Tom Cotton, David Perdue And Josh Hawley Introduce Trump's Anti-LEGAL Immigration Bill

3 modern day Know Nothings-- Cotton, Trump, Perdue

In 2017 two virulent Republican xenophobes, Tom Cotton (AR) and David Perdue (GA), tried drastically cutting back on legal immigration with their RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment). It failed to get out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so Cotton introduced it again six months later with a big public push from Trump and his two neo-Nazi pals, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. (It was before Bannon was fired for being mean to Ivanka.) The bill was meant to cut legal immigration in half and to severely limit the number of refugees the U.S. admits. (Remember, Trump thinks the country is "full"; it isn't.) Although 3 right-wing Democrats-- Donnelly, Machin and Heitkamp-- backed it, it was defeated 60-39, with Republicans Barrasso (WY), Collins (ME), Cruz (TX), Daines (MT), Enzi (WY), Jeff Flake (AZ), Inhofe (OK), Kennedy (LA), Lee (UT), Moran (KS), Murkowsky (AK), Paul (KY), Sasse (NE), and Thune (SD) crossing the aisle to vote with the rest of the Democrats.

Cotton and Perdue and back with the bill and they found another bigot, Missouri GOP freshman Josh Hawley, to co-sponsor it. Last time, the bill was panned by economists who predicted it would slow growth and have a negative impact on the GDP.

Immigrants are responsible for nearly half the population growth of the United States, and by extension that also means they are a sizable part of the growth in the U.S. labor force.

“It’s half of labor force growth today. Going forward it’s a bigger drag. We have yet to meet the critical mass of baby boomers retiring. That’s still ahead,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at DS Economics.

Statistics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau on assumptions about population growth and immigration are rolled into economists’ forecasts for GDP. Economists say there are already worker shortages in some areas, and the problem could get worse quickly.

Macroeconomic Advisers co-founder Joel Prakken says the economy should grow at about 2 percent next year, but already it could see a dent if immigration is slowed. “What’s behind that projection is the assumption of labor force growth and productivity growth ... that is a combination of assumptions about the participation rate and the growth of the population. Our assumptions of the population come from the Census Bureau,” he said.

“If you cut the labor force growth in half you probably take two to three tenths of a percentage point off GDP growth every year over the next decade,” Prakken said. He said that would also impact the 3 percent growth pace the Office of Management and Budget is forecasting for 2020 and beyond. The Trump administration forecasts 2.4 percent growth next year.

Prakken said immigrants are probably a bigger portion of the growth in the labor force, since the U.S. population is aging, immigrants are generally younger and many come to the U.S. specifically to work. Industries that could see big impacts would be agricultural, leisure and hospitality and construction, he said.

“There would be spot shortages,” he said.

He said one adverse impact could be that companies in some industries could move operations outside the U.S. if they can’t find enough workers, which would be opposite the Trump administration’s efforts to attract more jobs.

“It’s another one of these cases where [a law] could have adverse consequences that move in the opposite direction of some other initiative the administration is trumpeting,” he said.

...“The real issue is what would it do to potential growth in an economy where we need more people to replace retirees,” said Swonk. “You’re closing another door to offset the drag from an aging population.”

Speaking for most Democrats, Richard Blumenthal (CT) noted that Cotton's bill was "nothing but a series of nativist talking points and regurgitated campaign rhetoric that completely fails to move our nation forward toward real reform." Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a former member of the Gang of Eight, also attacked the bill-- which he later voted for anyway, saying it would be "devastating" to South Carolina's economy.

The Anti-Defamation League was one of dozens of groups to come out against the bill. Their CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement: "This proposed legislation is cruel, anti-family and un-American. These are the types of policy markers that exacerbate immigrant bashing and nativist attitudes in this country. We support an immigration policy that is comprehensive, protects our security, reunites families and improves our economy while honoring our values as a nation of immigrants. Diversity is our country’s strength and immigration has made America great."

The U.S. has a long sordid history of nativist bigots in the political realm. In 1855 the Native American Party changed it's name to the American Party and made some real headway, particularly in the South, of course, where, known as the Know Nothing movement, they preached hatred, racism and xenophobia. Cotton, Hawley and Perude come straight out of the strain of American politics. The #1 target of the Know Nothing movement were Catholics. The Know Nothings even elected dozens of congressmen (52 at their high-mark) and one, Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts, served as Speaker of the House for one year, from February 1856 to March of 1857, although after he switched the become a Republican. They also had 5 U.S. senators at their peak. In fact at that point, nativism became a new American rage and with it came Know Nothing candy, Know Nothing tea, Know Nothing toothpicks and a 700-ton freighter christened Know Nothing. Like Trump supporters today, they were proud of the bigotry and proud of their stupidity. They even had an American president in their camp, Milliard Fillmore. You thought Trump was the first?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

How does one explain Trumpanzee's Chief Of Staff John Kelly? Mentally defective? Obviously. Bigoted to the core? That too. He met the qualifications for the job. When Kelly made the following statement about immigrants last week, Kelly was demonstrating both characteristics:

They're not criminals. They're not MS-13. Some of them are not. But they are also not people that would assimilate into the United States, into our modern society. They're overwhelmingly rural people in the countries they come from- fourth, fifth, sixth grade educations are kind of the norm.

I noted the use of the word 'some' as in some of them are "not criminals." How magnanimous of him! Some. I suppose I could say that some of the Trump administration are not criminals but it sure isn't looking that way. I was also struck by what was either Kelly's complete lack of self-awareness, perhaps contempt for his own origins, or, was it just that he thought he could get away with uttering such bullshit and no one would call him on it, certainly not those who, drenched in hate, support his boss. So, that said, let's take a quick look at John Kelly's ancestors.

John Kelly's Irish and Italian ancestors came to this country, like any immigrants, looking for a better life and more importantly to them, a better life for their children and future generations to come. They also bore the assaults dealt out to Irish and Italian immigrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were ghetto-ized and ostracized. Assimilation comes slowly. Seeking employment, Irish immigrants encountered signs in windows and newspaper help wanted ads that said "Irish Need Not Apply," a sort of polite way of saying "Don't even think about it." Italians were treated even worse, and not solely because they often didn't speak English. Even those few who achieved success in their field had to bear the insults. None other than Joe DiMaggio, now considered an American hero, was referred to in LIFE Magazine as "The Dago Yankee."

There was nothing wrong with Kelly's forebears, but Kelly seems to have, at the least, in his rush to poisonous anti-immigrant hypocrisy, glossed over the fact that his great-grandfather, a day laborer named John DeMarco, had, even after 47 years here, according to the 1930 U.S. census records, not bothered to become a U.S. citizen, was also illiterate and did not speak English. John DeMarco's wife had been here 37 years and still spoke no English. Kelly's family background is full of similar stories, just like the family backgrounds of most of us. No doubt he knows this but he's such a bigot that he either can't help himself or it just gets in the way of the Republican agenda. Civilized people, however, don't look down upon our ancestors, and we don't condemn people like our ancestors. That's for bigoted assholes.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

-by Noah

Given to us as a gift, the Statue Of Liberty was designed by French sculptor Frederic August Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel. It arrived in New York in 1884, was assembled, and dedicated on October 28, 1886. Since then it has been exactly what it was meant to be; a beacon of liberty and a welcome to all immigrants. Liberty herself is Libertas, the Roman Goddess of Liberty. She holds a torch, not of the republican Tiki variety, but a symbol of "Liberty enlightening the world." The book Liberty holds is inscribed with the date of our Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. The most powerful, and, sadly, most ignored symbol lies at her feet. It is a broken chain.

Recently, Donald Trump's Senior Policy Advisor, Stephen Miller, made a sick, twisted effort to neuter the words "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" by saying the words were added to the statue after it was dedicated. In fact, the words were added 17 years later in 1903 but, what the bigoted to his core Miller conveniently neglected to mention was that the words are the most crucial part of a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus to help raise the funding for the statue itself in 1883. Miller's statement amounts to just one more example of the White House attitude toward immigrants.

In past sad eras of our American history, lots of countries have been considered shitholes by our most strident and disgusting bigots. In the mid-19th century, one of those countries was Ireland. Businesses looking for people to employ made a habit of putting signs in their windows that read "Irish Need Not Apply." As we entered the 20th century, the same conservative types regarded Italians as coming from a shithole country. Even as late as the 1930s, the great baseball player Joe DiMaggio was called a "The Dago Yankee" by Life magazine, right on its cover. Later, Nixon's tapes revealed his hate for Jews. In more recent times, not much has changed, only the ethnic targets. What is different is that we have an overtly fascist president who is not just cheerleading this hate and emboldening other bigots, but also trying to make his hate into law; counter to the meanings of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the words that we can find on the Statue of Liberty.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party backs Trump's language and actions. On Friday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senator David Perdue (R-GA) issued a joint statement saying that, although they were at the White House meeting where Trump issued his shithole statement, they just "couldn't recall" hearing it. Really? Wouldn't you? Thankfully, both Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and, surprisingly, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) made it clear that they could confirm that Trump said the words that have been attributed to him, although Graham did so more indirectly. And, really, given Trump's past statements, we should, in no way, be surprised he said what he said? Trump, of course, denied it all. Perhaps, he can't handle the truth.

Sadly, this whole incident shows us that the feelings or the Republican Party and it's leadership represent a perversion of what the Statue of Liberty is supposed to represent.

The Taoiseach's Words Of Wisdom For Trump, Infuriated The So-Called President

Perhaps you noticed that Iowa's racist xenophobic congressman, Steve King, is bragging that his Republican colleagues in the House have been congratulating him and slapping him on the back for his latest bigoted outburst. There are always some exception, of course, but that kind of ugly racism and tolerance for ugly racism is part of the conservative movement's DNA. What a garden path they've been led down!

Republicans don't like being lectured to be anyone who they consider themselves "better" than. Often that has to do with net worth-- did you read the post this afternoon about moneybags monstrosity Robert Mercer? That's his shtik. The ones like Steve King are just all about the most primitive kind of out-and-out racism. And, speaking about "primitive," you get a Republican like Trump and... well just look at the vile Bronze Age misogyny emanating from this horrible narrow-minded little man-with-a-big-boy-job, did he hate being lectured to by German Chancellor Angela Merkel! He smugly refused to even shake hands with her in a room crowded with reporters and photographers! Once again, he disgraced our country.

So, yeah, yesterday we were talking about Trump foreign policy problems with Britain, Germany and, most seriously, North Korea, but we forgot about Ireland. If you did't already, now's the time to watch the short news clip at the top of the page. Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, called the Taoiseach in his home country, used St Patrick's Day to illustrate his thoughts on immigration while visiting Señor Trumpanzee in the White House. Look at that ugly frozen scowl of horror on Trump's face when another Europeam leader dared to lecture him on his bigotry! Trump will probably never celebrate St. Patrick's Day again!

Remember, there are more than 7 times the number of Irish folks in the U.S. than there are in Ireland-- almost 35 million people. Obviously, all of them are descendants of immigrants. According to Irish Central, many Irish-American voters feel strongly about immigration reform and are not unaware of the vicious right-wing bigotry against their antecedents. Conservatives, particularly in the South, stereotyped Irish immigrants as inferior, lazy drunks who took jobs from "real" Americans, and many conservatives referred to them as "white Negroes." The Know Nothing Movement-- basically the teabaggers of 1850s-- was, in great part, formed to combat Irish immigration and Irish assimilation. Catholicism was demonized by Nativist Protestant bigots almost everywhere in the U.S. "No Irish need apply" was a very real and very painful attitude meant to hold back the Irish immigrants from making America home.

Trump looked like he wanted to strangle Enda Kenny with his tiny fat little hands-- or clobber him with a shealeigh

The Irish were strangers in a strange land: rejected and unwanted. Ads for employment most often included the stipulation that "No Irish Need Apply." They were forced to live in shacks or huts partly due to their poverty but also because of redlining; they were considered to be "bad" for the neighborhood. Further emphasizing their segregation, their living conditions propagated sickness and disease, ushering an early death because health care was unavailable to them. Their dress, illiteracy, and brogue provoked ridicule in the new land, and their unfamiliarity with plumbing and running water brought about scorn and contributed the sicknesses and diseases that killed the majority of newborns.

They were also persecuted for their religious beliefs; they were not only discriminated against because they were Irish, but also because they were Catholics. The general sentiment was to put them on a boat and send them back to Ireland.

...The Irish immigrated to America at a time of great necessity. The country was progressing, and men were needed to do the back breaking work essential to the growth of the country by building railroads, canals, and bridges. This hard and treacherous work was accepted by the Irish out of desperation. The women found work as chamber maid and cooks; at that time, Americans thought this type of work to be demeaning and only fit for servants, but the Irish were cheerful, hard working, honest, and strictly moral.

The Irish have come a long way since then, of course. With the exception of LBJ-- and before Putin installed Trump-- every U.S. President starting with John Kennedy has emphasized his Irish roots. Reagan's came from County Tipperary, Clinton's from County Fermanagh and Obama's from County Offaly. (County Antrim gave this country 7 presidents-- Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.) Obviously, not all of them relate their own ancestors' tribulations to those being inflicted on Mexican-American (and other) immigrants today.

Fighting Back Against The Trumpist Know Nothing Agenda-- Immigration Made America Great, Not Trump

Continuing to make America great

The dark strain of American Know Nothing hatred towards immigrants is hardly new. German, Irish, Chinese, Jewish, Italian, Polish, Japanese families... have all felt its ugly sting-- and their progeny have then gone on to inflict it on those who came after them. So horrible! Saturday there was a report by Sam Levine in HuffPo about the campaign of one of the GOP sociopaths running for Tom Price's abandoned seat in the Atlanta suburbs, Karen Handel. Handel, best known as an unhinged anti-Choice fanatic sent out a fundraising e-mail promising "to build a wall on the border and end Muslim immigration." David Perdue, another Georgia racist and vicious modern day Know Nothing--joined by Arkansas' bigoted kook Tom Cotton-- have let the GOP anti-immigrant mask slip by authoring a bill to drastically cut back on legal immigration. Perdue, Cotton, Handel have long ugly records as racists and hate mongers and there are plenty of "conservatives" who buy their vitriol.

Did you notice the chart up top? I hope so. And a report last week from ABC News reinforced it by explaining the disaster the U.S. economy would become without immigrants.

"If all immigrants were just to disappear from the U.S. workforce tomorrow, that would have a tremendous negative impact on the economy," said Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, an economic research think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"Immigrants are overrepresented in a lot of occupations in both low- and high-skilled jobs," he explained. "You'd feel an impact and loss in many, many different occupations and industries, from construction and landscape to finance and IT."

Though some U.S.-born workers could fill some of those jobs, large gaps in several sectors would remain and cause a decline in the economy, Costa said.

Immigrants earned $1.3 trillion and contributed $105 billion in state and local taxes and nearly $224 billion in federal taxes in 2014, according to the Partnership for a New American Economy, based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey. The partnership is a group of 500 Republican, Democratic and independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that create jobs for Americans, according to its site.

In 2014 immigrants had almost $927 billion in consumer spending power, an analysis of the survey showed.

"Immigrants are a very vital part of what makes the U.S. economy work," said Jeremy Robbins, the executive director of the Partnership for a New American Economy. "They help drive every single sector and industry in this economy."

He added that without immigrants, there would be fewer businesses and inventions.

"If you look at the great companies driving the U.S. as an innovation hub, you'll see that a lot of companies were started by immigrants or the child of immigrants, like Apple and Google," he said. Apple was co-founded by Steve Jobs, whose biological father was a Syrian refugee, and Google (now Alphabet) was co-founded by Sergey Brin, who was born in Moscow.

Though immigrants make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, they contribute nearly 15 percent of the country's economic output, according to a 2014 report from the Economic Policy Institute. The report contains the institute's latest data on immigration and the U.S. economy.

"Immigrants have an outsized role in U.S. economic output because they are disproportionately likely to be working and are concentrated among prime working ages," the EPI report says. "Moreover, many immigrants are business owners. In fact, the share of immigrant workers who own small businesses is slightly higher than the comparable share among U.S.-born workers."

David Kallick, the director of the Immigration Research Initiative at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said Americans should not be fearful that immigrants are stealing jobs from them.

"It may seem surprising, but study after study has shown that immigration actually improves wages to U.S.-born workers and provides more job opportunities for U.S.-born workers," he told ABC News. "The fact is that immigrants often push U.S.-born workers up in the labor market rather than out of it.

"Kallick added that studies he has done found that "where there's economic growth, there's immigration, and where there's not much economic growth, there's not much immigration."

According to Meg Wiehe, the director of programs for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, "Undocumented immigrants contributed more than $11.6 billion in state and local taxes each year. And if the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants here were given a pathway to citizenship or legal residential status, those tax contributions could rise by nearly $2 billion."

Despite their status, unauthorized immigrants still contribute "so much in taxes" because they, just like U.S. citizens, have to pay property taxes for their homes or apartments they own or rent, and they also often pay sales taxes for purchases they make, Wiehe explained.

"Researchers have also found that the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants also pay income tax using something called an I-10 income tax return form," she said.

Wiehe added that it is "critical to remember that we are talking about real people here-- mothers, fathers and families who are contributing to our society through their work and the taxes they're paying."

This ugly strain in the American psyche pre-dated Trumpism, of course, but Trump certainly incorporates it as part of his morbid appeal to the worst among us, part of what the NY Times editorial board referred to over the weekend as his regime's "malevolent incompetence." Trump is having a very negative impact on the mental health of Americans. People, wrote the Times editors "lie awake, thinking about losing their families, jobs and homes. They have been vilified by the president as criminals, though they are not. They have tried to build honest lives here and suddenly are as fearful as fugitives. They await the fists pounding on the door, the agents in black, the cuffs, the van ride, the cell. They are terrified that the United States government will find them, or their parents or their children, demand their papers, and take them away."

About 11 million people are living in this country outside the law. Suddenly, by presidential decree, all are deportation priorities, all are supposed criminals, all are threatened with broken lives, along with members of their families. The end could come for them any time.

This is not an abstract or fanciful depiction. It is not fake news. It’s the United States of today, this month, this morning.

In El Paso, a woman is picked up at a courthouse where she had been seeking an order of protection; immigration agents were apparently tipped off by the man she said abused her. Near Seattle, a 23-year-old man who was protected from deportation and allowed to work lawfully under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is picked up anyway, accused of being a gang member. He furiously denies this, and his lawyer presents paperwork suggesting that agents altered his words to falsely implicate him.

Another DACA recipient, Daniela Vargas of Jackson, Miss., barricades herself in her home after agents detain her father and brother. A mother of four, Jeanette Vizguerra, seeks refuge, alone, in a Denver church basement. A group of Latino men leaving a church-run homeless shelter in Alexandria, Va., are surrounded by a dozen immigration agents who question them, scan their fingerprints and arrest at least two of them.

President Trump’s defenders say the arrest numbers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are comparable to those under President Barack Obama, an energetic deporter-in-chief. That may be true, for the moment, but the context is vastly different. Mr. Trump’s campaign pledges, his flurry of immigration-related executive orders, including his ban on certain travelers from Muslim countries, have a common thread. They reflect his abandonment of discretion, of common sense, his rejection of sound law-enforcement priorities that stress public safety and respect for the Constitution.

They prioritize fear instead.

ICE and the Border Patrol under Mr. Obama were ordered to focus on arresting serious criminals and national-security risks. Mr. Trump has removed those restraints in the name of bolstering his “deportation force.” He wants to triple the number of ICE agents. He wants to revive federal agreements to deputize state and local police officers as immigration officers. He wants to increase the number of detention beds and spur the boom in private prisons.

This vision is the one Donald Trump began outlining at the start of his campaign, when he slandered an entire country, Mexico, as an exporter of rapists and drug criminals, and an entire faith, Islam, as a global nest of murderers. This is the currency of the Trump aides Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller, who have brought the world of the alt-right, with its white nationalist strain, into the White House.

Where could the demonizing and dehumanizing of the foreign born lead but to a whiter America? You have heard the lies from Mr. Trump: that immigrants pose a threat, when they are a boon. That murders are up, when they are down. That refugees flow unimpeded into the country, when they are the most meticulously vetted people to cross our borders. That immigrants and refugees are terrorists, when they are the ones being terrorized.

For those who would resist the administration, there is much to do, and not a lot of time. Congress is not a check. Democrats there are outnumbered, speaking out but waging symbolic resistance for now. Republicans are mostly split between avoiding the subject and cheering on Mr. Trump.

States and cities are freer to act. Many recognize the dangerously anti-American mood and are striving to protect their immigrant populations. They are refusing to allow their police officers to join deportation dragnets, and are readying legal representation and other aid for immigrants. The Trump administration falsely calls these places “sanctuary city” lawbreakers and threatens to withhold federal funding as punishment. It’s not yet clear what actions the administration can take, or who will win the legal battles that are bound to ensue.

And anti-sanctuary, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee sentiment is hardly confined to the federal executive branch. Governors and legislatures in red states will be blocking money to blue, pro-immigrant cities, rolling back in-state tuition and other immigrant-friendly policies, and jumping onto Mr. Trump’s all-out-enforcement bandwagon. This battle has many fronts.

The other best lever available, besides the courts and the Constitution, is people power. Protesting and public actions will embolden others to join in, and hearten the vulnerable. If senators and representatives can’t show courage, then churches, universities, schools, philanthropies, health systems, corporations, farmers and artists can.

The days of protests at airports over the Muslim ban were a magnificent surprise, a spontaneous uprising of Americans who said: This is not who we are. Think of the power in that. Think of the message sent if the “day without immigrants,” in which foreign-born workers stayed home, became a week or a month.

And remember, a typical Trump voter is far, far more likely to overdose on oxycodone, hydromorphone, codeine, fentanyl or heroin than a typical immigrant to this country. Immigrants come here to make better lives for themselves. Typical Trump voters are here to play the victim and blames everyone else for their failures as human beings and for the inability to function successfully in society.

Happy St. Paddy's day to you -- and your pooch! (Also: Irish roots in NYC, and Ina Garten's Irish soda bread)

COMING UP AT 7pm PT/10pm ET:
America's buffest congressman says bye-bye
(See also this afternoon's Breaking News report)

Mitch Waxman reshares a favorite photo

Says our cameramaniac pal Mitch of this photo of his, served up again today on his "Newtown Pentacle" blog: "I fully realize that you’ve seen this shot before, but god help me, I just love it so." We love it too, Mitch, we love it too! What could more graphically illustrate the spirit of the day?

by Ken

St. Paddy's Day isn't a holiday on my holiday schedule, but it's always nice to be able to see people having harmless fun. Depending, of course, on how you define "harmless fun."

In my recollections of the day I always seemed to find myself trying to cross Fifth Avenue while the parade stumbled by, which not only was a near-impossibility itself but exposed the trapped passerby wannabe to the spectacle of the city's schoolkids -- not all of them Irish, surely, or only Irish-for-the-day -- puking en masse on the streets of New York.

I would have liked to say "puking up green beer en masse," but only some of the regurgitated suds was green. Our teens would chug whatever brew they could lay hands on. Nowadays, of course, those puddles of upchuck could include particulate matter of green bagels, green pizza, green-and-white cookies, and green goodness-knows-what.

Over the years I've heard that the Archdiocese has clamped down on, um, celebratory behavior along the parade route, but I can't speak from personal experience. We humans pride ourselves on the ability to learn from experience, and eventually a person may learn to avoid an event like this like the plague.

But to all who've been celebrating: Happy St. Patrick's Day!


REMEMBERING IRISH ROOTS IN NYC



Michelle and James Nevius, authors of Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York and Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers have sent out a St. Patrick's Day greeting with the above image of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral (down in what became known as Manhattan's Little Italy) and a note that "James had a piece published yesterday on Curbed that explores remnants of Irish history in all five boroughs. Follow this link to read "In Modern-Day New York: Remnants of Irish Roots Abound."

"The illustration above," Michelle and James note (which you can click to enlarge), "shows the Irish 69th regiment leaving from St. Patrick's Old Cathedral at the outbreak of the Civil War. The 'Fighting 69th' are memorialized in Calvary Cemetery in Queens -- just one of a dozen places mentioned in the article."

The Neviuses also invite everyone to visit their "expanded and improved website," www.walknyc.com.


IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO BAKE SOMETHING!



Topping the Food Network website's list of St. Paddy's Day treats is this recipe from Ina Garten:

Ina's Irish Soda Bread

Bread baking is notoriously a whole to-do, but Ina's easy-to-make Irish soda bread doesn't call for any kneading, rising or waiting. Simply throw the ingredients in the mixer to bake a loaf that gains a subtle sweetness from orange zest and currants.

All you need is all-purpose flour, sugr, baking soda, cold unsalted butter, cold buttermilk, an extra-large egg, some grated orange zest, and dried currants. You'll find the recipe here. (There's even a video.)

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Can The Descendants Of Irish Immigrants Turn The Tide Against The Republican Party's Anti-Hispanic Bigots?

There are more than 7 times the number of Irish folks in the U.S. than there are in Ireland-- almost 35 million people. All of them are descendants of immigrants. Over 11% of Americans come from Irish ancestry-- and almost 13% of New Yorkers; on Long Island, the number is over 13%. Adjoining Lake County (Illinois) and Kenosha County (Wisconsin) are high among counties where Irish immigrants are settling today. Lake County is split between conservative New Dem Brad Schneider and an Establishment Republican, Randy Hultgren. Paul Ryan, who has been mouthing some pretty pro-immigration talking points for a conservative Republican, represents every inch of Kenosha County. Right now over 7% of the people who live in Kenosha and the people who live in Lake are of Irish ancestry. In Kenosha just over 7% of the population is of Hispanic ancestry, and in Lake County it's about double that, 14.4%.

Pennsylvania's most racist Congressman Lou Barletta

Last year Ryan was reelected with 55% of the votes district-wide. Kenosha turned out in a very big way for his opponent, Rob Zerban, giving him 52% of the vote. Schneider barely won over incumbent Robert Dold-- who's challenging him to a rematch next year-- 50-50. It was also 50-50 in the Lake County part of the 10th CD-- 101,920 for Schneider and 100,365 for Dold. Hultgren was reelected with 59% district-wide, although in the Lake County portion of the district his margin dropped down to 55%. Obama won Lake County 53-45% and he won Kenosha County 56-43%. Both are good electoral hunting grounds for Democrats. So are the heavily Irish-American counties of eastern Pennsylvania, counties that are crucial to the reelection efforts of Tom Marino, anti-immigration fanatic Lou Barletta (Pennsylvania's version of Steve King), Charlie Dent, Mike Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach, Patrick Meehan, Scott Perry and Joe Pitts. If these Republicans don't do well among Irish-American voters, they won't be reelected.

Will Republican Party hostility to immigration reform sour Irish voters on the GOP? Eric Cantor's nonchalant '"we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude on Fox News Sunday probably won't help his party's cause with Hispanic voters... but Irish voters too? According to Irish Central, many Irish-American voters feel strongly about immigration reform and are not unaware of the vicious right-wing bigotry against their antecedents.

The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) has kick started a summer recess campaign to make sure that GOP members hear from the Irish American community on immigration debate.

This campaign is a direct response to the call from the national immigration coalition's request that all pro immigration groups target Republican members of Congress during recess.

As part of this national campaign, ILIR attended the Continental Youth Championships (CYC) sponsored by the Gaelic Athletic Association, in Pennsylvania last weekend.

Thousands of young Irish American athletes and their families attended this four-day sporting event, with people traveling from as far afield as Indiana, Illinois, San Diego, Buffalo, New England, and Pennsylvania.

ILIR was there with an information booth, and engaged with people from nine states with GOP congress members. Each person was provided  with information packs on immigration reform, and with contact information for the GOP Representative from their area.

The president of ILIR, Ciaran Staunton said Pennsylvania is one of the battleground states, with 13 GOP representatives who need to hear from the Irish and Irish American community.

“Please help us help the Irish community,” he said.

Senator John McCain, who sponsored the Senate’s immigration bill, said “I think the month of August is a very important month for voters to meet with their representatives on immigration reform.”

Conservatives, particularly in the South, stereotyped Irish immigrants as inferior, lazy drunks who took jobs from "real" Americans, and many conservatives referred to them as "white Negroes." The Know Nothing Movement-- basically the teabaggers of 1850s-- was, in great part, formed to combat Irish immigration and Irish assimilation. Catholicism was demonized by Nativist Protestant bigots almost everywhere in the U.S. "No Irish need apply" was a very real and very painful attitude meant to hold back the Irish immigrants from making America home.

The Irish were strangers in a strange land: rejected and unwanted. Ads for employment most often included the stipulation that "No Irish Need Apply." They were forced to live in shacks or huts partly due to their poverty but also because of redlining; they were considered to be "bad" for the neighborhood. Further emphasizing their segregation, their living conditions propagated sickness and disease, ushering an early death because health care was unavailable to them. Their dress, illiteracy, and brogue provoked ridicule in the new land, and their unfamiliarity with plumbing and running water brought about scorn and contributed the sicknesses and diseases that killed the majority of newborns.

They were also persecuted for their religious beliefs; they were not only discriminated against because they were Irish, but also because they were Catholics. The general sentiment was to put them on a boat and send them back to Ireland.

...The Irish immigrated to America at a time of great necessity. The country was progressing, and men were needed to do the back breaking work essential to the growth of the country by building railroads, canals, and bridges. This hard and treacherous work was accepted by the Irish out of desperation. The women found work as chamber maid and cooks; at that time, Americans thought this type of work to be demeaning and only fit for servants, but the Irish were cheerful, hard working, honest, and strictly moral.

The Irish have come a long way since then, of course. With the exception of LBJ, every U.S. President starting with John Kennedy has emphasized his Irish roots. Reagan's came from County Tipperary, Clinton's from County Fermanagh and Obama's from County Offaly. (County Antrim gave this country 7 presidents-- Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.) Obviously, not all of them relate their own ancestors' tribulations to those being inflicted on Mexican-American (and other) immigrants today.