Help for Dreamers

                   By Florida Bill                           

                                               
                                                   Strip away the emotion and the political bad blood.  No more crocodile tears from senate minority leader,  Chuck Schumer. The so-called DACA controversy (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and impasse can and should be resolved without any more delay. 
                                   The solution is easy.  It calls on Democrats in Congress to bend and allow construction of a wall along the Mexican border.  A secure border is in every one's best interest, and border security was favored by 12 presidents before President Trump.  In return and as a demonstration of good faith and concern for children, characterized as "dreamers" brought to the USA by their undocumented parents, the President is promising to provide legal status and even a path to citizenship for 1.8 million children.
                                    Resisting that agreement makes no sense, and  is contrary to the wishes of Americans, including the 63 million who voted for Trump and strongly endorsed his call for a wall along the Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California border with Mexico.   
                                     Promise of a wall was the principle promise declared by candidate Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election. He currently vows that he will deliver on that promise. He predicted that he would persuade Mexico to pay for the wall, but the jury is out on that one.                             
                                    A great deal for the USA and a good deal for the DACA children. The wall will end illegal entry by foreigners, and the dreamers will assimilate completely into American life and culture, receive all of the benefits of legal residents, and be free from the threat of deportation. Everyone wins!!!!
                                  Unfortunately, the push by President Trump and Republicans for construction of the wall has gotten hung up by a political hook wielded by Democrats who have disdain for the new president.  Expenditure of money for the wall would require a 60 per cent majority of senators in the upper house of Congress, and Republicans need some Democrats to approve the legislation.                                             Financing is not a problem, although Democrats contend that it will simply cost too much, and sort of break the bank. The argument is pleasing to Trump haters, but deceptive on its face.
                                   The border along Mexico extends for some  1,900 miles, but the President has said that the actual wall would be necessary on about 700 to 900 miles of the total length. Much of the 1,900 miles is inside rocky and watery terrains which are in themselves virtually uncrossable.  Cost estimates vary, but the President believes that the construction can be completed for some $15 billion dollars. Lots of money, yes, but the expenditure would amount to less than one per cent of the country's annual multi trillion dollar plus budget. 
                                   The United States spends 35 to 50 billion dollars annually for aid to other nations, so why not carve off a slice for payment for the wall?  America's foreign aid to 142 countries actually touches 76 per cent of the globe.  Some 10 billion dollars is gifted to countries in the Middle East.   
                                   Senator Rand Paul and other fiscally conservative congressmen have questioned why billions are earmarked for nations so vociferous in their hate of Old Glory.  "America should not give another dime to countries which denounce America and stomp and burn its flag," he has said.                                               DACA children came to the United States with their parents, who had entered the country illegally.  In 2012, with the threat of deportation hanging over the heads of these youngsters who have known only America as their home,  President Obama signed an executive order allowing these children to reside in America without fear of deportation.  In signing, the President cautioned that his order must be viewed as a temporary one until Congress can pass legislation to  fix the problem and to permanently protect the Dreamers.  He urged legislators to get on with that job. 
                                     Dreamers are different from children who are classified as "anchor" or "drop" babies.  These babies are born on American soil to undocumented aliens, sometimes visitors. Congress has interpreted the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution finding that children born inside the continental limits of the USA under any conditions are citizens.  Citizenship is automatic even though a parent is in America very briefly and for the planned purpose of delivering the baby on American soil. 
                                     Currently,  it is estimated that some 350,000 to 400,000  anchor babies are born each years in the USA and automatically become citizens entitled to support and public education through high school. Anchor or Drop babies are said to be born in the USA every 93 seconds.   
                                     Congress should put aside political opposition to President Trump and do what needs to be done to protect DACA children and at the same time to put an end to illegal entry into the United States so that the same controversy is not repeated in years to come. 
                                     The United States, the most powerful and richest country in the world, is  about the only nation which allows unchecked entry over its borders. Both Democrats as well as Republicans want America to secure its borders so that visitors for any and all reasons come onto American soil legally and based on "merit," or not at all. Congress has no  excuse for not fixing the problem.  

                                              XXX



                                 

Tom Brokaw & the Girls

     By Florida Bill 

                                     The Me-Too movement is not going away and a few days ago it roped in well-known TV anchor, Tom Brokaw, sometimes called the face of NBC.
                                      Linda Vester, 52, who had worked as an anchor and a correspondent at the station during the 1990s, blistered Brokaw in an article in Vanity magazine for hitting on her and wanting an "affair."  On one occasion, he appeared at her home uninvited and on another grabbed her by her throat and kissed her.  He once even groped her in front of colleagues, she said.
                                      His predatory conduct, said Vester, is part of the culture at NBC and she does not believe that despite a so-called internal overhaul, anything at the station has changed.  Unless there is an outside investigation of what goes on inside the news halls where females are treated as objects by male bosses, the culture there will continue.  She speaks out now, she says, hoping to be a catalyst for that change. 
                                      In the past few years, the Me-Too movement has swept through the country. TV big shots, entertainers, politicians and talking heads are going down like pins in a bowling alley.  Brokaw's long time colleague at NBC, Matt Lauer, was fired last November after it was revealed that he had a special way of hitting on young women who he would invite for office conferences on the state of the TV news business and how they might advance their careers. 
                                      Lauer had a private office with a door lock controlled by a switch on his desk.  After some small talk, women complained that he would lower his britches and surprise his guest with a full frontal of his ready to go package.                                                                           Charlie Rose, 76, a popular PBS and CBS talk show host, has also been booted from the news business because of his sexual harassment of lady staffers and associates.  His ploy was more circumspect then Lauer's.  He has been accused of sexual improprieties by 27 women.  In some cases, Rose would call for conferences with staffers and then, it was reported, would nonchalantly appear in the near raw, or in a bath robe, with suggestions that there was more important matters than upcoming interviews to be dealt with.
                                       But television pundits and anchors and reporters are not the only ones snared by women who are demanding that the harassing conduct of powerful men in control of their careers be stopped and disciplined.  In the entertainment business, multimillionaire Harvey Weinstein, a movie mogul and friend of the Obamas and other prominent persons, has been exposed as a boss whose zipper was always open when he was dealing with young women who sought a career in the movies.                                                                                 Ms. Vester said that she was appalled at the conduct of Brokaw who was some 30 years older than she was.  She told her friends of Brokaw's groping her  and she also made note of incidents with him in personal journals which she has maintained. 
                                        Two other women, neither of whom have been identified, have made similar complaints about Brokaw's conduct.  One is a former production assistant at NBC and the other tells of Brokaw's lusting behavior back in the 1960s when they worked together at another station.    
                                        Brokaw, 78, who was the lead anchor at NBC for 22 years is widely known and respected for his poise and judgment.  From time to time, he is called out by various stations to comment upon controversial political events .  He has labeled Vester's accusations as completely untrue.  "I was ambushed and  perp walked across the pages of Variety and the Washington Post as an avatar of male misogyny,"  an angry Brokaw said in a statement. 
                                         Brokaw said he met with Ms. Vester on two occasions in the 1990s at her request, when she was seeking advice on career moves.  There was never any groping or pawing....that is pure fantasy.  Ms.Vester had a reputation at the station for not being truthful, he added.                                                                                        Reportedly, about 100 women in the news business have come together and signed a letter in support of the integrity of Tom Brokaw and described him as a person who has always been straight and honorable in his dealings with them.  Some of the women, insiders have said, signed the letter  because it was expected of them by NBC management.
                                        Without naming names, Shannon Bream, a night talk show host at Fox News, has said that she has heard stories of Brokaw hitting on women in the news business.                                                                      Megyn Kelly, popular host of an NBC show and a former Fox News reporter, has said that signing a letter in support of  Brokaw or on behalf of anyone accused of sexual harassment can be "dicey."  According to Kelly, a former practicing lawyer and litigator, "one never knows what they don't know about a person." 


                                             XXX