What Carlyle Says

That old, arrogant, white Congress is helping us depopulate. We have thousands of children trying to get into the country and the politicos are screaming invasion! We have thousands of educated and loyal "Dreamers", raised in this country that Congress wants to send back to their parents country. Are we nuts? -- Carlyle, Reality Chex contributor, Commentariat July 26

... I’m hoping that my governor will utilize Article 1, Section 10, that allows a state that is being invaded — in our case more than twice as many just in recent months, more than twice as many than invaded France on D-Day with a doubling of that coming en route, on their way here now under Article 1, Section 10, the state of Texas would appear to have the right, not only to use whatever means, whether it’s troops, even using ships of war, even exacting a tax on interstate commerce that wouldn’t normally be allowed to have or utilize, they’d be entitled in order to pay to stop the invasion. -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (RDumb-Texas), ca. July 10, 2014

Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich.' ... This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now? -- Tom Perkins, billionaire venture capitalist, Wall Street Journal op-ed, January 24

... there are 47 percent ... who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them.... These are people who pay no income tax.  -- Mitt Romney, GOP presidential nominee, September 18, 2012

We risk hitting a tipping point in our society where we have more takers than makers in society, where we will have turned our safety net into a hammock that lulls able bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency. -- Rep. Paul Ryan, Summer, 2012

Meghan Crepeau of Red Eye Chicago: "More than 1,000 fast-food workers from around the country gathered Friday and Saturday [in Villa Park, Illinois,] to support an agenda including a $15 minimum wage and the right to unionize. The convention was mainly funded by the Service Employees International Union and other labor organizations." One of their biggest targets: McDonalds.

 
From Saturday at noon till Sunday night, I drove 1,520 miles. To keep myself alert, I stopped at no fewer than six McDonalds along the route for iced tea or hot coffee. Every person who served me was a person of color. (So good for McDonalds for its colorblind hiring practices.) Every one of those servers was super-courteous and friendly. They all completed my orders in a matter of seconds, not minutes.

The one exception was at my last stop, which I made at around the 1,375 mile-mark. When I arrived, the counterperson was out of sight, though I guessed s/he was preparing the order of a customer who had arrived before I did & seemed to be waiting to collect his Happy Meals or whatever. For reasons having nothing to do with McDonalds, I was a little miffed that I wasn't getting that immediate service to which I had so recently become accustomed. I had not veered into Perkins/Romney territory, but I did think, "Hey, kid, whoever & wherever you are, get with it."

Then the server -- a young man whom I guess to be of Central American origin -- came from the kitchen with the waiting customer's order in hand. He moved quickly, then just as quickly took & filled my order. Like the other servers I met on my trip, he was friendly & cheerful.

Mitt Romney is right about one thing: Those workers should not be "dependent upon government." Instead, they should be receiving a living wage for the hard, stressful work they do with skill & good humor. They should not need to supplement their meager wages with food stamps & other government programs that subsidize the businesses of the one-percenters who employ them. And, yes, these workers should be paying taxes -- because they should be earning enough to pay taxes. As for all that mooching & taxlaxity, not a one of them will ever get a "government handout" of the size Mitt Romney (and likely Tom Perkins) takes every year in Congress-blessed tax breaks & offshore schemes. Every one of those workers, as far as I would guess, has more character than these whiney, resentful, selfish rich guys & those stupid, nasty Congressmen.

Paul Ryan is right, too. We need more makers like the people who work at McDonalds & fewer takers like vulture capitalists & so-called citizen-legislators who spend their time in Congress trying to shaft poor workers & further enrich vultures like Perkins & Romney.

That last server, the one I thought might be a tad too slow to satisfy my ridiculous demand for instant service? When I write, "he took my order in hand," I mean that literally. He had only one arm.

I don't know how that young man lost his arm, but it would not be surprising to find he had been the victim of a Central American gang. Mutiliation & dismemberment are what those gangsters do.

So, yeah, I'm with Carlyle. There's very little question in my mind that the people who served me at McDonalds are better, more productive Americans than the uber-wealthy venture capitalists who liken workers' demands for a reasonable minimum wage to the Kristallnacht mobs or who call underpaid workers moochers. They are better Americans than a life-long government dependent who uses his government "service" to deprive people of the types of benefits he himself received. They are better Americans than a rabblerouser who would wage war on child refugees.

To the young people who have lived in this country most of their lives & want to stay, I say, "Thank you for coming. I hope you didn't make a mistake in choosing to stay." To the children fleeing violence & death, I say, "Bienvenidos." And "Buena suerte."

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

This letter sent to our local paper two days ago would seem apropos:

"A recent letter asked why we should spend four billion dollars on “illegal” children when we can't afford to take care of our own hungry children, our veterans or our failing bridges. The letter implies we must make a choice: them or us.

The answer has two parts, one financial, the other moral. And as always, the two are related.

Financially, we do have other choices. We cannot afford to take care of our veterans, our bridges and own children because as we have shifted much more of our nation's wealth to a smaller and smaller segment of the population, we have also developed more offshore tax havens like the ones used by a recent Presidential candidate to keep the federal tax rate on his millions well below fifteen percent.

Corporations as well as wealthy individuals take advantage of the loopholes their lobbyists create, moving their headquarters and their huge profits offshore, paying little or no tax on the billions they reap within our borders.

According to a recent estimate, global wealth held offshore now approaches 30 trillions of dollars. If a conservative three percent return on that wealth were taxed at a reasonable thirty percent rate, it would generate nearly 200 billion dollars each year.

This is money we do not have to spend on veterans, bridges or alleviating poverty—or taking care of problems at our border. Our lawmakers made this choice.

In addition to the ethical questions that massive tax avoidance should raise is this distinctly moral issue: When wealth can cross borders at will, how can a person become “illegal” by crossing a line on a map?

Christ said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”

Apparently they should come to Him, but not to us."

Welcome back (I presume that's where you are), Marie.