I just doused a MAGAt rant.

[lastlib]

He was complaining about migrants entering the US illegally, said crossing into North Korea could get you 12 years hard labor, crossing into Afghanistan could get you shot, into Iran was a ticket for 8 years in prison, while entering the US illegally could get you a driver's license, health care, a job, a place to live, child benefits, education, and a tax-free business. Waah-waah-waah....

I asked him if we really wanted to be in the same league as those other countries, and then asked him what the penalty was for Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod. There the discussion ended.

I love it when shit gets shoved back in their faces.

[Diamond_Dog]

1. EXCELLENT! Well done!

[niyad]

2. Excellent!

[DemocraticPatriot]

3. BRAVO!!!!!

[keithbvadu2]

4. Republicans/Abbot: why are you letting all these immigrants in?

Republicans/Abbot: why are you letting all these immigrants in?

And then whining about it.

Donald said the wall is complete.

You know; the wall that was to keep them from coming in.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/fact-check-trump-announcement-speech-2024/index.html

“We built the wall, and now we will add to it. Now, we built the wall – we completed the wall – and then we said let’s do more, and we did a lot more."

[Richard58]

5. I love it when people expose their BS.

I had a similar conversation with an older woman recently. She was a passenger in my bus and I picked her up before . She's friendly but unfortunately she's also a conservative. She went on a similar rant recently about how illegal immigrants get free housing, free food, free cell phones, free cars, etc. You know the spiel. She then went on to rant about the fact that we have homeless veterans in this country who aren't being taken care of and that they should be our priority and not the illegals. I calmly explain to her that none of that is true about the immigrants. They are not giving free anything and are fleeing chaos and grinding poverty. They deserve our sympathy I said. And as for homeless vets, I told her that we don't need to prioritize homeless vets. We need to focus on the homeless period! I told her that I am a veteran but I don't consider myself better than others. All those who are homeless need help. She didn't have anything to say after that.
But I wonder where conservatives get the idea that immigrants get all this free stuff?

[anciano]

8. Spot on!

excellent post.

PS I also am a vet.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. In re: things like "Besides, we have homeless veterans! Why aren't we helping them?!" bullshit

or maybe it's "hungry children" or "elderly who need assisted living" or whatever the fuck cause they think should be supported -

always good to say, "You know what, before we had an 'immigration' problem, the democrats tried repeatedly to help the veterans (or children or elderly or whatever), and you all said they can go fuck themselves. So obviously, the issue isn't about only having enough money for one cause at a time - the issue is that you only care about those groups when some other group you hate even more is getting more than you think they should. The truth is, we could easily help the homeless, the veterans, the elderly, the children, clean up the environment, AND help immigrants if Republicans paid their *(#&$ taxes and/or we reduced the military budget by, like, 5%. And also truth is, if we started giving veterans homes, you'd bitch and complain about that, too. You only love them in the abstract. Fuck you."

Funny how the fuckers never said "What about the homeless vets?!" when they had decades to do something about it.

Pretend piousness pisses me off.

[Johnny2X2X]

29. Homeless and disabled vets

Want to help homeless or disabled vets? Increase wlefare, social security, food aid, and Medicare/Medicaid!!! Help the poor.

All those vets they like to insert into their arguments non stop rely on the programs in our country to help the poor. The very same ones Republicans try to cut non stop.

HAve a good friend who's a disabled vet, relies on Social Security and Food Stamps to get by. Uses Medicare for health care. Have a Conservative relative who asks me about him from time to time, I usually respond based on the extra help he's getting. I'm in Michigan, so I might say, "He's doing OK, Whitmer has boosted his monthly food allowance for the last few years."

These people don't get that you help vets by helping the poor, all of those programs that Republicans try endlessly to gut are the programs many vets need to survive.

[NowISeetheLight]

34. Amen

I'm 100% disabled with VA and on SSDI now. I see so many vets struggling and they don't make it easy to get help. The VA is so short of doctors. I've waited over a year for a GI procedure and all my mental health providers are community care. That means they're in the community and VA pays them. Sounds great but they have to renew every six months and VA isn't quick. Last year I waited three months between psychologist appointments waiting on renewal (I have severe PTSD and depression).

[Johnny2X2X]

35. Or the VA is so far away

My buddy lives in Northern Michigan, it's the only place in the state he can afford a small home. He can't drive hours to the VA to get help.

He ran burn pits when he was in the Navy though, so he's hoping to get some help from Biden's new bill for that.

[NowISeetheLight]

40. That Too

My VAMC is 90 miles away. We have a clinic nearby bit it's just for labs and regular doctor stuff. Community Care is great but the process of getting it approved is too much.

[calimary]

11. That's always been one of their go-to talking points.

Somebody else who doesn’t look like me and/or come from where I came from is just getting a load of free stuff.

That’s a rationale that only keeps us divided, and in too many cases keeps us at each other’s throats.

And I can’t help but suspect that these lies and distortions are put out there deliberately to KEEP us that way.

[DENVERPOPS]

38. I would just ask them............

What about Trump's current wife, and her dodging of all immigration laws, and her living and working here without any documentation what so ever, before she married Trump............

[wnylib]

23. They make it up. I live in a small city

in western NY. It's not unusual for alcohol and drug rehab counselors to advise their clients in cities like Buffalo and NYC to come here when making a fresh start in order to avoid getting caught up in old habits and crowds. These recovering addicts are citizens who get housing assistance, food stamps, and Medicaid while maintaining their recovery program and looking for work. Some of those people are White. Some are Black. Some are Puerto Rican.

RWers have created a whole fantasy about who these recovering people are and why they are here. Here's what I've heard many times. "We give out more benefits than other counties so Social Services in other parts of the state send people here." Or, "Word gets around among friends and relatives that we have better benefits here so slackers who don't want to work come here just for the benefits."

We don't, of course, have better benefits than anywhere else in the state.

A variation on this BS story is that Blacks and other POC always get better benefits than Whites and that's why people have to list their race or ethnicity on applications. They hear Puerto Ricans speaking English with an accent or speaking Spanish and they claim that "illegal foreigners" get benefits here. None of that is true, of course. Benefits are decided by the same criteria for everyone, regardless of race. And the "foreigners" are Puerto Rican and therefore, are citizens.

[lastlib]

24. Or it's made up for them....

...by the Tucker Carlsons and Rush Limbaughs of the world.

[luvtheGWN]

30. Not just the Carlson and Limbaugh types.

This has been a conservative rightwing trope for many years and not just in the US. Here in Ontario the Conservative Party was pushing the "social welfare queens" trope back in the 90's. They trotted out a couple of examples of women with young children who were living off "your hardworking taxpayers' money". Of course, it turned out that these women had abusive husbands and when the husbands were thrown out, they refused to pay child support.

We are out brothers' (and sisters') keepers -- something the rightwing pseudoXians don't believe in. They have no empathy. And no morals.

[Niagara]

6. They've been spewing this crap for years.

I love it when reasonable people push back!

[MLAA]

7. ...

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

If you can’t see the emoticons, it’s a whole string of clapping hands!

[LoisB]

10. Very well done. Maybe he will now think twice before complaining about migration into the U.S.

[NowISeetheLight]

12. I Wish

There was a way to give awards here on DU like Reddit…. Because this one is worthy. Brilliant. Please don’t mind if I steal it.

[Celerity]

13. Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luc-Olivier Merson, 1879

[aggiesal]

14. I always tell these Magat's ...

That requesting asylum is a legal criteria for entering the U.S. and 145 other countries that signed the 1952 UN agreement.

[NoMoreRepugs]

15. A tax-free business? That mean working for $6-8 an hour cash?

[IronLionZion]

16. I thought Trump built the wall and Mexico paid for it

There are so many migrants stealing jobs that there's a labor shortage! Migrants get health care, child care, and tax-free business? Hmm...I bet that would be news to many migrants who are struggling to get by while sharing crowded housing with lots of other families.

I've had coworkers repeat the crowded housing issue as proof that they are inferior to Americans who have spacious single family homes.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

17. EXACTLY what I've been using to shut these types TFU because according to the Bible, Jesus was

a "illegal" alien along with his mother & stepfather :"​You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:33-34;
2) He was also a HOMELESS man, also Leviticus 19:33-34;
3)He was one of the poor; "If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” Proverbs 21:13 AND
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” Job wrote, “I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them” (Job 29:12).

4)He WAS a JEW who told folks that:“Do not think that I came to do away with or undo the Law [of Moses] or the [writings of the] Prophets; I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.",

5) The last supper was a PASSOVER SUPPER, a SEDER but these idiots are antisemites who are proud of HATING Jews think that they're following a "CHRISTIAN" Jesus, (yeah, I know, makes 0% sense but whatevs): "On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Mark 14:12

6)That His name Jesus is the latinised form of Yeshua;

7)He WAS NOT European but more than likely resembled Yemeni, Omani or darker skinned Middle Eastern person;. that the face on those STUPID blonde haired, blue eyed, pale skinned reproductions was actually an young Italian lad whose name was Pietri Bandinelli who sat for Da Vinci & the modern icon for Jesus was Cesare Borgia.

8)IN FACT NO MAJOR RELIGION has EVER begun & grown out of Europe....Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Baháʼí Faith are all Asiatic or AfroAsiatic belief paths.

OH, LastLib, they LOVE me & go out of their way to avoid me when they find out how much I know. LOL!

[dchill]

18. You did good! 👍

[rainy]

19. Why

“ entering the US illegally could get you a driver's license, health care, a job, a place to live?”
Because government looks the other way when corporations, businesses hire migrants for cheap labor and treat then harshly.

This is why we do not have immigration policies that really work.

[iluvtennis]

21. Bravo - well done! n/t

[orleans]

22. i'm guessing there might be another reason your discussion ended

1. they didn't know anyone went fleeing to egypt
2. they didn't know who herod was

[Duncanpup]

25. Excellent

[GoodRaisin]

26. Who the fuck would even want to cross into North Korea?

What a moron.

[The Jungle 1]

27. We must continue to ask about their strange interpretation of Christianity.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

28. Good hit, Lastlib. Republicans are hypocrites on immigration.

Republicans are hypocrites on immigration and can never address it honestly because their beloved corporations need the cheap labor for profits and to keep labor rates suppressed across the board. However, to gain popular support for votes, they must voice support for cruel anti-immigrant actions (but not enforceable laws) that appeal to America's xenophobic and racist protectionist leanings.

Subservience to business interests is the primary enabler of the GOP because of campaign and right-wing media funding so that they can never be honest about immigration policy reform. I submit this is one of the most cruel and two-faced forms of their hypocrisy, ranking right up there with suppressing advancement of poor and minority sectors and their outright racism.

Another way to slap a Republican in the face over their immigration rants is to ask them hypothetically if they had teenage children, would they encourage those children to become hotel room cleaners, fast food cooks or crop harvesters in the hot summer sun for their life-long careers. Or maybe even better, ask why they didn't choose one of those professions to support their family!

It's hard to believe we go through this same discussion every election cycle, yet once again we make little or no real progress with meaningful immigration reform due to GOP hubris and hypocrisy.

KY........

[LeftinOH]

31. Undocumenteds ("Illegals") aren't getting free stuff. Full stop.

None of those things are "given" to illegals. No matter how much conservatives insist this is happening -- it's still a bullsh!t narrative.

[AwakeAtLast]

32. I have got to remember that one

Excellent!

[NotVeryImportant]

33. That's how you do it.

Well done!

[maxsolomon]

36. Actually, crossing illegally is likely to get you deported.

Claiming asylum isn't crossing illegally.

[czarjak]

37. Nothing beats The Bible for hating on others.

[StClone]

39. Gotta love a good feces to the face retort