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Liberal Opinion Blog. Boston, Massachusetts. Political Democrat, Independent. Debunk Republican Lies, MisinformationArchive for President Obama
DACA Back In Congress
Trump’s subliminal message to Congress: Damned if You Do – or Don’t fix Immigration/DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)!
DACA is an Executive Order President Obama signed in 2012 after Congress refused to act, again, on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. It grants temporary protected status to undocumented young people who entered the country illegally with their parents. Recipients have to meet certain standards and in return, get work authorization and a social security number.
President Donald Trump today (9/5/2017) gave the program a 6 month lease and asked Congress to Act — or DACA ends!
This “ending DACA by NOT ending DACA” is a BRILLIANT political strategy by President Trump.
I don’t agree with ending DACA. I fully support DACA and want these young kids (AND their parents, especially parents with kids who are US citizens and/or lawful PERMANENT Residents) to get lawful status. However, President Trump campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform and it was beyond naive of anyone to believe that HE would support DACA, AGAINST the wishes of his base of hard-line anti-immigrant supporters.
While Trump may not be very good at “presidenting”, HE is unsurpassed at political strategizing!
With one stroke Trump sent his supporters/base into ecstasy and kicked the difficult, potentially career-derailing DACA decision to Congress. Bravo! Take THAT Paul Ryan. And am I GLAD to see it come back to haunt you!!!
Remember when Immigration Reform passed in the Senate – and Republicans, led by then House Speaker John Boehner, REFUSED to bring the bill to the FLOOR OF THE HOUSE for a vote? Well, tee-hee…had they DONE that, they WOULD NOT be facing this dilemma today, because dilemma it is…
If republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan KILL DACA, then President Trump GETS what he wants at the expense of Ryan and other republicans. Trump can claim: “I didn’t tell Congress to kill DACA; I just asked them to fix it. Left to me, I’d have let DACA stand but Congress decided…” Hispanics then flock to the polls in droves (hopefully) to defeat republicans and Ryan, Mitchell lose their Majority positions…which would lead Trump (and Steve Bannon, ex-White House chief strategist/senior counselor) to celebrate!
If republicans, led by Ryan, legitimize DACA, then Trump can tell his base: “I didn’t do it. I ended it and sent it to them to do their job. They: Ryan, Mitch McConnell (Republican, Senate majority leader), etc – these swamp republicans, THEY saved DACA!” Hard-line republicans then flock to primaries to defeat these Trump blockers!
Either way, Trump wins with his base and hard-line anti-immigrant voices. Plus he also gets to blame and possibly get rid of republicans like Ryan and McConnell whom he sees as opponents.
- GOP leaders: Ryan (blue tie) & McConnel
See the Machiavellian sub-plot?
I wonder, with hindsight, what the GOP would do now if they could go BACK to 2005-2007 when BI-PARTISAN efforts led by Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy and Republican President George W. Bush tried and failed to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 because HOUSE REPUBLICANS KILLED IT!
You get what you sow! If you had done the right thing THEN, instead of playing politics and catering to a BASE that NOW opposes YOU, your life would be MUCH easier today because there would likely be NO Donald Trump…since immigration would be OFF the table, hence NO wall to tout!
As for Democrats, I detest, deplore and abhor their blatant HYPOCRISY on Immigration Reform. When they had the perfect opportunity to pass COMPREHENSIVE Immigration Reform with NO republican votes in 2009, they instead embraced Health Care (which has proven to be a NOOSE around their necks ever since).
I’m not sure, wasn’t there, but word out of DC is that Michelle Obama argued passionately FOR Immigration Reform and Obama White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, argued against.
- WHY didn’t YOU act, President Obama?
- Why did you not tackle Immigration Reform BEFORE Health Care or TOGETHER with Health Care, back in 2009?
- Why did you hastily (and cynically?) cobble together DACA (June 2012) and later DAPA (November 2014) in the run-up to elections?
- What happens NOW to the PARENTS of DACA if Congress protects and/or deports the DACA kids?
- I campaigned for Obama in 2008 and have never lifted a finger to do anything since because I felt very strongly, then as now, that President Obama and Democrats FAILED undocumented (and other immigrants) on Immigration Reform.
So in my opinion, President Obama can “speak up” NOW, but the time I wanted him to SPEAK UP was when he was IN the White House with a MAJORITY in the House and Senate!
I wrote to President Obama in December 2008. (I gave a copy to Obama friend, then Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick to hand to the President), but I guess since I am NOT a Harvard erudite like Larry Summers…my voice was/is too plebeian, too inconsequential, to be either passed on or considered!
So president Obama, if you did not read that 2008 letter, one of many I sent to you on immigration, I’m posting it, in part, below:
December 17, 2008
…
ATTENTION: President Elect Obama
Dear Mr. Obama,
…
Now that you are preparing to take over the leadership of this great country, putting your team together and soliciting input from the public, I’m hoping IMMIGRATION is high on your list.
The economy and its attendant issues do take precedence, right now. Healthcare is also important. But IMMIGRATION must not be overlooked as a top priority, either. Remember, during the campaign, when the financial crisis first broke, and republican Senator (John) McCain “suspended” his campaign and headed to Washington, you said: A president has to be able to do more than one thing at once. So I hope that you/your administration can work on both the Economy…AND Immigration too!
It makes smart POLITICAL sense:
Hispanics, a large and growing voting bloc, shifted away from republicans in the 2008 election and voted overwhelmingly for you. I doubt you believe that was due solely to your charm, intellect and good looks (though I admit those are considerable). They gravitated to you and Democrats because they hope YOU will reform the nation’s broken immigration system and make it possible for immigrants living here, (the most visible of whom are Hispanic), to achieve legal status. They were also turned off by the Republican’s vitriolic tone during the recent national debate over illegal immigration. The GOP’s racist, divisive and insulting comments, spurred by some politicians and talk-show hosts, demonized all Hispanics – both illegal and legal.
Reform immigration! You may not be able to claim immediate victory on the wars or the economy by the time mid-term elections roll around, but you can claim immediate victory on immigration reform.
In addition: The money immigrants send back home account for a large chunk of the GDP in many countries, like El Salvador. Without those remittances, observers say those countries would likely descend into chaos and contribute to regional instability. That would cost America a lot more.
- It makes smart ECONOMIC sense:
Millions of immigrants are willing, able and ready to buy some of those foreclosed and abandoned properties now flooding the market and blighting neighborhoods. Immigrants are also eager and willing to buy cars, now bloating dealer’s inventories. Legal status unleashes the power of millions of consumers who can now apply for credit, including bank loans, travel and open businesses.
Fixes a BROKEN system:
Many of the millions of undocumented immigrants living here no longer have lives to return to back home. Immigrants have set down roots and built lives here, in this country. Although many immigrants live in fear that allows them to be victimized without recourse, most do not want to go back and have nothing to go back to.
– There are news reports of military wives who are being deported because their husbands died in combat (Iraq/Afghanistan) before all the necessary paperwork was filed or completed. They’re being told to go…but their US-born children can stay!
– Talented, promising kids of illegal immigrants who are attending school here, or have graduated, cannot go to college. These “straight A” kids and honor students fall in the cracks instead of becoming the teachers, scientists and other skilled workers America so badly needs.
– In Massachusetts, an outstanding math teacher, who had been teaching for years, was/is facing deportation because of a paperwork glitch.
– MEANTIME, immigration agents round up illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds then release them, because federal/state resources are overwhelmed. Yet ICE picks up factory workers, tears them from their families, and deports them.
– Foreign artists/students/scientists and other professionals have to jump through so many hoops to get here, they give up in frustration and go elsewhere, taking valuable brain power and innovation with them.
The TIMING is perfect:
Democrats now have a majority in both houses. And I’m sure there are some republicans who realize their hard-line stance cost them Hispanic votes. They will want to get these votes back….and be more amenable. As you said during the campaign, NOW IS THE TIME!
The support is there. Despite the shouting coming from the right, a majority of Americans favor giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. Unions, businesses, politicians, churches, community groups, the legal profession as well as immigration advocates and enforcers, urge reform.
…
YES YOU CAN…
YES, WE CAN!
…
Respectfully,
In My opinion, my BITTER, disgruntled, defeated, dejected, frustrated, feeling rejected, let-down by Democrats opinion, Democrats OUTRAGE now is way too little, far too late….and their lack of action is beginning to backfire on them with Trump’s DACA edict.
Memo to Democrats:
Take a page from the Donald Trump playbook and LEARN how to please your base, instead of pleasing Rham Emmanuel!
All photos: Google images
Hail to the Chief!
This black immigrant female is watching the Trump Inauguration (01/20/2017). I started watching yesterday. I love the pageantry, the orchestration, the gravitas, the peaceful transition of power.
New First lady Melania Trump is looking wow as she makes her way to the church service. When I saw her step out of Blair House, with her pale blue? outfit and the gloves I thought Jackie Kennedy. (CNN now saying she’s wearing Ralph Lauren). I’ve heard several commentators also use the Jackie comparison.
Wives hugging – husbands not!
So some Democrats are boycotting the Inauguration. I don’t support that.
Democrats need to put their fake outrage aside and REPRESENT the nation. The “protesting” donkeys need to remember they’re not only representing their districts, they’re representing the entire nation, because without them there is NO Congress. Their actions don’t just reflect on THEIR districts; their senate confirmations don’t have consequences for just THEIR districts; their actions have consequences for the ENTIRE nation.
I hope they will feel the same when the next Democrat takes over and a group of Republicans boycott too. Guess what, they’re politicians, and so they will be screaming blue murder (whatever that means), hypocritically come up with fake reasons why THEY are now justified because it is SUCH a different situation, and be totally OUTRAGED at the way these Republicans are eroding the nation’s democracy by daring, yes DARING, to challenge the legitimacy of “their” President…like Republicans did to President Obama!
Really? Grow up!
Obviously there are NO Trump supporters in the districts these Democrats represent. They want and call for a unified nation, while alienating Trump supporters and other republicans in their districts! To me, these Democrats are grand-standing and posturing for the next vote count.
I don’t care how much they preach “principle”. Principle my — thumb?
- They’re upset Hillary Clinton lost.
- They think Russia helped Trump Win.
- They’re upset a Republican won an election they should have easily won.
- They’re upset at themselves, but can’t express that.
- They’re peeved things did not go their way.
And to all this I say: Grow up! Morons. She lost, Trump won, HE’s the PRESIDENT. Boo Hoo!
Clinton Lost: because of HER. She ran a campaign that was lacking. SHE was lacking as a candidate. Bernie Sanders told you! YOU didn’t listen. NOW you want to protest! Blacks did not warm towards Clinton. Women did not warm towards her – imagine that! Women listened the FIRST female to secure either major party’s nomination for President, a former First Lady and former Secretary of State, a professional, world-class high profile well-educated leader … then they listened to Donald Trump and heard about his alleged mistreatment of women, his thoughts about women, his infidelities, his many marriages, and STILL VOTED FOR TRUMP. They choose Trump.
Former President Bill Clinton and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Democrats think that these foolish American women could not process any of this information about Trump — so when the Russian leader phoned personally asking these befuddled, undecided women to: “Vote for Trump” — THAT just cinched the deal!
Ironically Mrs. Clinton attended the Inauguration and the luncheon! Kudos to her. She did not have to attend. Yes she was the MOST justified to SKIP, given some of the things Trump said about HER and her family. But good for her, stiff upper lip and all…she came, and I applaud her for it, and thank her too! Good reflection on her, her husband and Democrats – as opposed to those fools now taunting police, setting garbage cans on fire and thrashing buildings! Very gracious, appropriate and conciliatory move by Trump to recognize Hillary Clinton at the luncheon too!
Oh no! THAT will stop President Trump from coming to work Monday!!!
Russia helped Trump Win: May have helped solidify her negatives, but the MEDIA helped do that the MOST. Are they also boycotting the media? NO! Trump’s supporters were just MORE loyal or loyal-er! Like Trump said: he could shoot someone in the middle of the street and his supporters would still support him. He was right. He gauged his supporters correctly. Clinton did NOT have that kind of LOYALTY from her rank and file supporters. Yes, she had a CORE of loyal supporters, but not at Trump’s level!
The whites in middle America who lost their jobs, voters watching their kids/loved ones overdose on heroin and Meth, voters watching their state over-run with immigrants (from THEIR point of view), voters seeing their slice of the pie being eroded…and who voted for Trump. Russia did not so that.
Russia did not make Clinton, who should have know better, use a PRIVATE server (or maybe they did!). Maybe the grand Russian plan started years ago when Mrs. Clinton became Secretary of State and they planted an advisor who URGED her to use a private server.
And maybe the Russians urged Wall Street to invite Mrs. Clinton to speak and ensured the banks paid her astronomical fees so that it would come back to haunt her later?
Those Russians are wily! Many adjectives available to describe politicians who fall for those wily Russian ploys!
How do you describe politicians who avoid the press, because the Russians told them to do so? … OR changed their positions on things because the Russians made them misspeak? or fake apologize because the Russians told them NOT to apologize sincerely?
Democrats are upset and peeved Republicans won: They should be upset at THEMSELVES for rigging things so Clinton could win the nomination even when many predicted that she was a flawed candidate AND “The Establishment” did not listen.
The Dems automatically assumed that disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters would embrace their candidate…The Berns did not. Dems automatically assumed that blacks would turn out in droves in an anti-Trump backlash – blacks did not.
Russians?
Disgruntled democrats should remember that Clinton’s NEGATIVES among women and white males were LOW long before Russia appeared on the scene.
So I say: Let Trump have his day. And maybe Democrats will live to see another day that goes their way!
By the way: Where is Chris Christie?
Finally THINK on this: Know how republicans are always claiming that ineligible people vote in U.S elections! Well, they’re right! Because an intelligent (not intelligence) source told me that: Mrs. Clinton would have lost more states…if so many Russians who dislike Vladimir Putin (the Russian leader) had not voted FOR Hillary. I will leak that to Buzzfeed!
Photos: Google images and internet stories.
WHY Dems lost?
Let ME count some ways?
Republicans and I finally AGREE on something!
I CANNOT stand Nancy Pelosi…either, and I’m going to check which representatives from MA voted to keep her as House Minority Leader — and to ask them about it. (Seth Moulton did NOT. Good for him!)
Pelosi does not get it, the other democrats who support her DON’T get it…(well, they get fund-raising to get RE-elected!) and the Clinton circle STILL DOESN’T GET IT!
Why the HELL are they still blaming Trump for losing the election? Isn’t that what he’s supposed to do – make the challenger lose?
They don’t get why Trump won. They’re only looking at false news and negative attacks, Russia, the FBI, etc, everything and anything but them and their poor campaign, their plastic candidate, their negativity, their lack of connection, their manipulation behind the scenes, their lack of counter-punch, their arrogant assumptions…and keep missing the economics, disappointments and frustrations of people’s lives, missing the forest for the trees…while they earn millions and we earn zero…but keep asking you to DONATE, DONATE, CHIP IN.
Chip in – you dumb, insensitive (whatever!) With what…you out-of-touch (whatever)! Why can’t YOU chip in some of your millions? I need my 3-dollars to pay my rent. I don’t own an 11-room, 2-million-dollar mansion in Chappaqua. Donate WHAT?
I did NOTHING to support democrats in this election cycle – and that’s NOT because of Trump. It’s because I’m FED UP with democrats, (starting with President Obama), and their inability to connect with the cares of everyday people like me. I’m frustrated with Democrats because of their laissez-faire attitude to Immigration Reform, blaming Republicans for their failure to act, then pandering at election time with DACA. Trump appealed to HIS BASE. You did NOT! Multiply MY feelings by millions of other disgruntled, frustrated “liberals” who feel like me, for various reasons, and you get why Democrats lost. But don’t tell them, let them blame Trump. It’s easier.
I didn’t support Bernie. But if you ask him why Democrats lost, he will NOT lay the blame on Trump. He doesn’t…
At this point I’m actually thinking of going Republican, if they’d have me…eew!
Who knows, maybe Trump, crazy as it seems, MAY work out better for blacks like me!
Should I care if Trump has white supremacists in his cabinet – if he brings jobs and peace/security to my inner city? Or should I keep supporting no supremacists in the cabinet – and instead live with fear and economic depression?
Did I say I CANNOT STAND NANCY PELOSI? I am NOT a Trump hater. 20 million Americans voted for him. He is different. He is crazy. Hell, I’m giving him a chance. 2 years (midterms?) before I get on his case. I want to SEE what he will do, before I crucify him.
Did I say I cannot stand Nancy Pelosi and most of the current hierarchy in the Democratic Party?
Can someone tell me WHY Donna Brazile felt that Hillary Clinton, a seasoned politician, was NOT capable of answering a question from a CNN reporter? WHY she felt a need to slip Clinton the question on the sly beforehand? I find that morally reprehensible. If a candidate CANNOT answer a SIMPLE question off-the-cuff, then you have NO freaking right wanting to be – or BEING, president!
- It’s not like the answer determined whether you went before a firing squad. Yes, in a situation where a wrong answer meant death or dismemberment, by all means, go ahead and “save” your candidate…but really? She needed prep to answer a question on the DEATH PENALTY? Why?
- Did Hillary clinton NOT know that she was going to run for president? Are you telling me that all the while she was Secretary of State, she did NOT know she was running for president and only made THAT decision suddenly, in a great “aha” moment in March 2015? How do you explain her NOT knowing that she should have 2 separate and clearly demarcated servers – one to email daughter Chelsea to ask her to check on Bill – and one to email the State Department and the White House…and to KEEP THEM separate? Why the hell did she NOT know that?
- I wrote to the president in 2008 begging him to tackle Immigration Reform FIRST. But no, he had to go tackle Health Care Reform, (because his mama had insurance issues) and so, he listened to Rahm Emmanuel (his then Chief of Staff) who thought that immigrants should remain a political football that would never deflate. Obama/democrats disregarded counter arguments. Well congratulations on “Obamacare” that unwieldy monstrosity that democrats sold out to the health care lobby. That was a great help. Helped you lose the mid-term, which meant NO immigration reform which pissed off Hispanics and immigrants and led to apathy. Great help! Helped in 2016 too!
- How about Montana Democrat, Max Baucus? HE chaired the Senate Finance Committee and was one of the LEADING architects of Obamacare. According to news reports, Baucus RESISTED including a public option (which would let people choose a government Medicare-like plan, instead of private insurers, and help keep costs down). THAT is understandable, since according to news reports HE, the great and mighty Baucus, got nearly 2-million dollars from the insurers, hospitals and related groups – WHILE HE WAS SPEARHEADING OBAMACARE! Smelling a swamp?
- Do democrats LISTEN to ordinary people who are NOT Harvard’s grads or billionaires or celebrities? I’m no Katy Perry, how can I compete? If I live in the heartland and coal is going out of style and my town is dying, shouldn’t I be glad that I have clean air to breathe – even though I can’t pay my mortgage or feed my family. Ah, all that oxygen filling my stomach! Isn’t the O in O2 really tasty? Hey, the bank will accept the C too, if you tell your loan officer C stands for the Roman Numeral for hundreds!
- Living in the inner city? For the FIRST week in November, three police/fire/EMS responses to my 14-family section, in one week! Fighting, drug use, trespassing. What a life. I look out my peephole and people are injecting drugs, buying drugs, selling drugs. Yep, I’m raring to donate! Yet I’m being asked to CHIP-IN 3-dollars to make the Boston fund-raising quota. F-you! What have you done for me lately?
Republicans are right – Democrats dice and slice voters. Blacks? Hispanics? Asians? Women? Blue-collar? Dog-lovers! Muslims! Gays! Immigrants! BULLSHIT. People.
Still don’t understand, MS. Pelosi? Fund-raising and MONEY DID not win 2016. Gender did NOT win. Experience did not WIN. Get THE freaking MESSAGE. What the hell are you doing for me, immigrant? What the hell are you doing for me – job loser in company deserting to Mexico or India? What the hell are doing for ME, working poor with two jobs earning minimum wage who still CANNOT afford to rent an apartment in Boston where the median rent is about 3-thousand dollars in many neighborhoods?
After all, earning minimum wage in Massachusetts, working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour is $400 BEFORE TAX. That is 16-hundred dollars a week. Holding TWO minimum wage jobs, working 80 hours a week (if you can), is $32-hundred dollars a month. STILL CANNOT MAKE THE RENT…not counting food, travel, clothing, utilities, etc. But hell, we’ll CHIP IN so you can win and cut deals benefitting your rich friends and cronies!
Guess what: Get lost!
Yes, I said it. F-you, Democrats. How much do you earn in Congress. before factoring in the perks and the bribes and the lobbying trips? The dinners/gifts/favors? The insider deals made IN THE SWAMP, on stocks, etc…
PS: And Clinton staffers yelling at Kellyanne Conway (Trump’s campaign manager) and trying to vilify HER for your loss…just, in MY eyes…UNDERSCORES how much YOU still don’t GET it – and yes, your bitterness shows. Ha! HA HA!
JOIN DA CLUB!!!
In other words? MOVEON.LOST!!!
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