Goodbye, Dolly! Passed away at 80 – and one of the few remaining universally beloved people in the USA. I figure she leaned a bit Left, but she never made a thing about it…and that is the key to keeping that universal love. Of course, maybe if she was younger it would have proven impossible? These days, just to keep your gigs coming, immense pressure is brought to bear on you to toe the Leftist line. By the time that came in about 25 years ago, Dolly was so established she could just ignore such things, had anyone attempted such pressure on her. We probably can’t have anything universal across American culture any longer – and until we destroy the Left, that is how it shall be. For goodness sake, the Left pitched a fit about America 250 just last month.
The economic pressure being put on Iran is immense and destructive. We’ll see if it works – that is, will it convince the Iranian people (cowards, for the most part) to rise up? They don’t want freedom – they’ve made that clear by supinely allowing themselves to abused by dirty-necked Islamists for decades. But they might be just materialist enough to want their stuff…said stuff now being denied by the US blockade. We shall see. If it doesn’t work, then I suspect it will be bombs away for one more sustained campaign to cripple Iran for a generation.
Trump is also upping the pressure on Canada – which has been getting a free ride since WWII. They have had essentially free access to the American market while carefully protecting their own from us. Now they are saying they’ll let China use Canada as a means of getting around our tariffs on China. Screw them. Nothing against those Canadians who are what I’m now calling Old Canada – allies in two world wars and great people all around. But New Canada is filled with Leftist bigotry and hatred…stupidity as well. We do not need a thing from Canada while their economy collapses without access to our market. Either conform yourselves to our desires or go jump in a lake.
Trump is set to revoke the visas of 200,000 people who are here on business or tourism visas but are claiming asylum. Think about that – they were able to get visas to come to the USA but are now claiming asylum status. Just insane we let this sort of nonsense go on. If you can get a visa, you’re probably not oppressed. Asylum is for people who will die if they don’t get out of their home country…and you get asylum in the first country you can. Essentially, asylum and TPS have been used – by Republicans and Democrats – to back-door amnesty. It is good that Trump is ending this but it can also be un-ended by his successor. We need laws clearly laying out asylum. I mean very specific…actually listing social categories of people and countries of origin we’ll accept asylum applicants from (like, say, a gay person from Iran, Christian from Pakistan, white person from South Africa). If you don’t meet one of the legislatively decreed categories then you can’t even try. We also need to change the laws so that asylum is not a fast track to a green card. It is your life that is at stake – you just need a place to hide from those trying to kill you. We’ll forward you to some other country if at all possible…if you get asylum here, you’re in some sort of holding camp until you find a country to emigrate to or are able to return home.