-leaders-and-oh-no-theyve-burned-down-the-village
Factcheck: the purported successes of a faction sixty five years ago have nothing to do with what people using that identity are doing with it today.
Okay, the historical events are very processed, packaged, and commericialized, in a very selective and curated way. Maybe that version explains the success of civil rights, maybe there are other more persuasive explanations.
If we call the 1920s and 1930s arsons white supremacist, then the modern woke communist arsons would also be white supremacist.
The people trying to cash in on this history are at best grifters, but the two-minute haters at pushback are definitely the worse case of communists who hate everyone, and hate peace, and hate justice.
https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2026/02/05/knife-wielding-man-shot-after-charging-nypd-copmamdani-demands-mental-health-care-not-criminal-charges-n2198859
They say ‘treat mental-health’ but throwing communists from aircraft is a leading standard of care for the insanity of socialism.
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There’s a legal version of this, for folks from the PI.
Short version, one of the smartest guys I knew came in knowing no English, at 18, married to the person he as assigned to, as Deck … he still passed tests, and … well, he was like intillectually amazing. He was being mildly engaging in a language he didn’t get until age 17.
Born American, and the PI mafia needs to burn in a fire then pull the gold from the ashes.
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I still wish I could know– In modern English— what my dad’s grandfather’s and his siblinb’s view on the draft for WWII was.
“Hi, we left the UK because they’re an evil crudshow. Sign up to save them!”
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it took me five years to realize crime wasn’t out of control just because I heard sirens all the time:
I live within a1/2 mile of two fire stations and less than a mile from one of the 2 largest hospitals in the area, with two direct routes to said hospital from the interstate within a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile from me. After a while you get so you don’t notice the sirens as much.
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I live 2 blocks from a fire station, but I think they’ve shut it down. I don’t remember how long it’s been since I heard sirens. When it was in operation, though, it wasn’t so much the sirens as how they set all the dogs to howling and yapping, and then the mutts kept each other going long after the sirens stopped.
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Oh. Yes.
Parents had a beagle for 20 years. His howl carried. Worse, the voluntary station sirens that set him off were less than 1/2 a mile away. It’s funny, now.
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Here in DFW, they test the tornado sirens every month on the 1st Wed. The late Mr Nemo would howl back at them.
We laughed about it…. but he started doing it no matter when they went off, and that gave us extra warning when we were asleep, because we had an auxiliary siren next to the bed.
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Here fewer sirens/horns now since Lane/Eugene/Springfield merged in the Santa Clara volunteer fire/paramedics department. Siren? South River Road station. Horns? North River Road station. Both, alternating? Prairie Road station. We could hear all three.
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Police here in silly valley actually seldom go full code 3. If they have the lights on and need to get through a crowded intersection they’ll hit the noisemakers temporarily just to get idiot oblivious loud-music good-sound-insulation drivers attention, but mostly if on a call they just run the lights and drive real fast.
If I hear a siren here it’s usually an ambulance, or in second place a fire truck on a call.
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OT, but just saw a report that all public transportation in Cuba is down because the government is out of gas.
Hmmm.
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Here’s hoping that happens in New Yuck, sooner rather than later. Show Commie Mami up for a schmuck before the midterms, please?
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“Mamdani cold has already killed more people then Trump’s ICE.”
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There’s a joke that this is completely apples and oranges, arguing a) it is not like New York City has ever been cold before, or that they have any established body of knowledge on how to address that b) Custom enforcement surges are completely routine, and best practices are well understood.
Oh, wait.
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Speaking as a libertarian-ish person AND someone whose depression once got so bad I had to be hospitalized without my consent-round up as much of the street mentally ill as you can and make asylums great again.
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There’s also another joke-“Whats warmer than Mamdani’s collectivism? Steaming grates.”
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it looks as though the DOGE cuts and flight of illegals have started to show up the jobs numbers. GRanted the job numbers were a lie, but all those cuts were going to show up eventually. LOng term a good thing, short term …. Markets puked today and if Amazon’s earning are anything to go on they’re going to be puking for a long time. THe AI hype is out of control.
that said, we’ve been in what they call a “bear steepener” and the errors of the Biden administration and the huge malfeasance by the FRB are coming due. It has to happen.
sigh. I hope it clears out well in time for the mid terms. TRump will be blamed.
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Yep.
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Better a market zap now than close to the elections.
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it might be more than just a zap. We never actually worked through the distortions from the Biden reign of errror. THe real economy is in decent shape though softening at the margins, the financial economy is an old clapped out boiler with the safety valves screwed down tight and the fires up full, the international economy is a bunch of zombies shambling along shedding parts and eating brains. Then there’s China.
STill, we don’t seem to be as leveraged as we were in 2008, but things are bad. They’ve been bad papered over by a massive bubble in tech.
we might get lucky. Hope so. NOt betting on it myself though.
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