Mickey Kaus goes after Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX):
Hey, Look at Me Fail: Isn’t it obvious that Ted Cruz is in it for Ted Cruz? The man had a choice–he could fight the Senate’s push for “amnesty first” immigration legislation, which he had a very good chance of killing
Because he has a Spanish surname, which presumably lets him do things politicians without Spanish surnames are not allowed to do (see the Constitution's Hidden Amendment for details)
, or he could stage a showy fight against funding Obamacare that he’d certainly lose. The first course would annoy the business backers who fund Senate and presidential campaigns. The latter course would gin up and channel conservative anger, boosting Cruz’s profile in the caucuses and primaries,without doing anyone much damage at all (since it would fail). The choice seems to have been a no-brainer for the senator.
I originally thought Cruz opposed amnesty and took a dive on the issue, doing the minimum possible to maintain his credibility. I now don’t think his behavior was that bad. It was worse–his very opposition to amnesty was fake. Evidence: The New York Times, in a bit of Anticipatory Strange New Respect, recently ran a piece on Cruz’s attempt to stake out “middle ground on immigration.” The middle ground seems to be support for legalization that stops short of citizenship:
“A path to legal status, but not to citizenship. A green card with no right to naturalization."
This is the ideal outcome for Republican politicians. There big donors get to pound down wages some more immediately, while the impact on elections is pushed back to the next generation. What's not to love? (Assuming you aren't, say, an average American.)
Karl Rove was always pushing this sort of thing, too. But the Democrats have the upper hand in rhetoric because "a path to citizenship" sounds better than "lifelong helotry."
Helots, my ass. The only Helots in this society are the whites these parasites came to live off of.
ReplyDeleteIllegal-Alien Parents in Los Angeles County Likely to Cost Taxpayers $650 Million (H/T Mangan):
https://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/september-16-2013/illegal-alien-parents-los-angeles-county-likely-cost-taxpayers-650-million.ht
Citizenship is inevitable if anything ends up passing. Everyone knows that it's only a matter of time before all those "sort of Americans but kind of not" will be granted full amnesty, since the voting bloc that favors it will only grow as a result of this. This whole thing is a smoke-and-mirrors game.
ReplyDeleteI should have known better than to trust Republicans.
The laughable non-citizen greencard "position" is consistent with past performance. He wasn't merely AWOL on H-1Bs, he was selling himself to the highest Treason Lobby bidder. On the other hand, Kaus is a bit deluded if he thinks Cruz is prospecting for SNR from the establishment; the guy must realize Sunday-show acclaim is permanently out of reach by now (or he's delusional too). For that prize you'd need to be dangerously idiotic like McCain.
ReplyDelete"Their" not "There"
ReplyDeleteI think Kaus is unnecessarily fuming. This has always been Cruz's position on immigration, and the "illegal bad legal good" position is a common Republican affliction.
ReplyDeleteWe won't get any good legislation on immigration enacted much less enforced while Obama is President. All we need right now is for any bad legislation not to pass. He did what we needed him to do by voting no on Gang Bangers of Eight.
The reason I won't vote for him to become President is because he's not white. A white country should have a white President.
I never like Cruz the much. He was just less bad than Dewhurst. Dewhurst is buddies with Rick Perry which also has the same views. That's why Republicans have a hard time keeping Texas in the long run because of politicians there liking guest worker schemes and they already have a black population of 12 percent and a Hispanic of 38 percent.
ReplyDeleteWhat is not brought up is Cruz also wants to get rid of the immigration Caps for India and China not just Mexico. So, he wants a lot of high skilled labor too. I agree I don't trust the Republicans either now more than ever after the Cruz scheme. They just work to hold on to Texas at all cost to the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteThis is the ideal outcome for Republican politicians. There big donors get to pound down wages some more immediately, while the impact on elections is pushed back to the next generation. What's not to love? (Assuming you aren't, say, an average American.)
ReplyDeleteA great statement, Cruz and Perry and company can still clean up Texas outside of the Mexican south and big city areas of Houston, Austin and Dallas. In fact Cruz was groom by Newt Gingrich and had several secret meetings with the Koch brothers.
The bureau’s annual American Community Survey found that in 2012 about 4.5 million Texans lived in poverty, defined as an annual income of less than $18,480 a year for a family of three. Nationally, the percentage of people living in poverty stands at 15.9 percent. In 2000, Texas’ poverty rate was 15.1 percent.
ReplyDelete“Even though Texas has relatively low unemployment, our workers are much more likely to be working in a job paying minimum wage or less compared to most other states,” said Francis Deviney, senior research associate at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates policies to reduce poverty. “Today, Texas invests an average of $5.78 per adult without a high school diploma/GED for adult basic education and literacy training, compared to $66.20 nationally. These programs are a critical first step to moving low-income Texans into careers that pay family-supporting wages.”
With some honorable exceptions, Republican politicians are worse than the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteAt least the Democrats' guile and venality benefit their base in the long run. The destruction of the American nation and way of life is a feature to them, not a bug.
But Republicans ought to be ashamed of their pursuit of the Central-Valley-fication of the US. One wonders whether they don't understand the long-term implications, or whether they just don't care.
It's really very distressing to contemplate. We only have two parties. What is to be done?
I thought Cruz was the latest universally recognized Racist Sexist Republican Monster and Object of Mockery, the sort the media designates with an effortless nod of its collective head.
ReplyDeleteHe's up for Strange New Respect already? That's got to be a record transition time. Maybe I'm just not keeping up with who this week's Emmanuel Goldstein is.
ut Republicans ought to be ashamed of their pursuit of the Central-Valley-fication of the US. One wonders whether they don't understand the long-term implications, or whether they just don't care.
ReplyDeleteIt's really very distressing to
contemplate. We only have two parties. What is to be done?
Its not just the Bakersfield approach it also the approach of the Republicans favorite state Texas while there are some good paying jobs in Texas and nice big homes the state has use Mexicans for decades to do the jobs whites will not do or that's a saying of the Republican Party there like Cruz, Bush, Perry and so forth. In fact Texas decline to 17.9 percent poverty from 18.5 percent. IS that something to be pride of having a 17.9 percent poverty rate.
We'll fight the good fight, Steve. At the same time I learned a few things from "Enjoy the Decline" and mixed in some community service to balance out the book's perspective.
ReplyDelete"It's really very distressing to contemplate. We only have two parties. What is to be done?"
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself these two questions:
1. What percentage of the US population has any idea what's wrong and any interest in serious change? Maybe 1%? That's probably optimistic.
2. In the late days of the Roman Republic, could 1% of the population have done anything to stop the slide into Empire, tyrants, bread and circuses, the importation of slaves to support a growing elite, and eventual collapse?
I kind of doubt it. So I can't help but doubt that anything can be done today. We can't even get anyone with a dissenting opinion on anything near the ballot, let alone elected. Most of the population won't realize the game is up until their plastic cards stop working, at which point things will be past the point of reform.
Cruz gets money from the Koch brothers and has been invited to their secret meetings. The Kochs support what Cruz does on guest workers and legalizing folks. Teddy looks like a hero to the Tea Party crowd because he will try a shutdown of the federal government and I think this has something to do with the Koch brothers as well.
ReplyDeleteCould Mickey Kaus run for a Congressional seat? I'd vote for him.
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