The Bahamas and Donald Trump

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The acting chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, has offered new assurances to Bahamian survivors of Hurricane Dorian that they will be allowed entry into the United States, less than a day after dozens of evacuees were forced off a ship bound for Florida because they didn’t possess visas. “We will accept anyone for humanitarian reasons, unless they have convictions for serious crimes,” he said.

The president, however, has other ideas, no doubt worried about the reaction of his base to an influx of black Bahamians.  “Evacuees had to have “totally proper documentation” he proclaimed. The United States, has “had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren’t supposed to be there… including some very bad people. We are going to be very very strong in that,”  adding that “large sections, believe it or not, of the Bahamas were not hit” by the hurricane. (It would be laughable if it were not true. Ed)

More than 100 Bahamians, trying to escape the hurricane’s devastation, were ordered off a ferry departing storm-ravaged Freeport, told by a crew member over the ship’s intercom system that if they attempted to enter the United States without a visa, ”You will have trouble”.

The Trump administration has been asked to help hurricane survivors, either by suspending traditional visa requirements, or by extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to the Bahamas. TPS gives citizens of countries affected by natural disasters or civil unrest the ability to temporarily live and work in the United States, a status that can be extended for years.

The Trump administration is hostile to granting and extending TPS designations. The Department of Homeland Security is currently entangled in a federal court case after seeking to terminate TPS for South Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador, which would strip protective status from more than 300,000 people.  Without TPS, Bahamians are left with uncertainty about their immigration status beyond the discretionary entry promised by CBP

“The United States government should help ensure that those who were left with nothing can easily seek shelter with their families in the United States,” wrote Reps. Brian Mast and Stephanie Murphy, a Republican and Democrat of Florida, respectively, in a letter calling on President Trump to “expedite, waive, or suspend certain visa requirements” for Bahamian citizens affected by the storm. The letter was co-signed by 18 other members of Florida’s congressional delegation.

Morgan has said that his agency will continue to allow for discretionary entry on humanitarian grounds—within reason. There are still people that are enemies to this country,” Morgan, adding that his agency wouldn’t send Bahamians with criminal convictions back to their storm-ravaged country, but would turn them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  (,Scott Bixby, National Reporter)

This should be a no-brainer.  These poor people suddenly find themselves homeless and jobless, owing to no fault of their own.  The Epicurean thing to do is to accept them, look after them and help the Bahamas recoup its losses.  But Trump’s first reaction is to say “no”  to foreigners, especially if they are not white.  And his “christian” base seem to think that’s acceptable.  At least the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reasonable, but for how long?  Morgan is only “Acting”.

Sit less, move more, live longer

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“You don’t need to go to the gym to benefit from exercise: even activities such as walking slowly or washing dishes can significantly boost a person’s longevity, a study has found. Researchers from Norway looked at data on 36,000 people with an average age of 63 whose activity levels were monitored over six years. Any exercise, no matter how light, was associated with a substantially lower risk of death.” The scientists said the “public health message” of their study was: “Sit less and move more and move often.”. (The Week, September 7, 2019)

Their bottom line is “a bit of light exercise is better than no exercise at all”.   I go to a gym for about an hour and a half three times a week, wherever I am.  My wife does even more, walking for an hour every day, before even getting to the gym.  We are typically the oldest people there, every time.   We both find that this regime gives us more energy and alertness, and we get a lot done, more (we both think) than many people our age.  We can do this because we have deliberately made it a habit that we never debate.  I have no problem with the minimalist prescription above – we are entitled to choice.  But now I cannot personally do without the gym.  It’s a form of medicine.

Jokes under scrutiny

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Is it possible to be a comedian when you don’t know who you’re making jokes for? When you’re unsure who is listening, and what mood they’re in? How can comedians tell the jokes they want to tell in a world where the butt of those jokes can turn a community against you? Can comedy survive in this age of outrage?”

“No longer does a joke stay in the room where it was told. If it’s filmed and put online, it reaches an audience for which it was never intended. If it’s repeated on social media – removed from the atmosphere around it and the build-up created by the comedian and sent out to people who don’t even want to hear it – it travels further; and something is different. The words are the same, but it’s not the same joke.”   (Edited comments by Miranda Sawyer in The Observer Aug 11 2019)

 Maybe, after decades, time and tide have made me more grumpy, (what? me?), but I do think “comedy” has become more vulgar and crude, less clever, as a  generalisation.  I literally don’t even understand some of the comedians.  Comedy is seemingly aimed at the young on social media, leaving us old guys scratching our heads.  This is a shame because we need all the laughs we can get, such is the state of the world.  One thing I’m sure of – jokes are seldom enhanced by crudity and put-downs.  And you can’t tell jokes without using the”f” word, best return to your day job.

Try having a conversation about Brexit!

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In reply to my posting about winning arguments, Carmen, a regular reader ( thank you, Carmen!) makes the following point:

“A pre-problem which I’ve experienced before even reaching a “how-to-win-the-argument” mode, is  establishing an agreement–stated or implied– to commit to a conversation. People are adept at giving their political viewpoints but at the same time setting up subtle speed bumps to deter subsequent conversational exchanges.”

I have recently spent time  in London, and have been disturbed at the huge divisions caused by Brexit. Start what you think is a reasonable conversation, conducted by polite and well-educated people, and far too many (for my liking) simply cut you off at the pass.  By that I mean they state their viewpoint in such a final and definite way that you are left with no alternative but to think “Um….” and change the subject.  This is tough because my wife, who is American, asks pertinent questions, wanting insights and real information.  She has, like me, been frustrated.  These are actual comments we have heard:

– “The EU is corrupt and needs reform” (more so than the British Parliamentary system? Wow!),

– “The Euro is bound to collapse and we need to get out before it does”. (a self-fulfilling prophesy).

– “We are fed up with the whole thing.  Just get us out and let us get on with our lives”. (a popular sentiment, if totally irresponsible).

– “We have had enough of being told what to do by Brussels bureaucrats!  Straight bananas indeed!” (Most of the stories are made up, Boris Johnson, as a journalist, being one of the chief story fabricators. It’s been a decades-long emotional crusade by the hard-right British media, which is the majority of the media).

– “I’ve met him (Boris). He’s very charming and very impressive” (well, yes, he’s a politician)

– “He’s strong, knows what he wants and gets things done” (O.K, but are they the right things?)

– “ He’s going to stop all this immigration. It’s ruining the culture”. (This from an immigrant taxi driver).

”He’s very clever.  He knows what to do”. “What would you like him to do?“  “Oh, I don’t know – I’m not a politician.”  (makes you despair, doesn’t it?)

All the above said with such conviction and finality that any attempt at conversation withers. Particularly disturbing if the person you are speaking to is a member of your family or a life-long friend.  One would have to go back centuries to find the country so deeply divided; but of course it is not alone!

Voting machines: in the age of Trump can they be trusted?

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A report by the New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice examined the number of aging or outdated voting equipment used throughout the country and found that during the 2018 midterm elections, 34 percent of local election jurisdictions were using voting machines that were at least a decade old as their primary form of voting.   At least eight states – Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky and New Jersey- will be using  paperless voting equipment, or machines without paper records, as the primary polling place equipment in the 2020 elections.

The report found.that in 2020 around 12 percent (down from 20%) of Americans, or about 16 million people, will vote on paperless machines and will have no paper record of how they voted.  These machines are a security risk because they don’t allow election officials or the public to confirm electronic vote totals.  Pennsylvania, Georgia and South Carolina will have replaced paperless voting machines by 2020, while Arkansas, Virginia and Delaware have already completed the process.

The  Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is what is driving the change to adopt election audits and replace outdated voting systems with “a voter-verified paper trail,” in which machines at least print out a paper record of the vote.   12 states are now exploring or using risk-limiting audits, which involve manually checking a sample of the votes cast to ensure they have not been tampered with. 

Nonetheless, “States and counties need more resources for items like cybersecurity support for local election jurisdictions and upgrades to voter registration databases and other critical election systems,” the Brennan Center report said.  (An edited version of an article in The Hill 13 Aug 2019)

Maybe I am seeing conspiracies where there are none, but the reaction of Republicans to accusations of Russian influence in the last election gave the impression that Republicans didn’t care (or even welcomed) Russian subversion of the system, since it benefitted them.  Which could be interpreted as treachery.  The same can be said for the alleged funding in Britain of Brexit with Russian money.  Putin must be loving all this!