I don't call it "Paree" or "Moskva" when I'm among English speakers, yet I speak French and Russian. So why do American Spanish speakers always insist on using their Spanish accents when describing Mexican place names? It just smacks of elitism and some sort of desperate grab for street cred.
Check out the old SNL skit, "burrito", with guest appearance by Bob Costas. You'll see my point.
Shut down the Border! Send in the Military! The border is National Security not local policing, Posse comitatus does not apply!
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The "caravan" is still in far southern Mexico. Few of those involved will make it all the way north. This is only an issue because the NYT and other media hype it for clicks and ads on eyeballs. Get real.
How is it that messages of caution to avoid our borders post the horrific separation of families here have not spread among the masses but instead a push to join together in a caravan traveling north has? Who sold the idea to these poor unsuspecting migrants? Sadly I hear hope in their voices while we are hanging by a tether trying desperately to change the direction of our country in this very moment. The timing around this crucial mid-term election makes me wonder whether it is yet another Russian rouse to drive more of this fear-mongering to the masses here & divide us yet further. Is this 2018's "Comey" timed to perfection? I am so afraid for them and the inevitable clash which they are traveling to, step by step, and equally afraid our blue wave will be disrupted. Please vote!
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The two things that stood out to me in this podcast were: 1) At the beginning the podcast mentions that the caravan got started when many of the would be migrants read posts on social media and networked through social media to get it started, and 2) that this caravan seems like a “gift” to the Republicans before the midterms. I have been reading “LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media”, by P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking, which details how a message can be pushed on social media by internet “armies” and bots to go viral, which then hop to people outside the network and shape public opinion, and cause real actions in the world. The timing of this caravan, that it originated through social media, and that it seems tailor made to Trump’s and many republicans’ anti-immigrant message, with near perfect TV visuals of thousands of people heading toward the US border, raised my eyebrows as it seemed to fit the pattern describe in the book. It sounds far fetched but if some entity wanted to give the republicans a boost in the mid terms, this would be a good way to do it. I certainly hope that something this crazy isn’t the case, that these migrants, these people in desperate situations, aren’t just pawns in someone’s power play.
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@A Thomas people say trump is just mean these are just millions of poor people looking for the dream ! and you can verify that how ? oh because they said so , nope no criminals here , so now we just take the word of people that say all people that break the law are not law breakers , mexico has a different view on the u.s. laws so i reject their opinion ,
This caravan of people ranging in age from three months old to elderly is unfortunate. I say this not because I do not believe in immigration, as I do, but because of what awaits them. Trump is hostile and angry and if anything like the separation of children and parents begins again, this country will truly fall apart. These people are fleeing their countries for good reasons, but unfortunately seven thousand people cannot just walk across the border and expect to find work, housing and medical care. These people have great hopes and I fear they will be greatly diminished when (and if) they reach the US border. Is it really responsible to undertake such a journey with a three month old or toddlers when you don't know the outcome? Or does it just reflect the honest circumstances these people are fleeing? The whole thing just gives me a bad feeling.
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It's not the migrant caravan creating a political firestorm, it's the racist white nationalists and fear-mongering demagogues in the Republican Party, using human beings as straw men for their awful agenda - which is basically winning the mid-terms at all costs, so they can continue their ill-conceived reboot of the Gilded Age.
It doesn't take a genius to recognise that most of the 'caravan' migrants are fleeing dire circumstances, eg societal collapse, violence, poverty and drought. For over a century, the US has played an active role in the political and environmental destabilisation of South America and the party representing the main players and beneficiaries of those policies is going all-out to convince voters to view the human costs of their nation's actions as an existential threat.
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I don’t see this caravan coming to a good end. You can’t stop people from wanting to save themselves and their families. Eventually a few of the marchers will reach the front gates of Mar-a-Lago. Garbage will begin to pile up. The marchers will take to wearing “Make America Great Again” hats. Leftists egged-on by George Soros will install portable showers on the front lawn. Donald and Melania will adopt their familiar tactic of throwing paper towels at the protestors. This time the protestors will throw them back.
I would urge the President to try a different tactic. Register them and check them for criminal or terrorist leanings. Let the migrants who pass these tests stay in the country on the condition that they will immediately be deported to their countries of origin if they ever cause any trouble. Announce that no federal funds of any kind will be provided to the migrants past a one-month period of their arrival in the U.S. Then stand back and leave the job of settling them into the country up to charitable organizations and free enterprise. Not for nothing was this country once known as a safe harbor for huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
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@A. Stanton Absolutely not, NO VACANCY!
As a Republican I am struck by how wondrously convenient it has been for my party to have this caravan, with numerous photo ops and comments calculated to rouse the party base. Were I cynical I might think that Republican party operatives have had a hand in its organization, financing, and visibility. After all, allegations about Democrats turn on a lengthy list of "maybes". Maybe the caravan will reach the border, maybe its members will receive asylum status, maybe at some future point they will become citizens, maybe they will vote Democratic, etc. Strikes me as a lot easier to convince a few thousand senior citizens who are already registered to vote that the anticipated Republican assault on Social Security and Medicare is against their interests. Those people can vote in 2018, not 2028. On the other hand just the visuals of a long column of poor and unskilled Hondurans heading north brings a plus to us Republicans. And all those folks talking about looking for work in the U.S, bringing their desperation to share with Americans conditioned to view them with suspicion, boy does that play to Republican talking points. Now if they were to point out that Honduras is in turmoil because of the unwillingness of successive American administrations to deal with the consequences of narcotics smuggling, well that might lead American voters to ask whether having ICE detain 5-year-olds is a good use of agents who might actually crack down on drug smuggling. Few good visuals there.
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@usa999
I believe there's a good chance that this caravan of migrants, which just happens to be largest ever recorded, was in part manipulated by the GOP to their advantage after the GOP learned about it forming and the timing being so close to the election. 15 minutes in, Annie says that Trump is probably seeing this as a political gift, but I believe the GOP used Facebook/Twitter/Mexican media to fan the flames. It sounds conspiratorial, but the U.S. has tinkered with politics south of the border in far more complex ways.
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