The economic imperative for restoring immigration and labor movement in the wake of COVID-19
As many western industrial nations drifted towards protectionism if not outright nationalism in the last decade, an already constrictive environment had developed for the free movement of the labor market. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, gave such nations just the hammer they needed to further nail immigration constraints into place.
COVID-19 triggered mass unemployment globally with The Brookings Institute estimating that approximately 11.9 percent of workers were out of a job across the 20 countries they studied. That number reached almost 15 percent for the United States. And early this year, the IMF forecast that the global economy would contract by 3 percent in 2020, a worse contraction than we saw as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. But there’s little indication these immigration restrictions have helped any of the players in the global economy resolve their economic woes. …
Trump lost and it was pretty predictable he would in retrospect
I imagine I have a few friends who perhaps think Donald Trump won the 2020 election and there’s some sort of fraud involved in Biden winning. I want to make a few quick points, not be to be argumentative, but primarily because I think the rhetoric in some quarters (elected officials, QAnon types, Rudy Giuliani, Trump himself) is getting down right dangerous to the point that it could incite violence. Considering that many have been receiving death threats and QAnon organized placing a noose outside one 20-year-old Dominion employee’s Georgia home, I’d say we’re already there.
Trump didn’t win and it wasn’t difficult to predict he probably wouldn’t in advance. (Though, certainly, no one could say for sure, in the days leading up to election.) But as a lot of misinformation is getting tossed around right now, I think we should keep the following 6 points in mind to avoid something awful happening here. …
The Criminal Treatment of Transgender Asylum Seekers in the United States
Over the past four years, the Trump administration enacted an unprecedented reduction in the number of asylum seekers admitted to the United States, slashing admissions to a level approximately 16 percent of the cap the Obama administration offered in 2016. Transgender asylum seekers, who are already more at-risk than typical applicants now face tremendous hurdles and abuse as they try to survive in the opaque confines of this increasingly constrictive immigration system.
By their own accounting, the Department of Homeland Security had approximately 300 transgender asylum seekers in their custody in 2019. Under U.S. law, anyone has the right to present themselves as an asylum seeker at the U.S. border or within the United States — regardless of how and where they enter. Before they can be removed, the law requires they be given the opportunity to present their case for a “credible fear” screening before a judge or qualified asylum officer. However, transgender asylum-seekers find themselves housed in detention centers at rates over twice that of typical applicants, their average detainment being about 99 days. They’re also unlikely to have their cases reviewed by individuals familiar with their unique needs and circumstances both as transgender individuals and in the context of their home countries. …
Always Be Evaluating Your Sources—Especially During a Pandemic
*Updated July 31, 2020 to include additional significant randomized studies, including those examining the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure
Can I provide an illustration of why it’s always important to consider evidence from multiple authoritative sources when studying subjects like COVID-19, the use of masks, and in this case, the use of hydroxychloroquine? Especially during this time of pandemic. (But, really, this strategy applies to any subject.)
If I were to look for something that initially seems compelling (as a non expert, non epidemiologist) on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID, this Newsweek essay by Yale professor Harvey Risch certainly might grab my attention. …
How U.S. Policy for Handling Migrants Violates International Criminal Law—As Well as Our Own
Imagine you’re an immigrant who fled danger to seek asylum in the United States after escaping torture and beatings in your own country. Arriving here, you make your case, but instead of proceeding through a careful review process, you’re interviewed by an asylum officer completely unfamiliar with the dynamics of your situation and designated for speedy deportation back to your place of origin, where your life may still be in danger. That’s the story of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a Sri Lankan asylum seeker whose case we’ll explore in more detail below. …
Thoughts on race and confronting racism from a former fundamentalist
We all have those moments in our lives, when we wish we could go back in time and do something differently, right? Lately, I’ve been returning to one prominent moment from when I was about 20 years old.
I was playing half-court basketball one warm summer night behind the gym at the South Carolina college I was attending. There were probably six of us. As it happens in these scrappy pickup games, one player eventually bumped into another or something and one young guy got angry. …
This piece was prompted by a Facebook post from a friend in which she described how she was exposed to the kind of behavior I describe below at her local grocery store, when she went shopping for the first time in a month or two.
One of the most extraordinary things about this time period is seeing people describe being asked to wearing a thin piece of fabric temporarily in some places they pass through as “tyranny” or an infringement upon their liberties. …
Highlighting independent artists who deserve your attention and support during the COVID-19 crisis
Curtis Eller is a remarkable banjo player who writes gripping songs tied to history, religion, and the maddening elements of the American dream. Songs with names like “The Heart That Forgave Richard Nixon” and “Battlefield Amputation.” Songs both vivid and vigorous, but also often gloomily funny. Music which summons up much for us to gnaw on.
Since his songbook rests against the sort of broad spectrum of music you might refer to as “Americana,” I’ve often thought that TV shows like Deadwood or Justified have dropped the ball by not featuring his songs—and regularly. (There’s still time Ozark!)
For a great example, here’s Curtis singing “Sweatshop Fire,” which presumably alludes to 1911's infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village. As you’ll see, Curtis combines finely-crafted lyrics with a signature banjo playing style, which proves uniquely physical and which always makes for a highly engaging and intimate live show. …
Confessing and celebrating my forbidden moviegoing in a time when none of us can go to the movies
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian environment where you couldn’t drink, cuss, dance, hold hands, play cards, listen to rock ’n’ roll (the devil’s music!) or even go to the movies. Naturally, I became a big fan of most of these activities. Truthfully, I never learned to like poker because I always feel outgunned by everyone who has so many more years of experience playing than I do. When I tell people about this experience, it’s not unusual for them to remark, “Sounds like you grew up in Footloose.” Well, yes. If it helps to reference that Kevin Bacon flick as a measuring stick, it really was like that. …
The coronavirus isn’t punishing us—regardless of what America’s fundamentalists may say
A brief response to Franklin Graham’s statement that the COVID-19 virus is a result of sin in the world. Graham’s organization Samaritan’s Purse also required volunteers—including healthcare workers—for his Central Park field hospital to sign an anti-LGBT declaration and to affirm their believe that anyone who doesn’t believe the same is going to hell.
Always remember that it’s not personal.
The virus doesn’t care if you’re Christian or Buddhist or Muslim or Jewish or humanist. It doesn’t care if you’re male or female. Black or white. Gay, straight or bi. Northerner or Southerner. American or Chinese or Italian or Spanish or Brazilian or German or Nigerian or Australian. It doesn’t even care if you’re human or not. The virus is blind to all of that. It simply seeks to exist and to reproduce. The violence it causes is incidental. It means us no harm. Not intentionally. It’s not an instrument of God. There’s no mystery to how and why viruses are distributed. We’ve known how they work for decades. And they didn’t spring into existence when Roe v. Wade was decided or when Marriage Equality became the law of the land. Viruses are ancient. …
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