Today I want to talk about Syrian refugees in Montana and America.
I’d like to discuss racism on Twitter and a bit on free speech as well.
Finally we can discuss your take on this in the comments.
I’d like to discuss racism on Twitter and a bit on free speech as well.
Finally we can discuss your take on this in the comments.
Cowturd Loves Refugees
MT Cowturd has an article up today by a former Regent of the Montana University System.
This regent, Joseph Thiel, is currently studying at Oxford University.
I’m sure that’s easy to do after you get paid a lot to be a regent.
It’s just sad that our regents do an abysmal job in this state, what with handing out $70,000 bonuses and giving pay boosts to presidents that continually fail in their job.
Anyways, this guy that doesn’t even live in Montana anymore thinks it’d be great if places like Missoula take on up to 100 Syrian refugee families.
Typically Thiel and others like him veil the refugee problem by just saying “refugee” and leaving the “Syrian” part out.
I can’t blame them – would you want to say “Syrian refugees” all the time?
I wouldn’t, and the main reason is that so many are running amok in Europe right now.
Thiel’s post takes as its subject the June 20th letter by Austin Knudsen to the state papers saying we need to keep refugees out.
Why did it take Cowturd a month to dredge up some writer to discuss this?
Right away Thiel tells us that the governor has no authority over who comes to America.
“Governor Bullock has no power to halt refugee resettlement in Montana or anywhere else,” he says. “Those powers are granted solely to the Federal government.”
Because of that, in Thiel’s judgment, the governor should not have an opinion on this matter and should not speak out on it.
These are some other things that could also qualify, as the governor has no power over them:
I say “our ability” on all of those because we as Americans make those decisions.
We make them when we decide who to put in that office.
Those are all powers enumerated in the Constitution to the president or the Congress.
By Joseph Thiel’s way of thinking, governors of states should have no opinion on any of those things…simply because they cannot act on them personally.
What a load of rubbish.
Personally, I hope our governor is speaking his mind. Should happen more often.
We want our governor to have opinions on those things, and we want them to be vocal in their opinions.
Dragging your feet has no place in government.
For the most part, though, Thiel seems intent upon the argument that Gianforte would take this issue to court, effectively funneling “tax dollars into lawyers’ pockets.”
Mainly I just see Democrats like Missoula's mayor Engen doing that.
After that argument we get a few more arguments and observations. I won't get into them.
For the most part, America does not want Syrian refugees coming here.
In November 2015 Time did a poll and found that 54% of Americans “opposed taking in refugees.”
Another 52% said “they’re not confident in the American screening process to weed out possible terrorists.”
I’m not confident in it either. In this country we let our roads and bridges fall apart while we poison poor peoples’ water…all while spending hundreds of billions on war in foreign countries.
If we’d stop spending money on war there wouldn’t be refugees, but the pro-refugee folks do not want to hear that.
What would organizations like Soft Landing Missoula do if there were no refugees?
Well, the people that work there would have to get real jobs, possibly even ones that don’t rely on federal grants so they can operate.
BBC News tells us that there have been a record number of EU terror attacks recorded in 2015.
A total of 211 attacks happened last year, the highest since 2006.
The UK had the most, with 103 attacks and in the EU as a whole, 687 arrests were “for jihadist terrorism.”
Many of these folks are refugees. We know two of the men that did the November Paris terrorist attacks “entered the EU through Greece as part of the influx of refugees from Syria.”
So they came in through Greece…a country that is doing vetting (even though it says it's "virtually impossible to pick out dangerous extremists among arriving migrants").
Greece didn't catch those two men that eventually went to Paris and later 130 people died because of it.
Is our need to take care of refugees greater than the need to protect our families?
We know it’s greater than our need to protect the homeless of Missoula, the poor people sleeping under the Reserve Street Bridge or in the Walmart parking lot.
The only time we hear about them is once a year when the city has to pay to clean up their camps.
The do-gooders in Missoula would rather bring in foreigners from thousands of miles away that don’t speak the language and have no clear job prospects rather than help needy Americans that have fallen on hard times.
Thiel says that denying refugees to Montana “would deny thousands of the most vulnerable people on the planet, including women and children, the ability to escape violent conflict.”
So if you’re vulnerable, like homeless women and children here in Missoula, we feel bad for you.
If you’re not in a violent conflict, however, well…fuck you.
Do you think that’s right?
This regent, Joseph Thiel, is currently studying at Oxford University.
I’m sure that’s easy to do after you get paid a lot to be a regent.
It’s just sad that our regents do an abysmal job in this state, what with handing out $70,000 bonuses and giving pay boosts to presidents that continually fail in their job.
Anyways, this guy that doesn’t even live in Montana anymore thinks it’d be great if places like Missoula take on up to 100 Syrian refugee families.
Typically Thiel and others like him veil the refugee problem by just saying “refugee” and leaving the “Syrian” part out.
I can’t blame them – would you want to say “Syrian refugees” all the time?
I wouldn’t, and the main reason is that so many are running amok in Europe right now.
Thiel’s post takes as its subject the June 20th letter by Austin Knudsen to the state papers saying we need to keep refugees out.
Why did it take Cowturd a month to dredge up some writer to discuss this?
Right away Thiel tells us that the governor has no authority over who comes to America.
“Governor Bullock has no power to halt refugee resettlement in Montana or anywhere else,” he says. “Those powers are granted solely to the Federal government.”
Because of that, in Thiel’s judgment, the governor should not have an opinion on this matter and should not speak out on it.
These are some other things that could also qualify, as the governor has no power over them:
- Our ability to declare war
- Our ability to print money
- Our ability to collect taxes
- Our ability to build roads
- Our ability to spend money on welfare
- Our ability to define and punish pirates
- Our ability to arm, organize and discipline a militia
- Our ability to command our armed forces
- Our ability to grant reprieves and pardons
I say “our ability” on all of those because we as Americans make those decisions.
We make them when we decide who to put in that office.
Those are all powers enumerated in the Constitution to the president or the Congress.
By Joseph Thiel’s way of thinking, governors of states should have no opinion on any of those things…simply because they cannot act on them personally.
What a load of rubbish.
- We have pirates attacking American ships and the governor of Montana can't say that's bullshit, that we should do something?
- We have tons of people living in poverty and sleeping on the street and our governor can't shout to the heavens for our government to give more welfare relief?
Personally, I hope our governor is speaking his mind. Should happen more often.
We want our governor to have opinions on those things, and we want them to be vocal in their opinions.
Dragging your feet has no place in government.
For the most part, though, Thiel seems intent upon the argument that Gianforte would take this issue to court, effectively funneling “tax dollars into lawyers’ pockets.”
Mainly I just see Democrats like Missoula's mayor Engen doing that.
After that argument we get a few more arguments and observations. I won't get into them.
For the most part, America does not want Syrian refugees coming here.
In November 2015 Time did a poll and found that 54% of Americans “opposed taking in refugees.”
Another 52% said “they’re not confident in the American screening process to weed out possible terrorists.”
I’m not confident in it either. In this country we let our roads and bridges fall apart while we poison poor peoples’ water…all while spending hundreds of billions on war in foreign countries.
If we’d stop spending money on war there wouldn’t be refugees, but the pro-refugee folks do not want to hear that.
What would organizations like Soft Landing Missoula do if there were no refugees?
Well, the people that work there would have to get real jobs, possibly even ones that don’t rely on federal grants so they can operate.
BBC News tells us that there have been a record number of EU terror attacks recorded in 2015.
A total of 211 attacks happened last year, the highest since 2006.
The UK had the most, with 103 attacks and in the EU as a whole, 687 arrests were “for jihadist terrorism.”
Many of these folks are refugees. We know two of the men that did the November Paris terrorist attacks “entered the EU through Greece as part of the influx of refugees from Syria.”
So they came in through Greece…a country that is doing vetting (even though it says it's "virtually impossible to pick out dangerous extremists among arriving migrants").
Greece didn't catch those two men that eventually went to Paris and later 130 people died because of it.
Is our need to take care of refugees greater than the need to protect our families?
We know it’s greater than our need to protect the homeless of Missoula, the poor people sleeping under the Reserve Street Bridge or in the Walmart parking lot.
The only time we hear about them is once a year when the city has to pay to clean up their camps.
The do-gooders in Missoula would rather bring in foreigners from thousands of miles away that don’t speak the language and have no clear job prospects rather than help needy Americans that have fallen on hard times.
Thiel says that denying refugees to Montana “would deny thousands of the most vulnerable people on the planet, including women and children, the ability to escape violent conflict.”
So if you’re vulnerable, like homeless women and children here in Missoula, we feel bad for you.
If you’re not in a violent conflict, however, well…fuck you.
Do you think that’s right?
Just the other day we had a crazy young man with an axe trying to kill people on a train in Germany.
It’s been confirmed that the man “was a 17-year-old Afghan national who came to Germany as a refugee last year.”
So he’s a refugee, though from Afghanistan and not Syria.
My, we’ve been having serious problems with them too.
That Orlando nightclub shooter’s dad was an Afghan refugee.
But the son was born here, like those two nuts that did the California shooting last year.
So that’s homegrown, and because of that, we can’t blame refugees.
We have to blame something else for that, and I personally believe it’s the refugee’s inability to integrate.
Thiel has an answer for this, based on a Colorado study.
“Refugees who develop connections and friendships outside of their families and ethnic communities are more likely to assimilate.”
What if they don’t develop those connections…perhaps because people are fearful of them...or because the refugees don't speak any English?
Then organizations like Soft Landing Missoula will ramp up the blame game, calling people racist and bigoted and Islamophobic, or that they're just not working hard enough.
Hey, not all of us can get federal grants to pay our rent.
So because of those arguments of course people will see the light and start falling all over themselves to help the refugees.
These will likely be the rich folks living in the University District and the South Hills, retired folk perhaps, those with too much time and money and not much else.
You didn’t expect poor working bastards like me to help them, did you? Where on earth are we going to get the time away from our 2 to 3 jobs, or the money after our rent and power bill and food costs take everything we have?
So we have the rich folks, like the stay at home mom and part-time jewelry maker that is Soft Landing Missoula’s face-woman here.
Those folks are very good at drumming up support for their pet refugee project, very good at browbeating those that don’t agree with them.
Oh, and please – don’t ask for any kind of financials about the refugee resettlement plan.
Especially don’t ask to see who might be paying for things after the first year when charity and church donations dry up.
Just don’t ask – you might be labeled a bigot or racist or something else.
Twitter Dumps a Doofus
Speaking of racism, another story caught my eye and we'll tie it in.
You can read the story on Buzzfeed in a post called Twitter Permanently Suspends Conservative Writer Milo Yiannopoulos.
I’ve never heard of this asshole, but I guess over the weekend he encouraged his 388,000 followers to send harassing messages to the black woman in the new Ghostbusters movie.
So Twitter banned the guy, and I have no problem with that.
Like I said, I’ve never heard of this guy but one thing he said after the banning caught my eye.
“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives.”
I think he makes a good point here.
Why is this high-profile idiot banned but the overwhelming number of ISIS terrorist accounts are not?
According to the Guardian, in February Twitter deleted 125,000 ISIS accounts.
Despite that, just four days ago the Independent in the UK had an article telling us that “at least 50 Twitter accounts praising the attacks used the hashtag Nice in Arabic.”
Twitter moved swiftly to get rid of this, and to get rid of some accounts, something it’s been slower to do before. Most people agree with getting rid of ISIS messages…except ISIS, of course.
The conservative writer that got banned might feel differently, however.
“This is the end for Twitter,” he wrote. “Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”
So these are interesting things to think about – free speech and the need for restraint during times of war.
Speech isn’t free everywhere.
Take Cowturd – they don’t like what you say, you get banned.
There are acceptable commenters there, however, people like Amanda Curtis’ husband, Kevin D. Curtis.
To his way of thinking, all Republicans have to do “is scare their voters in order to win.”
He tells us that “fear and anger are the tools of the trade of today’s MTGOP.”
That’s about all the response I’ve gotten when asking what the refugee resettlement plan will cost and who pays it and for how long.
To hard-line Democrats like the Curtis’s, it’s not worries over our economy and record high taxes here in Missoula, it’s just my “fear and anger.”
Personally, I think that’s about the gist of Hillary’s election platform – ‘Trump is scary, vote for me.’
Who knows – maybe Hillary will be elected, we’ll have more war in the Middle East, and more refugees will be created.
Missoula will get its 100 families, possibly more.
Soft Landing Missoula will be put on the map and the federal grant money will roll in.
More Missoula jobs will be created, and since they're created with federal grants, you’ll be the one funding them.
Taxes will go up, those on fixed incomes will be forced from their homes, and more rich transplants can move in.
And oh, the refugees! My will they come...and come and come and come.
Or did you think war was ending?
Better be careful what you say about 'em, however – we don’t like racists and bigots.
If you speak out against refugees you can’t possibly be anything but.
You can read the story on Buzzfeed in a post called Twitter Permanently Suspends Conservative Writer Milo Yiannopoulos.
I’ve never heard of this asshole, but I guess over the weekend he encouraged his 388,000 followers to send harassing messages to the black woman in the new Ghostbusters movie.
So Twitter banned the guy, and I have no problem with that.
Like I said, I’ve never heard of this guy but one thing he said after the banning caught my eye.
“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives.”
I think he makes a good point here.
Why is this high-profile idiot banned but the overwhelming number of ISIS terrorist accounts are not?
According to the Guardian, in February Twitter deleted 125,000 ISIS accounts.
Despite that, just four days ago the Independent in the UK had an article telling us that “at least 50 Twitter accounts praising the attacks used the hashtag Nice in Arabic.”
Twitter moved swiftly to get rid of this, and to get rid of some accounts, something it’s been slower to do before. Most people agree with getting rid of ISIS messages…except ISIS, of course.
The conservative writer that got banned might feel differently, however.
“This is the end for Twitter,” he wrote. “Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”
So these are interesting things to think about – free speech and the need for restraint during times of war.
Speech isn’t free everywhere.
Take Cowturd – they don’t like what you say, you get banned.
There are acceptable commenters there, however, people like Amanda Curtis’ husband, Kevin D. Curtis.
To his way of thinking, all Republicans have to do “is scare their voters in order to win.”
He tells us that “fear and anger are the tools of the trade of today’s MTGOP.”
That’s about all the response I’ve gotten when asking what the refugee resettlement plan will cost and who pays it and for how long.
To hard-line Democrats like the Curtis’s, it’s not worries over our economy and record high taxes here in Missoula, it’s just my “fear and anger.”
Personally, I think that’s about the gist of Hillary’s election platform – ‘Trump is scary, vote for me.’
Who knows – maybe Hillary will be elected, we’ll have more war in the Middle East, and more refugees will be created.
Missoula will get its 100 families, possibly more.
Soft Landing Missoula will be put on the map and the federal grant money will roll in.
More Missoula jobs will be created, and since they're created with federal grants, you’ll be the one funding them.
Taxes will go up, those on fixed incomes will be forced from their homes, and more rich transplants can move in.
And oh, the refugees! My will they come...and come and come and come.
Or did you think war was ending?
Better be careful what you say about 'em, however – we don’t like racists and bigots.
If you speak out against refugees you can’t possibly be anything but.
