Author: Kim du Toit

A Qualified Maybe?

Immigration

This poll caught my eye:

The survey asked respondents, “What do you think should be done about immigrants who have entered the U.S. illegally, but have committed no crimes while here?”

Across the board, respondents are virtually split, as 41 percent said those illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay, while 40 percent believe they should be deported. Another 19 percent remain unsure.

Results drastically vary by party identification. Most Democrats, 68 percent, believe that those illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country, and only ten percent said they should be deported. Another 22 percent remain unsure.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, 72 percent, believe those illegal immigrants should be deported, while 14 percent said they should be allowed to stay, and 15 percent remain unsure.

A plurality of independents, 42 percent, believe those illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the country, followed by 38 percent who believe they should be deported and 20 percent who remain unsure.

In the past, I’ve always been in the hardass camp — break the law, no matter when, and out you go.

However, I’ve recently softened my stance on this, after asking myself a question:

What if someone came over here (granted, illegally), but has over the years become a model “citizen”, working hard, paying taxes, maybe even raising a family.  Should the heavy boot of the State be applied to his (or her) ass?

If you consider the question then the key, I think, is in the phrase “over the years”.  In other words, how many years?

Here’s my thought.  Assume that the person came over at age 24.  Now, twenty years later, they’re in their mid forties:  spouse, kids in high school, working hard in a decent job, and most importantly, never convicted of any serious crime — not even drunk driving.  In other words, the person has proven themselves to be a decent member of society, and in fact, perhaps a better “citizen” than many a native-born citizen who lives on welfare, has been a general fuckup and definitely not someone you’d want to see marry your own son or daughter.

It’s even more compelling should the illegal immigrant have come over at age 40 and is now facing retirement.  Who’s want to deport a sixty-year-old back to a country they’ve not seen since their youth?

Unfortunately, however, all bets are off if this illegal immigrant has used forged documents (SocSec card, driver’s license etc.) to enable them to have worked here all that time.  That’s a criminal act — forgery — right there.

The question is:  how have they managed to live and work here without such documents?  The answer, regrettably, is that they probably couldn’t have, unless their employer has been incredibly lax or else has deliberately turned a blind eye to their status.

I have to tell you all, though:  the thought of tossing someone out after they’ve lived here for twenty years, worked hard and tried their best to stay on the right side of the law… that tossing out seems pretty harsh to me.

You will note that I’ve used the period of twenty years as a cut-off point.  I wouldn’t accept less than twenty, and the higher the number (25, 30 or 40 years), the greater I’m inclined towards leniency.

So, for the purposes of this argument, you can put me in that “Republican: 15% Unsure” category.

Comments are welcome.

Keeping Quiet

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

As I was wandering along the Gunny Trail, I happened upon this new thing:

It’s from Henry Rifles, and they’ve apparently created a new department called “Special Products Division” (SPD).  This particular model is known as the HUSH line.

“Why ‘HUSH’, Kim?”

Thought you’d never ask.

Long Time Readers will be all too aware of my antipathy towards plastic stocks, and especially so when used on classic rifles like Murka’s own lever action repeater.

I have to say, though, that this one’s not that horrible when there’s a suppressor attached (although how well a suppressor is going to work on the booming .45-70 Govt cartridge remains to be seen).

Let’s just say that when suppressors are freed from the stupid red tape and registration nonsense (not to mention the average cop’s hostile attitude towards them), I would be tempted — not towards a .45-70 Govt chambering (as pictured), but certainly the .357 Mag model — and certainly still more if I were to shoot the Hornady Critical Defense 110gr light loads — which achieve just over 1,000 fps out of a 4″ revolver… now imagine them emerging from that 24″ barrel, suppressed.

Excuse me, I need to take a quick cold shower.

Sorry.  Anyway, I’m not saying I’m going to become a Plastic Fantastic fanboi anytime soon.  But there’s just something about that HUSH rifle that intrigues me.

Being Henry and Made In The USA, these rifles are gonna be spendy, my guess in the almost-two grand area, but these are the times we live in.

Unexpected!

Corporate Fuckery

Yeah, I bet nobody saw this coming:

Walmart confirmed this week that it had paused hiring employees with H-1B visas in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reforms to the program.

“Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach,” the company confirmed to multiple outlets.

I wonder why… oh yeah:

Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B applications in September, saying the program “created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”

But fear not, Walmart:

Without an extension, the restriction will be lifted 12 months after the effective date of the proclamation, which is September 21, 2025.

…which means that Walmart will start re-importing their  slave labor  H-1B workers on September 22, 2026.

Anyone care to bet against this happening?  No?

Gosh, such cynicism.

Thursday Landscapes

Travels

In last week’s post about breakfast additives, Mrs. TrueBrit made the following comment:

One full English breakfast from the Farm Shop, Boscastle (you know where I mean, Kim).  One large mug of proper Cornish Tea. Done.

Just to let everyone else in on the joke, here’s the aforementioned Farm Shop & Cafe:

And down below in the valley, Boscastle itself:

…where Mr. and Mrs. TrueBrit and I once spent a quiet, intimate weekend together, so to speak.

Nazzo Fast, Guido

Foreign Affairs, Politics, Subsidies

I’m not so sure that this is a good idea.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that his administration is considering importing beef from Argentina to lower its price at home and help Argentina stabilize its struggling economy, which he described as being in critical condition.

Dear  King  God-Emperor Donald:  Those are both laudable goals, i.e. to help a loyal ally and simultaneously help U.S. consumers who are being flattened by stratospherically-high beef prices at home.

However, I can’t help but think that you should also consider trying to ease the crushing burden of federal regulations that beef farmers — actually, all farmers — have to deal with, regulations that are a legacy of the Leviathan State you’ve inherited.  That will lower their cost of production, and should make beef less expensive.

Lowering beef prices through imports will simply make our beef farming less profitable — not that it’s all that profitable to begin with — and frankly, I care more about our farmers than about the Argies.

After all, it’s Make America Great Again, not Make Argentina Great Again.  With all due respect to Señor Presidente Milei, he has to deal with problems of his country’s own making, just as we have to beat back the Commies Over Here.  We can and should help him, but not at our own expense.

Just a thought.

Nazzo Fast, Guido (Part 2)

Foreign Affairs

I also have reservations about this one.

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a rare earths and critical minerals deal Monday at the White House.

On the surface of it, this is a Good Thing in that it very much loosens the stranglehold that the fucking ChiComs have on rare earth production, which they have signaled as a boycott threat in dealing with the U.S.

However, I note with some displeasure the comment also made after the signing:

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum praised the deal.

“Critical mineral independence is essential to our national security, and thanks to @POTUS, America is finally prioritizing the resources essential to our defense, technology, and energy sectors!”

That statement is quite true… but there are a couple of home truths we have to deal with here.

The first is that when it comes to rare earth reserves, the United States has the largest such in the entire world, much larger than the next two or three countries combined.

The second home truth is that while we have all the rare earth minerals we need, we are prevented from producing it because of the raft of ecological and NIMBY regulations and barriers hamstringing its mining.

So it’s all very well to sign agreements with countries like Australia, but that’s not actually “mineral independence”, is it?  Lest anyone forget, the Australia of today is far from the Australia of, say, post WWII.  Now their government is a bunch of frigging Commies — politically speaking, OzPM Albanese is at about the same level as Nancy fucking Pelosi, their diplomats are just as bad — and I don’t trust Commies of any stripe, furriners especially.

Of course, I mean no disrespect to my several Oz Readers, because judging from the tone and temper of their many emails to me, I gather that they (and many other Strylians) have an even deeper loathing for their Lefty government types than I do.  But these politicians, lest we forget, have nevertheless been elected by the populace, so my Oz readers are in the distinct minority.

From a global realpolitik  perspective, of course we should strengthen our ties with nations like Australia who are threatened by ChiCom expansion plans.  But let’s also tread carefully all the same, because in the end, Commies are Commies and there’s no telling how they may behave in future.