No Anthony, the greatest POW escape was not The Great Escape orchestrated by the Brits at Stalag Luft III in Germany during World War II which was made into a wildly inaccurate yet entertaining movie. Only 76 were involved in that breakout. The greatest POW escape was the Cowra Breakout on Aug. 5, 1944 by Japanese prisoners being held in the remote Australian town of Cowra. That involved 1,104 POWs. All were recaptured except for the 231 killed.
Greatest POW escape William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-30-19
Princess Leia Twitter Ban — Powerful Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY10) has been making divisive comments whose dishonesty we feel literally — yeah, Rachel Maddow we know what the word means — crosses the line to sedition.
Why would anyone think this man should be strangled by Princess Leia?
Saying you can’t trust an election on false claims that the President is a traitor can’t be anything but a call to resist lawful authority.
Anyway, it was being discussed on Twitter as to what should happen to Congressman Nadler and we innocently suggest he “should be strangled to death by Princess Leia.”
Quick Quiz for Ms. Maddow: Should a comment about being strangled to death by Princess Leia be taken “literally”.
But dang if that didn’t get us suspended. We haven’t fixed that account yet. Don’t know if we will.
OK, all you residents of Chadds Ford, Pa., how do you say “burnt wine” in Dutch? Give up? It’s “brandewijn”. You spell it differently.
Dutch traders visited the Cognac region of France back in the 1500s to buy wine among other things. The wine was hard to preserve for the trip back so they distilled it. They then distilled it again. Burning it in other words. The name for the product was eventually shortened to just “brandy”.
Yes Anthony, Omaha was bombed during World War II. The Japanese did it on April 18, 1945. They used a hot air balloon. Nobody was hurt and no damage was done. It’s noteworthy, though, as that the Nebraska city is almost smack dab in the middle of the country about 1,300 miles from the Pacific and 1,100 miles from the Atlantic.
Omaha was bombed William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-26-19
Philly Burbs Dems Show They Represent The Rich — President Trump taxed the rich big time with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that became law Dec. 22, 2017.
Mary Gay Scanlon represents the rich
It limits federal deductions of state and local taxes at $10,000. This includes property taxes. Most of us think that is peachy as we don’t pay that much more, if that much, in these taxes.
The rich, though, with their wasteful mansions with big carbon footprints in exclusive communities, are feeling a lot of pain.
Especially, if they live in a high-tax state like New Jersey or California.
So the pseudo-socialist, crony capitalists who fill the Democratic Party are trying to help them. They want to return the state and local tax deduction. They neato beltway acronym they use to refer to this deduction is SALT.
On Dec. 19, the House passed H.R. 5377 which would have raised the deduction to $20,000.
The called it the Restoring Tax Fairness for States and Localities Act (LOL). OK, the LOL is what we added.
Sixteen Democrats voted against the measure but they did not include any from the Philadelphia region. Yes, Brendan Boyle (Pa2), Dwight Evans (Pa3), Madeleine Dean (Pa4), Mary Gay Scanlon (Pa5) and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa6) voted to help the very rich.
Five Republicans voted for the measure. Yes, they included Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa1).
Brian, what good are you anyway?
A bill ending these deductions made it to the floor of the Senate, Oct. 23. It was sponsored by big-time lib Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It failed 52-43. Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only R vote in favor — gotta love the libertarians — and Sen Michael Bennet of Colorado was the only D vote against.
Five senators did not vote including Democrats Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont who in a strange coincidence had announced presidential campaigns.
Call it official. The GOP is the party of the little guy and the Ds are the bald hypocrites who represent the country clubs.
Henry Cole, a popular London museum director in the mid-19th century used to send short notes to his friends every Christmas. In 1843, he became extremely busy, so he asked John C. Horsely, an artist friend, to design a card saying “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You.” And so, Cole invented the Christmas Card.
Beyond The Pale? A palus was what the Romans called a sharpened piece of wood. They’d stick them around their camps to form a barrier against the bad guys.
Palus evolved to things like pole and pale. English troops called their protective barriers in unfriendly lands like Ireland and France and such pales.
When one went beyond the pale one went to places where order was not maintained and the unexpected was expected.
The Migration Policy Institute, which describes itself as a nonpartisan think tank that seeks “to improve immigration” through its research and analysis, recently published a report stating that in FY 2018 the State Department issued 9 million temporary visas to nonimmigrants. Although the 2018 total represents a 7 percent decline from FY 2017, 9 million is still a staggering number, the rough equivalent of New Jersey’s population.
MPI blames the visa issuance’s decline on President Trump’s more restrictive immigration policies and his “harsh rhetoric” that conveys the impression that the U.S. has become a “less welcoming place.” Be that as it may, the huge 9 million number indicates that the U.S. is generous, not restrictive, in its approach to foreign workers and visitors. Moreover, MPI didn’t outline the benefits to American citizens of fewer temporary workers and students on visas.
Employment visas – which give foreign nationals the right to legally work in the U.S. – include the H-1B for skilled employees, the H-2A for seasonal agricultural workers, the H-2B and the H-2R for seasonal nonagricultural workers, the O-1 and O-2 for workers with allegedly extraordinary ability or achievements, the P-1 for athletes and artists, the L-1 for intracompany transferrers, the E visa for investors and, finally, the TN visa for Canadian and Mexican professionals, as well as their spouses and minor children. Critics have long insisted that many of the visas are unnecessary, and hurt Americans.
For example, H-2B visas, limited to 66,000 annually, are granted to overseas workers who, among other positions, take landscaping, lifeguard and hospitality jobs – jobs Americans would eagerly do.
Temporary worker visa issuance has been on a dramatically upward trend since 2014. The number increased from 732,000 in FY 2014 to 911,000 in 2017 and to 925,000 in 2018. Basically, the presence of employment-based visa holders means that for Americans job competition is more intense, and citizens who hold jobs may find their employment status at risk from foreign, often cheaper workers.
For U.S. citizen students, especially those who hope to matriculate at their local state universities, the 27 percent decline from an estimated 1 million student visas in FY 2015 to 781,000 in FY 2018 means less international competition. Since overseas students pay higher tuition, college admissions offices prefer them to U.S. students who pay lower instate fees. The top international student sending nations are China, India, South Korea, Brazil and Germany which represent 39 percent of all student visas issued in FY 2018.
But the most troubling aspect of the huge inflow of foreign temporary visitors is that an estimated 40 percent of illegal aliens entered the U.S. legally on visas, but overstayed and thus became illegally present. Temporary eventually becomes permanent. Most overstays find white-collar jobs. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security reported that during a recent 12-month period, nearly 740,000 foreign nationals didn’t return home in accordance with their visas’ terms. Their illegal presence is one of the major contributors to illegal immigration. Analysts have found that in each of the last seven years, visa overstays have exceeded illegal crossings.
The sad truth is that the federal government isn’t looking for overstays, and if it did look would have no idea where to start its search. But if Costco can immediately locate every brick of cheese in its 762 worldwide stores, then the federal government should be able to track down foreign visa overstays. A program exists that would help reach that goal – a biometric entry/exit system – but Congress has been indifferent to implementing it.
Fewer visas is good news for prospective U.S. college students and American workers. The fewer visas that are issued also means that the illegal alien population as well as the population in general will not continue to swell with overstayers.
Immigration advocates always push for more visas, so fewer is a refreshing change of pace that results in tangible advantages for many American workers and students.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org
