Signs from Alabama’s Cheaha State Park, within the Talladega National Forest, explaining how Native Americans and Europeans came to be in the area:
“Native Americans were the first people to colonize the Cheaha Mountain area.” and “Europeans left an established life and journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean to pursue their dreams of freedom.”
Native Americans were “colonizers” and Europeans came to the slave state of Alabama because they cherished freedom, not for any economic motivation.
The U.S. already has cities that are more violent, statistically, than the countries from which migrants came here “fleeing violence” (the current origin myth). Suppose that this trend continues (U.S. becoming more violent; countries that enrich us with their surplus population becoming less violent). Will there be a new origin myth for our current wave of migrants? If so, what will it be?
Separately, Cheaha seems like the proper place for the Appalachian Trail (“AT”) to start (story: “The trail was originally imagined as spanning the entire length of the Appalachian Mountains, which would extend it into Alabama, but the Alabama leg never materialized”). As the U.S. population has grown, the AT should grow so that hikers aren’t on top of each other.
Looking ahead, new Pew Research Center U.S. population projections show that if current demographic trends continue, future immigrants and their descendants will be an even bigger source of population growth. Between 2015 and 2065, they are projected to account for 88% of the U.S. population increase, or 103 million people, as the nation grows to 441 million.
In America today, far too many of us are disconnected from each other, lonely, self-protective, or at each other’s throats. Sacrifice for the common good feels anachronistic.
Immigration is nowhere mentioned in the article. It is a curious blind spot, perhaps reflecting how detached American elites are from their subjects. Why would they expect a Hindu immigrant from India who had lost all of his possessions to Pakistani Muslims to feel connected to a Pakistani Muslim immigrant to the U.S.? Why would an immigrant from Cambodia want to sacrifice to help an asylum-seeker from Haiti or Venezuela? Cambodians in Cambodia don’t sit around wondering what they can do to help Haitians and Venezuelans. If we transport Cambodians to the U.S., what would motivate them to suddenly want to sacrifice to help recently arrived Haitians and Venezuelans?
But suppose that a truly altruistic person were to exist in the U.S., someone who can measure up to the standards set forth in this article. He/she/ze/they actually wants to sacrifice to help a person whom he/she/ze/they has never met. Why does he/she/ze/they choose to help someone who is in the U.S. comfortably enrolled in means-tested public housing, Medicaid, SNAP/EBT, and Obamaphone? Why doesn’t he/she/ze/they be like Bill Gates and instead try to help the world’s poorest, nearly all of whom are found in very poor countries?
In short, once a country is sufficiently filled with immigrants, neither the selfish nor the altruistic will seek to sacrifice for the common good of other residents of that country. The selfish will concentrate on themselves and their families. The altruistic will sacrifice some of their time and money to help those humans who need the help the most.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the jihad waged by successful asylum-seekers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon. They lived at taxpayer expense in Cambridge, Maskachusetts after being granted permanent welfare entitlement in the U.S. on the grounds that Russia would not let them wage jihad in Russia. Dzhokhar studied diversity and tolerance at the Cambridge Public High School.
Aside from eliminating access to the U.S. for asylum-seekers, what could have been done to prevent the Waltham murders and the Boston Marathon jihad? We could have heeded the warning of Vladimir Putin’s government. From “Russia Told America To Detain Tamerlan Tsarnaev Years Ago” (Insider, March 2014):
NBC News said the Russian intelligence agency FSB cabled the FBI about its concerns in March 2011, warning that Tsarnaev was known to have associated with militant Islamists.
The network said the FBI opened an investigation of Tsarnaev that month conducted by a joint task force of federal, state and local authorities. Tsarnaev was interviewed in person, and a memo was sent to the Customs and Border Protection database called TECS that would trigger an alert whenever he left or re-entered the United States.
But the investigation was closed in June 2011 after finding Tsarnaev had no links to terrorism, NBC quoted the report as saying.
In September 2011, the FSB sent a cable to the CIA, restating the warnings of the first memo. NBC News quoted sources close to the congressional investigation as saying a second note about Tsarnaev was entered into the TECS system the next month, but spelled his name “Tsarnayev.”
So we can perhaps reflect today on a time when we had a better relationship with Russia.
Like the good citizens of Martha’s Vineyard…. “White Remain voters … are less likely than white Brexiteers to say they prefer to move from their diverse neighbourhoods … But white Remain voters are more likely to actually move from diverse places than white Brexit voters (with many sociodemographic controls).”
Are Americans more likely to act on their expressed beliefs? The professor found that Americans who voted against Trump were just as likely to try to move to all-white neighborhoods as those who voted for anti-immigrant hate:
6/ The US lacks the same large longitudinal datasets, but when I compare geotagged pro-Trump and anti-Trump twitter accounts (N=4,701), I likewise find pro-diversity and diversity-skeptic whites moving to similarly less diverse places: pic.twitter.com/Ejs11Qd88o
Authorities in Massachusetts are moving the dozens of migrants who arrived earlier this week in Martha’s Vineyard to Cape Cod.
The office for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced Friday that the state’s emergency management agency relocated the migrants to Joint Base Cape Cod.
The migrants’ arrival in Martha’s Vineyard earlier this week was a surprise to local officials, who had no idea that they were coming
Since Wednesday, state and local organizations have scrambled to assist the new arrivals, many of whom speak little to no English.
Here’s a typical perspective from an American Jewish Democrat:
This is a wonderful opportunity to take action to support refugees and asylum seekers. People seeking asylum are being turned away at borders around the world. Take this time to support refugees by fostering a welcoming environment. #WelcomeWithDignityhttps://t.co/dIOMVImG5q
The guy who gets a paycheck from the Anti-Defamation League wants to fill the United States and other countries “around the world” with any person on Planet Earth who is capable of spinning an asylum yarn, e.g., “I was afraid of my spouse” or “there was a criminal gang in my neighborhood” or “I identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+ and my native country does not support Rainbow Flagism.”
But how is this perspective consistent with the State of Israel continuing as a Jewish state? There are 5.3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. All of them could make credible asylum claims, e.g., “I am 2SLGBTQQIA+ and Wikipedia says that therefore my situation is ‘precarious’.” (“Gaza, however, still follows the British Mandate Criminal Code Ordinance, No.74 of 1936, which outlaws same-sex acts between men, with the current punishment being up to 10 years in prison.”) Or “I am fearful that the Israeli military will blow up my apartment building in case they suspect that Hamas is using it for offensive purposes.”
Arabs are already 20 percent of Israelis. After the 5 million Palestinians settle in Israel as asylees, plus additional asylum-seekers from other Muslim countries as necessary, the Muslim population will outnumber the Jewish population and Muslim Israelis can vote to establish an Islamic government within Israel, either expelling the Jews or keeping them around as tax-paying Dhimmi.
There must be mental gymnastics that I am missing that enable these migrant-supporting Jews to, without being obvious hypocrites, oppose the migration of Muslims, including Palestinians, into Israel. But I can’t figure out what it would be! If a person says that any Muslim is entitled to cross the U.S. border and apply for asylum, how can he/she/ze/they be opposed to a Muslim crossing the Israeli border and applying for asylum?
In case the above tweet is memory-holed, a screen shot is below. Separately, note that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is mentioned. Anger regarding this taxpayer-supported enterprise was cited by Gregory Bowers as his motivation for shooting Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 (“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”). This was predicted years earlier by a friend who is an Orthodox Jew (working class white males in the U.S. becoming Jew-haters as a consequence of HIAS and other prominent Jewish-led efforts to increase low-skill migration into the U.S.).
Across the globe, 32.5 million refugees are seeking safety, many of them adults in search of work. At the same time, severe labor shortages in the United States and many other high-income countries have left businesses clamoring for workers.
The United States can help address both problems (and more) through bipartisan immigration reform — and states can be part of new solutions with innovative ideas that could act as the foundation for immigration federalism.
Creating a pathway for individuals to live and work in Iowa and other states would ease the burden on America’s asylum system.
One of the pillars of modern elite thinking is that, instead of being organized by cultural affinity, a cohesive human society can be built by assembling people who did not like wherever it was that they were previously. That’s the basis of open borders for asylum-seekers. Native-born American taxpayers will fund apartments (in a building owned by a member of the elite!) for (1) person who says that he/she/ze/they was at risk of being killed by a gang in El Salvador and speaks only Spanish, (2) someone who says that he/she/ze/they was a domestic violence victim in Haiti and speaks only Creole, (3) a migrant who says that he/she/ze/they was a victim in Syria and speaks only Arabic, and (4) a former police officer from Somalia (based on occupation, automatically eligible for asylum?) who speaks only Somali. Though they share no common language, these four folks can bond over… something. Thus, a thriving neighborhood is born. (Maybe they bond over their shared hatred for life in the respective countries of their birth?)
What’s new from the New York Times is the suggestion that these migrants get allocated by a central bureaucracy of elites to states in which there are (elite-owned) businesses whose offered wages are insufficient to attract native-born workers and existing immigrants. So not only will an asylum-seeker be in a country that he/she/ze/they may not have wanted to live in, but the asylum-seeker will be in a state that he/she/ze/they did not want to live in. (Remember that asylum-seekers are “fleeing” from somewhere. They’re involuntarily in the U.S. because this is the only place that they can be safe. It may be that the asylum-seeker dislikes and disagrees with everything about American culture and values, but the alternative was death.)
(Why will they be welfare-dependent? If they’re in a low-skill low-wage job, especially if they have children, even working 40 hours per week they will be eligible for means-tested programs such as public housing, Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP/EBT), and Obamaphone.)
A story from our former suburb of Boston… (not quoting it because it would be tough to read in italics)
Sally is the mother of four kids – lives in Chelsea. She is beautiful and speaks well but cannot read and has a 2nd grade education. Her husband, small gentleman with a major speech issues, hit her over the head with a hammer when her boyfriend came over to the house. The father went to jail. There was a lot of stress in the house. Both parents during the pandemic lost one of two jobs. The father was experiencing major mental health issues. The kids were “learning at home” The kids at the time where 3, 8, 10 and 11…..learning? How? Both parents were working their one job and desperately trying to find a second job. The father worked for 18 years at Bed Bath and Beyond making $15.50 an hour. The mother continues to work at Whole Foods making $17 an hour. Because the father is in jail the mother is responsible for all the bills which she cannot handle. Feb 1 she was evicted and went to stay in a hotel because all shelters were filled. She and the kids will stay there until housing becomes available- maybe 2 years? There is nowhere to cook or do laundry. The father is in jail and has been for three years without bail or a trial. Just another day at work. What is [South Sudanese Enrichment for Families]’s response? We are writing letters to the fathers’ public defender to try to get him a trial and bail in March. We have facilitated the father instead of the Nashua Street Jail to be at the Recovery Center in Worcester. He gets therapy and tutoring. A volunteer is working with the mother to try to have some stability in their life. Many Sudanese are helping getting the kids to school etc. We have another woman with two kids going into a shelter in March and we have one child taken away from her mother. Very very sad. Two Sudanese families are going to take the child in. …. We have 8 families that are in our Financial Fitness Program where we assess where they are financially and what they need to do to meet their financial goals. There is a waiting list. We are getting there ……all with your help. Thank you…the need is huge.
(Although my heart is warmed by the above, I’m confused by the story. The mom of 4 had a boyfriend (perfect adaption of a migrant to the American lifestyle, despite having only a 2nd grade education!) and the father went to jail. But also the story implies that the father was at home during the coronapanic lockdowns in Maskachusetts. Yet he has been “in jail” for three years and the lockdown began three years ago. Maybe the boyfriend is the new “father” who has the Bed Bath & Beyond job and was at home during the lockdowns and pretend-learn-from-home-scheme? Also, why do the nonprofit say-gooders (maybe even do-gooders?) want to get the hammer-wielding father out of jail? So that he can attack the mom with a hammer again? So that he can copy the undocumented immigrant David DePape and attack Paul Pelosi? Isn’t jail the safest place for anyone who cannot be trusted with a hammer?)
“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program,” said Milton Friedman. Let’s check in with the Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants to the U.S. A 2011 DHS press release:
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti beneficiaries. This extension will be effective July 23, 2011 and is for an additional 18 months. It will allow these TPS beneficiaries to remain in the United States through Jan. 22, 2013. The designation of TPS for eligible Haitian nationals who had continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2010 was originally announced by Secretary Napolitano on Jan. 15, 2010 and became effective on Jan. 21, 2010. Currently, approximately 48,000 Haitian nationals with TPS reside in the United States.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti for an additional 18 months, from February 4, 2023, through August 3, 2024, due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti.
The Great Replacement … is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory disseminated by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicity or cooperation of “replacist” elites, the ethnic French and white European populations at large are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans.
Athenia Rodney is a product of the upward mobility New York City once promised Black Americans. She grew up in mostly Black neighborhoods in Brooklyn, graduated from public schools and attended a liberal arts college on a full scholarship. She went on to start her own event-planning business in the city.
But as Ms. Rodney’s own family grew, she found herself living in a cramped one-bedroom rental, where her three children shared a bunk bed in the living room. It was hard to get them into programs that exposed them to green spaces or swim classes. As she scrolled through friends’ social media posts showing off trampolines in spacious backyards in Georgia, the solution became clearer: Leave.
Last summer, the family bought a five-bedroom home in Snellville, Ga.
The Rodneys are part of an exodus of Black residents from New York City. From 2010 to 2020, a decade during which the city’s population showed a surprising increase led by a surge in Asian and Hispanic residents, the number of Black residents decreased.
Citywide, white residents now make up about 31 percent of the population, according to census data, Hispanic residents 28 percent and Asian residents nearly 16 percent. While the white population has stayed about the same, the Asian population grew by 34 percent and Hispanic population grew by 7 percent, according to the data.
Migrants will enjoy the diverse entertainment and cultural opportunities of New York City previously enjoyed by native-born Black Americans, who are being pushed out to places that elite New Yorkers wouldn’t consider visiting for a day, much less relocating to. However, it would be false to call this a “replacement.”
In other words: Honduran and Venezuelan coffee bad; Honduran and Venezuelan migrants good.
Is there any philosophical inconsistency in wanting to increase the tide of migrants washing into the U.S. while simultaneously refusing to buy goods and services from foreigners who’ve elected to stay in their home countries?
