Immigration

[billy.pilgrim]

Nelson fixed our problem.

[O Really]

Nelson fixed our problem.

He may have checked too. But he'd been in office since long before public "service" became as tribal as it is now.

[Vrede too]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.
If they really are out to get you, paranoid is a survival skill.

Consider - they were initially helpful; you gave them all the information they'd need to check your registration. They would have had to invest some resources in fixing your problem and almost surely would get no contribution or vote. Sad, but politicians don't represent their lawful constituents anymore, but only their "base" and/or contributors. And besides, Marco is a petty scumbag anyway.

That all makes sense, but I've never heard of pols being quite that mercenary with constituent services, and blocking numbers unless you're a pottymouth like neoplacebo seems extreme. Otoh, if Little Marco has a billy.pilgrim file of letters like neoplacebo sends, I could see that earning a blackball more than a Dem registration.

[neoplacebo]

Good work, though. I never get anything back from Phil Roe or Marsha Blackburn. I've never written to Alexander; he's a living corpse. In any case, my correspondence to them, even though it vigorously invites a response, never results in a response. Maybe I need to be more forceful.

One trick I got told long ago is that on has to request a response. It doesn't always work, but my ending each comm that way seems to help. Never mind if you meant "vigorously invites a response" literally. One can get on a shitlist and never hear from them again.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm on a shit list with both of them. But it's only fair; after all, they are both on mine. Whatever I tell them, neither will change the position they have and it's not likely either of them will convince me to change mine. It's an adversarial relationship at best.

I use to write, email and call my rep, Jeff Miller. His office would respond with a form letter thanking me for my interest and explaining that due to the volume of requests they receive it would be a couple of weeks before anyone would contact me, but no one ever did.

I need to give tiny dick Marco another shot, I find what happened hard to believe as intentional.

My only experience with Marco was during 2014 or 2015. I couldn't get my son on our aca insurance and figured a repug might be interested in my aca horror story, so I called Marco's Pensacola office.
The person I spoke with asked a lot of questions and seemed interested in helping. She said that she would call back by noon the next day.

I also called Bill Nelson. They told me the same.

Nelson's office returned my call that afternoon. They had assigned someone to my case. He said that he thought he would be able to solve our problem.

When Marco hadn't called by the next afternoon, I called them. The phone would ring two or three times and the line would go dead. This continued to happen for a couple of days until I lost interest.


Did they check my voter registration before wasting time on a dem?

They are a treacherous bunch. Just today I've got emails from Phil Roe, the congressman from my district, and Marsha Blackburn, the southern version of Michelle Bachman. As of now I haven't read either of them; they promise to be self congratulatory, fearmongering, or somehow rationalizing a way to support trump. Your experience is probably typical; if you're not on the list of names that give them noteworthy amounts of money, well, you're not noteworthy. That business with the phone lines is cute, too; hell, they have enough money to maintain a nice office phone system. You should have told them you have a problem with your son's insurance and that you just that day wrote a large check but wanted to get the correct mailing address and just thought you'd mention the insurance thing. Anyway, hope your son got covered without too much more angst.

[Vrede too]

To: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Tell Amazon: Stop Powering ICE!

[Vrede too]

HB 370 - Require Sheriff Cooperation with ICE

Repugs are so bigoted that they want OUR money spent on their rejection of the historic CON principle of local control.

House Roll Call Vote Transcript for Roll Call #128
2019-2020 Session
HB 370: Require Sheriff Cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

63-51 Aye, straight party line. BASTARDS! I hope Gov. Cooper does the right thing, the Senate won't.

In depth:

ICE Is Teaming With North Carolina Republicans to Fight Pro-Immigrant Sheriffs

[Vrede too]

Tell Congress: Stop funding Stephen Miller's white nationalist agenda



The petition to Congress reads:

"Approving billions more for immigration enforcement is approving billions more for Stephen Miller's white nationalist agenda. Reject the White House's $4.5 billion emergency spending request."

[Vrede too]

The petition to Bank of America and SunTrust reads:

"Stop financing private prisons and immigrant detention."

[GoCubsGo]

Wow, doubling down on stupid....or something

AA Would-Be Trump Aide’s Demands: A Jet on Call, a Future Cabinet Post and More

[Vrede too]

Wow, doubling down on stupid....or something

A Would-Be Trump Aide’s Demands: A Jet on Call, a Future Cabinet Post and More

To be fair, it would take A LOT of swag to persuade me to join the 45SHOLE administration*.


Trump is lying about immigrant crime – and the research proves it

The Marshall Project:
Is There a Connection Between Undocumented Immigrants and Crime?
It’s a widely held perception, but a new analysis finds no evidence to support it.

Rightwing Cato Institute:

Criminal Immigrants in Texas: Illegal Immigrant Conviction and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes

Conclusion

The homicide conviction rate for illegal immigrants was 16 percent below that of native-born Americans in Texas in 2015. The conviction rates for illegal immigrants were 7.9 percent and 77 percent below that of native-born Americans for sex crimes and larceny, respectively. For all criminal convictions in Texas in 2015, illegal immigrants had a criminal conviction rate 50 percent below that of native-born Americans. Legal immigrants had a criminal conviction rate 66 percent below that of native-born Americans.

Academic journal Criminology:

DOES UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION INCREASE VIOLENT CRIME?

Abstract

… The results from fixed‐effects regression models reveal that undocumented immigration does not increase violence. Rather, the relationship between undocumented immigration and violent crime is generally negative, although not significant in all specifications….

[Vrede too]

Do you know which famous people were refugees? Take the quiz.

4/5

Spoiler:

Coincidentally, I missed M.I.A.

[Vrede too]

All good.

Thanks!

You're welcome!

2 more. The same team that studied -

Academic journal Criminology:

DOES UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION INCREASE VIOLENT CRIME?

- earlier had looked at "4 different metrics of drug and alcohol problems: drug arrests, drug overdose fatalities, driving under the influence (DUI) arrests, and DUI deaths."

Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990–2014

Results. Increased undocumented immigration was significantly associated with reductions in drug arrests, drug overdose deaths, and DUI arrests, net of other factors. There was no significant relationship between increased undocumented immigration and DUI deaths.

Conclusions. This study provides evidence that undocumented immigration has not increased the prevalence of drug or alcohol problems, but may be associated with reductions in these public health concerns.

This NPR article mentions these 2 Michael Light (a criminologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison) studies, the libertarian Cato Institute study, and a 4th one:
NPR: Illegal Immigration Does Not Increase Violent Crime, 4 Studies Show

The 4th study -
Investigating the Offending Histories of Undocumented Immigrants
- relies on "self-reported offending measures". Might be perfectly valid, but I don't want to debate the matter with online idiots, so I don't cite it.

If you're thanking me because you intend to use the studies in online debate, then you're certainly running into folks that mention Kate Steinle and/or Mollie Tibbetts. Here are some canned responses, steal if you wish:

Remember that (Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbetts, both) were joyful, compassionate and generous people. This sets them apart from the creeps that separate kids from their parents and from swine like you that exploit them and their families’ tragedies, against their families' wishes, for your pathetic Trumpette bigotry. Shame.

"Help me, Dad (Kate Steinle's last words), _________, the despicable swine, is exploiting my accidental death for (his, her, their) pathetic, child abusing xenophobia.”

From a forum re Mollie Tibbetts, not yet verified by me:

“The guy would not have even been in Iowa except he was working for Yarabee Farms, which is owned by the Lang Family, who are prominent Republicans. Craig Lang is co-owner of the farm, and was the former president of both the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and a 2018 Republican candidate for state secretary of agriculture. The Langs admitted they did not use E-Verify. Exploiting Mollie's murder after her family's express wishes while ignoring the GOP connection - there is your shame.”

[Vrede too]

Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention
“I don’t know if they lose their babies for good,” one doctor said. “But I do know the process is torturous for them.”

Repug "family values".

Hateful. Cruel. Sick.

[1 CAT FAN]

Now, you're concerned about newborns. Better late than never..eh?

[Vrede too]

US now seeking social media details from all visa applicants

The State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It's a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors....

The change, which was proposed in March 2018, is expected to affect about 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the United States each year....

Years ago, even before the post-911 crackdown, I had to jump through Brasilian hoops and pay extra fees that others didn't, solely because of what the US was doing to Brasilian visitors.

Other nations will now start requiring this of US travelers in retaliation, and some foreigners will just cancel their US tourism plans, thus harming our economy. Thanks, you frightened, bigoted Trumpettes.

[1 CAT FAN]

You'll be perfect for that position.

[Vrede too]

How a ‘dire’ immigration court backlog affects lives

Assembly Line Injustice: How the Implementation of Immigration Case Completion Quotas will Eviscerate Due Process

[Vrede too]

The International Rescue Committee:

Seven months into FY19, just 14,808 refugees have been welcomed into the United States. At this rate, the US isn’t on track to meet its goal to resettle 30,000 refugees – the lowest in modern history. The GRACE Act will set a minimum refugee admissions floor of 95,000. Call your Senator and ask them to support the GRACE Act.

[1 CAT FAN]

[O Really]

(silly meme)

Yeah, but it's all different people. It's the Republican right-wingers that are offended by the benefits, and it's people who have been invaded that are offended by the flag. And it's people like me who are offended by the lack of culture.