AMLO Wrote a Letter

…to President Donald Trump on Trump’s decision to begin, early this month, imposing tariffs on Mexican exports into the US.  The letter can be read at The Wall Street Journal here.

I have a couple of thoughts on that letter.

We base our immigration policy on this thought. Human beings do not abandon their town for pleasure but for need.

For the most part, that’s true.  However, those departing the Caravan Triangle of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are not coming to the US for their need, whether amnesty or other—and neither are most of those who’ve left other nations and are trying to enter the US from Mexico.  Mexico—Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Mexico and that of his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto—have offered these “migrants” amnesty and opportunities for jobs.  These persons, though, have rejected those offers, insisting on entering the US instead.  Their rejection demonstrates they are not seeking amnesty or satisfaction of any other need at our border.

I proposed you to opt for development cooperation and help the Central American countries attract productive investments to create jobs and resolve this painful issue in depth.

What is Mexico doing along these lines?  Neither AMLO nor Nieto have identified any Mexican effort.  It is not the US alone who must act here.  And: what does AMLO propose, specifically?  The US already spends billions in American treasure, and none of it gets to those who need the help.  The money instead is intercepted by Triangle oligarchs and by NGOs whose ability to operate at all depends on their cooperation with those oligarchs.  What programs that actually would facilitate the ability of the citizens of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to help themselves does AMLO suggest—and what would Mexico’s role be such programs?

You are also aware that we are fulfilling our responsibility to stop immigration, as effective as possible and without violations to any human right, through our country.

I’m aware of no such thing.  I am aware that Mexico’s police and soldiers along Mexico’s southern border did erect barriers, ostensibly to prevent Triangle citizens from illegally entering Mexico (illegally under Mexico’s laws, which are—on paper—much more stringent than our own).  I am also aware that those police and soldiers then stood aside at the first bit of “migrant” pressure and allowed those people to tear down some barriers and bypass others and enter Mexico illegally. This was done on the orders of Mexico’s government.

I am also aware that those now illegal immigrants are actively aided on their travels north in their quest to illegally enter the US rather than collected and returned south of Mexico’s southern border.  It’s true enough that a couple of hundred travelers were rounded up and returned, and a big splash was made of this.  Out of the tens of thousands of such illegal aliens on the move, though—in easily tracked caravans—this roundup was purely for show and not anything serious.

I am also aware that no human right allows anyone to enter another nation without that nation’s prior permission, nor does the receiving nation have any obligation to grant that permission.  The human right AMLO so piously references does extend to helping these unfortunates in their home countries, and their fellows (and family members!) who stayed behind.  Which brings me to my first question: What is Mexico doing along these lines?

…you transform the country of fraternity for the world’s migrants into a ghetto, a closed space, where migrants are stigmatized, mistreated, persecuted, expelled and the right for justice is canceled….

This cynically offered ad hominem slur does Mexico no credit; although it does reduce AMLO’s credibility on the matter.  Our “closed space” enthusiastically accepts far more immigrants, persons who enter our nation legally, than any other nation on the planet—including Mexico.  Nor are any immigrants stigmatized: on arrival, they are welcomed with open arms and aided in assimilating.

Not even the illegal immigrants who make it past our border checkpoints—often with Mexican help—are mistreated or persecuted; although AMLO does choose to conflate requiring illegal aliens to comport with our law—including detention pursuant to deportation—with mistreatment and persecution.

Nor is illegal aliens’ right for justice in any way tampered with, and neither is the right for justice of our citizens and immigrants legally present tampered with—a right AMLO carefully elides.  Further, as AMLO surely understands, justice—true justice—includes consequence for illegal behavior.

With all due respect, even though you have the right to express it, the slogan “America First” is a fallacy because until the end of time, even over national borders, universal justice and fraternity will prevail.

With all due respect, even though AMLO has the right to express it, this distortion of the meaning of “America First” is a fallacy because, as Trump has said many times, America First does not mean America Alone or America Only.  We need the assistance of our friends in all endeavors on the world’s stage.  Including Mexico’s, but see the foregoing for the level of effort Mexico has been expending.

Too Bad

The FCC is working up a rule that would allow phone companies to automatically block robocalls.

Businesses demur.

The proposal is part of an effort to cut down on unwanted and illegal robocalls, but some businesses fear it could result in carriers also blocking automated calls from legitimate firms. Banks, collection agencies, and merchants say automated calls are crucial, even though some consumers find them annoying.

And

It’s important that the commission take a hard look at some of the proposals to make sure that they are appropriately targeted to address the problem, illegal automated calls[.]

Sorry, guys.  It’s not only illegal automated calls the want blocking.  So do annoying calls—and it’s the customer, the recipient, who makes that determination, not the business caller.  Businesses don’t get to barge into someone’s home without permission—which is what an unwanted, annoying call is, just as much as physically coming through the door.

Then there’s this gem:

The current call-blocking proposal could mean financial-services companies such as mortgage or educational lenders are unable to reach customers for informational purposes, which could keep them from complying with separate consumer-protection rules requiring such companies to contact customers under certain circumstances[.]

This adds cynical disingenuosity to the companies’ arrogance.  Blocking robocalls doesn’t even begin to render businesses unable to reach customers for informational purposes.  Business employees are fully capable of making telephone calls themselves, rather than relying on their bots—but that would require the business to have an actual human on one end of the call actually having to interact, live, with the customer.  This might be inconvenient to the business employee, but that’s singularly unimportant.  Even the cost increment from using a live person on a real phone call is the customer’s call to make, not the employee’s.

Business employees are fully capable of sending emails—even though customers are fully capable of recognizing spam and having those automatically filtered.  If an employee doesn’t want his email filtered, he’ll make it look like serious business correspondence rather than gussying it up with advertising and other froo-froo.  Software makes mass emails—even serious business emails—fast and simple and leaves the process cheap.

Business employees are fully capable of writing letters—they have their customers’ snail mail addresses on file as a matter of course.  If an employee doesn’t want his letter to go straight into the trash or recycling unopened, he’ll make his letter look like a serious business letter: he’ll have his name and return address (both, mind you) in the upper left corner of the envelope, and he won’t gussy up that envelope with advertising or other froo-froo.

Abortion “Rights”

Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D, CA) wants to further erode Federalism in our nation’s structure and have the central government pass on certain kinds of State laws before those laws can be…permitted…to take effect.  Harris’ position and proposal is well summarized in the sub-headline of the article at the link:

The Democratic presidential hopeful wants the Justice Department to review state laws restricting abortion before they would take effect

Since a core principle of our nation, acknowledged in our Declaration of Independence, centers on our Creator-endowed right to life, and it is the duty of any government, especially including ours, to protect the lives of those in its care—or even simply within its jurisdiction—I offer an alternative requirement, albeit one that parallels Harris’ attack on our federal structure.

The Justice Department should review state laws permitting abortion, particularly with a view to assessing their impact on life, before they would take effect

This would enable the central government to protect the baby’s life from being aborted in any but the most extreme circumstance.

It should be clear, after all, that abortion has absolutely nothing to do with women’s right to control their own bodies and everything to do with the baby’s—who in any abortion procedure has no one to speak for him—right simply to maintain his body.  Abortion has absolutely nothing to do with women’s “rights” generally and everything to do with the baby’s right to life.

Except in the minds of Progressive-Democrats.

An Economic Recovery

Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate and ex-President Barack Obama mentee Joe Biden had this to say about our economic progress over the last couple of years.

I know President Trump likes to take credit for the economy and the economic growth and the low unemployment numbers.  But…President Trump inherited an economy from [the] Obama-Biden administration—that was given to him….

The Obama-Biden “recovery” from the Panic of 2008 was the slowest on the post-WWII era record, though, and it was years behind schedule on the Obama-Biden promises of unemployment recovery and actual jobs creation recovery, and their “recovery” never did fulfill their promise of GDP recovery.  On that latter bit, Obama and Biden even asserted (proudly?  Certainly loudly) that under 2% GDP growth was the norm, and Biden’s hero even ridiculed the idea that better trade deals (and so better economics) could be done—”Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have?”

Robert Southey anticipated Biden, I think.

“Now tell us what ’twas all about,”
Young Peterkin, he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes;
“Now tell us all about the Panic,
And what the upset all was for.”

“They say it was a shocking sight
After the Panic had run;
For many thousand bailouts here

Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

“And everybody praised the Veep
Who this recov’ry did win.”
“But what good came of it at last?”
Quoth little Peterkin.
“Why, that I cannot tell,” said he;
“But ’twas a famous victory.”

 

An Inapt Analogy

With friends like this….

I’m a firm believer in tightly secured borders with legal entry points established at one-mile intervals along it and the elimination of visa quotas for those who want to come here legally, whether with a goal of gaining citizenship or just for long-term residency and work—so long as they pass tight vetting procedures.

A Letter to the Editor writer in Monday’s Wall Street Journal tried to make the same point, but his point was, and is, counterproductive.

In saying that demanding specialized skills as the criterion for entry might work for the short-term but was long-term short-sighted compared to a come one, come all (presumably subject to vetting) criterion, the letter writer offered this:

Our nation historically has been more like the Milwaukee Brewers than the New York Yankees.

Well, no.

The Brewers are perennial losers, having never won a World Series and whose last pennant win was in 1982.  That’s not the United States I know.  The Yankees, on the other hand, have 27 World Series titles and 40 pennants.  That, though, isn’t the United States I know, either; although, it’s closer to the mark.

The US benefits from taking on all comers who want to become Americans (not many all-comers stay with either the Brewers or the Yankees), and we also gain from taking on those who have specialized skills that directly and quickly benefit us, whether they want to become Americans or want to be here as long-term residents.