Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dances...But I Have A Question!

[Dancing Fire]

They shouldn't cross the border. why would they wanna be detained in a concentration camp?

 

[OboeGal]

And tens of thousands still keep coming.

And they will keep coming. It's only going to get worse, at least from Guatemala. I'll tell you why.

In 1954, Guatemala's democratically-elected leader was deposed by the US and replaced by a military dictatorship. The country has not been able to free itself from dictatorship and corruption in its government since then, so Guatemalan citizens essentially get no help whatsoever from their government. Meanwhile, a large section of the country has been in the grip of apocalyptic drought - due to climate change - that leaves the people, with their current infrastructure, utterly unable to grow food to sell or to eat. They are literally starving to death and watching their children starve to death. In response, some are directly leaving to go to other countries with the hope that they and their children can survive, or that they can earn enough money to send for the rest of their families. Others stay in Guatemala and go to the cities for the same reason, thinking that they can get jobs there. Of course, in the cities they encounter the horrific gang situation, where young men and boys have to either serve in the gang committing atrocities against others and always at risk of a violent death or be killed for NOT being willing to serve in the gang. Young women are forced into sex slavery in the gangs. So, again, they flee the country hoping to survive and allow their children to survive. They are completely at the ends of their ropes - utter desperation. Beyond our capability to comprehend in our relatively cushy lives here.

This is not going to change. Climate change is continuing. Weather conditions are getting worse all over the globe. There will be more areas becoming unlivable due to catastrophic drought and flooding and wildfires and violent storms. Water and food will become more scarce, and violence worldwide over resources will get worse. More and more people will be crowding into the areas of the world that remain livable. So, countries like the US and those in Europe have a choice to make. We can shut down immigration and visas (since the majority of undocumented immigrants come here legally and overstay their visas) and build walls all around our borders and heavily arm them, and continue our (relatively) cushy lives while turning our backs on the apocalypse happening around us that, frankly, we in the US helped to create with our interference in other countries' elections and governments and our heavy fossil-fuel use, or.....

....we can help. We can tighten our own belts and bring more people in through the asylum program, including actually giving the program the support it needs to function reasonably (unlike Trump's plan of keeping it underfunded so that fewer people actually get processed in). We can release people pending their asylum hearings wearing ankle monitoring bracelets, as past history has taught that when we do so, 90+% show up for their hearings. (Ankle bracelets will frankly cost far less than all these detention facilities.) We can invest in programs to help build infrastructure for desalination plants and irrigation for drought-stricken areas, and education programs to help farmers there learn to farm new crops that might survive there and work with their current and predicted weather patterns - a real win-win, as it helps people stay in their home countries AND survive (as opposed to Trump's approach of punitively cutting aid). Of course, that means that here in the US we have to start expecting wealthy individuals and corporations to start contributing their fair share in taxes and donations to the society that they chose to live in and that helped make them wealthy.

So.......who do we choose to be?

 

[redwood66]

I feel for these people living in horrible conditions in their own country but the US cannot save all the people who wish to come here. We have our own people to care for, especially our veterans. Why are they not stopping in Mexico to claim asylum there? I hate that this is made into a political football loaded with rhetoric that helps no one.

 

[Tekate]

Some of this:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/16/nancy-pelosi-democrats-acknowledge-border-crisis-i/

I think perhaps it may not be what you are looking for at the border, but they do want more surveillance and more judges to move asylum seekers through the system much more quickly. We need to open our doors to people seeking asylum, we can't just let them die, I've always felt we should financially help these countries that are so impoverished and full of crime, to assist their leaders in creating jobs and a safe haven to live in, but most times the leaders are corrupt.

This doesn't tell me what they would do with the ones showing up either.

 

[Tekate]

of course they would assist them in finding homes, jobs etc. I don't know about where you live, but here in Maine they are begging for workers. We cannot fill jobs in this country.

What did you think the democrats would do?

This platform does not tell me what Dems would do with the 144,000 people last month who showed up at the border.

 

[Tekate]

Maybe for now, being held in a detention camp is better than starving to death, or being killed in their own country.

They shouldn't cross the border. why would they wanna be detained in a concentration camp?

 

[Tekate]

I am not an especially veterans person. Vets get tons of money, oodles of money, my brother is a vet, my dad was a vet, there are tons of jobs, come to Maine, seriously they need welders and hospitality personnel everywhere. We can't even get snowplow drivers here they have to import people from other places.. this is a state full of geriatrics, we need need young people, send vets here.

Maybe some ARE stopping in Mexico, I don't know, but Mexico is poor also otherwise their own people would not be jumping the fence in Texas (altho it's down a lot from Mexico).

I feel for these people living in horrible conditions in their own country but the US cannot save all the people who wish to come here. We have our own people to care for, especially our veterans. Why are they not stopping in Mexico to claim asylum there? I hate that this is made into a political football loaded with rhetoric that helps no one.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Of course, that means that here in the US we have to start expecting wealthy individuals and corporations to start contributing their fair share in taxes and donations to the society that they chose to live in and that helped make them wealthy.

So.......who do we choose to be?

Good idea!.... You can start by sponsoring one of these migrant family into your home.

 

[Calliecake]

I feel for these people living in horrible conditions in their own country but the US cannot save all the people who wish to come here. We have our own people to care for, especially our veterans. Why are they not stopping in Mexico to claim asylum there? I hate that this is made into a political football loaded with rhetoric that helps no one.

Trump administration and their hateful words and blatantly cruel policies have made this a political football. These are the politicians you choose to support and yet you say you hate the political football. Seriously???

 

[Dancing Fire]

Maybe for now, being held in a detention camp is better than starving to death, or being killed in their own country.

T...I'm sure many of our homeless Americans are willing to stay in these so called concentration camps.

 

[Maria D]

I am not an especially veterans person. Vets get tons of money, oodles of money, my brother is a vet, my dad was a vet, there are tons of jobs, come to Maine, seriously they need welders and hospitality personnel everywhere. We can't even get snowplow drivers here they have to import people from other places.. this is a state full of geriatrics, we need need young people, send vets here.

Maybe some ARE stopping in Mexico, I don't know, but Mexico is poor also otherwise their own people would not be jumping the fence in Texas (altho it's down a lot from Mexico).

Hey! I resemble that remark!

 

[MissStepcut]

T...I'm sure many of our homeless Americans are willing to stay in these so called concentration camps.

Have you ever talked to someone who works in direct services with homeless populations to test your theory? Or maybe take a survey of homeless people yourself.

If you were right, why wouldn’t every homeless person just commit a victimless crime and get arrested? Jails are much nicer than the camps, since jailees can sue for civil rights.

 

[redwood66]

Have you ever talked to someone who works in direct services with homeless populations to test your theory? Or maybe take a survey of homeless people yourself.

If you were right, why wouldn’t every homeless person just commit a victimless crime and get arrested? Jails are much nicer than the camps, since jailees can sue for civil rights.

I have met quite a few people who have done exactly this because they felt it was better than what they had. Plus free health care. Once paroled some came back because it was too difficult on the outside.

 

[AGBF]

I have met quite a few people who have done exactly this because they felt it was better than what they had. Plus free health care. Once paroled some came back because it was too difficult on the outside.

I bet no one deliberately commits a crime just to get sent to Rikers Island! It's great that there are some happy, sunny prisons somewhere...but not in Alabama and not Rikers Island. Some prisons are worse than death. Should I start linking articles on the conditions in them from articles in "The New York Times" or do you want paint a fantasy picture here?

AGBF

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/us/alabama-prison-violence.html?searchResultPosition=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/alabama-prison-inmates.html?searchResultPosition=2

 

[Calliecake]

I have met quite a few people who have done exactly this because they felt it was better than what they had. Plus free health care. Once paroled some came back because it was too difficult on the outside.

And it hasn’t occurred to you that the people who do this more than likely have a mental illness?

 

[redwood66]

And it hasn’t occurred to you that the people who do this more than likely have a mental illness?

Not according to staff psychiatrists.

 

[redwood66]

I bet no one deliberately commits a crime just to get sent to Rikers Island! It's great that there are some happy, sunny prisons somewhere...but not in Alabama and not Rikers Island. Some prisons are worse than death. Should I start linking articles on the conditions in them from articles in "The New York Times" or do you want paint a fantasy picture here?

AGBF

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/us/alabama-prison-violence.html?searchResultPosition=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/alabama-prison-inmates.html?searchResultPosition=2

Who is painting a fantasy picture? Prison is a dangerous place full of dangerous people.

 

[redwood66]

of course they would assist them in finding homes, jobs etc. I don't know about where you live, but here in Maine they are begging for workers. We cannot fill jobs in this country.

What did you think the democrats would do?

They would? I haven't heard this plan. Where can I find it?

 

[Calliecake]

.

Not according to staff psychiatrists.

Wow...Really @redwood66 ??? I understand it if someone has spent their entire adult life in prison for many, many years (as an example, Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption). Does this happen more often then people realize?

 

[MissStepcut]

I have met quite a few people who have done exactly this because they felt it was better than what they had. Plus free health care. Once paroled some came back because it was too difficult on the outside.

Yes I have known of these cases too. They are the exceptions that prove the rule.

 

[redwood66]

.

Wow...Really @redwood66 ??? I understand it if someone has spent their entire adult life in prison for many, many years (as an example, Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption). Does this happen more often then people realize?

You learn an awful lot about people and their troubles when things are slow. Yes it happens.

 

[OboeGal]

Good idea!.... You can start by sponsoring one of these migrant family into your home.

My husband and I have already discussed this, and we would be happy to.

 

[Dancing Fire]

More lies from Dem. leader AOC..
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-border-facility-women-toilets

 

[Tekate]

How do you know this? Shrinks should not be talking anyone's mental heath status.

This is a very very interesting report from HUD for 2018. Homelessness has dropped for veterans by 48% since 2010. Homelessness has increased a tiny bit since Trump.

interesting factoids:

• Nearly half of all unsheltered people in thecountry were in California (47% or 89,543). Thestate with the next largest number of people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations was Florida, with seven percent ofthe U.S. total (13,393 people).

•In four states, more than half of all people experiencing homelessness were found in unsheltered locations: California (69%), Oregon(62%), Nevada (56%), and Hawaii (53%).

•Four states—Maine, Rhode Island, New York,and Massachusetts—sheltered at least 95percent of people experiencing homelessness.

Not according to staff psychiatrists.

 

[Calliecake]

LOL!!! Just look at the source @Dancing Fire posted

If these shelters were run in such away that was not considered deplorable and shameful do you really think this administration would be keeping people from entering them to see the conditions? Every member of congress should be going to view these shelters.

EVERYTHING about this administration is shady AF.

 

[Dancing Fire]

If these shelters were run in such away that was not considered deplorable and shameful do you really think this administration would be keeping people from entering them to see the conditions? Every member of congress should be going to view these shelters.

EVERYTHING about this administration is shady AF.

I'm sure there are cameras all over these shelters.

If AOC was so concern why did she voted nay on the 4.5 billion bill ?

 

[Tekate]

@redwood66 what else can Americans do for homless veterans? There is a LOT that is done for them already.

https://www.military.com/benefits/veteran-benefits/homeless-veterans-programs.html

Veterans have the same reasons as non veterans in their homeless situation: drugs, mental illness, no family.

from the above:

Many other veterans are considered at risk because of poverty, lack of support from family and friends and precarious living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing. Ninety-seven percent of homeless veterans are male and the vast majority are single. About half of all homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and more than two-thirds suffer from alcohol or drug abuse problems. Nearly 40 percent have both psychiatric and substance abuse disorders.

about 50% of homeless vets are mentally ill. and almost 40% suffer from both mentla and drug abuse. Why is that? In 2016 7% of Americans were veterans, down quite substantially from the past.

About 80% of jobs in the military are non combat positions, so I wonder if you know how what percentage of veterans actually involved in combat?

 

[redwood66]

Not ignoring you @Tekate, just not interested in a back and forth today. Concentrating on more uplifting situations and spending time with DSs tomorrow. The kid leaves for a year next month.

 

[Tekate]

No worries, I'll put it on hold, family is the most important thing in life.

Not ignoring you @Tekate, just not interested in a back and forth today. Concentrating on more uplifting situations and spending time with DSs tomorrow. The kid leaves for a year next month.

 

[Tekate]

Callie read this? more fake news from trumpski.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48859161

LOL!!! Just look at the source @Dancing Fire posted

If these shelters were run in such away that was not considered deplorable and shameful do you really think this administration would be keeping people from entering them to see the conditions? Every member of congress should be going to view these shelters.

EVERYTHING about this administration is shady AF.