I Kinda Figured

It seemed somewhat obvious to me that lots of Trump voters would end up surprised/upset at Trump doing something that he said he would do.  I mostly figured it would be when the AHCA kicked lots of them off their insurance or led to increases in health care costs that they won't be able to afford, but that it's immigration related seems somehow more appropriate.

I certainly feel bad for the man who was deported, but his own wife voted for Trump!  A lot of this is shit that will have next to no impact on my life, but I wasn't too stupid to get it.  The talk about deporting "bad hombres" was obviously talking about deporting people whether or not they were "bad hombres" in reality.  This is largely because Obama was already deporting crap tons of people and the "bad hombre" segment was already covered.  The only way to deport more would be to kick out hard working, tax paying, America loving immigrants, probably breaking up families in the process, and that's exactly what is happening.

So on the one hand: I am sorry, and no family should have to go through that.  On the other: you stupid fucking people should have fucking thought about the election with something more advanced than your lizard brains.

Kind of Scary

Two big articles on CNN. Two comment threads full of hatred and bile. One is on a Muslim comic book, that was initially banned in Saudi Arabia, and is now, effectively, banned in the US, land of...free speech? The other is about an Hispanic family displaced by the xenophobic Alabama law.

Both articles themselves are depressing examples of how much hatred, bigotry and xenophobia have permeated much of US society (yes, particularly older, whiter, more male parts of US society). The comments are a predictable and pretty fucking horrible demonstration of that same bigotry combined with a huge helping of stupid:

...there is no such thing as a Christian terrorist.. because to be one would go against Christian doctrine and there you would not be a Christian. The odd thing is.. to commit acts of violence in Islam, actually goes right along with their doctrine.. I mean look at what happened when Mohamed entered in Medina...

After someone pointed out that Timothy McVeigh was, in fact, a Christian terrorist. The "No true Christian..." syndrome. That followed by the historical reference that seems to ignore similar heinous historical events that were undertaken by Christians in the name of Christ. The level of idiot that it would take to write that is mind boggling.

Frustrating Conversations

In speaking with someone regarding the AZ law I had mentioned that the sheriff from the Tuscon area (Pima county) has, as part of his jurisdiction, a decent stretch of the Mexico-US border, and that he opposes the new law. At the same time the Phoenix area Sheriff (Maricopa county) who supports the law is a ways in from the border. I was told that I was wrong and was ranted at for having an opinion but not even knowing the geography. The geography, by the way, is shown above. How wrong was I? A little. I would have place Phoenix closer to Flagstaff, and the edge of Maricopa county is only ~40 miles from the boarder at closest approach even though Phoenix is more like 130 miles.

I recognize that illegal immigration is not confined to the border, but the border is the point of conflict. That is the line that drug smugglers are trying to get across. That is where security forces will be working. That is where the rancher was killed (maybe by an illegal immigrant). I recognize that Tuscon is super liberal and all, but I'm pretty sure that their sheriff wants low crime, not high, and that he is far more likely to have to deal with boarder related crime, and that his opinion on the matter, therefore, holds a bit more sway to me. I'll grant that if it were the other way around I would likely make a different argument (something along the lines of how the Maricopa sheriff seems to strive for attention like Sarah Palin, and that he doesn't seem to care so much about solving the problem as bitching about it), but I digress.

I didn't know the AZ geography perfectly, but I had it right so far as the point I was making goes. Criticism leveled against what I had wrong is more an indication that the counter position is weak, or that the person who is posing it cannot adequately express its strengths.

Also, for the record, I think that Bush's push for immigration reform was good. It was one of the very small number of things that I agreed with him on (and strongly agreed at that). It was not derailed by Democrats, but by Republicans like Tancredo.