Immigration
My morning started by reading about a hard working immigrant who died of cancer in detention because none of his guards believed he was sick.
Immigration in this country has always been an issue, with each wave of immigrants taking shit from all the previous ones as being somehow unworthy. It's more than just blatant racism, it's the classic "conservative" zero-sum attitude of "I got mine and I'm not about to let you get yours." It really hit home living in Southern California just how racist the opponents of immigration are, especially the Orange County folks who benefit the most from the stream of illegal immigrants coming up through Mexico. They talk about immigrants stealing away American jobs and leeching off the public dole while two guys without greencards are detailing the escalade sitting in the driveway for $2/hr. Their entire system of life would crumble without immigration, especially illegal immigration, but they don't want any of those brown people around talkin' their Spanish.
When the country went all mentally challenged in 2001, it gave the fucktards the opportunity they needed to really crack down on those brown folks by building up a new detention system, hunting down illegal immigrants and generally making our country as inhospitable as possible. Why? Were the people who attacked us from Mexico, Central or South America? They were assholes from fucking Saudi Arabia. Why are we rounding up people who have come here to build a better life, separating them from their children, throwing them into a byzantine detention system built to match the byzantine immigration system, and then either tormenting them while draining away all their resources or throwing them out of the country? What have they done, other than try to make good for themselves and their kids? Sure, criminals will get in. If you haven't noticed, we're all criminals in somebody's playbook. Hell, 1% of all Americans are in jail right now. Highest incarceration ratio in the world. It's not like our much vaunted immigration service did much to prevent Russia from dumping their hardened criminals on us. Oh, wait, the Russian mobsters we took in are white, so that's OK. Our country is run by people who couldn't find good sense if it was stapled to their dicks and they had to take a piss. Is there a solution? People problems don't have tidy solutions, but this shit isn't working. We're built on immigration and would be in a demographic crash if we didn't have it. Immigration is part of what makes us economically competitive. Since it's certainly not the quality of our education system, social safety net, or medical care that keeps the engines of productivity going, maybe we shouldn't be fucking with the people who want to live and work here. Just a thought.