Immigration Evasion – Reform is a DREAM Act

It is nearly impossible to talk about immigration reform without talking about racism, bigotry and Republicans.  It seems the GOP believes they gain voters by alienating large voter blocks: Latinos, Asians, Blacks, women, and those who can think critically.  In many cases within an urban setting a candidate only needs to say “vote for me I am not Republican” to get all the votes from those groups.

The only reason there is no immigration reform is because of Republican opposition to immigration reform.  And Republicans do not support our stupid immigration system.  Republicans know what the rest of us know, that our immigration system does not control immigration.  It is more to the point that Republicans are afraid of the debate.

There is no argument Republicans consistently offer to counter immigration reform proposals except their one word argument: illegal.

There is no law that says being undocumented is illegal. And besides framing the issue inaccurately as Republicans are well known for, there is also the fact that  just because something is illegal does not mean it is bad.  Look at slavery, Prohibition, civil rights, marijuana and any number of stupid laws all around us.  There is no shortage of web sites to list such laws, one claiming there is a Connecticut law against walking across the street on your hands.  A town near us outlawed confetti.  In that town only outlaws have confetti.

There is no compelling reason to oppose immigration reform.  So Republicans only criticize the immigration system offering nothing to replace the system except platitudes and oversimplifications like “it is illegal” or “no amnesty” or “enforce the law”.

ILLEGAL: Technically overstaying a visa is not illegal although it will change your immigration status to deportable.  Nationwide about half of those people Republicans call “illegals” have done nothing illegal to earn themselves a deportable immigration status.  In Connecticut the percentage of visa overstays is presumably much higher since we are so far from the Mexican border.  Estimating such a thing is as difficult as estimating unreported crime.

But even those who did cross the border “unexamined” or wetback or in Spanish “mojado”  there is no chance they will be charged with the misdemeanor Title 8 Section 1325 which proscribes the $50 fine. Presumably the portion of the undocumented US population Republicans call illegals is the percentage that entered without a visa.

If someone were to be charged with the misdemeanor of entering unexamined in Connecticut it would be like the police coming to your house while you are eating dinner to arrest you for speeding.  If someone is not caught crossing the border illegally they generally will not be charged with the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally. And we are all innocent until proven guilty, hence no one who is not convicted of a crime is illegal.

Republicans have tried in the past to criminalize visa violation but have failed.  Look up the SAFE Act for details.  Some of those called illegals by Republicans probably committed a misdemeanor for which they will never be charged. The rest committed no such crime at all.

In international law immigration is viewed like a tree overhanging a neighbor’s yard.  You are free to cut the branches and remove the leaves and debris from the tree, or even build a high wall to keep the tree from crossing your property line, but there is nothing illegal about it. Every country is free to make laws, even stupid laws, to try to control such a natural phenomenon.

Illegal immigration is the process of moving your residence contrary to the immigration policy of your new home.  Although the process itself is a crime proving such a thing is like proving conspiracy. Otherwise it is not a crime, it is more like breaking a contract.  Our immigration laws and policies classify people and award or withhold visas.  If you violate your visa then you have consequences on future visa applications.  Those consequences for the 11.7 million undocumented people who are in the USA today are that generally they will never be able to become legal residents of the USA without immigration reform.

AMNESTY: If any of the 11.7 million is allowed to change their immigration status to lawful resident that is amnesty and present law does not allow for amnesty.

By definition a change in immigration status to allow a visa to someone who is deportable is amnesty.  To refuse all amnesty, like Republicans are saying to do, would mean deporting a population of US residents larger than more than half the countries on earth, like NYC, LA and Chicago combined at the cost of about $12,000 per person.

ENFORCE THE LAW: meaning deport all those people, is like insisting that the government not make deals with detainees that will allow them to stay.  It is like insisting that all criminals must go to a jury trial instead of any sort of deal with prosecutors. It is ignoring a big part of our justice system and executive discretion. Making deals and prioritizing cases is part of the system of laws.

Many Republicans suggest that the President should enforce the laws differently.  Our system of checks and balances and the separation of powers puts the President in charge of enforcing the laws, and to want him to do differently from what he is doing is, well, like asking for a different President.  You will have your chance in four years.  In the mean time he is enforcing the law just as every President enforces the law.  That is the President’s job.

 

It is not an us versus them world.  There is only us, there is no them.  We live here and the 14th Amendment to our constitution say that no US state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”  Makes me proud.  Anyone, not just citizens.

But for Republicans the 14th Amendment is the part of the Constitution that made Anchor Babies.  But another expression for Anchor Baby is “American Citizen”.

 

Seems to me the definition of bigotry is attributing negative attributes to large groups of people based on stereotypes.”

Philosophy of law

I have a friend from South Africa who tells me their laws are based on maintaining human dignity and justice. Ours seems to be  based on maintaining peace.

When the police arrive at our crime scenes they want to keep the peace or blame someone for disturbing the peace. Our judges have strict guidelines for what lines in the sand have been crossed.

According to my friend, in South Africa they look for who maintains justice and dignity and fine or punish those who violate the dignity of others or show disregard for justice.

Ours is a nation in decline, the letter of the law will bring us down. Millions of examples daily.

Republicans are jerks: there I said it.

Where is the Republican to stand up and debate Republican support for immigration laws that don’t control immigration, drug use laws that don’t control drug users, health care laws that make our health care system double the most expensive health care in the world, mandatory insurances…  I mean, our laws don’t serve the people, they serve industry.  And Republicans support the bad laws and oppose the good laws.

Health care?  Who knows why the system is so complicated.  Perhaps it is good for the economy to purposefully make complicated laws and procedures, to force us all to hire professionals, lawyers, insurance companies, tax specialists, anything that spreads our money around.  Perhaps there is a master plan, but I doubt it.

In the case of health insurance my doctor apparently charges me three times what he wants to earn so that he can get the maximum my insurance company will pay. I am not sure, I am only reading between the lines, but on the bill he charges a huge amount, then discounts it.  I am guessing insurance says they will pay, say, 75% up to a maximum of some figure.  He charges high so that he will reach that figure.

 

 

 

Simple Republican Test

There is a way of doing arithmetic taught in schools these days called common core.

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When we learn simple adding and subtracting we retain the skill not realizing how.  When we write a number and another under it with the addition or the subtraction function in mind we don’t realize our algorithm, and we hardly realize there are other ways to perform the same function.

Children in school on the other hand have not yet learned the algorithm and need to be taught.  So they are, and teachers need to evaluate their learning,  So the students write down the process.

Enter politics: That isn’t how I wrote arithmetic when I was in school and I turned out alright.  So should there be a new process?  Is there even a new process?

In my mind these days there is hardly a worse word any person could call another than Republican.  In my mind only a Republican would complain about a new arithmetic taught in grade school.

 

The idea is to be able to think about numbers differently, some say in a more basic and helpful fashion, than traditional arithmetic.

Those who resist this way of doing things and believe that the tried and true way is simpler merely do not understand common core.

Those who resist and ridicule what they don’t understand  are Republican.  And I can prove it.  Will get back to this later.

Republicans are obstructionists

I am not a Democrat but I am anti-Republican these days.  The GOP had some good ideas, simply government being the only one that pops to mind anymore, but they oppose simplifying government at every turn, it seems.  They want laws extending into the bed room, they want automatic prison terms tying the hands of judges, they want simple government that costs more.

So I will actively seek to help defeat Republicans where I can.  I am starting by looking at good information about the coming elections.  Here is one:

http://cookpolitical.com/house/charts/race-ratings

and more ammunition:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/31/worst-congress-ever-the-case-in-7-charts/

I will finish this later.

Republicans will never be satisfied with Obama

We are illegal immigration neutral.  Efforts to seal the border are working and as many undocumented visitors and residents are leaving the USA as are arriving.  Just the border with Mexico has over 350 million crossings a year.

It is as though more than the entire population of the USA, as if every single one of us crossed every year, and then some.  And that doesn’t count the Norther border, all the coasts, and the nearly 200 international airports.  To think there would be no mistakes or cheating is like estimating tax fraud.  Does every single American follow every single tax law?

Do we need to spend $50 billion a year on enforcement of tax law?  This what Obama spends on immigration enforcement, more than the FBI, CIA, ATF, DEA, Secret Service and Marshals combined.  The IRS spends $11 billion.

At some point we have to say we are doing a good job.  Isn’t that when we know that illegal immigration is at a standstill?

It seems Obama has an inferiority complex.  He does everything the Republicans want, and they still scare him like a kid in the schoolyard.

Republicans love to call people “illegals”.  They do not care that it is not accurate. They say only liberals want to be politically correct by not calling a spade a spade.  But the laws are not broken, people are innocent until proven guilty, it has nothing to do with PC but rather accuracy.  There is a dirtier word to call people: Republican.  Spit the word out with hate in your voice, like you are a Republican who is saying “illegal immigrant”.  When you call someone a Republican you are most likely a lot more accurate than they are when they pick someone pretty much at random, someone who is not fat and white, and calls them “illegal”.

Stupid Stuff You Have To Do

So I paid a retainer of $8,000 to a HRP that is more than happy to do the research for me to find the property that abutts my property.  I had to put a legal announcement in the paper, which cost about $2.50 a line per day, or $65 for the wording I am required to use, whereas a car ad costs $19 a week.  The very nice young woman, recently a grandmother (and her oldest child is just now graduating High School) tells me she does not get commission on legal ads, has no idea why they are so much…

I know the owners of the property on each side of me, and I wrote their letters which have to be sent certified.  But HRP says, wait a minute, you need to notify those on the other side of the highway in front and the river behind the property as well.  Fine, but since there is not line in common, how many of the properties on the other side of the highway and across the river.  HRP sent a picture of the property with lines, like this property and this property and this one…   I know they are not kidding, but I also know there is no requirement for this, they just want to do something on their own initiative to be sure everything is okay.

So I go to the town hall, what a hoot.  They initiate the conversation saying of course they can’t help with research like mine, but use this book to find your property, put this number in here, hey, Andy how come this number doesn’t work?  There are three of them now trying to figure out why the computer doesn’t take the numbers.  I show them numbers I have from the Clerks office from a very similar book but no, that is the parallel book and map and the page numbers and sections and lots are different.

I would say they should make a law to require this to be simpler, but NO MORE LAWS.  It should be self evident to the entire town that this system is not working.

 

Our Corrupt Health System

This has NOTHING to do with Obamacare.

I have no idea why this is not screamed from the mountaintops:  Our Healthcare System is Corrupt!  Just because it is legal does not mean it isn’t corrupt, anti-competitive, bad for the economy and the nation.

We complain about third world countries and bribes and corruption when our system is the most corrupt of all but legal.  We pay our Congress $30,000,000 a day to literally do nothing.  Our system is designed to make lawyers, insurance companies and lawmakers rich.  We require those people in high places to be rich, our laws make them rich, and that makes them make stupid laws and more laws.  We have to buy insurance, we have to hire lawyers, we have to pay our lawmakers. We make people immune from the law and the harm that they do by making insurance companies so rich they have to spend money on stupid, ineffective and even counterproductive advertising just so they don’t pay taxes on their ungodly riches.

For the price of a colonoscopy in Torrington one can fly to Costa Rica, have your colonoscopy, stay three nights in a luxury hotel, and return with $3000 in your pocket.  You can get health care that is as good or better from a neighboring country for a tenth the cost.  And we all scream free enterprise.  Why do we want  no government oversight over the obscene prices of our health care, but we want the government in our homes when we install a light switch?  The disconnect is obvious.  We are brainwashed.

Why is that?  I wondered why people go to Mexico or Canada or the internet to buy their prescription drugs.  But now I know.  A drug I was prescribed that cost about $100 a dose I bought from China for $9. Why?  Is there an answer beyond corruption?  Is there a better word?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/high-cost-of-medical-procedures-in-the-us/

The cost of corruption is that this will be an international world.  Fly to Mexico and stay in a hospital room for $50 a day, or in the US for $1000 – $2500 per night.  Routine procedures in the US cost more than double the amount they cost in the next highest country.  And there are two prices in the US, one when you have insurance and one when you don’t.  Does that make sense to anyone?  I wish I could make people buy insurance for my services, and after they pay for the insurance charge them triple for my service.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/average-cost-per-inpatient-day-across-50-states-in-2010.html

I have been in hospitals in both countries and I believe the Mexican hospital treated me better.  But since I have the best insurance my government can give me as a retired State worker I should just shut up and let my insurance company and hospital post billion dollar profits every year.  If a doctor can’t make $1000 an hour the practice closes.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/06/daily-chart-18

 

This has NOTHING to do with Obamacare.

I have no idea why this is not screamed from the mountaintops:  Our Healthcare System is Corrupt!  Just because it is legal does not mean it isn’t corrupt, anti-competitive, bad for the economy and the nation.

We complain about third world countries and bribes and corruption when our system is the most corrupt of all but legal.  We pay our Congress $30,000,000 a day to literally do nothing.  Our system is designed to make lawyers, insurance companies and lawmakers rich.  We require those jobs with laws and more laws.  We have to buy insurance, we have to hire lawyers, we have to pay our lawmakers. We make people immune from the law and the harm that they do.

For the price of a colonoscopy in Torrington one can fly to Costa Rica, have your colonoscopy, stay three nights in a luxury hotel, and return with $3000 in your pocket.  You can get health care that is as good or better from a neighboring country for a tenth the cost.  And we all scream free enterprise.  Why do we want no government oversight over the obscene prices of our health care, but we want the government in our homes when we install a light switch?  The disconnect is obvious.  We are brainwashed.

Why is that?  I wondered why people go to Mexico or Canada or the internet to buy their prescription drugs.  But now I know.  A drug I was prescribed that cost about $100 a dose I bought from China for $9. Why?  Is there an answer beyond corruption?  Is there a better word?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/high-cost-of-medical-procedures-in-the-us/

The cost of corruption is that this will be an international world.  Fly to Mexico and stay in a hospital room for $50 a day, or in the US for $1000 – $2500 per night.  Routine procedures in the US cost more than double the amount they cost in the next highest country.  And there are two prices in the US, one when you have insurance and one when you don’t.  Does that make sense to anyone?  I wish I could make people buy insurance for my services, and after they pay for the insurance charge them triple for my service.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/average-cost-per-inpatient-day-across-50-states-in-2010.html

I have been in hospitals in both countries and I believe the Mexican hospital treated me better.  But since I have the best insurance my government can give me as a retired State worker I should just shut up and let my insurance company and hospital post billion dollar profits every year.  If a doctor can’t make $1000 an hour the practice closes.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/06/daily-chart-18

 

This has NOTHING to do with Obamacare.
I have no idea why this is not screamed from the mountaintops:  Our Healthcare System is Corrupt!  Just because it is legal does not mean it isn’t corrupt, anti-competitive, bad for the economy and the nation.
We complain about third world countries and bribes and corruption when our system is the most corrupt of all but legal.  We pay our Congress $30,000,000 a day to literally do nothing.  Our system is designed to make lawyers, insurance companies and lawmakers rich.  We require those jobs with laws and more laws.  We have to buy insurance, we have to hire lawyers, we have to pay our lawmakers. We make people immune from the law and the harm that they do.
For the price of a colonoscopy in Torrington one can fly to Costa Rica, have your colonoscopy, stay three nights in a luxury hotel, and return with $3000 in your pocket.  You can get health care that is as good or better from a neighboring country for a tenth the cost.  And we all scream free enterprise.  Why do we want no government oversight over the obscene prices of our health care, but we want the government in our homes when we install a light switch?  The disconnect is obvious.  We are brainwashed.
Why is that?  I wondered why people go to Mexico or Canada or the internet to buy their prescription drugs.  But now I know.  A drug I was prescribed that cost about $100 a dose I bought from China for $9. Why?  Is there an answer beyond corruption?  Is there a better word?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/high-cost-of-medical-procedures-in-the-us/
The cost of corruption is that this will be an international world.  Fly to Mexico and stay in a hospital room for $50 a day, or in the US for $1000 – $2500 per night.  Routine procedures in the US cost more than double the amount they cost in the next highest country.  And there are two prices in the US, one when you have insurance and one when you don’t.  Does that make sense to anyone?  I wish I could make people buy insurance for my services, and after they pay for the insurance charge them triple for my service.
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/average-cost-per-inpatient-day-across-50-states-in-2010.html
I have been in hospitals in both countries and I believe the Mexican hospital treated me better.  But since I have the best insurance my government can give me as a retired State worker I should just shut up and let my insurance company and hospital post billion dollar profits every year.  If a doctor can’t make $1000 an hour the practice closes.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/06/daily-chart-18

 

Lisa Meneguzzo & Oddo Print Shop

A convicted rapist and murderer’s Torrington girlfriend  is Lisa Meneguzzo, owner of Oddo Print Shop, 142 E. Main St., Torrington, CT.

Many Torringtonians have no idea the colorful personalities we have in our little town.  Generally people don’t know or care what is printed in the newspapers or plastered on hot dog stands.  We don’t read who gets arrested, and if we happen to hear about something in the paper we almost certainly don’t read past the charges.  And if someone’s name is cleared in a jury trial or by judge’s ruling those events won’t appear in the Register Citizen.

But the arrests are.  And sometimes the police and the newspaper want to malign and shock the community and put in a picture of those arrested.  But when a Torrington native tries to break a man out of prison then wins immunity from prosecution by testifying, for example, that she smuggled a telephone with naked pictures of herself into prison, as reported by WSB-TV, that story escapes the Register Citizen.  When the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that she bribed prison guards with money earned in her Torrington business and traveled to visit the rapist and murderer in prison at least seven times our local news is silent.

Brian Nichols killed a Judge, an FBI agent, a Sheriff Deputy, a court reporter and a bystander in his escape from his rape trial in Georgia.  Lisa Meneguzzo must have decided that was a reason to become his “girlfriend” which is what happened according to several news sources.  But when national news sources report that Lisa Meneguzzo did not remember hours of phone conversations recorded by the FBI with the cop killer detailing the outside of the prison we heard nothing from our local news.

Lisa Meneguzzo, who Fox News calls the cop killer’s girlfriend is our neighbor. And I need to decide if Torrington deserves to know more about what the Associated Press reported about our native daughter: “Nichols’ girlfriend, Lisa Meneguzzo, played a key role in the plot, coming up with cash, writing letters to Nichols and doing research for him”.

Does Torrington benefit by knowing more about Oddo Printshop?  Should we ask to hear the story of the soft side of mass murderer Brian Nichols from this woman?  And if so will our local newspaper tell the complete story?

Government For Sale

We sell the finest governments on earth.  Depending on the model government you purchase, we can keep corruption and infrastructure decay to a minimum, and optionally improve social services and clean up the environment.

Recently our company has been under attack for selling our excellent product to nations and territories where controls have been lost.  But our product is a very good government, and if it is used as directed we will warranty our government for a full ten years.

Our warranty is void, however, when our product subverted.  Look at the examples. In Quebec things run on time, no violence in the streets, not at lot of overspending on Government services, taxes are low, businesses are growing.  The USA has been considering our product as well, but they have trouble with corruption at the top, too many high paid politicians and not enough tax base, so our models show they need to cut government spending, reduce the number of prisoners and government employees for our government to work for them.

In the US laws favor lawyers, insurance companies and government workers too much for our governments to work.  We require that the government take control of health care and energy or to leave it to market systems.  In the US there is too much government meddling for it to work.