A Thread About US Politics

[Admiral Yi]

What prevents the bill from being passed by the GOP senate?

Possibly a Democratic filibuster, although my sense is this was a nonbinding show vote.

[MadImmortalMan]

We'll have to see if it helped Mary anyway.

[Ed Anger]

She's gotten a bit chunkier.

[KRonn]

The Keystone vote just failed.

Huh? I thought the Republicans would pass it. How did that happen?

Failed by one vote, one Dem vote. All Repubs voted for it. Next year when the Repubs take over the Senate it'll have a better chance of passing and possibly over-riding a Presidential veto, as perhaps more Dems will vote for it rather than face voters who are largely in favor of it.

[Ideologue]

Now, S, I'm not blind to the advantages of normalizing them vis a vis nothing.

My preferred solution is blanket amnesty and a mined, fortified, impassable border. Until such time as nations dissolve, anyway.

Wow.  Not surprisingly, my position is the opposite.  I favor relatively open borders, but no amnesty for those here illegally.

And yes, I'm aware that as a practical matter we're probably going to have to give amnesty to illegals (again) but I just can't support it.  Awarding people for breaking the law is just wrong.

I don't really like blanket amnesty, but for once I'm trying to be realistic.  It's like trying to support Prohibition at this point.

[The Minsky Moment]

I have no fucking idea at all how de facto legalizing illegal immigration came to be a left cause beyond identity politics. We are too many by about a hundred fifty million already.

It's called priortization of limited resources.
No executive adminstration has succeeded in controlling illegal immigration.  So the choice is either between trying to enforce the law poorly and haphazardly against all or setting priorities. 

[celedhring]

I got an SSN just by doing work study at Columbia U, it can't be such a big deal to issue them.

[derspiess]

She's gotten a bit chunkier.

I don't recall her ever being thin, though. 

[Barrister]

I have no fucking idea at all how de facto legalizing illegal immigration came to be a left cause beyond identity politics. We are too many by about a hundred fifty million already.

It's called priortization of limited resources.
No executive adminstration has succeeded in controlling illegal immigration.  So the choice is either between trying to enforce the law poorly and haphazardly against all or setting priorities.

Prioritization is one thing.  UP here while several things are priorities, you can of course figure out which laws are not, and have minimal resources put into enforcement.

But that's still miles different from publically announcing "we will not enforce X law".  It seems to me you can set priorities, accept that certain laws will only be prosecuted poorly and haphazardly, and not engender the kind of disrespect for the rule of law that announcing a given law will not be enforced would lead to.

[Admiral Yi]

I got an SSN just by doing work study at Columbia U, it can't be such a big deal to issue them.

AFAIK there are already regs in place about what work can be done by foreigners on a student visa.  I imagine there aren't similar regs about the work that can be done by foreigners on a no visa.

[Martinus]

I have no fucking idea at all how de facto legalizing illegal immigration came to be a left cause beyond identity politics. We are too many by about a hundred fifty million already.

It's called priortization of limited resources.
No executive adminstration has succeeded in controlling illegal immigration.  So the choice is either between trying to enforce the law poorly and haphazardly against all or setting priorities.

I've said it before - Ide just does not understand leftism. Leftism is about inclusion and what is called "mercy" (as opposed to "justice") in Jewish theology. On this basis, amnesty for illegal immigrants is clearly a leftist choice.

Of course, Ide's "leftism" essentially boils down to being resentful of people who are more succesful than he is.

[The Minsky Moment]

But that's still miles different from publically announcing "we will not enforce X law". 

I haven't read the proposal.  But it doesn't sound like he is doing that.  It sounds like he is saying the illegals have to come in and basically eat a deport order, but that he will then suspend prosecuting the deportation so long as certain conditions are satisfied. 

It doesn't look a lot different from prosecutorial discretion.

[Berkut]

I have no fucking idea at all how de facto legalizing illegal immigration came to be a left cause beyond identity politics. We are too many by about a hundred fifty million already.

It's called priortization of limited resources.
No executive adminstration has succeeded in controlling illegal immigration.  So the choice is either between trying to enforce the law poorly and haphazardly against all or setting priorities.

Prioritization is one thing.  UP here while several things are priorities, you can of course figure out which laws are not, and have minimal resources put into enforcement.

But that's still miles different from publically announcing "we will not enforce X law".  It seems to me you can set priorities, accept that certain laws will only be prosecuted poorly and haphazardly, and not engender the kind of disrespect for the rule of law that announcing a given law will not be enforced would lead to.

I can understand that viewpoint.

But politics are about the possible.

And we all know that what is really needed in the US is comprehensive and rational immigration reform along with some kind of reasonable decisions about how to handle current illegal immigrants. And that ought to be done via Congress.

But Congress is full of political hacks who don't care about actually getting anything done, so that isn't an option.

So this is the next best alternative. It isn't a good alternative, by any means. But we can thank the Tea Party numbnuts for that.

[celedhring]

I got an SSN just by doing work study at Columbia U, it can't be such a big deal to issue them.

AFAIK there are already regs in place about what work can be done by foreigners on a student visa.  I imagine there aren't similar regs about the work that can be done by foreigners on a no visa.

What I mean is that I didn't even have a work permit (just a student visa), so I presume the regulatory hurdle is rather low.

[CountDeMoney]

I got an SSN just by doing work study at Columbia U, it can't be such a big deal to issue them.

You're European, and therefore do not pose a threat to the leaf blower industry like Mexicans do.