“That Conversation about Race” category archive

Ruben Navarrette looks at Donald Trump’s statements about Somali immigrants and hears a rhyme. A snippet:

Some former U.S. presidents might have aspired to emulate George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Donald Trump took another path, opting instead to channel George Wallace, David Duke and Archie Bunker.

________________

*Mark Twain.

As I have mentioned before, my professor of the early federal period during my one year of grad school, Dr. Bill Shade, was fond of saying, “History is irony.”

Thos points out a rather delightful irony.

Aside:

I dropped out of grad school without getting my masters and with having realized that a career in academia was not for me.

I landed in a very satisfying career as a corporate trainer, I do not regret the year I spent in grad school (if nothing else, I got to take a class from Bill Shade), but driving home in the UHaul with the few bits of furniture from my basement apartment after dropping out was one of the two times in my life that I literally felt a weight lift from my shoulders.

Teaching persons how to do their jobs turned out to be a very rewarding occupation.

Jim Jones, writing at the Idaho State Journal, notices a pattern (emphasis added).

In a Thanksgiving posting on Truth Social, he vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.” If grandpa posted this kind of screed, we’d send him to a home.

The 19 countries targeted were identified in a proclamation issued by Trump in June. They are all poor countries with non-white populations. Although Trump characterizes them as being potentially harmful to “Americans or our national interests,” none of them are in a position to pose a credible threat to the United States. Of interest is the fact that several nations not on the list do have substantial lucrative business relationships with the Trump family and have been at odds with America’s national interests.

The Portland Oregonian reports on the Trump maladministration’s mean for the sake of mean. Here’s a tiny taste of the terrorism; follow the link for a big indigestible serving of sadism.

The unending stream of unverified social reports and rumors has deepened anxiety and caused a panic paralysis that has led some families – including those with legal status or who have U.S. citizen children – to shelter at home and abandon regular activities, said Jairo Rodriguez, a spokesperson with Centro Cultural of Washington County, a nonprofit that for more than five decades has provided social services, education and cultural programs to Latinos in the region.

“People have stopped going to work, stopped taking their kids to school, stopped going to their doctor’s appointments,” said Rodriguez.

Emma and the crew run the numbers.