“*Expletive* Countries” and Government Shutdowns

Donny: “Why are we taking immigrants from those *expletive* countries?”

Dicky: “Mommy, Mommy, Donny said *expletive*.”

Mommy: “Now Donny, you know you should not say *expletive*, as *expletive* is a bad word. Now go to your room for saying *expletive*, and don’t say *expletive* again.”

Two Completely Different Immigration Meetings

On Tuesday January 9, 2018, President Donald Trump held a meeting with House members and Senators about immigration. On a unique move, he allowed the media to stay for the entire meeting. That was unique, as usually the media is ushered out of the room as soon as such meetings start.

The meeting was very congenial, with both sides, President Trump and the Republicans on one side, and the Democrats on the other, seeming to be willing to give and take to come to an agreement about all aspects of immigration. The Democrats want a pathway for citizenship for the so-called DACA Dreamers, the children of illegal immigrations who came here as children but who are now adults. The Republicans appeared open to that, if the Democrats would give them money for Trump’s proposed border wall and the elimination of the visa lottery system and chain immigration. The Democrats seemed willing to give on all three of those points.

Overall, the public was given a look into how negotiations into Washington DC go, or at least should go, with both sides being cordial towards each other and being willing to give a little to get a little. But most of all, President Trump was shown to be in full control of his faculties, which should have put to rest any claims about him being mentally unstable and unfit for the job as President of the United States. In fact, such claims are probably why Trump allowed the press to stay for this meeting, just to demonstrate to the media and the rest of his naysayers that they are wrong about his mental state.

But then, that claim was revived two days later when another meeting was held on the issue of immigration, but his time, it was held behind closed doors, as it was supposed to be a private meeting. The tone of that meeting was apparently a lot different from the first meeting. This one was not so congenial, with lots of “tough talk” and foul language being used by both sides.

But then something strange happened. As soon as the meeting was over, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin felt a need to run to the media and tattletale on President Trump for using an expletive to refer to Haiti and some African countries. In his tattletale, Durbin obviously repeated the word. Then over the next several days of reporting about how awful it was to use that word, the media repeated the word over and over again, both in speech and in print.

Differences in Media Coverage

Actually, only some media outlets repeated the word over and over again. Switching between different TV stations, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. CNN and MSNBC printed the word on the banner under its talking heads, and the commentators themselves kept saying the word over and over again. And by printing and saying the word, I mean in full, without asterisks and without abbreviating it. The talking heads were all appalled that Trump used the word, but they had no qualms about using it themselves over and over again.

I keep saying “over and over again” as that is what was happening. Sean Hannity says that CNN used the word 195 times during the 24 hours after Durbin’s tattletale. I didn’t count, but that seemed about right, given the frequency in which it was being repeated.

But then I turned to Fox News. On it, the word was printed on screen, but with asterisks replacing several of the letters. Then when the commentators mentioned the word, they abbreviated it, not using the full word.

Finally, I watched CBN News. For those who don’t know, CBN stands for Christian Broadcasting Network. Being a Christian station, CBN did not print nor repeat the word at all. They simply did what I am doing in this article, say Trump used an expletive, without specifying the word. And most interestingly, when CBN showed a screenshot of CNN with the word printed on CNN’s banner, CBN blurred out the word, so that it could not be read at all.

As a Christian, I appreciated how CBN handled the situation and that is how I am handling it. Using such language is always wrong, no matter what the context. And that includes repeating what someone else said. To use a foul word yourself in condemning someone else for using such is just plain hypocrisy. And I was highly offended at having to hear the word over and over again and to read it over and over again when viewing media other than Fox News and CBN, which is why I did not view stations like CNN or MSNBC for very long.

That is because my standard practice is, whenever I am reading or viewing something, and a foul word is used, I immediately stop reading or listening. That is why I stopped using YouTube years ago. No matter what the subject of the video, there always seems to be foul language in it. The last straw was when I was trying to view an instructional video on how to use a pedometer I had bought years before but hadn’t used in a while and had lost the instructions for. The video was just what I wanted, with clear explanations on how to set the pedometer for my own pace length. But in every other sentence was an “f-bomb.” I watched as much as I could tolerate to re-learn how to use the pedometer, but that was it for that video and for YouTube for me.

On Facebook or Twitter, if I am reading a post and a foul word appears, I immediately stop reading and move onto the next post. If the same person repeatedly uses foul language, I will unfollow that person, no matter who it is, even a close friend or relative. And I stopped participating in powerlifting forums altogether, as the foul language was so pervasive, it was impossible to avoid it.

I simply do not care to hear or read such language, in accordance with the Bible’s dictate, “But now you* yourselves also put off [fig., cease from] all these [things]: anger, rage, malice, blasphemy, [and] obscene language out of your* mouth” (Colossians 3:8; ALT3).

Context of the Word, Racism, and Immigration

What was the context of that word when the President originally used it? Apparently, he was trying to make a point that we need to have a merit-based immigration system. By that is meant the following:

If the currently proposed Senate bill passes as written, 5 years after its enactment there would be created a merit-based visa system that would award green cards based on a holistic assessment of an alien’s skills, education, work history, ties to the United States, knowledge of the English language, business activities, community service, and country of nationality. The merit-based system would start out with 120,000 annual visas and would potentially grow to a ceiling of 250,000 visas per year, depending on demand (Zhang).

Merit-based immigration would reward points based on high-paying job offers, past achievements, English-language ability and education. All that would be taken into account when green card applications are considered. “It gives points for different characteristics, which are age, the salary you able to command, and how much money you are going to invest in the U.S. economy,” Tsu said. The higher the score, the more likely an immigrant would be admitted to the United States (VoaNews).

This attitude towards immigration is exactly opposite of the current systems of a visa lottery and chain immigration. The former is a reference to people coming here just because they win a lottery, meaning it is pure chance they get picked to immigrate to the USA, with no concern if they will bring skills or anything else of value. As long as they pass a background check, they get in.

Then chain immigration is a reference to a person who wins the visa lottery or attains legal status in some other way being able to bring with them as many relatives as they want, no matter how distant. That means, not only their parents, spouse, and children get to come in on their heels, but also aunts, uncles, cousins, and even more distant relatives than that. Literarily dozens of people can come in due to one person getting approval. In all of that, no concern is given as to what skills or benefit such people will bring to the USA and its current citizens.

President Trump, and many other Americans, this writer included, consider that approach towards immigration to be foolhardy. New arrivals to this country should benefit it, not be a burden to it and definitely not a danger. But the latter has been the case, with a couple of recent terrorist attacks being committed by immigrants who came here via the visa lottery program or chain immigration.

It was with that background that Trump made his remark. He was arguing that we need a merit-based system for immigration. And with that in mind, he asked rhetorically, “Why are we allowing people from *expletive* countries to come in here?” He reportedly mentioned Haiti and some African countries as examples of countries we should not be taking immigrants from, while pointing to Norway as an example of a country we should be taking immigrants from.

The Democrats seized on that fact that Haiti and African countries are predominately populated by black people while Norway is predominately white to paint Trump as a racist by this comment. Talking heads on CNN began saying matter of factually, “Now that we know the President is a racist …”

But was Trump thinking of the shade of peoples’ skin when he made that remark? Most certainly not. The only commentator that got it right was CBN’s political correspondent Jenna Browder. She stated, “Trump does not look at the world through skin shade eyes but through economic eyes.” Her point was, Haiti and many African countries are economically distressed while Norway is economically prosperous. The reason Trump mentioned Norway was because he had just met with Norway’s Prime Minister, and they had discussed that Norway was greatly prospering. Therefore, Trump’s point was, we should be taking people from economically prosperous nations, as they are likely to have skills that will benefit the USA, while people from economically distressed nations are not likely to be so skilled.

Now, I think the President is wrong in that assessment, and he was definitely wrong in using such a strong word to express his feelings in this regard. Just because a country is in a bad economic state does not mean all of its citizens are not skilled in such a way that a country would benefit from their presence. The poor economic states of Haiti and some African countries is due to faulty economic policies of their leaders, not necessary the lack of skills on the part of their citizens. There can very well be hard-working skilled workers in economically distressed nations that would benefit the USA. Conversely, just because a country is prosperous does not mean all of its citizens are skilled and would be beneficial to a country.

But the fact that I disagree with Trump, his assessment of the situation, and his use of that word, does not make him a racist. We simply disagree. But to say we disagree is not good enough for the left. They believe it is necessary to vilify anyone they disagree with.

The Recent and Future Government Shutdowns

Moreover, by labeling Trump a racist, Democrats figured they could get backing for their policies and lessen support for Trump’s policies. That is why Dicky ran to a microphone to tattletale on Donny. He was trying to garner support for liberal immigration policies. And figuring they had such support, the Democrats orchestrated the government shutdown that started at midnight on Saturday, January 20, 2018.

The Democrats were trying to say Trump did not want to give legal status to the so-called Dreamers as he is a racist, and most of them are Hispanics. They were further trying to say that Republicans in general were racist for being against immigration. But the plan blew up in their faces.

The public had seen that first meeting and knew full well that Trump and Republicans were ready and willing to offer a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers. Moreover, as White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway on CCN pointed out, a merit-based immigration system is exactly opposite of racism. People get in or don’t get in based on their skills, regardless of their race. Most Americans understand that. As such, Democrats were forced to back down and signed an agreement to end the Schumer shutdown after just two days.

But that is not the end of the story. That agreement only funded the government for three weeks. The government will once again shut down at midnight on February 9^th if a longer-lasting agreement is not reached by then. In the meantime, Democrats will probably once again play the race card in their efforts to avoid a merit-based immigration system and to build Trump’s wall. The latter is especially odious to the media and Democrats as such a wall will remain standing for decades to come, standing as a reminder that Trump was President. And their hatred for him is such that they want him out of office as soon as possible and for people to forget that he ever was President.

That is why they were trying to claim he is unfit for office. But that open meeting showed otherwise, and his fitness for office was especially proven by his first annual physical. Therefore, that ploy failed, just as the hoax of Russian collusion is falling apart. In fact, we are now finding out it was Hillary and the DNC who were colluding with the Russians, while the heads of the FBI were protecting Obama and Hillary and orchestrating the hoax of a Trump-Russian collusion. But the media is ignoring that burgeoning scandal and instead are fabricating the idea that Trump is a racist.

But this ploy will fail as well, as it is just as untrue as the previous claims. CNN proved that themselves when they interviewed seven New England Democrats who had voted for Trump. They were being asked if they still supported Trump, after all of his “racist” and other “absurd” comments. All seven said they did, as Trump’s policies are working, and they are all benefiting as a result.

That, by the way, is why this writer still supports him. Though I could do without his crude comments, his policies are benefiting millions of Americans, and that is what is most important. The recently signed tax plan, for instance, has already enabled numerous companies to pay bonuses to their employees and/ or to give their employees pay raises, with Disney being the most recent example.

In any case, two of those seven Democrats were black, one a woman and one a man. Both said he is not a racist. The black woman said she met President Trump and could confidently say he is not. She said that a true racist would just look through her, not even acknowledging her presence. But when she met Trump, he shook her hand and talked with her for a couple of minutes, looking her in the eyes and showing genuine concern for her as they spoke. That is not how racists act.

Conclusion

The use of foul language is always wrong, no matter what the context. But that doesn’t make President Trump a racist, nor is it a reason to shut down the government. But the Democrats are so entrenched in their hatred of Trump and their support for unregulated immigration that they will grasp at any straw to try to bring down the President and to bolster their positions. But knowledgeable Americans will not fall for their tactics, as they are easily proven to be false.

References:

VoaNews. Merit-based Versus Family-based Immigration Explained.

Zhang & Associates, P.C. Details of the Proposed Merit-based Visa System under the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.

The First Impeachment of Donald J. Trump

This three-volume set covers the impeachment of Donald J. Trump that occurred over the fall of 2019 to the winter of 2020. It was yet one more attempt to oust the President from office by Democrats, who never accepted he won in 2016. A complaint about a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky led to an impeachment inquiry to begin in early September 2019. Along the way, the corruption of Joe Biden that Trump wanted investigated and which led to the impeachment inquiry is discussed.

The above article was posted on this website January 25, 2018.

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