Don't Mess With Our Birthright

I don't watch professional sports. (Calm down- if you like it, enjoy.)  Teams are great for their host cities.  Games generate increased economic activity, and fandom gets woven into the local ethos. The athletic prowess is wonderful. But then- cue scary music- there are the owners.  Greedy rich folks- often nepo babies and billionaires whining and demanding.  I want a new stadium that you pay for.  Give me more tax breaks. I'm moving the football team away in the middle of the night.

As we have written before: James Dolan, majority owner of the corporation for Madison Square Garden, pays NO property taxes.  What's next, government pays the rich folks? .Oh wait, that is already happening. Not only do so many profitable corporations not pay taxes but they enjoy endless government goodies on top of tax cuts and very regressive policies The tax code favors the very wealthy as even Warren Buffet noted. 

Elon Musk lives off our generosity. But I regress, no digress.  Back to sports. FIFA is a terrible organization, and the World Cup brings great suffering along with exciting games. The Trump/FIFA combination is abhorrent. This year America was a cruel and ridiculous host.  Yes, the Scottish fans were fun. But what Trump mandated for some teams and officials was racist, ugly and horrific. The Iranian team.  The experienced referee.  And now this: a USA player who received a red card was allowed to return to the games.

Why?  Because Trump asked.  C'mon FIFA just give him another peace prize and tell him all the teams love him.  And he has the body of a top football player. That's what the world calls it.  Football. Belgium slammed the US 4-1 in that game.  And their players trolled Trump. But I buried the lede.

Folarin Balogun is the player in question. He is a citizen only because his mother was not allowed on a flight to London from NYC because she was too pregnant to fly.  With him. So voila, birthright citizenship. Where have I heard that term before?  Oh yes, Trump wants to abolish it. btw Balogun grew up in London so no one cares about assimilation into American Culture until something else matters.  Now that the US lost to Belgium- will Trump deport him? He's not the right color for this president.  

I have a question.  Stephen Miller's grandparents fled here from Nazi Germany.  Under the 14th Clause of the Constitution, their next generation were automatic American citizens and subsequently their children- including Stephen.  Yes, I know those folks were white and from western Europe. But they were also Jewish.  Ask the white supremacists roaming around DC 4th of July and all the others what they think of the Jews.  First they came for... you should know the rest. Ditto for the Kushner clan. 

Our immigration policies have always been deficient and now are no-win. One solution is to become a great soccer player for the USA. Or marry Trump. Donald Trump's paternal grandfather came from what was then Bavaria. He dabbled in real estate here but made his fortune with a brothel in Canada. Sounds disqualifying to be an American to me. This Trump returned to his home country, married a fellow citizen there and was asked to leave because he was a draft dodger.  Oh Fredrich, you just need a doctor's note saying you had bone spurs and abracadabra 5 military deferments.

The wave of visitors to this continent historically did not treat our Native Americans well.  Or humanely, or within the law. Both in the USA and Canada. For a while back in Minnesota ICE agents were targeting Native Americans.  Again, people please teach history.

I will keep it short today.  I trust this Supreme as far as I could throw Sam Alito.  And I don't have enough money to bribe, I mean take Clarence Thomas on very expensive vacations.  But: Please preserve birthright citizenship.

To borrow from the writer Mary McCarthy when she was discussing Lillian Hellman: every word Trump says is a lie including “a” and “the”.  America is not the only country in which being born here means you automatically belong here. Legally. There are dozens and dozens of others. Ted Cruz was born in Canada with only one parent being American.  Ok. What can you do- give him citizenship but don't elect him to the Senate.

We should not want to break apart families. Which is what all recent presidents have done.  But this time, it is on steroids. Of course there have been mistakes in our policies.  Trump's grandfather.  Musk/Thiel.  A couple of wives. But overall, immigrants have built this country. and should be welcomed.  Even Ronald Reagan believed this... Diversity has made this country great.  And everyone, except of course the people who were here when the ships from Europe started arriving, is a Johnny come lately. Or a Donny come lately.

Don't Shop on Tuesday.

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And don't forget the Epstein crimes.