Should People Who Refuse To Assimulate Be Allowed To Immigrate To America? I Don't Think So!

The airwaves today are wall to wall Trump after he suggested America bar Muslims from coming to America until our government can get the immigration process right.   I take exception with Donald Trump's position that all Muslims should be barred from immigrating to America...that said, there is an argument to be made that everyone from EVERYWHERE should be kept from immigrating to America (legally or illegally) until we get our own house in order when it comes to people immigrating to America.  

1.  Lets deal with our borders.

2.  Lets deal with those who overstay their Visa.

3.  Let's come up with a system of checks and balances that facilitates legal immigration into our nation, while at the same time keeps undesirables out, including criminals, malcontents and possible terrorists.

4.  Figure out a system that makes sure those who come here do assimilate into our country, learn to read, write, speak and understand our language.

Let us as a nation take a time out, absorb those who are already here, and come to an agreement on who should or should not be allowed to come to America, and once we our in agreement, lets stick to the list, apply equal standards to EVERYONE, regardless of their race, creed, religion, sexual orientation or country of origin.

First thing that should be on that list of things for our government to address when deciding who can and who cannot immigrate to America should be their willingness to assimilate, which includes learning to speak, read and comprehend our English language.  If you have been in America for 10, 20 or more years and still cannot read, speak and comprehend English, then you have no business living in America.   The days of pushing 2 for Spanish needs to end.   If you are not willing to relinquish citizenship granted to you from some other nation, and swear allegiance to America, then you should not be here.   A perfect example of this can be found in sports where we have citizens of America playing professional sports, making millions of dollars here in America who go play sports for their home country's Olympic team...that is a divided allegiance that needs to end.

As a nation,let us not ban someone based on their religion, but let us also not allow people access to American citizenship who are not willing to fully embrace what it means to be American. 

Matthew 6:24 states, "No one can serve two masters.  For you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other."   People cannot be true citizens of America if they still pledge allegiance to another country, and that country's value systems and laws.  Still hold duel citizenship here and elsewhere.  It is in this context that Trump has opened up an ugly can of worms that no one really wants to discuss, finding it easier to label "The Trump" a heretic than discuss the issues that he so un-artfully brought to light in his call for banning all Muslims.

Let's as example look at Saudi Arabia which is a Muslim country, most of those who live there practicing Islam in one form or another.   No problem so far...BUT, it is also a country that both embraces and has codified Sharia Law, a set or rules and regulations based (supposedly) on the Quran, which is supposedly the word of Allah, much like Moses and the Ten Commandments.   Let's face it, Sharia Law has NO PLACE in America, no place in our culture.   Is it fair under our constitution to ask people to swear to uphold our laws and system of government, and denounce and/or abandon their beliefs in Sharia Law? If someone of Muslim faith wants to believe that their faith requires them to embrace and support Sharia Law, we as a nation do have a problem when it comes to them becoming citizens of our nation.   Perhaps the best example of this problem is the growing problem of "Honor Killings" here in America.

I do not agree with how Donald Trump has framed this important conversation that our nation, and our leaders need to have...who gets to come to America, and what rules and regulations do we need to have in place when it comes to saying yes or no to those wishing to immigrate here.  However I do agree that A) we should declare a full and complete moratorium on immigration until we address the problems with the immigration system, and B) we should not allow 10,000 refugees from war torn areas of the Middle East unless we have the ability to fully and completely vet each and every one of them before they ever set foot on America's shores.

Some Questions For Presidential Candidates

THEY ALL LOOK AND SOUND THE SAME!

The biggest problem with "Presidential Elections"...everything is scripted, who has access to the people running for the office controlled (except in Iowa and New Hampshire) and scripted.  Real access only granted to the rich, elite and power of our nation.   That is not democracy that our forefathers envisioned over 200 years ago.    Though the questions will not get answered (politicians are very adept at answering questions with answers full emptiness), going to pose a few here that I would like to receive straight forward answers to.

On Immigration

America has some of the most liberal immigration laws in the entire world.   For those who follow the rules, there is always a warm welcome, and a helping hand up the ladder as they begin their quest of living the American Dream.  Those who support illegal aliens want us to believe the costs of deporting illegal aliens is far too costly, choosing to ignore the facts...illegal aliens and their children cost America over $200 Billion dollars a year in assorted costs such as schooling, food stamps, and incarcerations, they depreciate American wages by over $200 Billion dollars a year, and starve America's economic engine by hundreds of billions a year through remittances sent back to their countries of origin.  Despite those who would have us believe otherwise, history tells us we can deport 11 million illegal aliens...simply look back to the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and you will see America shut down the jobs magnet, orchestrated neighborhood and work place enforcement raids, and in 24 months deported over six million illegal aliens.

1.  Do you understand the difference between legal and illegal immigration, and why is it that you keep trying to treat/present these two diverse groups as one and the same?  

2.  Illegal aliens and their supporters claim illegal aliens pay taxes, using the fact that they pay sales tax on items they purchase as proof.  What percentage of those here illegally do not pay FEDERAL INCOME TAXES (underground economy), and shouldn't they have to pay all those back taxes with penalties and interest (as all law abiding citizens would have to do), as a part of making restitution for their breaking our laws in coming to and remaining in America Illegally?   Almost every proposed law would waive penalties/interest on these unpaid taxes, and would only require a illegal alien to pay back three years worth of unpaid Federal Taxes to GET RIGHT WITH THE LAW...how do you justify such a "Tax Amnesty" for these people when an American citizen who failed to pay his Federal taxes for 10-20 years could face prison time.

3.   Do you support E-Verify which is over 98 percent effective in telling employers (including families hiring household workers), and would you support it becoming the law of the land, making it mandatory for any one/any company employing people?   Would you support under E-Verify stiff penalties (including jail time) for employers caught hiring illegal aliens?

4.   Under a flawed interpretation of the 14th Amendment, over six million people born to illegal aliens have gained birthright citizenship.  If you are elected president will you introduce legislation to end this flawed and costly program that gives instant citizenship to any one born in America?

5.    With the global migration crisis (caused by the unrest in the Middle East) other countries such as Croatia and Hungary are successfully locking down their borders...yet politicians here in America would have us believe that the most powerful country in the world cannot build a wall and secure our southern border with Mexico.  If elected president, what steps are you prepared to take on your first day in office to secure our Southern border and stem the flow of illegal immigration into America?

On Jobs and a Living Wage

There is a lot of push back on raising the minimum wage.   Additionally, those who support raising the minimum wage seem to have a benchmark bottom wage base of $15 per hour.   The average employee working a 40 hour work week at $15 per hour would have a gross yearly income of $31,200.   However; gross pay is not take home pay...Social Security Taxes, Federal Taxes, Workers Comp, and State Taxes quickly see that gross pay scaled down to in hand dollars of $24,960.   A quick look at the average monthly expenses (rent, utilities, car payment/insurance, phone/cable/internet) and you quickly total up fixed mandatory expenses of $22,800 per year, and that does not include food, or health insurance.   You cannot purchase health insurance and feed yourself on that remaining $2,160 a year.   Which means you have to start looking at what you can cut out of your budget, what you can survive without.   A large contingent of those who are running for office would have us believe that America's wealthy and elite create jobs, while ignoring the other half of the equation which is the fact that all those hard working Americans who are working for slave wages are the ones creating that wealth through their efforts and hard labor.

1.   Would you support raising the minimum wage to $25 per hour, which would provide the average American family with what amounts to a living wage.

2.   Would you support limiting how much money is paid to executives and owners of companies big and small, so that fairness and equity is returned to they system, so that all workers share in the success of a business?

Equal Rights and Gay Marriage

Let us start with SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.    A marriage license is issued by an agency of the government, not by the church.   A church blesses a couple's marriage vowels, while an agency of government issues a legal document that authorizes and recognizes the legal joining/binding of two lives into one union.  Equal rights under the law...why have we even been having this argument.  One person or groups religious beliefs should not dictate what rights will or will not be bestowed on others.

1.   As a litmus test to hold political office, do you support "Equal Rights" for all citizens, and will you abide by the law of the land when it comes to granting gay couples the legal right to be married under the law with all the rights and responsibilities that come with that legalized union.

Pro-Choice verse Pro-Life

For the record, I support a woman's "freedom of choice"...even God grants us this "freedom of choice". My question...with all the far more important social and world issues on the agenda, why is this on the list of things to do any way?  It was settled with Roe VS Wade, so can we move on to the far more pressing issues facing America and its working class?  For those wondering, yes this is a bit of a Rhetorical Question...the fringe right wing of the Republican Party derives far to much pleasure from beating this dead horse every four years to rally their base...sad really.

There are a lot more questions that average Americans would like to ask, but sadly, there is not one of the current crop of candidates that will actually give us STRAIGHT answers to the questions posed in this article...that said, my comments page is open.   Fiorina, Trump, Hillary, Jeb....any takers that are up to this task?

Last Night's Political Circus...The Debate

The Face of a Shrew?

Sometimes I listen to the pundits, wonder how they watched and saw a completely different debate than the one I watched.   The first glaring difference between the pundits and I revolves around Carly Fiorina.   Almost unanimously the pundits are calling her the overall winner of the debate, saying she hit it out of the park.  I completely disagree...Trump may not have made a politically correct and astute remark, but Trumps summation when he said to look at her face is pretty well on target.  It would not be inaccurate to define Carly Fiorina using the word Shrew.  If the lady smiled, think her face might crack.   She strikes me as a very angry woman with a very large chip on her shoulder despite the fact that she has been blessed in life with a lot of advantages.

However; something handled with kid gloves, but the reason why her political career should be over occurred when she spoke about losing her step-daughter to drugs. Curious here Carly, did you provide your daughter with a kind, nurturing love filled home as she grew up, or instead were you and your husband so busy being Titans of the business/jet set world that you found it easier to leave her in the hands of a Nanny, or  did you pack her off to boarding schools in the name of giving her a better education. Did you bake cookies with/for her, or have the nanny pick some up at the bakery?  If you knew she had addiction problems, should you and your husband have made her the one and only priority instead of worrying about your careers?  How much time was dedicated over to making sure "SHE WAS SAFE", and if you could not keep your step daughter safe, how can you keep America and her citizens safe?  You last night wanted to blame your daughter's untimely and tragic death on drugs, but willing to bet here that a big portion of the blame can be laid at the feet of both you and your husband.  OWN THAT LADY!

Trump is Trump...a loud, brash, brawler with no real clue.   That said, lets be honest.  A) If he should get the Republican nod to be the Torch Bearer, the very next day he will get a briefing paper that will bring him up to speed, and from that day forward he will know more about what is going on and who the major players are that far surpasses the knowledge base of every one on stage last night.   B)  He has a point...a president of America, or a major corporation is to a great degree only as good as the people he or she surrounds themselves with.  

Which brings us to Jeb Bush...Think every other candidate on stage missed a great opportunity to put

Jeb seems more a toad than turtle.

the final nail in his coffin when they failed to capitalize when he tried to wrap illegal immigration and legal immigration all into one identical package.   Americans are generous of heart, but there is a world of difference between legal immigrants who followed the rules, and those who entered America illegally...Illegal Aliens.  However, the most telling reason to kick this turtle to the curb is his own admission that most of his close confidants  are from the same swimming hole that gave us Rumsfield and appropriately named Dick Cheney.   Are we really ignorant enough as a nation to go back to another four more years of the Bush Clan and all that entails?  By the way Jeb...your brother kept us safe? Maybe if he had paid more attention to that August briefing paper 9/11 would have never happened.

Carson... he needs to go back to being a surgeon and corporate insider.  Bush may have no energy he may resemble a "Nilla Wafer", but Carson has zero personality...none, zippo, nano, zilch, a personality zero that could put the most attentive listener to sleep.  I have no doubt the man is brilliant, but when it comes to personality, God short changed him, and he is never going to be in the White House unless there as a guest.

Cruz and Huckabee...PLEASE.   In two words, "Religious Zealots" that need to go find a pulpit from which to spew forth their rhetoric to their faithful four percent...the rest of us are not going to be drinking their Kool-Aid.

Chris Christie...The man (much like Trump) is a raging bull.   That said, he had two brilliant moments last night.   His telling Trump and Fiorina that middle/lower class Americans are sick of hearing these two narcissistic egos talking about their own records and successes is spot on.   His second brilliant touching moment was sharing the story of his wife on 911...all of us in the New York Metro area have stories, and his sharing of his own story was a touching moment.  That said, not going to vote for a man who's attitudes about marijuana are so antiquated...the medical benefits of marijuana at this point are well documented, and it is time we legalize marijuana nation wide.  The war on drugs has never worked, just as Prohibition back in the day did not work.   Lets put and end to the Latin American Drug Cartels by legalizing marijuana here in America and letting our own farmers add another crop to their revenue streams.   Stay in New Jersey Chris...you are a failure when it comes to the National Stage.

The rest of the folks should be labeled the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" and be sent packing. Sorry folks, but it is time to cull the herd, and all of you NEED TO GO.  You just do not have the chops to be president, and it is time for the dreams to be put away.

Is America Stupid Enough To Elect Donald Trump President?

Give a street corner con artist running a "Three Card Monty" scam a $7 Million dollar helicopter with his name emblazoned on both sides, a Billion dollars, mix in a dash of Bernard L. Madoff, shake with a liberal dose of P.T. Barnum and you have "The Donald", presidential Republican Party front runner and braggadocio extraordinaire.   To listen to his stream of stupidity laden self aggrandizement not so carefully disguised as a campaign speech, and you are left amazed as he claims to have all the answers, something in his magicians hat for everyone in the audience...instead, he is trying to pull off the greatest fleecing of Americans to ever come down the track.  He would love us all to see him as a rich Harry Potter ready too work his white magic on  behalf of us Muggles, but if the truth be told, he is Lord Vordemort who's name should not be spoken.

Donald Trump..."I love women!"

Yes Donald, we know you do.  Three wives, and if she were not your blood relative you would date your daughter.   That's a rather uncomfortable image you painted for us Mr. Trump.   Forget asking your wife and Ivanka about your love for women, can you tell us some specifics about what you would do for American women if elected president?  Since you are so smart Mr. trump, sure I do not need to tell you that the keyword in that last sentence is specifics.   While you are at it, could you tell us voters how you would pay for all those things you are going to do for the women of America. Yes, we know you are incredibly rich, but $10 Billion is not going to go very far if you start sharing your own money (fat chance) with 300 Million American citizens...well, if we eliminate the one percent of uber rich Americans, you are really only going to be sharing that wealth with 297 million of us, so it might go a little bit further.  Deport all those pesky illegal aliens, and we might get the number down to around 280 million.

Donald Trump..."I'm going to create jobs!"

First, what kinds of jobs are you going to create?  Are these going to be GREAT JOBS that pay a living wage, or are they going to be low end hotel industry jobs working in one of your many hotels...perhaps the Post Office just down the street from the White House that you have mentioned out on the Campaign Trail at least 2,000 times in your first three months of being a presidential candidate.   I can only speak for myself, but three months into your bloviating infomercial masquerading as  campaign, a bit weary hearing about just how great and wealthy you are.   We get it....because of your father's connections and money, you went to a GREAT SCHOOL, and that apparently makes you very smart...but what kind of jobs are you going to be creating to help the middle class here in America?

Donald Trump..."I'm going to build a great wall, and those here in America illegally are going to have to leave."

OK, this one is a bit dicey as I actually agree with much of your stance on illegal aliens.  Illegal Aliens from Mexico send $130 Billion dollars a year back to Mexico in remittances...that is wealth leaving America.   Eliminating that drain on our economy, keep that fuel in our own economic engine would in some ways mean Mexico was paying to build the wall.   You have hinted that E-Verify should be the law of the land, its implementation shutting down the jobs magnet that sees illegal aliens rushing our border with the intent of living the American Dream by stealing it from lower and middle class Americans.   What I have not heard you talk about, what you seem to dance around is what you would do about the individuals and companies that are hiring illegal aliens, and in doing so lowering American wages by about $220 Billion dollars a year.   As President Donald, are you prepared to hand down stiff penalties (into the millions of dollars) and have mandatory prison sentences for companies and their upper management that hire illegal aliens.   A simple yes or no would suffice Mr. Trump, and am sure a man of your incredible intellect can quickly, truthfully and succinctly answer this simple yes or no question.  This is not "Dancing With The Stars", no flashy double talk, just a simple yes or no will suffice nicely.

Donald Trump..."I'm going to make deals, GREAT DEALS that are good for America."

Looking at the fact that Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned almost $200 million dollars since leaving the White House, knowing they are just not as smart as you (we all know you are VERY SMART) when it comes to business and finance, pardon me if I wonder just how much money you are thinking you can make if you successfully pull the wool over the eyes of the American electorate and become president.  Setting that musing on my part aside, can you share with us some of these deals you see making for America?   Don't trot out the whole fable about the Ford plant being built in Mexico, that one has kind of been beaten to death at this point in the race.   Humor us common folk with just one or two examples of these DEALS you keep talking about with all the wonderful folks in Iowa and New Hampshire...and yes, you folks down in South Carolina as well.   We don't want to shrink the Donald BIG TENT con by creating any hurt feelings.   FREE PIE FOR EVERYONE...CHERRY PIE!

Donald Trump..."We need victories, and spirit, America needs more spirit!

Talk to me here Donald!  What do you mean when you say we need more spirit?  Should we be singing hymns while slaving away at our jobs that don't pay a living wage (after taxes, $15 per hour is not even a living wage), maybe hold weekly PEP RALLIES around the water cooler?  Jumping jacks!  Is that what you mean...all of us can start off our shift with five minutes of calisthenics to get our juices flowing, get the proverbial endorphin's flowing so we can smile while we slave away building wealth for people like you so you can create more jobs that pay indentured servant wages to all of us in the great unwashed masses collectively known as the less fortunate' s.  

In the name of ratings the media (Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and even Univision) has contributed to your rise to the top of the heap, tossing you soft ball questions, allowing you to duck giving real answers with your trademark, "Excuse me, EXCUSE ME".   Did they teach you that at Wharton School of Business?  Yes we know, its a great school, and you have to be really smart (or have a really RICH DAD) to get in.  Problem is, if people bother to take a look behind the curtain, it turns out the wizard actually has no clothes, is pretending to be the all knowing Oz when in reality you are nothing more than a spoiled rotten, mean spirited bully attempting to perpetuate the greatest scam on the American public ever conceived, while in the process doing a wonderful job at destroying the Republican Party....I do thank you for that last little part though...a bit tired of stiff necked blow hard stuffed shirt bigots telling the rest of us how we should live our lives, trying to fool us into believing rich people should be coddled because they create jobs.

So Mr Trump...how about some STRAIGHT TALK, how about some real answers and details on all these wonderful plans and deals you have in store for us.   My comment page is all yours, so please stop by and lets chat, have a real discussion.  The microphone so to speak is yours.

Just an FYI Mr. Trump

1.  If you want to attack me, call me stupid, might want to do it here as I am currently not doing Twitter, nor would I waste my energy following your Tweets.

2.  If you are going to hold your breath till your face turns blue and threaten to sue me, feel free, as even if you win, I have no money, your judgement would be an empty victory that a world class bully could add to his list of over stated accomplishments.