Facebook & Twitter Notes, April 8, 2019

More elected representatives should follow this example. https://t.co/gTfmUieOUp

— John Ballard (@Hootsbudy) April 8, 2019

62 health care CEOs made a combined $1.1 billion in 2018 when calculating the actual value of cashed-out stock.

That's $157 million more than what the CDC spent on chronic disease prevention.https://t.co/EmbZD4UdXQ

— Axios (@axios) April 8, 2019

Because nothing says 'democracy' quite like locking down the population you subject to military rule, while the settlers who live among them head to the polls.https://t.co/1Ee6aO8xjh

— Ben White (@benabyad) April 8, 2019

I feel the need for some good news as the nastiness of campaigning gets worse. The candid ugliness of 2016 and daily incivility of Donald Trump is affecting both parties, pervading the air like dog shit on someone's shoe. Surely we are better than this. 

*** WINNER  ***

~~~

What follows is part of a comments thread at the Facebook post below.

(Edit: I just noticed the same post is linked above. I forgot. It's been on my mind all day. If you missed it, give it some time.)

Unless and until there is real comprehensive immigration reform all these stories will continue to fester. Millions of so-called "undocumented" people are already part of the working, contributing population -- sending their kids to school, working, for all intents and purposes totally ordinary people, but living in the shadows. The DACA kids are but the tip of an iceberg, those who were brave enough to register. No way to know how many, but there must be many more who would be eligible but who would risk revealing friends or family members at risk of being apprehended by ICE. We simply don't know but the numbers must be staggering. Eleven million is the usual reference but who knows?
The last reform was during the Reagan years, I think, and it included an amnesty to accommodate the then-illegal numbers (but who knows how many really took advantage of it?). Something of the sort will eventually be needed but even during the arguments about DACA there were trembling references to "the A-word" as though another amnesty would be tantamount to treason.
I have given up seeing any real corrective legislation in my lifetime. I decided some time ago to just watch the train go by and hope for the best. Even as we speak whatever structural stability was in place at the beginning of Trump's presidency is being pro-actively dismantled. Some measure of stability that evolved with both parties participating is crumbling -- from the top! There are more worms in the apples now than I ever imagined would be there, and they have been put there intentionally.
This thread, bad as it is, is just a small piece of a larger dynamic.