Cages for Only $700 per Day

I have seen estimates from a couple sources. NPR says it costs $770 per day. The Washington Examiner, a conservative source, says it is about $670 per day.

This is what taxpayers are paying to private, some times religious, organizations to house immigrant minors. The “unaccompanied” minors, most of whom WERE accompanied when they crossed the border. But who were then taken from their parents and so now are labeled “unaccompanied”.

We are paying about $700 a day for EACH child. Let the fiscal conservatives swallow that. $700 each day.

Who is making $700 a day “housing” these kids? Are cages that expensive? And is the cost of frozen food so much more near the border?

Now, for $700 I can get a round trip flight from New York City to Europe.

For $700 a day I can go to the Big Apple. Stay in a very nice hotel. Sate my appetite  at the best restaurants. Indulge in Broadway play. And still have plenty of money left over for the cab ride and an excellent  happy ending “massage.”

For $700 a day I can make payments on a BMW and have it paid off pretty darn quick.

A farmer in my neck of the woods could easily hire a couple for farm laborers for half that amount.

For $700 a day these kids could be housed in luxury apartments, provided with plenty of food and personal tutors.

$700 a day. That is $3,500 a week. Keep a kid for a month and each little immigrant child is worth $14,000. A little gold mine. Keep em as long as you can..

What do these children get for $700 a day. A bunk bed? A cage? Some providers claim they provide 3 meals a day. And they provide a trip to a bowling alley ! And multi-colored crayons and coloring books ! That is a pretty generous and Christian thing to do.

I mean, when can you find crayons for only $700 a day. I am surprised these private organizations are not going broke.

Of course, when this catastrophe of the Trump years is behind us we will get the facts. The connections between Betsy DeVos and other members of this pirate crew to the owners of these for profit holding centers for children. This gang of grifters using the treasury as their private slush fund.

The stench of corruption of this administration just grows and grows and grows.

I wonder how much perfume you can buy for $700 a day?

 

51 Elections

The Democrats are going upsy crazy over recent poll numbers. Everyone except GoGo the One Eyed Chimp is polling better than Donald Trump. Biden up by 10%. Warren up by 9%. Even Mayor Pete is up by 1%. So, this election is in the bag. Again.

Of course, the Democrats are best at shooting themselves in the foot. Perhaps that’s why they favor stricter gun control laws. Or may be they enjoy living in a fantasy land where the candidate with the most votes wins. In the USA, there is no such fantasy land. The candidate with the most votes does not always win.

Ask Al Gore. Ask Hillary Clinton. Better yet, ask the “geniuses” of the Democratic Party who gave such great advice to Gore and Clinton. The ones who told Gore to ignore his home state, which he lost, because it was in the bag. Or the ones who had Hillary traveling to Arizona, a solid red state, the last week before the election, instead of shoring up support in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The GOP figured it out years ago. They understood that grabbing control of state governments was the key. State governments could make voting laws. State governments could gerrymander the House districts. State governments could suppress the votes in certain areas. How? By limiting polling places. By setting up restrictions designed to disenfranchise minority and urban voters. Recall how Jeb Bush knocked thousands of voters off the voting rolls in 2000? He put his brother in office.

While the Dems were living in the Never Never Land of a the national popular vote election, the GOP understood that the election is not one election. It is 51 separate elections.

The GOP understood that the rules of the game are more important than any substance. On the national level they lose every argument. They lose every debate about policies. About foreign policy. About economics. But no matter. They control the rules of the game.

So, the Dems either need to understand the rules or once again be faced with a popular vote victory and an electoral vote defeat. They need political operatives who ignore the popular vote. Yes. IGNORE the national popular vote. It is meaningless.

Play the game by the rules that exist, not the rules you want to exist. The umpire determines where the strike zone is. The ref decides whether or not there was a foul. There is no videotape in politics. No slow motion replays. No mulligans.

There are probably 40-42 states that are already set as far as the electoral vote in concerned. Trump can do nothing to win NY or California. The Dems can do nothing to win Alabama or Mississippi or Kansas.

Have the Dems learned anything from the last two electoral defeats? We shall see. Focus on the states that are toss ups. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Michigan. North Carolina. Florida.

Play the game or lose again.

The Chinese Finger Trap

Remember the Chinese finger traps? Those bamboo tubes that you would stick your finger in one end, then the other end. And when you tried to pull out the “trap” closed on your fingers. The harder you pulled, the tighter the trap. You can still get those things at Amazon. Made in China, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_finger_trap

Seems to me as though Mr Trump, in his dealings with China, has fallen prey to this old Chinese trick. Like the 4 year old pulling frantically to get loose, Mr Trump has stuck his tiny fingers of “tariffs” into the Chinese trap of “retaliation”.

There is an old saying : “When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. It seems as though Mr Trump has only one tool in his arsenal. Tariffs. And when tariffs don’t work, pull harder. More tariffs. Harder. More tariffs.

As in his dealings with China, Mr Trump just announced more tariffs with our second most important trading partner, Mexico. Unless they somehow stop immigration he will ratchet up tariffs. Keep in mind that about 40% of Mexico imports are actually dependent on US parts sent to Mexico for final assembly.  Tariffs will impact negatively on US industries .

Back to China. China has a long history of hardship and conflict with the West. The communists took over precisely because of the failure of the nationalist government to deal with foreigners. China is the “Middle Kingdom”. The two characters in the written Chinese language stand for those two words. China has always seen itself as the center of the universe.  Americans are tribal , but compared to Chinese ethnocentrism, Americans are downright globalists. The Chinese will not submit to humiliation. Never.

So, China can and will survive any hardships. After all, the leadership of China does not need to worry about elections. They can dictate  and absorb any economic downturn.

US trade with China accounts for about 13% of China’s trade with the rest of the world. A big chunk. But over the last 20 years China has been expanding markets to the rest of the world. Today, China has a higher percentage of trade with Australia than it does with the US. More trade with the EU. More trade, by far, with the rest of Asia. More trade with Africa and Latin America. In fact, China has focused on Africa and Latin America and has rapidly expanded into those markets. China can withstand a 13% trade hit. Can the US withstand a 16% hit on the other side?

So, Trump’s tariffs will not work. He is caught in the Chinese finger trap with no way out. He just pulls harder and harder.

Trump will not take advice. But on this one, he should. He should find a 5 year old. Because, as any 5 year old can tell you, getting out of the Chinese finger trap is easy. Just give in a little bit. Loosen the grip. Stop pulling so hard. Relax.

You would think the world’s greatest “deal maker” would know by now. Or maybe Trump never played with a Chinese finger trap. Or maybe he got stuck and could not extricate himself.  Perhaps he had to be cut out of the trap by his daddy? At any rate, he is stuck now with no way out.