From “the stupid, it burns like white phosporous” department comes this epic level of journalistic bullhockey.
The unseen driver behind the migrant caravan: climate change
Oliver Milman in New York, Emily Holden, and David Agren in Huixtla, Mexico
While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worse
Thousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.
But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change.
Most members of the migrant caravans come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – three countries devastated by violence, organised crime and systemic corruption, the roots of which can be traced back to the region’s cold war conflicts.
Experts say that alongside those factors, climate change in the region is exacerbating – and sometimes causing – a miasma of other problems including crop failures and poverty.
And they warn that in the coming decades, it is likely to push millions more people north towards the US.
…
Migrants don’t often specifically mention “climate change” as a motivating factor for leaving because the concept is so abstract and long-term, Albro said. But people in the region who depend on small farms are painfully aware of changes to weather patterns that can ruin crops and decimate incomes.
Read the entire stupid thing here.
This “climate driver” idea is just as stupid as the idea that these people are making the trek of over 2000 miles on their own, walking the entire way, without assistance, timing the arrival to coincide with just before the U.S. Elections, so they can be front page news, and used to elicit sympathy for one party while being used to attack the other.
Make no mistake, they aren’t “climate refugees” they are political tools, plain and simple.
And remember years ago when we were told about how millions of climate refugees would materialize?
In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.
And then, in 2010, when not a single climate refugee materialized, the UNEP scrubbed it from their website, and botched the cover up attempt.
Yeah, this claim today from the Guardian is just as accurate as that disappeared load of codswallop.
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Who cares. let em in. CA will take care of them, free everything, drivers licenses and voting. Ill just move.
If it was only Cali that would be taken care of them, unfortunately it’s not, it’s all the rest of the nation as well. Unless you are planning to leave the US entirely, moving won’t help you.
“Who cares. let em in.”
If we do, then there will be no stopping of the invasion. Millions of people will be headed this way expecting us to support them with money, health care and housing.
Trump said he was not going to allow this batch of illegals loose in the United States. He said he would build internment camps where the illegals would be required to stay until they got a hearing before an immigration judge. So no more “catch and release” according to Trump.
Of course, this will be challenged in court and some Liberal judge will legislate from the bench and put a hold on Trump’s order, but Trump will prevail in the end when it goes to the Supreme Court because the U.S. Constitution clearly gives the president the authority to deny entry to any illegal alien. And Trump may request an expidited hearing by the Supreme Court.
Trump also said he was going to sign an Executive Order stopping the granting of U.S. citizenship to children born to non-Americans. This will also be challenged in court and we’ll see where it goes.
Ultimately, Congress has to address all these issues and write new laws. An Executive Order is only temporary. As Obama found out.
Indeed. an EO is a good temporary fix, but it requires follow up legislative action from congress or it risks being undone the next time a the other party gets in the white house. As, you point out, Obama found out.
It may not be the best solution, but it does have a certain allure. Let them all come! At some point we will no longer be able to provide enough welfare to make everyone’s life a utopia. When that point is reached, climate change won’t matter. There will be internal strife to the point that illegals will become pariahs and deported. There will be proof that open borders just won’t work and the wall will be built. My only hope is that the billionaires that want open borders will end up being taxed so badly that they see the errors of their way.
I fail to see the allure of something that will cause all of us no end of misery in the false hope that some billionaires will somehow see the error of their ways.
The Russian foreign divisiveness teams could learn a lot from The Guardian.
Blaming the problems of Central America on the Cold War is about par for the Guardian’s ignorant and stupid course. Or sub-par.
Since Independence from Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have been dominated by oligarchs and military dictatorships. Costa Rica, not so much. The USSR did indeed try to benefit from such historical tyranny, and the US backed the peasants and Indians fighting against Communist regimes and rebels there. But the Cold War wasn’t the cause of the violence and poverty from which the refugees are fleeing. It predated 1945 by over 120 years.
Ike did back the opponent of a pro-Communist Guatemalan president, but not at the behest of the United Fruit Company-dominated CIA, as cartoonish Leftwing propaganda had it at the time. And Reagan did support the Contras in Nicaragua, but when free elections were held, the Communists were thrown out. Ortega managed to weasel his way back into power by rigged voting, so that now Nicargua once again suffers from political violence. Reagan also backed the Right in El Salvador against the Left. Had he not done so, these states today would be far worse off than Venezuela, lacking as they do oil.
El Salvador is a coffee republic rather than banana. A buddy of my brother’s flew Corsairs in the 1969 Football War with Honduras.
Climate change hasn’t hammered the tropical region, but Hurricane Mitch did devastate Honduras 20 years ago. After the 2009 coup there, gang violence has probably worsened, while poverty has not been ameliorated.
The US accepts more asylum-seekers than any other country. There is a limit to how many we can admit, especially when most are actually economic refugees, not truly in danger for their beliefs, ethnicity or religion. We could of course absorb 10,000 more carefully screened refugees, but not the ten million who would follow them, if successful in gaining entry.
In all truthfulness, it could just as easily be the Russians financing this caravan, as it is the Democrats or their monied supporters. The Russians would still be interfering in the election, except that they wouldn’t be directly doling out any dollars stateside. Or the Chinese, Iranian’s or Nork’s. Anyone with an axe to grind with the USA has a perfect opportunity here to be meddling from afar. Whoever has a vested interest in seeing Trump and the Republicans take a hit in the mid terms. Pretty much every one I mentioned and probably more, including maybe even friendlies because they got called out for issues of their own including the whole Paris Accord issue which is sort of the central issue of this post, that it is some absurd claim that it is climate change driving the caravan. No pun intended..
And I have no doubt that someone is meddling financially with all these people getting up one morning and deciding they are joining the caravan. They have horribly messed up living conditions where they are and are desperate for a change, but I can’t fathom that somebody doesn’t have their dirty mitts all over this with money. Wouldn’t even cost a whole lot to do so…which is a problem when we have so many enemies.
The Guardian article is fabricated by people who must think their readers are all as thick as
Here’s a slightly different perspective on all this. Perhaps because I’ve been around for quite a few years, I’ve seen changes. Mexico in the 1960s was a dump. Mexico in the 2010s looks to have a level of prosperity that Ireland in the 1960s hadn’t achieved.
Two important reasons that so many migrants from Central America are trying to get to the USA, and so many African migrants are trying to get to Europe are (1) because their countries have a level of prosperity that wasn’t there a couple of generations ago and (2) global communications – which are really two facets of the same thing – 20th century development and cheap energy. They have television, they have smartphones, they have the internet; they can see the level of prosperity that ordinary folk have in those countries.
And there’s money around in their countries, in quantities that were never there before. We’re always reading about large payments to “human smugglers” who are paid to ferry migrants across the Mediterranean. This money comes from somewhere. Apart from the present “caravan” – which is obviously being organised by someone – there has been a constant stream of migrants into the US for years now, mostly travelling under their own power. They can afford to travel!
It’s a bit paradoxical, but the more prosperous a “third world” country becomes, the more its poor people can see – vicariously – the even greater prosperity, even of poor people in rich countries, and the easier it is for them to get to a rich country and try to grab a piece of that greater prosperity.
It’s a problem and there are no easy answers. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why the “progressives” want to help migrants, when their own countries (I mean the “progressives” own countries) can only absorb a certain small percentage of their own populations each year.
Most of which doesn’t apply to Syrians. If your own government was dropping bombs on you, wouldn’t you want to go somewhere else?
PS – Anthony – from the Linguistic Pedantry Department, it’s “phosphorus”. “Phosphorous” describes the lower-valency state of anionic phosphorus, and it’s opposed to “phosphoric”, the higher valency state. Common mistake, and I’ll let you off this time.
In the US, Progressives want immigrants to vote for their candidates.
Another change from past conditions besides greater wealth in Central America is the fact that no so much in the US is free for recent immigrants, to include education, health care, even housing and cell phones. And illegal immigrants can get away with crimes for which a citizen would be prosecuted, as diverse as littering, insurance fraud, manslaughter, starting a forest fire or driving without a license or insurance. Although sanctuary states like California of course give illegal aliens licenses and register them to vote at the same time.
Trump being bashed here in the Australian MSM (Not a single day passes without a Trump bashing article at the SMH).
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/donald-trump-flags-end-to-ridiculous-citizenship-rights-20181030-p50d0b.html
Hang on Australia! Children born in Australia to New Zealand citizens for instance are New Zealand citizens in Australia and, therefore, temporary residents. And you criticise the PotUS for wanting something similar for the US?
“…In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010…”
As we learned yesterday, the 2010 value of climate refugees needs to be based on the 30-year period 1995 through 2024, so there is still time for it to come true.
Being the jaded cynic that I am, I’ll put this out as the real driver of the migrant caravans, money. Apparently, people smuggling pays five times better than drug smuggling. That’s where the drug gangs and money laundering banks are shifting their efforts. All the talk about the Marrakesh Accord is just a cover, the players can pretend their motive is globalist ideology and not greed. The bleeding hearts opposing border controls and assisting the “undocumented migrants” are either naive dupes or part of the racket.
When I lived in Britain, The Grauniad (spelt like that because it was famous for its typos) was my daily paper. But the only things I go to it for now are its nice Sudokus and excellent cryptic crosswords.
Ever heard about diesel origin:
https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&ei=64nZW_rfHoGqsAH4vYlY&ins=false&q=bmw+isetta+english+&oq=bmw+isetta+english+&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.
Oh and the UN’s IPCC scientists tell us that there really wont be any climate change in the tropics. It is to gradually appear and increase as you move poleward where the warming will be enhanced. In the temperate zones, nearly all 5he warming will occur at night and 8n the winter. What happened to that. Indeed, WUWT?
Here’s a little information on the president’s authority to deny entry to illegal aliens.
http://myattorneyusa.com/scope-and-history-of-section-212f-presidential-authority-to-suspendrestrict-entry-by-proclamation
Scope and History of Section 212(f) Presidential Authority to Suspend/Restrict Entry by Proclamation
Statute
Section 212(f) of the INA reads as follows:
f. Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President
Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”
end excerpt
Even though the wording is clear, having only one possible meaning, there will be a liberal judge who will say he cannot do what the law says he can do.
So Trump will ask for an expedited ruling from the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court will rule in his favor, especially now that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are on the court.
MEMO TO POTUS: Sidestep immigrations laws and constitutional limitations by sending troops into Mexico to deal with the “caravan” on Mexican soil. No need to declare war. No requirement to grant assylum hearings, no court date, no children in cages, etc. Not an invasion by force or an excursion like in the Border Wars (1910-1919). Rather a violation of Mexico’s border similar to that committed by the caravan itself. Sauce for the goose… Spread dollars about liberally in the process to win over the locals, police and so on. Maybe pay a fine? Stop them say five hundred miles south of our border.
Putting up a border wall would be easier. No need to invade Mexico. Economic sanctions would be enough. But we are not even close to getting to that point yet. Mexico’s politicians seem to be cooperating for the most part.
If Trump restricts the illegal aliens to internment camps along the border and does not release them to disappear into the United Staes, then those who would follow in their footsteps might decide it wasn’t worth it.
If people want to live in the United States they need to do it legally. This message needs to be sent.