Month: January 2025

Immigration Considerations For Donald Trump

By Bob Small

““As Commander in Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do,” said Donald Trump during his the Inauguration speech.

Trump’s Immigration Executive Orders: What to Know

In 2023, Time Magazine thought they knew where the immigration debate was going. “Trump’s defeat and stronger than projected midterm performances by Democrats suggest that anti-immigrant cynicism is misplaced and a fundamental misread of American sentiments on immigration.”

Only two of their suggestions seem worthy, finding a pathway to immigrants already in the US and seeking to ascertain immigrants with special skills. The latter opens up all kinds of debates.

This Brookings article brings up a few unique ideas. It notes that the implications of the globalization of migrants is “enormous”.They mention that the background checks for border agents take months, sometimes years”. As a recovering government worker, I believe we need to ask why? Not that Border Agents shouldn’t be vetted but should it years?!

The problem of “surge management” is also discussed. Surely, these surges in border crossing have been going on long enough that they should have a process for dealing with them.

Another article from two years ago is 4 proposed solutions to the U.S. border crisis

They mentioned the following proposed act “The Border Safety and Security Act of 2023, authored by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would mandate that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) block entry at the border to anyone who doesn’t have a visa. This is constantly introduced and dies. These congressional stalemates remains part of the problem.

Lastly, from mid-November Immigration Is a Mess. Here’s How to Fix It.

Some of the suggestions that are positive include “On deportations, take steps that build credibility and support, like expelling criminals and recent immigration-law violators and hiring additional immigration judges as quickly as possible to address the case backlog. 

For legal immigration, it proposes enacting an improved version of the first Trump administration’s “public charge” rule that bars the immigration of those unable to support themselves ‘

Hopefully, what President Trump plans on Immigration will be allowed, so as to address these issues.

Discovering Victory at Sea

By Bob Small

Because we neither cable nor stream we rely on DVD and VHS which requires occasional forays to our local Goodwill or library. At Goodwill, we gathered the VHS Version of the 1950’s documentary Victory at Sea, which, amazingly, we had never seen. We recently finished all 26 episodes initially shown from Oct. 26, 1952 to May 1, 1953. It snared an Emmy in 1954 for best Public Affairs program. We learned an incredible amount of “hidden history” in the month we gave ourselves to watch this program.

If you’ve ever wondered why this generation was dubbed “the greatest generation”, this goes a long way to answering that. Personal note; Both our fathers were members of the US Military and our mothers contributed on the “home front”.

The idea of Victory at Sea was conceptualized by Henry Salomon about whom very little is known, at least on the Internet. This US Navy veteran and writer served as a research assistant to Samuel Elliott Morrison, author of the 15-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.

Salamon discovered the huge amount of filmage by all the involved navies. NBC approved the idea in 1951.

The music was written by Richard Rogers, of Rogers and Hammerstein and Rogers and Hart with Robert Russell Bennett,a leading arranger and orchestrator on Broadway — think The King and I and South Pacific.

Trivia note Perry Como‘s“No Other Love” became a 1953 #1 hit using the melody from Episode 9, Beneath the Southern Cross, with words by Oscar Hammerstein.

The narration was by Leonard Graves Leonard Graves, an American Actor and singer who was later manager of the Memphis Opera and finished his career with the Israeli National Opera.

See also An Update on Memphis Singer and Actor Leonard Graves

Note; If you purchase a DVD set, check to see it it’s the full set. You won’t have that problem with the VCR set.

We’re now looking to find a DVD/VHS version of Soviet Storm. WW2 in the East (The Great War). Very little of Victory at Sea included the Soviet Eastern Front, for obvious reasons.

We’re now returning to our usual fare of murder mysteries and westerns.