The Real Conflict Behind Refried Beans & Swastikas...

The conflict over the all encompassing crackdown on illegal immigration in Arizona heated up Monday as vandals smeared refried beans in the shape of swastikas on the state Capitol's windows. People are upset in America because 30 years of Reaganomics has destroyed the American Middle Class, most of the problem being with Romney-style Private Equity firms buying American businesses, saddling them with debt, stripping them down, moving their manufacturing to China, and then selling them off. A small percentage of the problem is that our labor markets have been diluted by illegal immigrants, but while they're only a very small percentage of the problem, the right-wingers like Lou Dobbs point them them and say, "See? It's those brown people!" They're much more visible than the workers in China and Vietnam, who are never covered in the media, or the big corporations that have moved our jobs there. Some recent studies conducted by the Pew Research Center reveal the scope of the economic crisis in the US and the resulting high level of hostility the majority of the American population has for the US government which has allowed this corporate misbehavior to wipe out average Americans economically. One from March shows, 92 percent of Americans give the national economy a negative rating. 70 percent of the respondents report having suffered job-related and financial problems in the past year, an increase from 59 percent the year before. Fifty-four percent report someone in their home has been without a job and looking for work in the past year, up from 39 percent in 2009. Another Pew research study from April 18 named “The People and Their Government,” finds that “by almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.” It's time for our government to govern on behalf of the people rather than the transnational corporations and the banksters.
Comments


I was listening to Thom today and was very interested when he said a business could easily check for illegal immigrants by using the Social Security system verification process. I work as VP Operations for a small business, and while we do take photocopies of drivers licenses and social security cards, and have employees sign a document stating they are legally entitled to work in the US, we do not use this system. However, based on Thom's recommendation I thought I would check it out.
Good news! You can verify social security numbers over the internet. Bad news! The instruction manual on how to do this is 30 pages long and extremely complicated, and further, in the instructions on the proper use of the system it states:
- may only be used to verify SSN and names solely to ensure that the records of CURRENT or former employees are correct for for purposes of completing w-2s
- it is illegal to use the service to verify the SSNs of potential new hires.
So yes, you can verify SSNs, but not for new hires, so in effect you have to hire the person before you can verify their number. Further, if you use the system and find out a current employee does not have a valid SSN, there is a warning in the handbook that taking any adverse action against any employee who does not have a valid SSN (like terminating them or forcing them to produce a valid number) may be a violation of state and federal laws.
Come on Thom, don't suggest there is an easy out solution when there isn't. The SSN verify system cannot be used as a method of screening new hires eligibility to work in this country, and further, it cannot be used as a source of information to terminate people without proper SSNs who may be here illegally.
You've mislead your audience on this one. That's disappointing.

Boycott is the American Way
Since money is everything in America... the boycott is the ONLY REAL WEAPON the people have. When you spend money, you are supporting the receiver. A dollar is a vote. When you boycott someone who is harming your society, you reduce their power so that they can do no further harm. If money weren't power, why is the recent SOTA decision making corporations people, granting their ability to unlimited funding of candidates a problem? Thom is dead wrong on this issue. Even our founders believed in boycott.
Oh yes. So did Ghandi.
Remember the salt?
Free market fundamentalists.
Sorry, I'm not sure how to get in the right forum. I just wanted to pass on an Idea to Thom. What libertarians and so many other conservatives have in common is a religion that isn't acknowledged. Free Market Fundamentalism. Once you recognise that you are talking to a free market fundamentalist you can work from the perspective of knowing that they hold certain beliefs based on faith. That the free market will take care of everything. That government is always bad. That any social program results in a socialistic state.
That is why it is so hard to discuss issues with free market fundamentalists. They cannot question those things they take on faith.
I've heard Thom and others say "free market... uhhhh" searching for the right word. For me, fundamentalist says it all.
Thanks,