Last Friday, we learned that Donald Trump had developed a scheme – apparently, he wanted to take all of the undocumented immigrants currently in custody and drop them all in sanctuary cities around the country. That was his big scheme – to “pwn” liberals by forcing them to… like, NOT put undocumented immigrants in cages and treat those people like human beings. That’ll show the liberals. ICE balked, because the scheme is the height of stupidity and likely in violation of a million laws, but Trump claims the option is still on the table. Well, CHER had some thoughts.
I Understand Helping struggling Immigrants,but MY CITY (Los Angeles) ISNT TAKING CARE OF ITS OWN.WHAT ABOUT THE 50,000+🇺🇸Citizens WHO LIVE ON THE STREETS.PPL WHO LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE,& HUNGRY? If My State Can’t Take Care of Its Own(Many Are VETS)How Can it Take Care Of More
— Cher (@cher) April 14, 2019
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that people get to a certain age and suddenly those nativist, jingoist, racist scare tactics actually start to work on them. Cher is 72 years old and a prime candidate for a Fox News-informed Deplorable. Do I think that Cher really hates immigrants? No. But she’s like so many people who only believe one thing about a certain political issue when that issue doesn’t directly affect their home or city. Anyway, Cher’s tweet was picked up by the Deplorables and of course the Deplorable-in-Chief even chimed in:
I finally agree with @Cher! pic.twitter.com/i5acSgUrCk
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019
Cher ended clarifying her position:
Either you can’t read, or English isnt your primary Language.I Said nothing about turning in Immigrants living in my city Over to ICE.We Don’t Kidnap babies & Put them in cages, Which is different than wanting trump to drop thousands of ppl who haven’t been vetted into my city
— Cher (@cher) April 15, 2019
I mean, that’s an okay clarification. On a scale of “putting immigrant babies in baby cages at the border” to “dropping thousands of immigrants into a city just punish Democrats,” all of the choices seem to be pretty awful. Still, you know it’s bad when all of the MAGA types are like “we agree with Cher now!” It’s like all of the times I’ve found myself liking or retweeting sh-t from Bill Kristol – how did I end up on the same f–king side as Bill Kristol??
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Oh noes NOT CHER!!! 🙁
Cher had also tweeted about (when this horror show started) how she was wiling to “open her home to (an) immigrant(s) family”, and now she says this? Pick a lane, Cher. I do wonder though, if she is “hosting” now (or ever). I really dislike armchair libs (and I say this as a lib myself).
SOMEONE IS POSTING USING MY NAME! PP,EASE USE YOUR OWN!!
TheREAL @Jan90067
Why do people always frame it as a one or the other? American citizens should be helped. Veterans should be helped. Refugees should be helped. Homeless people should be helped. Everyone should be helped! We spent billions upon billions on our military. We could easily fix all of this if we chose to. But we don’t. We choose to make the world a harder and more violent place.
@Moxylady, you worded it perfectly.
I want immigrants to have help and be welcomed but we can also help the citizens that are here and served to protect us. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive and you don’t have to be a deplorable to think this way.
I wish to also add; I am an immigrant. I love this crazy place and am proud of it but there is not enough support for vets and impoverished families.
Excellent Comment MoxyLady!!! I agree completely with all of that!
This doesn’t surprise me…in the least…
Well, that was one of the clearest NOT IN MY BACKYARD! comments I’ve ever heard.
Poorly done, Cher.
She is simply saying that we have no business helping anyone else until we help our own. Five veterans committed suicide in the past few days – they need, and deserve, all the help that we can give them. The people living in the street, especially in California, need help. I am exhausted by people who think that we should help individuals who are in this country illegally while overlooking our fellow citizens. Suggesting that we do is deplorable.
You miss my point – Cher is all pro-help and anti-Trump, until it comes to bringing people to “her city”. At least that’s how her comment reads to me.
I agree that the veterans and homeless need help. But read Moxy’s post above, it doesn’t have to be an either or. Everyone can be helped, and everyone deserves to be helped. And I’m guessing many of those that care about and help immigrants are the same ones who care about and help veterans too.
Also, coming to the US and seeking asylum is LEGAL.
L.A can just raise taxes, couldn’t it? Lots of rich people live there….. Then we can take care of immigrants and the homeless but as usual the wealthy are selfish.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not just rich people in LA. A lot of regular people work and live there that struggle to afford it, a tax hike will burden them more than the rich.
They can just raise taxes on people making 100k or more, it’s not rocket science.
We already have one of the highest sales taxes in the country here in LA, property taxes are through the roof (most people are totally priced out of buying a home, let alone the taxes: a “tear down” here on the westside is $1M, even in other parts of LA, it’s $500K and UP for almost NOTHING to speak of). It’s not a matter of just “raising taxes” if you have no one left to keep paying.
“It’s not a matter of just “raising taxes” if you have no one left to keep paying.” Tell this to Bernie Sanders. Was it Margaret Thatcher “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Jasmine, if you make 100k in LA you are still broke. Cost of living is insane there.
Sounds like b.s to me people just say that when they don’t want to pay their fair share.
@ Jasmine- you don’t know what you’re talking about. Seriously. 100K in LA is NOT a lot of money. I live in Boston and make more than that and I barely scrape by. You really need to familiarize yourself with how the cost of living works in popular cities. In my neighborhood, two bedroom apartments start at $4,000 a month and there is no such thing as “affordable housing” where I live. In order to accrue any kind of savings, I’d have to make $250K a year. NY, LA, SF…all these cities are in the same boat as Boston.
WOW I didn’t realize housing in Boston was quite that high.
Jasmine, the cost of a ONE bedroom apt. here is over $2K a month, a nice one is closer to $3K (esp. if you want enclosed parking for safety). A 2 bdrm condo in my bldg. is going for $1.225M, and it’s a total gut job! Insurance (homeowners and earthquake) totals over $4K/yr., and put in car ins. (higher than most areas, because nicer areas/nicer cars=greater theft in the minds of the insurers…high gas (Hawaii and Cali have the highest gas prices (my fill up last week was over $4/gal.)… groceries? I don’t know how families with growing kids do it. The cost of living out here is insane.
Ok Jasmine and where do you live? CA has the highest cost of living expenses. A lot of teachers and working class are priced out of every major city. Unless people want to live in the sticks, it’s not as simple as raising taxes to fund the illegal immigrants. Also this is a Federal issue and since CA pays the most taxes of almost every state in the nation, the feds already have our money. They can either clawback the tax benefits from the wealthy or resolve this issue. This is a federal issue. For that dummy to just dump the people into sanctuary cities is asinine.
The LA Times just had an article about rent increases in Inglewood. One tenant got a notice that said his rent was going from $1,145 to $2,725, and that’s not in a elite area.
Regardless…housing of REFUGEES is a FEDERAL issue, not a city or state issue. Trump is playing politics because he doesn’t have actual ideas on how to make progress on this issue. His policies have only INCREASED migration to the US. There are policies put in place during Obama’s terms that reduced migration 40-60% in some areas. Trump has recently gutted these policies, and is only making the issue worse. He should have expanded the successful programs, not shut them down.
Rich people in LA get insane tax breaks and find many loopholes. It’s the working middle class that pays most of the taxes if we’re really being honest.
The top .5% underpay taxes by $50 billion. Boom, there’s your money.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ultrawealthy-taxes-irs-internal-revenue-service-global-high-wealth-audits
This is true.
@Me and Lula, you get it. Stop scapegoating, Cher!! Do you REALLY need all that money?
That’s is typically at the Federal level where the super wealthy have loopholes to reduce tax liability. Not with CA at the state level.
@Lula, saying how much their tax breaks are does not say how much they’ve actually paid into the system. I don’t make a lot of money and I’m a single mom so I’m not talking from experience here. But I do know that the more you make the more they take, and it really is a hindrance two small business owners. And I just looked up the numbers article I found was one that was fact checking Mick Mulvaney, not favorably. Anyway, the conclusion was that the top 50% of earners pay 98% of the taxes (bottom 44% pay nothing, again this includes me. I’m not saying this in my own self interest!). To me that’s pretty fair already. Maybe I’m just an asshole though.
@jasmine do you know how our government and in particular this current administration works? If you think that our tax system is applied fairly or that a system will be put in place that ensures only the very wealthy will pay their fair share, then I am afraid you have not been paying attention.
Exactly.
Holy sh#t! Californian’s pay more taxes than any other state we pay 13.3% income tax and in LA county 9.5% sales tax. More than any other state. You want more? Natives like myself are leaving the state we were born in (California) because we can’t afford to live here. People are also moving into their cars and shelters. People with jobs. Two of my sisters have lead the way by moving to Idaho and Colorado. I grew up in Orange County and lived half of my life in LA county. Nothing bugs me more than people who haven’t lived 50+ years in California judging what we’ve been through. You just do not know and I’m not going to explain it because you are too judgy. The idea that everyone in LA make $100k is so effing ridiculous. Do you have any idea how many people work minimum wage jobs here already? $10.50 per hour. And do you know that illegals have undercut our wage trajectory since the 70s? Theres no more construction jobs for people who want to make a living in that industry for example because since the 70s there have been people willing to work for less than minimum wage. I ma a paralegal and have made the same salary since the year 2000. But my cost of living has more than tripled. Please do not talk about what you do not know.
I almost agreed with you, as a Californian living in Louisiana until you got to the “illegals” undercutting wage trajectory. The only people responsible for that are the rich owner’s taking advantage of poor people. Stop blaming other people struggling with you, and start blaming the people who are the reason for it
You need to direct your anger at the “illegals” towards the people who would rather exploit the desperation of immigrant refugees over paying their fellow Americans a decent wage. Heck, I’m sure you can find dozens of rich house wives and their husbands who own the construction companies in OC who brag about employing cheap illegal labor.
And with or without immigrants, the job market is more competitive for mediocre talented white people who used to coast by on the fact that non-whites were not allowed to work in the positions they can today.
I say good riddance to your family, all the people I know who are “fleeing” the state are racist, uneducated, and conservative. Bye Felicia!
CA Family code, I’ve been here over 50 years. I was born in downtown LA. I don’t call people “illegals”.
People in my neck of the woods called going to Orange County going “behind the Orange curtain”, because we were Black and Brown, and White folks in Orange County loved reminding us of that fact, even when we were a bunch of geeks in dresses and dress shirts visiting to compete in nerdy speech tournaments. We were “other” and “trash” and clearly “illegals”. Check yourself.
Place the blame on the super rich who don’t pay taxes to do business safely in the U.S., who talk crap about love of country and then send their money to the Caymans. Stop scapegoating.
Well, this is pretty hilarious.
As a Canadian, I pay more in both income tax and sales tax and I’ve never complained. Your privilege is showing. Actually, it’s screaming not showing.
Every conservative government insists on implementing trickle down economics, and the only thing it does is exactly what you’re describing- makes the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. Immigrants are needed to help countries grow and prosper. Yes, NEEDED. They do what people who think their owed something, won’t do.
Lastly, if you haven’t had a raise in almost 20 years, then you’ve only got yourself to blame. Because that’s crazy for a number of reasons. Ridiculous that you would place blame on “illegals” because you haven’t had a raise as a paralegal. LOL Wut?
@Jasmine: BINGO!!!
It’s classism and racism. Same crap, different day… it has to be for people who make $1-1.5M or more, though. $100k seems like a lot, but not in a major metropolitan area like L..A.
It is illegal to enter a country without appropriate documentation. I can’t sneak into France and live there and collect social services benefits. My first husband was an immigrant and passed away. He had to wait in his own country for 5 years to be allowed to live here legally. My second husband, who I had my children with was also an immigrant. He ALSO waited in his country for 5 years for his green card then became a citizen. There are deserving and desperate refugees all over the world who need our help. This has nothing to do with geography. To the assuming person that used the old saying “Behind the Orange Curtain” and the slur “brown people” remember this is California. Behind the orange curtain there is and has always been a HUGE Hispanic community my entire life and the largest community of Vietnamese immigrants/refugees in the country thus the area known as Little Saigon. Assuming that people from OC are all rich and there are no “brown people” living here is …Cher’s point is that we need to take care of our people living here before we presume to take in more. That includes all of the “brown people” (like me) and all others who are desperate, homeless and hungry.
@CA Family Code – Your husbands were economic migrations, which is not the same as an asylum seeker. The number of asylum seekers the US takes in does not impact the number of green cards the US gives out each year.
And since Cher has no track record of giving a hoot about unhoused people, she is using her racism to concern troll a very vulnerable population.
My issue with anyone saying we need to take care of “our people” first is that this is generally something that is only being brought up in response to immigrants (or whoever people want to scapegoat). Foster kids, veterans, homeless people, disabled people, etc., anyone that is typically ignored somehow becomes the most important people we’re still not going to bother with as soon as they can be used as a cudgel against immigrants.
For literal decades, we have not only allowed but encouraged people to come here illegally by not enacting comprehensive immigration reform or discouraging illegal entry by making employment harder. As a country, we have not insisted on immigration crackdown in a way that would work (more harshly penalizing employers) because we wants cheap labor. We want our $.99/pound grapes, and we’re willing to look the other way until it’s no longer convenient.
You want people to come “the right way”? Demand immigration reform. Insist that employers who hire people who don’t have the right to work here legally get hit with so many fines that it’s no longer worth it. Create a pathway to citizenship for people who were brought here as children, have benefited from our schools and other public services, and would be a huge asset. Don’t just racistly call people “illegals.”
You are wrong, CA Family Code. It is TOTALLY legal to come to the US to apply for asylum. These migrants are doing what our laws have asked of them: come to the US and apply.
Secondly, undocumented immigrants do NOT get SS benefits.
What Megan said. And there are plenty of Brown people who got theirs and who judge people fleeing poverty and heartship based on the United States’ insatiable demand for illegal drugs. Calling the people, particularly those entering Cali on the Southern border, “illegals” oversimplifies their plight and the role of American citizens and the extremely wealthy in creating it. So, no, CA Legal Code, I still don’t agree, but you have a right to your opinion just like I have a right to mine. And, yeah, there are brown folks in the OC, but let’s not pretend that the racism isn’t still rampant and visceral when people experience it. I pass for White. I can live there and no one will bother me, but I don’t think I’m better than the people desperate to get here because I am already here and want to help the poor here first, because they are legally here already. Nobody cares about the poor unless someone “illegal” is “taking” their services, as someone mentioned below. No one cares that housing has gone up because corporations and stockholders don’t care about their customer’s or employee’s quality of life. It’s all okay as long the the wealthy get wealthier. Put the blame where it belongs. It doesn’t belong on them. And reforms could have happened years ago, but sides have been hardening into their positions for years, especially when Obama became president and Republicans decided that making the devil’s bargain was worth it to get what they wanted.
@Jan90067, gas in my little corner of BC is currently $5.84/gallon.
I actually agree w Cher- and I grew up in a barrio outside Hollywood. Every asylum issue was -my life- right here in the US. Gangs. Abuse. Poverty. Seriously. We ARE full. Full of the same sh#t they are fleeing from. Full of the same issues we need to spend money to solve. I LIVED it. Cages. No. Family separation. No. Let them all come here? No.
Agree 100% – with Cher and your comment.
Quidproquo, I grew up in Compton around the same things you did. The issues are HUGE. You are right about how bad it can be, but my grandmother was an immigrant who crossed the river out of Mexico as a child with her mother and two brothers. To me, they are as deserving of a chance as I am as someone born in the United States. In my mind, the issue is income inequality, and these folks are the scapegoats.
I’m an “artist” and it’s feast or famine, but I am a hard worker, steady, sober & reliable since age 13. I’m American born, 5th generation, and went to college 2 yrs only as I was born w no family and no money. I USED to do “Fill in jobs” cleaning houses or in restaurants to keep my vocation alive. Since around 2000, those jobs “dried up”. Those seasonal job NOW go to low paying non-citizens or temp visa workers. So now I’m “in the middle”, neither rich nor packing 20 cousins to a house to take the cash back to a country where my money goes further. I’m saying, truthfully, immigration has ruined my way of life. There. Cue the haters, but it’s TRUE. Where do I fit in w/neither an high salaried job nor a trust fund, nor willing to work for pennies to the dollar amongst people who don’t like me or relate to me in the slightest? I NEVER get call-backs for restaurants or house keeping!
Not to mention the fact that people living it are exploited to such a high degree that it is life threatening. People crossing rivers and deserts are in danger of losing their lives. The only way to reform is to to protect people and to do that, it has to be suspended long enough to organize and give immigration reform the attention it needs so that when they are here they are legal and protected by all of the things we take for granted. The experts know, that reform can only happen if immigration is suspended long enough to clean up the ungodly mess we’ve created.
Then you’d better stop voting democrat because lately they are the party working exclusively for illegals and NOT for actual American citizens.
Your comment is so full of BS it stinks.
I’d disagree as it’s trump himself how hired temp visa workers–these are the most exploited group, practically slave labor. Their employer usually owns their visa/passport AND their housing. Add to the fact this RUINS the local job market. I suffer as an American Worker bee, they suffer too—trust me—Republicans LOVE temporary work visas!
To democrats, every illegal immigrant represents a vote for a democrat candidate. Corey Booker stated that the answer to the illegal immigrant issue is immigration reform. Give citizenship to all thirty million illegal immigrants within the United States. This is the big reason why the democrats won’t participate in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants – each one represents power to their party.
Good lord, what a bunch of nonsense.
Income inequality has skyrocketed in America since the 1970s, but the desperate people fleeing violence and starvation are the problem?
And I don’t know what Democratic platform you’ve been looking at, but healthcare, education, and environmental conservation are absolutely for the benefit of American citizens.
I’m all for addressing the existing homeless issues. In fact, if we could find good solutions and systems for that, we can more easily accommodate immigrants who also need humanitarian services. This doesn’t seem like an either/or to me, but maybe I’m being too simplistic.
How many charities working to house homeless people has Cher supported? How much work has she done to raise awareness of the homeless crisis in LA?
The problem is money. More money is needed to address the issue on homeless US citizens and immigrants (both legal and illegal). The only way to raise more money is through taxes. If you have massive Federal tax cuts as we just had ( an the average person saw little or no benefit in the large tax cuts) then there will not be enough money to address the social problems which need to be address. I like Cher and have heard her talk about many political issues. Cher is NOT a deplorable. LA cannot handle the problem on its own nor can Miami! It is difficult to get your true point across in the limited space you have available on Twitter. A comprehensive reform of immigration laws and full funding to meet the needs of the immigrants allowed into the US is what is needed. Immigration reform can only happen in the US on the Federal level.
They’re really two different issues. A large number of homeless also have mental health issues and we need to find ways of helping these people. Immigrants come to find a better life by working hard and creating opportunities for themselves and their children.
I still think most of Hollywood is secretly republican
Totally! Or they’re all just very white savior types, and immigrants and homeless are great movie subjects, but not anyone you’d actually wan to live by.
You’d be stunned how many Democrats agree with this stance on immigration.
Yes it is an extremely mainstream democratic view. Even the REVOLUTIONARY! Bernie Sanders holds this view, and in fact, he may even be further to the right on it. I dunno. He used to go on Lou Dobbs to rail against the immigrants so who can say really.
She’s normally so great – and so “woke” – on Twitter that I was shocked to see this tweet from her.
Once again, Trump finds a way to divide people over something that is not happening. Let’s be careful. He set this trap and she walked right into it.
+1
How unfortunate. I totally agree that we ALSO need to be taking care of current residents, but how really disappointing to read that from her. I completely understand what she was trying to say, but she definitely just said “they are welcome, just not here.”
I live in a shitty hick MAGA town, we have strained resources and virtually no affordable housing. I don’t give a damn, and I don’t think people currently IMPRISONED would care, either. It is a safe town that has plenty of potential to grow and become a flourishing city with a big enough population. I hope we grt an influx if migrants. The earth is big enough. There is enough. All living things have a right to free and uninhibited travel, and to live where they feel safe.
I read her original statement as calling out L.A. to do a better job finding solutions for the homeless; tying it to immigration may have been to get attention, but makes the timing seem suspect. Maybe she took the ‘they want open borders’ maggat bait..
Remember – every time a Deplorable tries to justify mistreating asylum seekers by claiming “the US needs to take care of its own”, that they voted for a man whose current White House budget calls for ONE AND A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security.
And which constantly tries to cut education, arts programs, food assistance, student loan programs, veterans programs, the Special Olympics, the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing, etc. The list goes on and on.
So true.
Great point.
So much this! Trump doesn’t care about the homeless or those living in poverty.
It’s possible to be appalled by the deplorable treatment of would-be immigrants at the border, and to also think that mass transfer of a migrant caravan to one city is a bad idea. Being against the latter (a poorly-considered, provocative, and punitive policy) does not mean you support the former.
You’re talking about it like it’s actually something that could happen. It’s not.
There is so much *othering* in her statement as well as in the larger conversation about asylum-seeking immigrants.
The language that she uses is so fucking dehumanizing: “which is different than dropping thousands of people who haven’t been vetted”.
Stop referring to them like they’re all dangerous, violent or “scary” FFS. They’re not monsters, they’re fucking human beings, Cher.
“If My State Can’t Take Care of Its Own(Many Are VETS)How Can it Take Care Of More”
Two separate and distinct issues and conflating them is right out of the Trump playbook.
We can and should take care of BOTH our immigrant population and our veterans but again, separate issues that require very different solutions in order to be effective.
And the only time that these two issues intersect is when ICE attempts to deport a veteran. A couple months back they detained a Marine Vet who they later found out IS a US citizen. Just yesterday we heard that ICE deported the husband of an Afghanistan veteran who died in combat, leaving their 12 year old orphan in Phoenix to fend for herself.
Please remember that many of our immigrants ARE veterans as well.
We are failing at providing a quality life for both veterans AND immigrants, but one issue should never be raised to minimize/diminish the other. BOTH issues deserve our FULL attention.
Cher needs to take several seats.
Yeah, I just don’t see why it has to be an either/or situation. Not to mention that is the kind of BS excuse that people use, until they can find a new one. Even if the homeless crisis in L.A. were to evaporate, they would say they can’t find the resources to help immigrants, or they need to spend money on infrastructure. They will always find a way to want to keep immigrants out, when they really mean “I don’t want more brown people here”.
Funny, Cher is fear-mongering with “caravan” talk, but never says anything about visa overstay.
YES! She is so damn ignorant that she doesn’t even appear to understand that visa overstays are the largest contributing factor to illegal immigration. “Caravans of illegal immigrants that will be dumped in sanctuary cities” is a Breitbart headline and Cher is helping to feed the Trump-monsters the fear and paranoia that they’re so hungry for.
She sucks.
Everything you said, Marty, Elke, Kitten and Lula. It makes me sad and angry.
Exactly! Ugh, I hate this argument so much! Like, where else in life is it ok to be like, well tommy, as your kindergarten teacher, I can teach you math, or science. You choose! As your dentist, I can look at your top teeth, or bottom. This is a completely arbitrary distinction! Money isn’t the problem, it’s that we don’t care. If we cared, we could find the money.
Exactly. We have the fucking money but we choose to use it on our already-bloated military budget. We care about veterans in that we need them to fight our useless wars but then don’t have the basic decency to help them when they come home and are damaged from what they endured. Our country is cruel–THAT’S the problem.
Well said, well said.
Such different issues also. A lot of homeless are also dealing with mental health issues that need to be addressed. Reagan famously closed mental health facilities in the 80’s and our homeless problem skyrocketed. Immigrants are fleeing poverty and violence and want to work to make a better life for themselves and their families. Studies have shown that immigrants have lower rates of criminal behavior than the native population. In calif where I live, everyone I know who is first or second generation Hispanic works extremely hard.
It was just recently that I learned about the Reagan policy on mental health facilities and how it relates to the homeless population. It is rage inducing.
Yes, Tifany, it IS rage inducing. I remember that there were hospitals when I was a kid that seemed to all close suddenly in and around Los Angeles. They were mental health facilities.
So well said, Kitten. As always. 🙂
Spot on.
I have been to poor countries where there is no welfare system, not government support, no shelters, NOTHING. America has a system…maybe a broken one then, because no one should be homeless in a country that brags about being the “richest” in the world. Also, how can America just keep taking in immigrants and helping them? HOW? WITH WHAT? Fix the system first.
We are the richest country in the world…and yet somehow, whenever anyone wants to use any of that money for anything in the public interest (education, healthcare, infrastructure, and yes, refugee resettlement counts too) we’re suddenly broke.
IT’S A CON.
We need to stop letting the ultra-wealthy hoard the nation’s wealth through tax dodges, and stop pissing everything away on endless expensive military conflicts. Then we can treat people, citizens and non-citizens, the way they should be treated.
I saw Cher ìn Vegas a few weeks ago. She is still awesome
Typical celebrity. “Climate change!”, yet they don’t want wind power in their backyards, and they fly private jets, have monster mansions using massive energy. “Take in more immigrants”, as long as they aren’t in my subdivision or town. “Tax the rich”, but don’t touch my money. Argggh!
Sounds you are talking about the British Royal Family! LOL! LOL!
FYI: the PofW does support wind turbines anywhere they can be put based on the last time I watched him (on TV) speak on the subject.
I’m not surprised.
Cher blew one of the loudest dog whistles, using veterans to cover her intolerance. If she’s so concerned about veterans or the homeless, she can sell a few of her Bob Mackie gowns or donate the profits from her latest tour. She doesn’t need the money.
I hate the naivete behind thinking that refugees will need to be “taken care of” forever. There are resettlement agencies, which come from a totally different funding stream than those that deal with municipal issues like homelessness. And then refugees move on with their new lives, like anyone would. They support themselves, pay rent, pay taxes just like the rest of us.
I can see what she’s saying, but what an incredibly stupid way of saying it. That clarification was worse than the original tweet. There are two different big issues here, and both are conversations that need to happen.
#1-lack of affordable housing, lack of available mental health and medical care, lack of livable wage. This is an issue that’s going on throughout the country. This then leads to the issue of where we’re going to put citizenship seekers. After the agencies resettle folks, are we just chucking them into the cities with the issues listed in option #1?
We welcome immigrants, and we want to help, but realistically, we have a system that sets everyone up for failure, citizens and citizenship seekers alike. It’s a bigger conversation which includes the idiotic proposed funding cuts to social programs. Repubs literally want these programs to fail on a bare bones budget, so they can point and say, “see! we told you they didn’t work!” and abolish the programs outright. This has been the plan all along.
BroodyTrudy, You are so correct in all that you say. The problem is not immigration per say but a broken system. Immigrants are just being used as a scapegoat by the Orange man, Republicans (that I know personally) are NOT interested in fixing the system
The good news is that the country overall is becoming more tolerant of immigrants rather than less. Trump and his band of scared white people are making the rest of the country realize that we are stronger because of immigrants and immigration. His white nationalism will cater to a smaller and smaller slice of America in the ensuing decades.
Lol… as if anyone “dumped” in a town has to stay there. With the cost of living in LA, those migrants are moving to the Central Valley, for farm jobs and cheaper housing.
Stupid Trumpsters think it’s owning the libs to take the “Illegals” they want banned from the country and…drop them in the country. Sanctuary cities aren’t black holes, dummies.
The people can leave any time. They’ll just disappear into the ether, disseminating amongst the population. Congratulations, GOP, you played yourself.
This is only saying Trump’s idea is dumb, not that migrants are bad. I’m in the Central Valley, and know many undocumented.
Btw, LA is not an official sanctuary city, iirc. The only official ones in CA, to my knowledge, are SF, and Berkeley. And any migrants left there won’t stay…that’s not where the jobs are.
Portland, Oregon is an official sanctuary city.
Trump hates us, but the feeling is mutual, so
Cher’s thoughts are Cher’s thoughts. Leave her age out of it, there is plenty to talk about without showing age bigotry.
Agree wholeheartedly.
Cher, WTF?!
K got me again. I can get on when I want, but I am done with that. I will miss a couple of posters, but if you say one word she disagrees with poof. I always thought that’s what happened to magnolia rose too. Done.
But the thing is, I’m tired of hearing people using the homeless and vets as an excuse to be inhumane to others. Most of them using homeless and vets as an excuse are not doing, and have not done, one thing to help. They just make a handy excuse to avoid doing anything for others.
As a minority that has lived in ny projects, I will say that we need to work on our issues. Money cannot solve everything, at some point the dam will burst and it’s time to realize that. There are plenty of other cities that are facing crime, gangs, violence right here. I don’t here any conversations about fixing that.
That is such a common ill informed belief that people cling to. We should look after our own before helping others. I always respond “why can’t we work at both?” That the President of the USA would condone and agree with such thinking openly is very very sad.
What did she say that offends you so much? I would love to help everyone, but there is SOME truth in her statement! Homelessness and poverty are a huge issue in san fran and LA, the very places that want to welcome more people that lack resources. Its not mean, its honest.
Sarah, I agree with you. It is honest, but the wealthy of the United States used to pay more in taxes here out of a sense of responsibility. Wealth was shared with workers. Profits were offered as bonuses. The reason was to increase quality of life in the name of stability.
Can we all agree to stop referring to human beings as “illegal”? The PERSON and their mere existence isn’t a crime. They’re undocumented Americans. If you think birthright to this nation makes you more deserving and thus can’t bear to think of them as American, just say “undocumented individuals.” It’s more specific, accurate, and way less racist.
Anytime I hear the word “illegal” escape someone’s lips I know they have some intense racial prejudices that they don’t care to work on.
KITTEN YOU ROCK!!! As a fellow Bostonian via San Francisco I wish you would run for office. The fact that you intelligently can see solutions to these completely different problems has my vote. Thank you for even realizing the cruelty our society treats both veterans and those trying to immigrate to the USA are shown.
Cher sounds like a lot of moderate Democrats I know. It’s not a leftist or Progressive sentiment or view, but it’s not MAGA.
While Trump pits us against each other, we forget that the Obama administration had policies in place that gave incredible results in regards to the central American refugee situation. One program that reduced murders 62% in 2 years (!!!!!) in Hondouras was simply having people testifying against gang members wearing burkas, so their identity wasn’t known.
We should be expanding the programs that worked. This article is very informative.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/opinion/caravan-migrants-asylum-trump.html
Instead of bickering over where to put people fleeing murderous gangs, we should focus on the root of the problem.
Yes, it is racist. What do the homeless, drug addicts and the mentally I’ll have to do with undocumented immigrants? Most of the people living on the streets can’t afford rent, are addicts and alcoholics or are mentally ill.
Seattle, where I live, has one of the highest rates of homelessness. They recently conducted some interviews and found that 80 percent of the homeless here are from Washington. Many thought they were moving here do to our lax rules on heroin use. As it turns out, it’s not all about the heroin epidemic. Housing prices and rent in Seattle and surrounding areas have skyrocketed. The homeless are homeless and turn to drugs out of despair because they can’t afford a home to live in.
There needs to be some emergency action to get the homeless into housing. Unfortunately, the wealthy and upperclass here balk when anyone mentions rent control. The argument is that it would affect small businesses negatively, crime would go up, housing prices would go down etc. Yet, Seattle has tent cities, trash and feces everywhere and they’re not complaining about that? Really it’s all dog whistles for we don’t want minorities or the poor living in our neighborhood.
I don’t live in California, but I’m guessing rent is high there also and they could use some rent control.
If I could ask Cher something, I would ask her why she thinks immigrants have anything to do with homelessness.
Didn’t Cher’s family immigrate from Armenia ? Just sing Cher…
Legally! They sure did
Toxic press or what?
LAdy says something logical and reasonable and the press try this on.
Exhausting.
Why are we equating a group of immigrants or refugees to a homeless population in a major metropolitan area? A city can both welcome an immigrant population and deliver services to the homeless.
Really they can? They aren’t doing a very good job. Sorry but we don’t have endless money and resources. Although it sounds mean, she is making a realistic point. I work in an elementary school and it is a burden to House more people, I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but I’m saying it puts stress on the school, resources and communities. It’s okay to talk about how it’s all going to work instead of just saying Cher is mean!!!!!
Raise taxes on people in Cher’s wealth bracket to support all groups who desperately need help. How refreshing (and unlikely) would it be to see her complaining about all of the tax breaks and welfare thrown at the wealthy? They’re the world’s biggest parasites.