News Roundup on February 10, 2024

 Here is something that I posted on Facebook several days ago.  One person who commented said that I should start a blog. She is not part of my religious/cultural tribe, but finds much common ground with me in matters of faith applied to current issues.  I didn't tell her that I already have a blog, but I did heed the memory prompt to post here some of what I also post on Facebook.  

I'm sure that there is quite a lot of overlap in the reading audiences for the blog and Facebook, and I apologize for what probably seems like bombardment--especially if you are on a different wave length than I am.  

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Miriam Iwashige

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Shared with Public

I'm writing this primarily for people from my "tribe" who may have limited exposure to current realities on the national scene. What is happening right now with the bill about the border/aid to Ukraine-Israel-and-others is deeply distressing to me.

As background, you should know that everyone agrees that things have been chaotic at the southern border and something needs to change. This has been a reality under every administration for the past few decades at least. Also, you should know that a large majority of Americans are in favor of giving aid to Ukraine in their resistance to a Russian invasion. I'm not sure on how things stand in public perception with regard to aiding Israel, but such aid has "always" been assumed to be forthcoming from the US when Israel has been under attack.

One more crucial element of the current situation is that a number of months ago, Republican extremists in Congress (HOR) loudly insisted that no more aid should be given to Ukraine and Israel until the southern border problem has been solved. Under President Biden's initiative, a group of three people promptly came together to come up with a bipartisan proposal. The group included one Democrat, one Republican, and one Independent. The Republican was Senator Lankford from OK, whose Conservative credentials have never been in question. Kyrsten Sinema (I) from AZ was another member of the group.

After four months of work, the committee rolled out a proposal that included almost everything the Republicans wanted and addressed much of what the Democrats wanted (although it omitted giving "Dreamers" a path to citizenship), but a short while before the content of the bill was even public, Trump began to contact Republican congresspersons to ask they they not vote in favor of the bill because he needed to be able to highlight the chaos at the border to bolster his appeal during his presidential campaign. Right now it looks as though the bill is dead, since the Republican Speaker of the House says that he will not allow the bill to reach the floor for a vote.

Voices from major conservative media outlets applaud the bill. They reiterate that Republicans made a demand, the demand was met, and now they say, in effect, "Just kidding." People who study such things say that the bill before them is almost certainly the best immigration bill that Republicans will ever see.

Let that soak in. Ukraine doesn't get help. Israel doesn't get help. Taiwan doesn't get help. All of these countries are under threat from Communist governments or terrorist organizations. The border chaos continues. This is the case despite the fact that this is not what a majority of Americans want, inside Congress or outside of it--but it's what Trump wants for his own selfish purposes. That this is how public policy in national and international affairs is being made is mind boggling, but it's not as mind boggling as what I see in the unquestioning loyalty that is being offered to Trump.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson jets off to Moscow to meet with Putin--who has so far refused to meet with almost all foreign journalists. Several American journalists are imprisoned in Russia. Trump also would be welcome in Putin's presence, it seems, based on what we know of Putin and Trump's cozy relationship in the past.

On other fronts--

An appeals court ruled yesterday that Trump does not have presidential immunity from criminal charges.

An (HOR) impeachment vote yesterday targeting the Secretary of Homeland Security (Mayorkas) narrowly failed. It was initiated by Republicans who pinned the blame for "border problems" on him. Never mind that what he asked for and needed to enforce existing laws was routinely denied him by the same political machinery that became galvanized in the impeachment effort and now in the opposition to address border problems.

One more thing--which I find especially preposterous. Background: The Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl. One of their star players, Travis Kelce, recently began a romantic relationship with Taylor Swift, the singer/entertainer who is arguably at the top of the pile in that world. The "preposterous thing" associated with these well-known celebrities is a conspiracy theory that posits that the Chiefs' and Swift's ascendancy has been orchestrated by "the deep state" for purposes designed to promote the election of Democrats. If you've never heard this, I'm sorry for inserting it into your consciousness. I'm doing it for the sake of disabusing those who have heard it and believed it. End of Facebook quote. One person said in a comment that Biden didn't need a new law--if only he had enforced the already-existing laws. This was my response:

"______________which laws, specifically, has Biden not enforced? Are you certain that enforcing these laws would solve the border problem?

Why did the Republicans insist on tying new border legislation to aid for other countries? It appears to me that they saw a need for a new law--until they didn't.

I'm troubled about framing this as being what "Biden" needed or did not need. Seeing the issue through the lens of political gain or loss for anyone seems to me to be a fundamentally flawed approach.

Please also become informed about how the current amnesty process is broken, how much-needed migrant labor (as well as highly-skilled labor--think foreign students) is often unavailable under current law, how a lack of funding to hire personnel hampers processing and enforcement, how overly-onerous legal pathways to immigration have become, and how much our country actually stands to benefit economically (and otherwise) from immigrant contributions. In each of these areas, effective existing law seems to me to be lacking or insufficient for addressing the problems. Anyone who values Christian compassion, or even humanitarian impulses should also consider how present laws are working by these measures."

In yet another comment, in response to someone else who marveled at the hold that Trump seems to have on people, I wrote this:

_________ "I still marvel at the hold he has on people." Do you think there might be more than "normal" factors involved--as in supernatural, demonic influences? To me, normal factors include thinking--rational vs. irrational, past experience--learning vs. failing to learn, listening--to THIS voice vs. THAT voice, attitudes toward others--open-heartedness vs. animosity, approach to life--courage vs. fearfulness, Jesus--commitment to Him vs. having no commitment, perspective on "common virtue"--loyalty to widely-held values over a long period of time vs. sudden and thorough abandonment of such values . . . . Generally, I think people who make it into leadership positions are there because they tend toward the "good" side of the good vs. bad continuum. I don't see much that seems "normal" in the Trump loyalty phenomenon though. Is there a better explanation than "supernatural, demonic influence" for this abnormality? I wish there were, and would welcome help in reaching a more hopeful understanding.

********* Since then I have posted this:

"Ageism: prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age." (Google search page). Perhaps this is as good a time as any to open the can of worms in relation to this issue. I'm not ready at this point to do much more than to acknowledge that we often struggle to get "ageing" exactly right for ourselves and others. Also, I'm sure that ageism is a bad thing.

What do you think? Have you ever seen ageism? Do young people inevitably see ageing differently than older people? What are the social/cultural factors that influence people's ideas about ageing? What do we learn from scientific inquiry and what do we observe personally? Why are discussions about ageing often conflictive? End of FB quote.

Comments on this are still coming in. One of the interesting ideas I've heard for the first time is that healthy ageing involves developmental maturity (I suppose this means as opposed to arrested development at an "immature" stage). I want to explore this further. *********

And this (from a journalist who first caught my eye while I was researching the economic downturn in 2008 to create an all-school study of the then-current economic situation):

Fareed Zakaria, an immigrant and a political centrist, writes about the USA's problematic amnesty policy:

"Despite what some Republicans claim, Fareed writes, the problem with US immigration is the law itself. Currently, migrants cross the border, make contact with US law enforcement, and claim asylum. They can then remain in the US while their cases are adjudicated by a severely backlogged court system. The Senate compromise included provisions to raise the bar for claiming asylum and to allow the president to deny entry, if a certain number of daily irregular border crossings was met.

"Former President Donald Trump opposed the bill and lobbied GOP lawmakers against it. Fareed argues that their criticism was disingenuous, writing: “The most obvious proof that Trump realizes that this bill would give the administration powerful tools to address this crisis is that he is so dead set that it should not pass. Were it to pass, it might well solve large parts of the border problem—which would not serve him politically. He wrote on social media, ‘This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats.’ The rest of the West is facing a similar challenge and is grappling with how to adjust immigration and asylum laws. Many countries have taken significant steps. Yet in America, one of its major political parties is determined to inflame the crisis rather than douse it, fiddling while the country burns, hoping that at least they can inherit the smoldering ruins.”

******** And this:

The grandsons who were here today reported that the bees living inside the Kentucky coffee tree are out. The maple tree is buzzing with the activity of the bees among the tiny flowers. I love it! ********

I'd be very happy to see these things discussed further here, with this more limited (and presumably, safer) audience.