And Also: I have been off kilter lately reading-wise, but have been having problems television-wise for a long time. That is, finding episodic television that appeals, even though in theory there are lots to choose from. By chance, I found that there is a spin-off of The Fosters, which disappointed me after the first ten episodes. Thus, e.g., didn't realize they put in a different actor (the "wizard" one was replaced) for one of the kids. Maybe, it got back on track, but after a sludge in the second season, I stopped watching. Since it lasted so long, clearly others liked it.
Anyway, Good Trouble actually is avaible free on demand for now via my television provider. It was nice to see Callie and Mariana and darn they are all grown up (Callie having a quickie in the first episode made that rather clear!). The first episode suggests the show has potential and Callie being a law clerk to a conservative leaning judge is a nice touch given my personal interest in law. It looks like (it is Freeform) we will get a lot of young person soap opera drama but the first episode suggests we will get a respectable look into the law as well. Time will tell there -- there are two seasons worth of episodes to catch up on and the first show started well too!
Let me step back. There is a blogger there that is strongly anti-ICE and at times his comments suggest being an ICE agent is basically akin to be a Gestapo agent. At some point, it is a tad offensive. Our immigration policy is bad but on a general issue we are going to have an immigration system. The everyday worker here has a job to do. They are not horrible people even if they are working in an inherently problematic system. We can go down that road in various places. Our criminal justice system is very flawed. It at times makes it hard for the average member to be simply humane. Nonetheless, the average member (this includes police officers) are not horrible people. It is at times somewhat radical to say this in certain places, including there. "Police" = horrible to certain people. Not true.
Anyway, on some mega-level, and AOC responded to this story in this fashion, ICE has inherent problems. We very well should think of, up to and including replacing it with a different type of system (while still performing its basic function -- there are violations of immigration laws and immigrants that need to be punished -- in some fashion), big picture changes. And, this factors in here. Reading this story, I think it is on a basic level petty and cruel. The article and one linked to it, e.g., underlines that the feds basically entrapped these students by doing various things (such as fake accreditation) that suggested to them the school was legitimate. There was an extra level of cruelty there, even if they defended it as worth the candle. This comes up in other contexts such a drugs.
But, the practice was not new as compared to some Trump policies. This should be covered in the discussions. This "horrible stories" (don't mean this to be scare quote material -- I mean snapshots that very well might be bad generally speaking) approach is a bit tricky.* Now, this goes in various ways. Something that looks facially benign might be bad too. And, again, everything isn't some complex matter as a basic matter. Still. The practice here went back for years. A link there [articles only have so much room and a general rule of thumb should be to remember that] includes this:
And, that is where "Trump" comes in here. We very well can criticize President Obama's tough immigration policy (relatively speaking and done strategically with balances such as their Dreamer policy to try to convince Republicans to agree to immigration reforms) as much as we could criticize Bill Clinton's criminal justice/immigration policy in various respects. The "Trump" approach highlights and pushes to "11" the harshness without trying much at all to cushion the blow as well as in various basic ways respecting immigrants.
The story with reason led many to be horrified but yes a bit of nuance please in part to realize the depth of the problem.
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* The article here is not behind a paywall, which makes it harder at times to read certain details, but still caused problems. One response vehemently denounced the article as an example of press shoddy behavior since it did not specify the accreditation organization that helped the feds here by provided fake credentials. One can question if this specific detail really matters, but even there, a previous article -- I responded with details there -- linked to that article did provide that detail.
Space restraints and basic editing will repeatedly leave out such details. It's very well true at times this leads to some problematic decisions but in this case it wasn't some sort of chickenshit CYA of the actual offenders (if one wishes to so label) matter. The publication flagged the group beforehand. I don't really respect people reading quickly so many of these accounts to spend time each time to link to other stories -- even if they could with paywalls or maybe the devices they use to read them etc. There is just so much time here. Still, it's something to keep in mind.
It's a complicated balance but it's something to keep in mind. For instance, someone blogs about such and such and a comment flags some nuance. Citing some long article the person wrote, perhaps available in .pdf format that is not readily accessible or requiring registration, is of limited value here. If you want to blog, it's helpful for you to blog basic points and address them in your conversation. I realize people have jobs etc. and so forth, but this is true all the same. The same with online comments. One should not hold them up to scrutiny more worthy of a judge reading a brief, but some care should be provided.
Anyway, Good Trouble actually is avaible free on demand for now via my television provider. It was nice to see Callie and Mariana and darn they are all grown up (Callie having a quickie in the first episode made that rather clear!). The first episode suggests the show has potential and Callie being a law clerk to a conservative leaning judge is a nice touch given my personal interest in law. It looks like (it is Freeform) we will get a lot of young person soap opera drama but the first episode suggests we will get a respectable look into the law as well. Time will tell there -- there are two seasons worth of episodes to catch up on and the first show started well too!
A total of about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend the school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies, according to ICE officials.I saw this story earlier and flagged it in an earlier comment on that blog. The suggestion it is a "Trump con" is a bit off, but there is some truth there. I flagged this in a comment and will cite it here since there is a wider point to be made. These stories often can be taken on face value. Still, there is also some wider aspect to them that can be somewhat complicated at least. The blog at times misses that, more so for certain people there, while basically sounding a bit tabloid in its tone. At times, it is good to be on guard there, without being all "concern troll" about it.
Let me step back. There is a blogger there that is strongly anti-ICE and at times his comments suggest being an ICE agent is basically akin to be a Gestapo agent. At some point, it is a tad offensive. Our immigration policy is bad but on a general issue we are going to have an immigration system. The everyday worker here has a job to do. They are not horrible people even if they are working in an inherently problematic system. We can go down that road in various places. Our criminal justice system is very flawed. It at times makes it hard for the average member to be simply humane. Nonetheless, the average member (this includes police officers) are not horrible people. It is at times somewhat radical to say this in certain places, including there. "Police" = horrible to certain people. Not true.
Anyway, on some mega-level, and AOC responded to this story in this fashion, ICE has inherent problems. We very well should think of, up to and including replacing it with a different type of system (while still performing its basic function -- there are violations of immigration laws and immigrants that need to be punished -- in some fashion), big picture changes. And, this factors in here. Reading this story, I think it is on a basic level petty and cruel. The article and one linked to it, e.g., underlines that the feds basically entrapped these students by doing various things (such as fake accreditation) that suggested to them the school was legitimate. There was an extra level of cruelty there, even if they defended it as worth the candle. This comes up in other contexts such a drugs.
But, the practice was not new as compared to some Trump policies. This should be covered in the discussions. This "horrible stories" (don't mean this to be scare quote material -- I mean snapshots that very well might be bad generally speaking) approach is a bit tricky.* Now, this goes in various ways. Something that looks facially benign might be bad too. And, again, everything isn't some complex matter as a basic matter. Still. The practice here went back for years. A link there [articles only have so much room and a general rule of thumb should be to remember that] includes this:
In 2011, ICE shut down Tri-Valley University, which had enrolled some 1,500 foreigners who used their student visas to work and rarely, if ever, attended class. The university's founder, Susan Xiao-Ping Su, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for visa fraud.There very well appears to be a real issue here -- our immigration system has various ways to game the system and it is appropriate in some fashion for the government to address this. My personal reaction (and an update to the very article linked at the very beginning had an update that India responded thusly) is that we should not trust something like brokers who game the system the same way as students, who very well might actually be innocent or at the very most have very limited guilt. Only more so if the immigrant is in effect entrapped. "The law is the law" doesn't answer that.
And, that is where "Trump" comes in here. We very well can criticize President Obama's tough immigration policy (relatively speaking and done strategically with balances such as their Dreamer policy to try to convince Republicans to agree to immigration reforms) as much as we could criticize Bill Clinton's criminal justice/immigration policy in various respects. The "Trump" approach highlights and pushes to "11" the harshness without trying much at all to cushion the blow as well as in various basic ways respecting immigrants.
The story with reason led many to be horrified but yes a bit of nuance please in part to realize the depth of the problem.
---
* The article here is not behind a paywall, which makes it harder at times to read certain details, but still caused problems. One response vehemently denounced the article as an example of press shoddy behavior since it did not specify the accreditation organization that helped the feds here by provided fake credentials. One can question if this specific detail really matters, but even there, a previous article -- I responded with details there -- linked to that article did provide that detail.
Space restraints and basic editing will repeatedly leave out such details. It's very well true at times this leads to some problematic decisions but in this case it wasn't some sort of chickenshit CYA of the actual offenders (if one wishes to so label) matter. The publication flagged the group beforehand. I don't really respect people reading quickly so many of these accounts to spend time each time to link to other stories -- even if they could with paywalls or maybe the devices they use to read them etc. There is just so much time here. Still, it's something to keep in mind.
It's a complicated balance but it's something to keep in mind. For instance, someone blogs about such and such and a comment flags some nuance. Citing some long article the person wrote, perhaps available in .pdf format that is not readily accessible or requiring registration, is of limited value here. If you want to blog, it's helpful for you to blog basic points and address them in your conversation. I realize people have jobs etc. and so forth, but this is true all the same. The same with online comments. One should not hold them up to scrutiny more worthy of a judge reading a brief, but some care should be provided.
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Thanks for your .02!