W.J. Astore
Today as I was checking out at Job Lots, the cashier asked me if I wanted to donate money for Ukrainian refugee relief. I thought quickly of the $33 billion Biden already wants from us for Ukraine and politely said “no thanks.”
Then I read Todd Miller’s new article at TomDispatch.com on the security-industrial complex along the U.S. border with Mexico and reflected on all those people risking their lives to cross the border into America, most of them refugees from wars and climate change and violence and the like. I’ve never been asked by a company or a cashier for that matter to contribute to their relief. Indeed, when the issue of refugees comes up along the Southern border, it’s always about more money for Homeland Security and more border control agents and surveillance technology (including drones and robotic dogs, as Miller notes), all to keep the “bad” people out of America, all those “illegals” who allegedly want to take American jobs while doing violence to vulnerable Americans.
Remarkably, Miller notes in his article how the Biden administration is following basically the same approach to border security as the Trump administration. The only real difference is that Biden is relying less on physical walls and more on “virtual” ones (towers, sensors, cameras, drones, etc.). This is hardly surprising when you consider Kamala Harris went south of the border to deliver a singular message to would-be asylum seekers. Her message to them: Do not come.
As Miller notes in his article, you can count on one thing: America’s border with Mexico will never be secure, no matter how much we spend, because insecurity and overhyped “threats” sell very well indeed.
Is America really the home of the brave, given our fears of invasions, whether from “dangerous” brown- and black-skinned people coming up from the south or all those gangster Russians and sneaky Chinese allegedly scheming against us?
If we want to help refugees facing violence and starvation, we don’t have to look as far as Ukraine. Depending on where you live in America, you might only have to look just beyond the wall or fence or surveillance tower in front of you. As you do, you might ponder why we’re not sending $33 billion to help them survive. Is it because they’re not killing Russians with American-made weaponry?
Bracing Views 
Bill, you always say it so well! Keep it up! Keep the faith! Love & Peace, Chris
Mieux j’apprends à connaître les hommes, plus je me mets à aimer les chiens. — Charles de Gaulle
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Very well said. 33 billion dollars of heavy duty weaponry so more Ukrainians and Russians will die.
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Thank you for putting this so succinctly. My stomach churns as I continue to read all the hype for weapons and violence and walls ………
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Not to flog my favorite cause again, but speaking of the border wall, it’s doing untold damage to the ecosystems that span the Mexican border. Many animals whose territories don’t align with national boundaries—for instance, critically endangered Mexican grey wolves—are in dire straits because of the wall’s blockages.
We’re not only discriminating against people we’ve labeled, “other,” we’re discriminating against animal species who existed in the area before people inhabited it.
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your pro- NON-human animal perspectives and eloquent advocacies are perfervidly appreciated, welcomed, and embraced, den. thank you, from a consociate animal-rights and habitat-prevention activist.
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You ALWAYS make me think! Thank you, Bill.
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Well and concisely stated. Ours is a nation of very skewed priorities; and one that sadly, reflects great hypocrisy. As we know, though, while leaders can’t seem to justify spending on any actual humane need, the spending on killing people is seemingly without bounds.
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“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.” ― Ronald Reagan
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In response to Ronnie Raygun’s pronouncement, I’d quote the wisdom of Bill the Cat: “PPPPFFFFFTTTTT!! ACK!”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_the_Cat
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At the end of of the day, aren’t we all refugees?
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Maybe, but Tom Petty told me I don’t have to live like one.
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Speaking of helping refugees. have you heard or seen any news regarding the $7 or $9 Billion we stole from Afghanistan? Are we going to give it back? There hasn’t been a word about it that I have seen on air or on line. Great! We bomb and destroy a country for no reason for 20 years and then when we finally abandon the job we leave and take all their money so the banks have none and the people are starving, but our media can’t be bothered to tell us about it because they are so busy telling us about the poor Ukranian Nazis that Russia is trying to curb.
Of course our media doesn’t bother to tell us about that Russia is fighting Nazis either, so everyone in Ukraine is a sweet lovely white person (no coloreds really allowed). Yes, I know most Ukranians aren’t Nazis, but they have allowed the Nazis to take over without much protest except for the folks in Eastern Ukraine who are ethnic Russian and who the Nazis have been trying to kill for the past 8 years without the government or the people of Ukraine making any attempt to stop them.
So my donations go to Afghanistan NOT to Ukraine – they’re already getting more of my tax dollars than I would want to give. If you have news about Biden’s theft I’d like to know it. Thanks!
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Yes, I’ve heard of this. Don’t know all the details. Nobody seems to care in the mainstream media. You have to look to alternative media for coverage here. Here’s a report from FAIR:
https://fair.org/home/bidens-multi-billion-afghan-theft-gets-scant-mention-on-tv-news/
As usual, the Democrats are trying their best to be more cruel than the Republicans, thinking it will help them, but the Republicans will always win this contest. The Afghan people are simply expendable pawns.
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