2016 Jan 24^th

Yesterday’s Detritus began with a dismissive comment about New Yorker’s angst over a mere 14.7 inches of Central Park snow. I must apologize for that comment because 14.7 inches has now become 26.8 inches, just an eighth inch short of a Central Park record. There is another reason: A very close friend, born in the City (That’s New York City…what other city could there be?) was very distressed by my comment. While she has not lived in the City for over 50 years she still has a New York accent and renews it several times a week by talking to her sister. Fortunately my apology was accepted and life goes on.

Today we have Patrick J. Buchanan holding forth with his usual xenophobic ranting. He opens with a criticism of Joe Biden who claimed at Davos that the unraveling of the middle class here at home has provided a fertile ground for reactionary politicians peddling xenophobia, anti-immigration, nationalist, isolationist views. Of course that describes Buchanan just perfectly and he didn’t like it at all. He claims the “Political and economic elites of Davos have grown rich, fat and powerful by setting aside patriotism and sacrificing their countries on the altar of globalization and The New World Order.” Naturally he leaves out exactly how they “have grown rich, fat and powerful.”

Buchanan cites his “late friend” Sam Francis, a “paleoconservative and proud son of the South.” Here is a quote from this “proud son of the South” that Buchanan so admires: “We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called "affirmative action" and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.” SCOTUS ruled that anti miscegenation legislation was illegal in 1967. That was nearly a half century ago and Buchanan still finds himself Sam Francis, favored “paleoconservative” dead over twenty years, to quote on the issue…talk about persistence!

Buchanan says that, “Americans never supported mass immigration. It was against their will that scores of millions, here legally and illegally…whose masses have never been fully assimilated into any western nation have poured into the USA.” This is nonsense. It should be obvious that if our immigration policies were unacceptable to the majority of Americans those policies would be changed. There is surely now an eruption of complaints about accepting a few thousand refugees even after a two-year vetting. The number of immigrants allowed to come into the country, excluding the very many exceptions, is 675 thousand. We have far more than that coming in because many exceptions are met for relatives of citizens who are already here, for very talented people who can contribute to certain industries and other special situations. If we had listened to Buchanan that German Jew Albert Einstein would not have provided us with the means to defeat the Japanese.