How do people in the refugee-industrial complex think about their industry’s product? “DeSantis sending asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard divides Venezuelan Americans” (NBC):
After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two planes of mostly Venezuelan asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, advertising executive Max Lefeld slammed the move as a political stunt.
“It’s like me taking my trash out and just driving to different areas where I live and just throwing my trash there,” said Lefeld, a Venezuelan American who’s a founding member of the Casa Venezuela Dallas foundation, which helps recent refugees.
Here’s the org’s page:
Given that there is no vaccination requirement for asylum-seekers and that vaccination has no effect on infection and transmission, why aren’t they wearing N95 masks?
It cost Florida taxpayers (aka “Dr” Phil) $615,000 to fly the 50 migrants to MA, about $12,000 per person. That’s enough for a first class ticket to Australia! Maybe they could just buy a 4 person turboprop and hire “Dr” Phil to shuttle them up to his former homeland (one which he now despises). It would involve “Dr” Phil being in rather close proximity to unwanted, unwashed, Covid-infected, Islamic, probable-terrorist minorities for a few hours which might be challenging. Then “Dr” Phil could drop them off in whatever MA town he pleases — whichever he decides he wants to “punish” that day. He can fly back south, beaming the entire way about how he screwed over a town and screwed over some poor, needy people.
Spread good will and harmony throughout the world, one “Dr” Phil flight at a time.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/16/florida-taxpayers-paid-bill-desantis-send-migrants-marthas-vineyard/10399505002/
I wonder if $615,000 covered just this one flight from slavery to freedom (internment on an inland military base in Maskachusetts). But certainly I would be happy to volunteer myself and I would even purchase a (more or less free these days) CRJ200, in which I am already typed (Thanks, Delta Airlines!), if the State of Florida would pay for the fuel, maintenance, and landing fees, to help 50 migrants at a time reach the warm welcome that the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard are happy to offer for 24-36 hours.
At my own expense, I would charter a bus to show the migrants around the Vineyard, from Aquinnah (no longer “Gay Head”) to Edgartown! I would try to get everyone over to Chappaquiddick (photos in http://philip.greenspun.com/travel/cape-cod ) so that they could see the Ted Kennedy bridge. And also the Shiretown Inn (where Ted Kennedy stayed) and the army barracks(!) turned motel Katama Shores Inn, where Mary Jo Kopechne stayed. (the motel was demolished, unfortunately, but we can visit the site)
I’m not sure why you say that I wouldn’t enjoy spending time with Latinx brothers, sisters, and binary resisters from Latinx America. I have enjoyed every trip that I have ever made to Latinx America!
I’m also confused as to what you would characterize migrants who have been evacuated to Maskachusetts as having been “screwed over.” I am going to predict right here that the 50 migrants recently delivered via Air DeSantis are going to be living their best life! Maskachusetts cannot afford to fail a Red Cross inspection of the internment camp. To rebut accusations of hypocrisy, the state that is jammed with “no human being is illegal” signs is going to have to build these 50 folks beach houses and deliver catered Michelin 3-star meals daily.
The only way that migrants could have been injured as a consequence of their trip to Maskachusetts is if you are willing to suggest that people in MA are insincere in their expressions of love for migrants and their willingness to sacrifice personal standard of living in order to help an unlimited number of migrants realize the American Dream (i.e., a comfortable lifestyle without being degraded by having to show up at a low-wage job).
Note that when the National Guard intervenes with 2 persons per migrant, they are “voluntarily taken to a military base for support”. It is no longer “human trafficking”:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/16/politics/marthas-vineyard-migrants-shelter-desantis/index.html
From the same article:
“Budget records do not detail what kind of ‘contracted services’ Vertol provided the department, nor is it clear whether the $615,000 was for two flights to Martha’s Vineyard.”
But the general aviation air-bridge from “semi-fascist” (according to U.S. mainstream press) Florida to the freedom of Massachusetts sounds enticing. Perhaps Mike has started a new movement.
The Vineyard in September is the best that Maskachusetts ever gets. I am not sure why Mike and others are criticizing Air DeSantis. Perhaps by January or February the migrants would want to be evacuated to Palm Beach but the weather this week will be highs in the 70s and mostly sunny. That’s better than anywhere in Florida!
I think “when the National Guard intervenes with 2 persons per migrant” is inaccurate. It was 125 soldiers, so that’s more than 2 per migrant. And they weren’t merely “persons” but rather soldiers, a few steps away from assault rifles, presumably, if not actually carrying them.
@philg: I can vouch for that. The weather in MA right now is just about the nicest it gets. Warm days, cool nights but not frigid, no need for AC or heat. In Edgartown at the moment it is 70 degrees and sunny, clear blue skies, and tonight’s forecast is 61 degrees according to Accuweather.com. A near-perfect day. If the kind-hearted and generous people of Martha’s Vineyard had the temerity to allow these 50 people to explore their beautiful island, they could have spent several days marveling at how wonderful “America” is. Many of them could probably have landed jobs there. Instead they shipped them to a military base next to Buzzard’s Bay. I hope they at least handed out some business cards and asked them to call once they got their immigration status straightened out.
As I said, though – the generosity and Community good feelings only extend “this far” – and only to certain people – and they’re just not prepared to handle the load. Others “need to be OFF ISLAND.”
I wonder if they’ll change the rules at the airport and make sure that no Republican can file a flight plan that ends with a landing at MVY. It’s the next logical step! Holchul would agree: “Get out of town!”
@Mike: Taxpayers are on the hook to the tune of a half million dollars (at the moment – it keeps going up) to “build a wall” around Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, DE. The construction is through DHS so everybody is paying for it.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/biden-delaware-house-barrier-cost-swells-to-nearly-500k/
I think DeSantis and Abbott should send a few busloads to Delware to test the fence! Will Biden open the gates, or tell Jill to stand out on the balcony with a shotgun and “fire a few blasts” into the air (which is illegal) ???
@Mike: Here’s our President’s home defense advice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTD5i5q7-Lo
“Just walk out on the balcony here….and fire two blasts outside the house.”
Except that is illegal. If you discharge a firearm absent the threat of imminent death or grave bodily harm, especially if you fire it into the air – and have no idea where the projectiles will land – that is a felony. So please remember that Joe Biden’s advice to people who own guns is to commit felonies with them. Great advice as always, and he was in much better mental shape then!
> “It’s like me taking my trash out and just driving to different areas where I live and just throwing my trash there,”
I’ll bet that SOB has done it, too, to avoid paying dumpster fees. Every time I hear something like this, it’s a projection episode. He’s probably taken his own real trash and dumped it in someone else’s receptacles to avoid paying to have his own on-site waste removal. I see that all the time where I live in Deplorable Land – wherein the wealthy (always liberal) vacay people take their bags of trash, pull up at night in their Range Rovers and toss them in Other People’s dumpsters so they don’t have to pay the trash removal fees.
Or they just leave them outside to attract the bears. Then they get back in their BMWs and Range Rovers and head back home. I’ve caught several of them in the act and they try to run back into their cars and skedaddle away.
So why doesn’t he call DeSantis and just ask him to send the buses his way and let his NGO nonprofit take care of them?
I caught a guy in a Range Rover with CT plates at around 1:00 in the morning a few weeks ago. I was up late and just happened to see him pull up to my dumpster through my window and attempt to toss several bags of garbage into it. I pay $250 a month to have it emptied.
I surprised him in the act and said: “Do you see that ***king NO TRESPASSING sign, you asshole?” but I was 100 feet away and he ran back to the open front door of his brand new RR and ROCKETED off the lot. I got the license plate number and had a cop friend look it up. Then I checked the voter registration information and he’s a registered Democrat.