[Knarf]

Will there be great suffering?  Depends if you think collapse is in progress or you think it won't arrive for another 50 years.  Anyhow, there has always been great suffering, so why worry, right?

  The migrants are going to keep coming...more and more of them. If we as a society turn to authoritarian governance now, it is possible that our world will fracture. A dystopian 1984 scenario, but I see mass genocides also. Control our every move to keep us safe will be the meme of tomorrow if we can't integrate with each other with a large cost of living decrease.

[K-Dog]

Groups do not have a behavior.  Individuals in a group do.

Nonsense.  There are endless examples of group behavior, both in the animal kingdom and in homo sap.

What is the meaning of group behavior?
When in group settings, we are often influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around us. Whether it is due to normative or informational social influence, groups have power to influence individuals. Another phenomenon of group conformity is groupthink.

RE

Semantically, a group may be no more than a collection of random things.  But that is not what we are talking about.  When we are talking about groups of people we are not doing math.

So.  People in a boat trying to find a new home do not a 'group' make. 

But that won't stop anyone ashore from defining refugees in a boat as members of any group that suits their American whim.

A group of terrorists, a group of Africans.  A group of fucking rice eaters.  A group of anything you wish.  But at the end of the day refugees are just people in a boat thrown together by circumstance trying to find a life.

Beware the assignment of groups where none exist.  A common language is a matter of circumstance.  That does not make a group.  Consider labels.  Rice Eater.  Is that a bad thing?  Of course not.  But a MAGA dude with an alcohol problem who can't get to work on time will call a 'group' of Asians who have smuggled themselves in by shipping container 'rice eaters' with racist intent.  He will add the fucking prefix.

A beginning of wisdom is to know that things may be called by wrong names.  When that happens thinking distorts.  Find the right name for a 'group' if you think you see one.  Remember you might be seeing something that actually does not exist.  Circumstance do not create groups.  Take care or group-think can suck you in.  Intelligence is not a vaccine against thinking like the herd.  Using intelligence is optional and emotions can prevail.

Winston's job in 1984 was to control language.  Orwell gave him that job for a reason.  Big Brother likes to control the names of things.

The names of things are gatekeepers of group membership when groups exist.  Codes to define who is in-group and who is out-group.  Who gets pie and who does not.

"Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts" — Marcus Aurelius

So pick good colors.  Emotions can generate a lot of bad names for things.  Blurring colors and making them run together ugly.

[RE]

But at the end of the day refugees are just people in a boat thrown together by circumstance trying to find a life.

They may have arrived at that particular boat randomly, but they all have the same destination in mind, the FSoA.  They're all going to face the INS at the border and all going to try to get a court date for a residency hearing.  They'll all be looking for shelter, they're all afraid of deportation.  They all need water, food, warm clothing, shelter, money.

Of course they're all individuals, but they have characteristics in common and they're going to tend to react to things in similar ways.  They're going to be treated as a group by the system they are going into, herded onto buses and into refugee camps.  It's unavoidable in a mass migration of people of this sort.

RE

[K-Dog]

But at the end of the day refugees are just people in a boat thrown together by circumstance trying to find a life.

They may have arrived at that particular boat randomly, but they all have the same destination in mind, the FSoA.  They're all going to face the INS at the border and all going to try to get a court date for a residency hearing.  They'll all be looking for shelter, they're all afraid of deportation.  They all need water, food, warm clothing, shelter, money.

Of course they're all individuals, but they have characteristics in common and they're going to tend to react to things in similar ways.  They're going to be treated as a group by the system they are going into, herded onto buses and into refugee camps.  It's unavoidable in a mass migration of people of this sort.

RE

I only know one migrant who has applied for asylum at this time.  I would hook him up with a job if I could.  I see 3-4 new Russian speaking migrants at the store every day.  Obviously from the Ukraine, but they won't say so. 

All my neighbors except one are now ethnic Chinese.  The only politics they had to express to get here is to have the money.  Our neighborhood has been featured as the best place in America to move to in Beijing real estate advertisements.  The local drugstore and bank have all young Chinese women working for them.  As a policy that pisses me off, only a racist would wonder why.  One of them did a great job reinvesting my 401 K last month.

The Russians I see in the store are a group.  They have to express correct politics to get here no doubt.  No random collection there.  I suspect Anchorage is getting a share of that action.

[RE]

I only know one migrant who has applied for asylum at this time.  I would hook him up with a job if I could.  I see 3-4 new Russian speaking migrants at the store every day.  Obviously from the Ukraine but they won't say so.

These Russians are a group.  They have to express correct politics to get here no doubt.  No random collection there.  I suspect Anchorage is getting a share of that action.

I'm not out in the general population much, so I don't see anybody who isn't connected to the sick care industry in some way.  However, given we already have a fair size Ruskie population, new Russian emigres might come here if they have family here already.  However Ukrainians aren't Russians, though most do speak Russian in addition to Ukrainian.  I think most of the Russians here come from the eastern part of Russia, rather than the west.  I think Ukrainians head for NY mostly.

What we do have are a large number of Nurses, mainly from Africa.  Nigeria seems to be sending quite a few.  Phillipines as usual and Indonesia as well.

The southern border seems to be where the major influx is right now.  Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua in Central America, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina in South America.  Mexico serves as a transit point for all of them.  Right now the Mex goobermint is trying to extort $20B from Biden to keep them on that side of the border.  Of course if he pays, next year they'll just ask for more so it's not a great long term solution.  It might get him through the election though.

RE

[K-Dog]

Of course if he pays, next year they'll just ask for more

Yes, but when they ask again, Trump will have to pay.

Fuck Trump

Migrants have been coming here legally for years.  I do not know what the current price tag is now, but when they moved in buying houses in the neighborhood satisfied their investment requirement.

[K-Dog]

Collapse will not give most migrants a second chance.

They could freeze to death in any North American christian city.

Global cooking will freeze millions.  When it gets down to the 20's and it still will, alcoholism will not be needed.  Poverty is enough.

[RE]

Migrants have been coming here legally for years.  I do not know what the current price tag is now, but when they moved in buying houses in the neighborhood satisfied their investment requirement.

I don't think the current demographic is composed of people who can afford to buy houses, particularly at the current inflated prices.  Most of them have a hard time putting together the $10K/person the human traffickers charge to get them across the border.

RE

[K-Dog]

Migrants have been coming here legally for years.  I do not know what the current price tag is now, but when they moved in buying houses in the neighborhood satisfied their investment requirement.

I don't think the current demographic is composed of people who can afford to buy houses, particularly at the current inflated prices.  Most of them have a hard time putting together the $10K/person the human traffickers charge to get them across the border.

RE

So we have two kinds of migrants.  The ones that will burn rubber to steal a parking space are fine, not even counted, but the ones who have to do a windshield wiper thing to get bus fare are criminals.

Seems we have money as our god.  Now it even defines right and wrong.

BINGO

* I see the pic has a copyright.  I wonder if the window washer got a piece of the action.  A picture worth  a copyright should have been worth a fiver to the washer at least.  Then again, a guy who would copyrighted this is likely the kind of dude who would stiff the washer.  And steal your parking space.

[K-Dog]

a hard time putting together the $10K/person the human traffickers charge

The guy I know from Africa who has applied for asylum was able to get across for $1500.  The trafficker he used must give Africans a discount.  I would. They have already traveled thousands of miles.

[TDoS]

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
—Leviticus 19:34 (NIV)

Picture taken of northbound travelers, heading north on the Mexican side of the Mexican/Guatemala border. I wonder how long it'll be before they get to the Rio Grande? I imagine all fine American Christian folk will treat them well. 

[TDoS]

Collapse will not give most migrants a second chance.
They could freeze to death in any North American christian city.

Global cooking will freeze millions.  When it gets down to the 20's and it still will, alcoholism will not be needed.  Poverty is enough.

I watched that entire video and thought it was great. It has often been said that addiction is a part of how many folks become homeless, and the interviewee was perfectly happy to confirm that as part of his story as well. He seemed lucid in the interview, he knew what to do and when to do it and how he was managing to get along.

I'm betting the difference between run of the mill American homeless and the more non-white non-American ones flooding into the country wouldn't be so erudite if they were interviewed for how they were homeless in America.

[RE]

Picture taken of northbound travelers, heading north on the Mexican side of the Mexican/Guatemala border. I wonder how long it'll be before they get to the Rio Grande? I imagine all fine American Christian folk will treat them well. 

According to Googe Maps, it takes 21 days to walk from Guatemala City to Laredo.  Probably with hitching rides it takes less.

As with numerous morsels of Biblical advice, immigrants have rarely been well treated.  This is particularly true since the advent of the Nation-State.  It's why countries have borders and why you need a passport to cross them.  Everyone inside a country has to be accounted for, to make sure they're paying taxes and obeying the laws.  Travelers merely passing through are welcome usually, they spend money and trade, bringing economic activity.  People who stay need jobs and a place to live, they compete with residents already there.

Countries with economic problems are always exporting poor people.  In Russia, the Jews were driven out in the Pogroms, ending up in eastern Europe and Germany where they formed Ghettos of poor people , who the Nazis eventually wanted to get rid of.  Eventually they came up with the Final Solution to the problem of poor migrants.

Here in the FSoA it was a relatively open door policy for poor people as the land waas stolen from the original inhabitants it needed to be repopulated with workers and taxpayers to build out the system.  That build out is finished, and the welcome mat is being rolled up.

RE

[TDoS]

Here in the FSoA it was a relatively open door policy for poor people as the land waas stolen from the original inhabitants it needed to be repopulated with workers and taxpayers to build out the system.  That build out is finished, and the welcome mat is being rolled up.
RE

Perhaps they didn't get the email?
Migrants cross U.S. border in record numbers, undeterred by Texas' razor wire and Biden's policies

[K-Dog]

Here in the FSoA it was a relatively open door policy for poor people as the land waas stolen from the original inhabitants it needed to be repopulated with workers and taxpayers to build out the system.  That build out is finished, and the welcome mat is being rolled up.

The owners need workers and 'most' Americans are not much better than useless eaters at this point.

I won't define what 'most' means here.  In terms of numbers there are a lot of people who are outside the American work force and no longer have what it takes to be an effective worker.  That can be health, or a number of mental issues.  Take your pick on those.

Some refugees will be functioning members of society asking for only basic food and shelter.  I.E. they can live off a minimum wage.

Those who own us, our owners,  (who also inhabit the class of useless eaters) want a pool of unemployed that can become employed at slave wages because they live in poverty and can't bitch about low wages.  But much of the current American unemployed can't become productive at any wage.  Even at slave wages.  So the American unemployed are not part of an unemployed pool of workers that are of any use to capitalism.  Consequently capitalism will rectify the situation and outsource this issue by importing any new citizens capitalism needs from the growing pool of refugees.

There was an old Outer Limits that describes the situation well.

The inhabitants of a planet had a disease that turned them into immovable stone.  They needed servants to do the work.  They teleported a city block of suburban Americans onto a giant coffee table for test.  To see if earthlings were susceptible to the disease.  Humans were, but it could only be spread by touch so enslavement was possible.  Other test races had caught the disease through the air.  The abducted Americans all made sure they contracted the disease by holding hands so the aliens would think we caught it through the air.  As the others had.  The aliens had to keep looking for slaves, and passed Earth by.

That was over fifty years ago.  That spirit of self-sacrifice is no longer an active part of our culture.  Now we are the rock people.  Looking for slaves.