President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

If it turns out he was paying for companionship but the women were 18-plus, not only will he not resign but he’ll get re-elected if he chooses to run.

 

IRS chief says some $1T in taxes going uncollected annually

 

I confess. We don't report our 120,000-ruble rental income.

 

Well, what are they waiting for? I'm beginning to wonder if they're going to do anything to the Panhandle Pedophile.

 

The immigration situation is bad enough Friedman is using the word "high wall" to describe a solution.

Opinion | We Need a High Wall With a Big Gate on the Southern Border

I wish we could take in everyone suffering in the world and give each a shot at the American dream, but we can’t while maintaining our own social cohesion, which is already fraying badly enough. So, making immigration policy today requires a tough-minded balance between hardheartedness and compassion.

If we just emphasize the high wall, and wear cruelty as a badge of honor, as Trump did, we lose out on the huge benefits of immigration. But if all we do is focus, as many on the left do, on the evils of a wall and ignore the principles of a big gate — that would-be immigrants and asylum-seekers need to get in line, ring our doorbell and enter legally, and those who don’t should be quickly evicted — we will also lose out on the huge benefits of immigration.

Why? Because so many Americans will think that the border is open and out of control that they will elect leaders who will choke off all immigration, which is the lifeblood of our country. Have no doubt, a seemingly out-of-control border would be a godsend for the Trump G.O.P. — an emotional club even more evocative than the mantra “Defund the police” with which to beat Democratic candidates in the midterms.

 

Mr. Bolton found that the agency’s leaders failed to adequately prepare despite explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a threat to law enforcement and civilians and that the police used defective protective equipment. He also found that the leaders ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — like stun grenades — to put down the onslaught.

Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds

 

Blanket Pardons, My Pillows and Bed-Minster: The Trump Years

 

They
Were
In
On
It

 

If it's attainable, can it really be considered ambitious? (somewhat of a crosspost from the corona thread)

 

As ever, the lack of specifics makes Friedman's words not much more than hollow rhetoric. I daresay the flow of desperate people seeking entry to the US would be much lower if we had spent the money we pissed away in Afghanistan the last 20 years, a project I bet Friedman still supports, on assistance to Central America.

 

Perhaps. Some Central American nations are corrupt enough that assuming the money would be distributed in a way that reached the most vulnerable is a big stretch.

I agree Friedman doesn’t give a plan. If it wasn’t as bad as it is - and it’s really bad - he wouldn’t be writing it at all.

Democrats are frozen on this issue. They painted themselves in the such an ideological corner that doing much at all risks triggering the media and a rhetorically influential voting sector.

 

Why is it really bad for many many people seeking to enter the US, most of whom won't get in? We could improve their humanitarian situation at the border, true, but in what sense is this flow of people, which is at least a century old, a threat or even problem for the United States? I don't see it. Neither did Ronald Reagan, come to think of it.
PS: Turns out Friedman wrote an immigration column with the same metaphor and same headline on April 5, 2006. This ain't new.