The GOP offers the illusion of opposition and so represents the biggest obstacle toward a better future for Americans. Perhaps it’s time it all falls down.
...
On the evening of December 2, led by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), the GOP quietly convened, avoiding public hearings, and gave their unanimous consent agreement for an amended version of S. 386, the “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act.”
“Under the bill, those on a long-term temporary visa who can secure a job offer requiring a college degree will, after a wait of 270 days, be able to obtain a three-year renewable work permit and permission to travel in and out of the country,” explains Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
“It will be a status comparable to permanent residency with a green card, but without having to wait in line or be restricted by annual immigration limits,” she adds. “It will potentially apply to hundreds of thousands of people each year, including foreign students, exchange visitors, NAFTA workers, investors, and more.”
“Senator Lee’s bill would create the biggest train wreck to our legal immigration system,” Kevin Lynn, executive director US Tech Workers, told American Greatness. “Not only that, but it would generate an even greater traffic of cheaper labor coming from abroad with the promise of permanent EAD work permits and eventual green cards for nationals from just one or two countries.”
On Friday, the Economic Policy Institute reported that job growth slowed dramatically in November and that trouble looms on the horizon for millions of workers and their families due to expiring unemployment benefits at the end of the month. ...
Not a single Republican—not “common good” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or “populist” Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)—spoke out against a bill that would undermine the job security and wages of Americans but offers yet another handout to the corporate world. For all its talk of patriotism and principles, the GOP has none that aren’t for sale.
...
In October, Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shot down talk of a stimulus package that was popular with more than 70 percent of Americans, including most Republicans, and especially lower-income Republican voters. McConnell thought a bill that size was out of the question. He changed his tune this month, however. Senate Republicans have introduced a government-wide, $1.4 trillion spending package, with $696 billion for defense.
Stimulus for the generous defense lobby is never out of the question.
...
In late November, Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas) met with Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.) to discuss amnesty legislation. It therefore cannot be said that a vote for the GOP is a vote against amnesty.
...
It all makes one wonder, also, about McConnell's meetings with Bill Barr and Gina Haspel. Not to mention Barr's election statement and maneuvering to place Durham in line for a quick dismissal. I hope my suspicions are off the mark. I hope this doesn't explain the cold feet of the SCOTUS.
We want believe so badly that "our side" hasn't sold us out in favor of their own self-interest. To quote another site: "There are trillions at stake."
ReplyDeleteTruly there are none so blind as those who will not see.
"But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said.
Delete"Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?" said the child's father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, "He hasn't anything on. A child says he hasn't anything on."
"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last.
Our side sold out decades ago.
DeleteIt doesn’t matter what you believe your side is.
I now am inclined to see it under a diferent light too.
ReplyDeleteI think Mitch met with Haspel and Barr, to get their assurances that there was no internal or external influences on the election. In fact that's what he said to the press after the meetings. He also added, that there was no harm for Trump to challenge via legal channels. (I imagine that statement accompanied with the unique turtle smirk on his face.)
I think that move was essentially to shut the door to using emergency powers against foreign interference, by the POTUS.
During impeachment hearings, one argument I heard was, Mitch probably is, as the Senate leader, most powerful person in US. If he chooses he can even take the POTUS down.
So I'm afraid this was a perfect crime. A murder planned and executed in such a way, the victim had almost no chance.
I think SCOTUS will disappoint too, if it gets the case at all.
I think the unthinkable will become unavoidable.
Has Trump said whether he would sign this bill if passed by both Houses?
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to 'parliamentary' debate?
The GOPe does not fear Trump, but they do fear Trumps voters.
ReplyDeleteHeadline of an article I read I can’t remember where.
I expect no matter what, Trump will have an impact similar to Chemo, on the eGOP in primaries. He is not going away, no matter what happens with the 2020 fraud results.
And the Trump voters are red pilling / becoming aware of how corrupt the eGOP and system are. The eGOP is delusional if they think we are going back to business as usual, pre Trump. Trump is just a symptom of the anger / disgust against the elites by everyone else.
The stealing of this election will have massive ramifications. I don’t see a civil war. Being POTUS constrained Trump in a lot of ways from speaking out. Obama shredded the courtesy of ex Presidents not speaking out. I wonder what Trump will focus on. A new network? Or just revenge by campaigning against the eGOP in primaries that backstabbed him? Or campaigning for changes to reduce fraud in us elections? This was an issue that did not have any traction, but now with a stolen presidential election?
We need a third party! The Republicans are no longer interested in working for the betterment of America's citizens.
ReplyDeleteMy natural instinct is to fight for the two Georgia Senate seats, but I am starting to fight back against that instinct. And, let me say, my natural instinct is the intellectual one, not the gut-feeling one- the natural instinct is that it is better to not let the Democrats have all the levers of power. My gut is telling me that it is probably better to walk away from the D.C. Republicans- if we don't, they won't do jack shit to stop the Democrats anyway- that is, I think, the lesson of the last two weeks- they have been putting on shows about how they take this fraud seriously, but are not actually willing to anything about it. For example- all of these state legislatures could have issued orders for full signature check audits, and gone to federal court to get them enacted- it would have provided both political cover and coercion against at least 1/2 of the judiciary to actuall do something. However, none of the legislatures have really done anything meaningful other than putting on pretensions of doing so.
ReplyDeleteThese are the dilemmas we're all struggling with.
DeleteMark, what are your thoughts on the Health ranger? I was referred there and it takes a different angle to all this. Particularly that Trump is about to deploy the military using his Sept EO and make mass arrests. Another source connected also says Haspel is at Gitmo; even that GITMO is near full already.
DeleteI would think if all that is true than folks would be going nuts on the left.
K***C
"...if we don't, they won't do jack shit to stop the Democrats anyway...."
DeleteWorse, we will be subjected to endless pictures of a smiling Romney proudly shaking hands with Shumer while giving the imprimatur of "bipartisanship" to the most egregious legislation imaginable.
Tom S.
I called Sen. Lee's D.C. office twice on Thursday to discuss 386. His staff proceeded to completely gaslight me on the bill and Sen. Lee raking in contributions from Big Tech on both calls.
DeleteMy gut tells me that we should let the GA senate races fall to the the Dems. As Lenin supposedly said, "The worse, the better." There are far too many dis-, mis- and uninformed Americans that need object lessons as to what the full roll-out of Dem policies will mean to the country. This month post-election has been incredibly revealing of the faux conservatives--those who clearly have hated Trump for four years, but were too afraid of saying it aloud. They are stumbling all over themselves to self-identify as elitists.
BTW: The Barr-McConnell and Haspel-McConnell meetings that went down in the week after the election? Those were the end of Trump's presidency.
On a very common sense level I would expect that if such theories were grounded in reality that action would have been taken sooner and, as you say, the Left would be going nuts.
Delete"Another source connected also says Haspel is at Gitmo; even that Gitmo is near full already."
DeleteThe entire point of GITMO was as a limbo, a location outside the jurisdiction of US courts where the US military could hold non-citizens under military justice.
IANAL, but I'm pretty sure the military cannot arrest anybody already under the jurisdiction of US Courts and remove them to Gitmo.
mso
>We need a third party!
ReplyDeleteWe may temporarily have a third party, but the US election system will make the of parties merge, or one party dissolve, resulting in a two party system again.
This is how the Whigs and federalist parties disappeared, and the Gop came into being.
I watched the Tea Party be infiltrated and reabsorbed by the GOP. That gave us Ryann and Rubio and worse.
DeleteYou really almost have to destroy them to start over and these days the lobbyist feed them so well I'm not sure you could starve them out.
None the less... Someone needs to try again. Trump has been one of the very few to come along that could make it possible.
My sense is that Republicans will lose both these seats. The candidates are terrible, even pathetic, which is not to say the two Dems are any better. And like it or not, a lot of Trump voters are going to stay home, even if DJT goes to bat for them (I hope he doesn't).
ReplyDeleteDems have all the momentum.
And then you have to factor in fraud. Does anyone think the people who brazenly got away with stealing a presidential election are going to balk at biffing two stupid senators?
I not only think they are both lost to the Republicans, I don't think either race will even need the fraud. I think Perdue could well lose by 10 points. The other race will be a bit closer, but Loeffler is a terrible candidate- on the order of Martha McSally terrible.
DeleteMy belief is the protected Republican politicians in Congress have been and are fed up with Trump's rhetoric and feckless recklessness. That being said, their movement to the "middle" seems as a token to become more of the old Democratic party than the true Republican party. Look at Sen. Purdue's comments recently dissing Trump. Sen. Graham pushing for AOC and the progressives to have a larger say in leadership roles. Perhaps it's a ploy to align more to middle America but at what cost?
ReplyDeleteI like Trump's rhetoric and don't regard him as at all reckless.
DeleteSecond your emotion, Mark.
DeleteA very solid article from Dyer worth reading...
ReplyDeletehttps://libertyunyielding.com/2020/12/04/in-trumps-campaign-to-save-the-republic-we-havent-seen-the-key-supporting-effort-yet/
While I respect any writer that knows how to use the word contumely correctly, I feel this is all just fantasy thinking at this point. It sounds like the fantasy I posted here, I think, last weekend where I fantasized that all the miscreants in the vote counting have been under surveillance since before the election, and that Barr etal. have been extremely patient in allowing them to hang themselves and their direct conspirators higher up the food chain.
DeleteExcellent link. Thank you.
DeleteI love Dyer's work and I have been trying to chase my own rabbit holes on E.O. 13848.
DeleteMy concern is that she's putting too much faith in the DoD processes involved there and I see no loyalty to county or president coming from those folks... Or any organization with a .gov at the end of it for that matter.
I'm hopeful we have some patriots hiding in the wings but I can't see a large scale pre election op being put into play that has not started to surface a month later.
I'm also very pissed off, angry and jaded at this point so... Take that into my pessimistic views.
@Yancey, I too have my cautious suspiciousness it was a solid reflection on a feasible possibility if a whim at that.
Delete@Devilman, I too like Dyer's work. Her faith in Lt. Gen Flynn is impressive albeit somewhat unlikely at this stage w/o others from the DoD more visible. and like you am pissed, angry, and jaded too. Seems to go with the territory these daze.
BTW: The Barr-McConnell and Haspel-McConnell meetings that went down in the week after the election? Those were the end of Trump's presidency.
ReplyDeleteO yea?
I'm not so sure.
Where is Gina lately>?
There are definitely things going on that are hard to explain. I won't pretend that I can.
DeleteLee is a true asshat.
ReplyDeleteBeing that I was laid off by NBCU because of covid and sat shoulder to shoulder in tech meeting after tech meeting with H1B visa holders who are still employed... This gets to be a little personal.
ReplyDeleteThere is no work (worth having) out there in my field and the GOP is very ok with that. As long as they can feed the tech industry cheap labor the tech industry will feed them.
So you see when they heartlessly said "learn to code" to the American public they didn't even mean that either.
Actually they are sitting around the table at the best bar in town and they are laughing at us. Yes laughing.
DeleteThe 2024 election will be 170 million ballots dumped at the post office with no voting in person. Barring the intervention of God, US elections are over.
ReplyDeletemso
Totally understand - a job I had was replaced by 2-3 people in Ph.
ReplyDeletedevilmanDecember 5, 2020 at 1:08 PM
H1B visa holders who are still employed... This gets to be a little personal.
We have become savages up to our knees in a cesspool holding our cup out to a serving of gruel. The question is will we wait until we are waist deep.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I saved a lot of money dropping out of college and tuning in to the real world. Don't know how to use the word contumely correctly, but did realize during old man boooshes term republicans are not on nor ever have been on the side of the taxpayer. How can people with years of studying law be so untrustworthy? I trust Devon Nunes and that is all.
ReplyDelete