Day: February 29, 2020

First thing:

Every other western country has very specific rules about immigration. For example, I’m too old to immigrate to Australia. Yes, they’re agist about it. In their defense they wouldn’t let me immigrate because I can’t work long enough in their system to pay enough taxes to fund my pension and healthcare post retirement. They are logically limiting the number of people in their country that could be dependent on their form of welfare.

I can’t immigrate to Canada because my skills aren’t in high enough demand versus their own population and therefore it’s likely that I’d be a burden on their society.

Germany would require that I learn the language, German history, and be employable. Unless I was a refugee.

England, has rules very much like the Canadians. I couldn’t immigrate unless I brought skills that were in short supply.

So why then is America “The evil bastard” in the room?

Isn’t it more reasonable for America to institute similar rules to be more in line with other Western countries?

Even Mexico has immigration guidelines.

So why the hypocrisy?

More curious, is why aren’t our media outlets pointing this out? Oh yeah, hatred of Trump.

I was in Palm Springs yesterday.

While waiting at a counter to purchase something, A gentleman volunteered that he’d just moved to Palm Springs from Los Angeles. He said that the traffic in LA had driven him out of the city, but that his out of state friends couldn’t grasp how bad the traffic actually was. The clerk said, “Yes, that’s why I moved out here,” 

The clerk acknowledged me, “Is that all for you?”

I said, “Yes thank you.” Then offhandedly mentioned if you want to give out of town friends a real taste of LA Traffic invite them to LA when the President visits. The clerk laughed, the other man got a sour face and said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere near the President.”

I realized he was thinking only about Trump, so I explained that I meant any President. And that I personally had been stuck in traffic for seven hours due to President Obama’s visit.

The clerk immediately said, “Wasn’t that a cluster fuck?” I agreed and told him eventually I’d weathered the nightmare traffic in a bar.

The newcomer to Palm Springs simply said, “Oh”

It was at that moment that I realized Trump has been living “Rent Free” in a lot of people’s heads. Apparently a significant percentage of these folks somehow think that Trump controls everything.

This dude is only a President. He’s not in direct control of much of anything. He’s bound by rules, regulations, Congress, and the Judicial branch of our government.

Don’t take this to mean that I think Trump is a good president. He’s a bombastic, hyperbolic, rhetoric spouting messenger.

Yes, he can champion initiatives. He can veto bills, He does have some control over the direction the country is heading, (although apparently no control over his tweets,) but if you think of him as generally a messenger, a face of the government, then you might start to see that the real power in Washington is in Congress.

The next logical question to ask is, “What have those assholes done for us lately?” Aside from each party battling the other to complete impotence in virtually every state and the hallowed halls of congress. Really, what have they accomplished?

Following that train of thought, since both the House or the Senate are distracted, It’s only logical that a President might be able to grab more of the reins of power and pursue his or her personal agendas. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Which points right back at the problem. Congress! Were they actually doing their jobs instead of fighting like children, President Trump would just be a “meh” President.

Presidents come and go, some are leaders, others are ventriloquist’s dolls. Others still are rogue operators. History determines what a President was.

President Trump may have correctly identified the problem when he described Washington as a swamp. Hey, give credit where credit is due… However he clearly overestimated his ability to change it.