Why the left and the right need immigration reform, and how to get it done.

America faces many issues. One of the longest running, and most financially draining, is the question of what to do with the undocumented population. Decades of governmental failures, across the entire political spectrum have resulted in a porous southern border, and, a significant population of people who came into this country illegally. Before I go on, it should be noted that I believe that these people are largely good, decent people, who were desperately trying to provide a better life for their families. Any mention of the cost burdens that they place upon society are merely an observation of reality. It is not meant to denigrate them, as a segment of society, or even individually. The purpose of pointing it out, is to find a way to address the problem, not to blame, or disparage, anyone. Because, what is the point of disparaging anyone? The goal is (or, at least ought to be) to work together to identify our societies most problematic issues so that we can resolve them in the best, and most practical, manner. I digress. This population has essentially served as an underclass; providing cheap labor, and serving as the scapegoat for numerous issues. They have collectively been caricatured, while individually being hidden in the shadows. Furthermore, their labor doesn’t contribute to the Nation’s tax coffers, they don’t typically have primary physicians, so, there are vaccination issues and unpaid emergency room bills, along with the attendant strain that they place on those emergency room resources, and, they are vulnerable to criminal actors, because they cannot freely go to law enforcement to report crimes. Enter the new Presidential Administration of Joe Biden. Now, Biden has indicated a desire to bring unity, and bipartisanship. However, such an accomplishment would be no small feat, and, he needs an issue wherein there can be some semblance of agreement between the parties, and, the people that those parties have spent a great deal of effort whipping up into a frothing, foaming, frenzy of division.

So, if Joe Biden really wants to be Bipartisan, and transformational, I present to you, the entirely unexpected solution: he should adopt George W. Bush’s 2007 immigration reform policy.* Just a refresher for those who can’t remember what they had for Breakfast, let alone an immigration plan that was proposed 14 years ago, here is the summary, followed by the highlights. The bottom line is, the plan brought everyone in out of the shadows, gave them a pathway forward, didn’t give them a free lunch, and, allowed a way for seasonal workers to continue providing low cost options to the agriculture sector, which are far below minimum wage, but, which still provide far more income than those workers could ever earn south of the border. Right now, America survives the same way that it has always survived; through the labor of an unprotected, “underclass.” This plan doesn’t meet the left’s utopian dream of universal human equality that sees beyond borders – an aim which I believe is admirable, but, not practical. It does, however, offer a great deal of people many more protections, and, provides a path to eradicating the many hidden costs of the underclass that is the undocumented immigrant.
Highlights:
– Amnesty for kids who were brought here by their parents. As a child you didn’t do anything to earn or deserve your lot in life, and, neither did these people.
– 5 year path to citizenship, wherein the person pays a penalty for the manner in which they came into the country.
– Temp worker program, which allows farm workers to engage in the horrible work which pays so little there is no way to have American workers perform the task without causing a cataclysmic increase in costs for all manner of harvested foods.
– The ability to actually have a real national ID program, where we can make sure that EVERYONE gets equal access to justice, and, that all citizens get access to everything that being a citizen of this nation entitles a person to receive… not just the right to vote.
– A secure border. Most of the drugs in this country do not have domestic origins. Our opioid epidemic is fueled on our southern border. Cartels traffic human beings into the country and then demand a life time of monthly payments, or else they will kill the family of the trafficked. Our southern border must be secured not only out of national interest, but, for humanitarian reasons.
We have to stop demanding the nonexistent “perfect plan,” and start advocating for better policies, despite the imperfections that they present, simply because they are the best policy we can think of at the moment and inaction is worse than a new policy that is better but not perfect.

*Just kidding. While I feel that adopting GWB’s immigration plan would be a fantastic idea, I don’t for a single second believe that today’s GOP would accept that, considering the fact that the far more moderate GOP of 2007 didn’t even accept it.

Did Wall Street and Big $$$ Just Stick it to Retail Investors? Let’s Take A Look.

Just to be clear, Wall Street $$$ (hereafter “$$$”) saw that the little people (hereafter “LP”) found a way into the castle, so, $$$ poured boiling hot tar onto the LP, and, then feathers, to put them in their place. How? This is the simplest breakdown I can give:

1. LP has a working knowledge of the markets. LP knows that, unlike LP, $$$ can engage in a “naked short,” which is where $$$ sells shares of stock that it doesn’t own, without even having to borrow those shares from someone who does own them (even LP could do this, but, LP isn’t that dumb/arrogant); bc,

2. If you buy a $100 stock, the most you can lose is $100, after $$$ naked shorts the entire company to $0, by selling shares it doesn’t own; BUT,

3. LP knows the risk of ANY kind of short, bc, if your plan (to sell borrowed stock at $100, trying to drive the cost to $0, so that you can return the “borrowed stock,” at a repurchased price of just above $0,) backfires, and the stock you sold for $100 shoots to the moon, you are out whatever the price goes up to – $1,000, $10,000, whatever, bc, even $$$ isn’t allowed to short a stock forever; in short… errr… in summary, a short poses limitless risk; and,

4. LP noticed that $$$ had STUPIDLY engaged in SO MANY naked shorts, that around 140% … yes, 40% more than the total amount of available stock had been shorted; so,

5. This meant that LP had a sure bet, if they could band together, and, they did. They cost $$$ tens of billions of dollars… so, just enough to piss $$$ off. so LP wins, right?

6. Wrong. $$$ shuts down all buying, so that only SELLING is allowed… but, who can buy what is being sold? Oh! Did I say ALL buying? No… that’s not correct. All buying for LP. $$$ was still able to buy. So, what did $$$ do? They bought. They repaid their borrowed shares, after they drove the price down.

7. They have excuses and justifications, but, remember, $$$ has crashed the entire economy – at least three times during my 38 year life, in fact. There was no halt to buying or selling when it was $$$ sinking the ship. There was only government bailouts… to $$$.

So, don’t tell me that there is a level playing field, bc, I don’t appreciate being lied to. Can anyone become the greatest success story ever in this country? Yes. You can also win the Powerball, but, not many educated people play that, either. The rags to riches story in America is no different than the Powerball story. A few will win, but, they have to possess the winning ticket. Everyone else is being sold a bill of goods, paying a price for a system designed to fund one group (Powerball = The Powerful and ultra wealthy, and the Powerball ticket holders represent the other 99% of us), with the promise that, “you, too, can be a winner!” Now, don’t get me wrong. In America, you can struggle to mediocrity; you can work hard to be able to leave a little bit to your loved ones when you die. But, the anecdote is supported by the data: wealth is rapidly consolidating in the hands of a few, while an ever increasing number struggle just to get by. We can fix it, by making the types of changes that our founders would have fought for, like Universal Basic Income (an idea then popularized by none other than the founding father inspirer, Thomas Paine) and, in so doing, we can eradicate so very many of the ills that America faces. Or, we could allow this thing to spiral into a bloody civil war, which will ruin the lives of most people on both sides, and, destabilize the entire world. But, whatever we go with, let’s drop the pretense that this thing is somehow anything other than a rigged game, at present.