Wait, what happened to the “caravans?” I thought all refugees traveled in caravans, or maybe that’s only the way refugees roll BEFORE elections – after the votes have been cast, they just approach the border in small, staggered groups like the desperate people they are.
Shorter York: why isn’t the old bullshit working as well as it used to? This sucks.
Is it me, or does the high pissy old fart content here, in proportion to the yuks, seem worrying? I mean, I'm cynical and misanthropic AF and it bothers me; no need to seek more of it out.
Anyway, I hope it's a stage that Roy's passing through and he's fine. May be the stress of needing to cross post his tweets to John Mastodon's site. (Speaking of media fails, if one must fail, it should always be as epic and awesome and the accidental doxing of John Mastodon.)
But Roy's conclusion here begs a question: pace Dean Baquet, is it possible that the masses have sussed out that the border issue as described and reported by the media has, at best, an excessively high bullshit content?
And let's ignore CNN in its decline into irrelevance. Promoting establishment horseshit without the entertainment of nattering nabobs of nonsense isn't a winning model.
Manque, behold the pissy old fart in the mirror! Srsly
Perhaps consider this a forecast of the next two years (goddess i hope just two years) of GOP flustering. Perhaps the "border crisis" will one of the points of the upcoming & destined to be very successful impeachment proceedings?
Maybe it will feature in the next phantasm Supreme Court case: "An illegal immigrant from Central America crashed the border dressed as a drag queen stole a children's book & read it to my child. Horrors! Or might... he might do that. That's what the attorneys from Moms from Liberty told me..."
I see the next two years (subject to change) as the nightmare of reactionary, fiat decisions from SCOTUS, like, counterpointed by 24/7 insanity from the House and GOP primaries even if Trump doesn’t run (still think he will (also subject to change)).
Maybe we're at the point where any crazy nonsense they put out will be believed by exactly 49% of voting Americans. Which, sadly for them, is a world of difference from the crazy nonsense being bought by 51% of voting Americans.
Funny how small differences can make for huge differences. Or, to quote wise man Wilkins Micawber:
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."
I can never tell if they genuinely believe it or just wait for the key words they can approve. I mean the conservatives I know personally are Staunchly Against Racism... but they favor of any racist policy the GOP advances as long as it is advanced More In Sorrow Than In Anger. They just need the right tone.
BUT, at the same time, I once asked one, "Say you were in charge of the border. Absolutely in charge, whatever you decree. What would be your policy? The one you'd put your name on." This guy, who was very "I can't stand Trump, but we DO need a wall," suddenly went embarrassed and started off with, well, I'd figure out how to give the Dreamers citizenship... then I'd make sure people applying for asylum get their cases heard... He never got around to building the wall.
Overwhelmingly, they believe that the party they've voted for in every election since they turned 18 will be the the party they continue to vote for until they die. Whether there are any actual "beliefs" involved in this is anybody's guess.
If you try to analyze any of this stuff as belief you wind up meeting yourself walking on Mobius Strip Road. It's about feeling, not belief. Not facts, not numbers. If any of those things support their feelings, they won't shut up about them. If they don't, they'll find some alternate facts that do. This fight isn't about reason, or evidence, or self-interest, or results, or logic, or reality. It's all about feelings. Democrats/liberals/etc. aren't innocent or immune to this of course, but the Republican Party as an institution has been all-in on pushing feelings as a motivating and unifying engine for their Party for decades, to the point that feelings have become their political and governing philosophy as well. Not totally, witness Liz Cheney going down with her ship and McConnell trying to keep his kittens in the box, but they are a dwindling minority.
" is it possible that the masses have sussed out that the border issue as described and reported by the media has, at best, an excessively high bullshit content" [Inspector Clouseau voice] Yes, yes that is what I am saying
As I mention in a comment way downstream, you need to read the local border media to get an approximation of the real story, which reports on a border crisis that is very real, unlike what is mostly reported in Republican and even legitimate national media. A lot of people are suffering horribly and those who try to help through various NGOs are suffering in their own n ways. Sorry, I'm being grouchy with allies again, but as someone who lived on the border, traveled both sides extensively, and wrote about it some, I can put real faces to at least some who are affected by the problems.
[L]aughing like Mapache’s men after they capture Angel in The Wild Bunch...
A nice touch. I'm sure that's how all these xenophobes perceive immigrants at the border instead of some poor man who just wants to support his family.
PS: The Wild Bunch is my favorite film of all time.
I bet Byron York has paid a not inconsiderable fortune on maintaining that fucked up haircut for the last 30 years. You know everyday before he leaves his house Byron looks in the mirror and says to himself
" Looking good!" while giving himself a big thumbs up.
Stephen Miller wishes he had nice hair like Byron York.
I bet several times a day on Fox News they segue from
" Scary Brown Horde Crisis at the Border" to " Biden Inflation
Highest in the History of the Universe!" while showing pictures of grocery store shelves where the lettuce it's $3 a head and the bacon is $8 a pound.
WM: "York has paid a not inconsiderable fortune on maintaining that fucked up haircut"
BY has the haircut of the boss in Office Space, the Trumpy investment boss in Pose, and basically every villain in every late 80-early 90s movie. He has the haircut of a creeper who keeps a complete library of the collected works of Traci Lords on VHS — and he really wants you to come over & watch some with him...
[Shit, I woke up as Dennis Miller.... How 'bout that for 'woke'?]
BY has a haircut like SNL-era Dennis Miller too!
[GM dodging giant crook extending from the wings...]
Not until you log 120 hours in small town diners in flyover states talking to people wearing caps bearing the logos of feed lots or concrete manufacturers.
In my region of Flyover Country it’s seed corn caps, agricultural machinery logos, or trucker hats with filthy sayings on them. Tho I’m sure the yeoman farmers on Fox’s Downhome Bafflegab morning show would let us know whether it’s *authentic* Everyman attire. For instance, they’ve determined that Fetterman is an elitist poseur for wearing Carharts and such, unlike true men o’ the soil like Trump, Cruz, and Senator Leghorn from Louisiana.
The concrete plants all got hoovered up by offshore multinats, so nobody wears those hats anymore. The cool hat I wish I'da snarfed up when I had the farm was Speedling, the outfit that grew all the baby plants for the farms up/down the central coast...*
*I know, technically not flyover country, unless you're on your way to Honolulu...
So the Supreme Court has decided that Trump's authority as a former president outweighs Biden's authority as current president? That doesn't even make any sense, since Trump's authority as former president, such as it is, derives from his having been president. We've officially entered Looney Land, folks. The crazies are in charge.
Trump, a guy who clearly didn't give a shit about the pandemic and a million dead Americans, suddenly claims that "protecting Americans from the virus" is why we've got to shut down the southern (but not the northern, curious, that) border.
And Federal courts look at that and say, "Well, we have to assume he's acting in good faith, what else can we do?" And that's a huge problem with the courts, that they don't have in their big bag of precedents and rulings one that says "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Nope, EVERY claim, no matter how ridiculous, must be treated with deference and an assumption that the people making it are sincere and honest. If the past 6 years have taught us anything, it's that the courts are a completely inadequate tool when dealing with powerful and pathological liars.
Also Merrick Garland, who I imagine saying, "Sorry, I have checked, and there's no record of us ever holding rich and powerful people accountable in this country, so there is no precedent for us doing what you want to do."
Illegal immigrants can't vote, so that scare tactic isn't that useful. Look at the Paul Pelosi attacker - a visa overstay from Canada - the howls of "illegal immigrant" from the wingers didn't land at all.
No doubt they thought "hey it's none of my business if Paul Pelosi's gay lover, who got a little overheated during one of their typically gay violent sex sessions, isn't properly documented."
With trepidation I suggest Roy is wrong, based on my watching Good Morning America, which has been beating the “crisis on the border” drum for months, including an interview with Gov. Abbott about the “catastrophe.” Adrienne Bankert’s new morning news show from Chicago has also been touting the border crisis. I can’t speak to the other networks, but ABC consistently amplifies the latest Republican talking points. “Inflation!” “Gas prices!” “Border crisis!” If it wasn’t for bad weather, and the recent Antigay Games, GMA would just be GOP.
And then there's the crew at Morning Joe, consistently hammering "Crisis at the Border!" with the help of NYC's own Eric Adams.
But Byron York is the one claiming the networks aren't covering this, Roy's point, I think, is that the fear-mongering isn't registering with the general not-crazy-racist public.
If your response to Abbot and DeSantis busing migrants to NYC is "My God, this TIDAL WAVE of migrants is an OVERWHELMING CATASTROPHE" then you're doing "criticize the Republicans" wrong and should find another line of work, especially if you happen to be the mayor.
Byron York (onstage at mic, tugging at his collar & pretending to sweat): What a crowd, what a crowd. Let me tell ya, most people don't know how bad the border crisis is...
Audience: How bad is it?
BY: It's so bad, [Biden head of USCIS] Ur M Jaddou just wears one sparkling glove & squeals "hEEe-hee" on her tiptoes.
[There's more to the routine, feel free to add ur own]
Thanks for this, a ray of snarky sunshine to brighten my morning. Since the midterms, I've been feeling like maybe the fever is passing, not among all Americans, of course, but in just SLIGHTLY enough Americans. And, following my lifelong belief that "the secret to happiness is low expectations", I'll take "slightly enough" and enjoy it.
I checked, and during its peak years, Ellis Island admitted nearly two thousand people a day, or nearly three quarters of a million people a year, year after year into a country much poorer and less populous than the one we enjoy today. Did that qualify as a "crisis"? Well, no, it was an orderly process because we were willing to let people in instead of trying to keep everyone out.
Also, my inner math teacher can't resist pointing out we could be admitting FOUR MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR and it would amount to just a 1% annual increase in our population. As much as reporters like to claim they want to "put things in perspective", doing so through the use of arithmetic is something they generally avoid.
Odd how they had no difficulty operating a calculator when it was "Only 1% fatality rate for Covid!" And notice how 1% is a SMALL number when it's the risk of DYING, but it's a HUUUUGE number when it's an annual percentage increase in population. "Why, at that rate, we'll DOUBLE our population in only SEVENTY YEARS!"*
Also, while I'm getting all Mathy here, I think most Americans really have no conception of how tiny these countries are, the ones involved in this latest wave of immigration (Honduras has a total population of about 10 million people).
Taking potato-famine Ireland as an example: total population 8 million, 1 million died, one million emigrated. In other words, seven eighths of the country just stayed and starved where they were, and that was when he had the door wide open. Even in the worst circumstances, most people don't emigrate. If, GOD FORBID, Biden did actually institute an "open border" policy, we'd see about a million Hondurans, tops, a number we could easily assimilate through our "Taco Truck on Every Corner" program.
I especially enjoy that Republicans never touch just how Biden "opened the gates", or beyond the raw number just what the "crisis" actually is. Kevin Drum of all people notes today that the stuff Republicans claim a result of "illegal immigration", rising crime and unemployment, that stuff, none of it is happening. Of course, none of this puppet show is meant to convince anyone of anything. It's an old standby button and by God they're gonna keep pushing it.
Wait, what happened to the “caravans?” I thought all refugees traveled in caravans, or maybe that’s only the way refugees roll BEFORE elections – after the votes have been cast, they just approach the border in small, staggered groups like the desperate people they are.
Shorter York: why isn’t the old bullshit working as well as it used to? This sucks.
Hearted for Shorter York.
A low-budget ripoff of Sargeant York with Mickey Rooney instead of Gary Cooper.
I was leaning more toward Samantha York...
Dick (head) York
What straight man or lesbian wouldn't
I'm a clean, mean leanin' machine!
Here's a caravan for yuhs:
https://youtu.be/foFK6q7kF9Y
This isn't quite as bad as getting rick-rolled but I still feel violated, lol.
<Delicate curtsey> You should read my jokes...
Clicked expecting Duke Ellington, but was not disappointed.
Yeah, that was nice! Any Isleys iteration is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZvoOqUkqw
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDbgLJt50ss
Very nice.
Caravans were from the other Mexicos
Is it me, or does the high pissy old fart content here, in proportion to the yuks, seem worrying? I mean, I'm cynical and misanthropic AF and it bothers me; no need to seek more of it out.
Anyway, I hope it's a stage that Roy's passing through and he's fine. May be the stress of needing to cross post his tweets to John Mastodon's site. (Speaking of media fails, if one must fail, it should always be as epic and awesome and the accidental doxing of John Mastodon.)
But Roy's conclusion here begs a question: pace Dean Baquet, is it possible that the masses have sussed out that the border issue as described and reported by the media has, at best, an excessively high bullshit content?
And let's ignore CNN in its decline into irrelevance. Promoting establishment horseshit without the entertainment of nattering nabobs of nonsense isn't a winning model.
"I mean, I'm cynical and misanthropic AF and it bothers me"
Yoicks!
Manque, behold the pissy old fart in the mirror! Srsly
Perhaps consider this a forecast of the next two years (goddess i hope just two years) of GOP flustering. Perhaps the "border crisis" will one of the points of the upcoming & destined to be very successful impeachment proceedings?
Maybe it will feature in the next phantasm Supreme Court case: "An illegal immigrant from Central America crashed the border dressed as a drag queen stole a children's book & read it to my child. Horrors! Or might... he might do that. That's what the attorneys from Moms from Liberty told me..."
I see the next two years (subject to change) as the nightmare of reactionary, fiat decisions from SCOTUS, like, counterpointed by 24/7 insanity from the House and GOP primaries even if Trump doesn’t run (still think he will (also subject to change)).
Maybe we're at the point where any crazy nonsense they put out will be believed by exactly 49% of voting Americans. Which, sadly for them, is a world of difference from the crazy nonsense being bought by 51% of voting Americans.
Funny how small differences can make for huge differences. Or, to quote wise man Wilkins Micawber:
"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."
I can never tell if they genuinely believe it or just wait for the key words they can approve. I mean the conservatives I know personally are Staunchly Against Racism... but they favor of any racist policy the GOP advances as long as it is advanced More In Sorrow Than In Anger. They just need the right tone.
BUT, at the same time, I once asked one, "Say you were in charge of the border. Absolutely in charge, whatever you decree. What would be your policy? The one you'd put your name on." This guy, who was very "I can't stand Trump, but we DO need a wall," suddenly went embarrassed and started off with, well, I'd figure out how to give the Dreamers citizenship... then I'd make sure people applying for asylum get their cases heard... He never got around to building the wall.
So what the hell DO the 48% believe?
Overwhelmingly, they believe that the party they've voted for in every election since they turned 18 will be the the party they continue to vote for until they die. Whether there are any actual "beliefs" involved in this is anybody's guess.
If you try to analyze any of this stuff as belief you wind up meeting yourself walking on Mobius Strip Road. It's about feeling, not belief. Not facts, not numbers. If any of those things support their feelings, they won't shut up about them. If they don't, they'll find some alternate facts that do. This fight isn't about reason, or evidence, or self-interest, or results, or logic, or reality. It's all about feelings. Democrats/liberals/etc. aren't innocent or immune to this of course, but the Republican Party as an institution has been all-in on pushing feelings as a motivating and unifying engine for their Party for decades, to the point that feelings have become their political and governing philosophy as well. Not totally, witness Liz Cheney going down with her ship and McConnell trying to keep his kittens in the box, but they are a dwindling minority.
I only know the Moms of Liberty from the wall calendar at Ernie's Body Shop.
" is it possible that the masses have sussed out that the border issue as described and reported by the media has, at best, an excessively high bullshit content" [Inspector Clouseau voice] Yes, yes that is what I am saying
Missed the more general because of inmate decrepitude 🤬
As I mention in a comment way downstream, you need to read the local border media to get an approximation of the real story, which reports on a border crisis that is very real, unlike what is mostly reported in Republican and even legitimate national media. A lot of people are suffering horribly and those who try to help through various NGOs are suffering in their own n ways. Sorry, I'm being grouchy with allies again, but as someone who lived on the border, traveled both sides extensively, and wrote about it some, I can put real faces to at least some who are affected by the problems.
"hang on — now I’m told they’re all Honduran!"
2 marks!
I liked it better when they were all carrying prayer rugs.
Ebola prayer rugs? Or do I have my pre-election panics mixed up?
No, actually I think that one might be back on the plate by next cycle...
[L]aughing like Mapache’s men after they capture Angel in The Wild Bunch...
A nice touch. I'm sure that's how all these xenophobes perceive immigrants at the border instead of some poor man who just wants to support his family.
PS: The Wild Bunch is my favorite film of all time.
Good choice!
I know. Funny and apt War and Peckinpah references...in the same sentence, no less! We love ya, Roy.
I feel pressed to acknowledge all the dysfunction Texans have been forced to endure thanks to that loathsome immigrant Ted Cruz...
Right when you've got all your attention focused on your southern border, some monster sneaks in from the north.
It's enough to give ya whiplash...he said, snidely...
I bet Byron York has paid a not inconsiderable fortune on maintaining that fucked up haircut for the last 30 years. You know everyday before he leaves his house Byron looks in the mirror and says to himself
" Looking good!" while giving himself a big thumbs up.
Stephen Miller wishes he had nice hair like Byron York.
I bet several times a day on Fox News they segue from
" Scary Brown Horde Crisis at the Border" to " Biden Inflation
Highest in the History of the Universe!" while showing pictures of grocery store shelves where the lettuce it's $3 a head and the bacon is $8 a pound.
Wild Bunch references are the best.
WM: "York has paid a not inconsiderable fortune on maintaining that fucked up haircut"
BY has the haircut of the boss in Office Space, the Trumpy investment boss in Pose, and basically every villain in every late 80-early 90s movie. He has the haircut of a creeper who keeps a complete library of the collected works of Traci Lords on VHS — and he really wants you to come over & watch some with him...
[Shit, I woke up as Dennis Miller.... How 'bout that for 'woke'?]
BY has a haircut like SNL-era Dennis Miller too!
[GM dodging giant crook extending from the wings...]
[... the right wings, sans doute]
I saw that hook comin' long before I got to the end of yer post. Was about to yell "Look out!"
a complete library of the collected works of Traci Lords on VHS
Even Captain Daddy?
If we had a functioning immigration system, there wouldn't be any "crisis" at the border. But we don't have a functioning immigration system.
Reagan tried to reform it, but his own Party blocked him.
Clinton tried to reform it, but Republican blocked him.
Dubya tried to reform it, but Republicans blocked him.
Obama tried to reform it, but Republicans blocked him.
Draw your own all-too-natural conclusions from this.
"your own all-too-natural"
Yeah, Mr Natural – that's me!
Mr. B Natural
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAKentKiGOY&t=307s
Umm.... both parties are to blame? Can I has my own New York Times column now?
Not until you log 120 hours in small town diners in flyover states talking to people wearing caps bearing the logos of feed lots or concrete manufacturers.
In my region of Flyover Country it’s seed corn caps, agricultural machinery logos, or trucker hats with filthy sayings on them. Tho I’m sure the yeoman farmers on Fox’s Downhome Bafflegab morning show would let us know whether it’s *authentic* Everyman attire. For instance, they’ve determined that Fetterman is an elitist poseur for wearing Carharts and such, unlike true men o’ the soil like Trump, Cruz, and Senator Leghorn from Louisiana.
My favorite was my friends International Boar Semen hat
Sounds like a lot of work, maybe I'll hand it off to my young assistant, who I am also sleeping with, don't tell the wife.
The concrete plants all got hoovered up by offshore multinats, so nobody wears those hats anymore. The cool hat I wish I'da snarfed up when I had the farm was Speedling, the outfit that grew all the baby plants for the farms up/down the central coast...*
*I know, technically not flyover country, unless you're on your way to Honolulu...
Republicans have a blockage?
It's why they're so full of shit.
So the Supreme Court has decided that Trump's authority as a former president outweighs Biden's authority as current president? That doesn't even make any sense, since Trump's authority as former president, such as it is, derives from his having been president. We've officially entered Looney Land, folks. The crazies are in charge.
Trump, a guy who clearly didn't give a shit about the pandemic and a million dead Americans, suddenly claims that "protecting Americans from the virus" is why we've got to shut down the southern (but not the northern, curious, that) border.
And Federal courts look at that and say, "Well, we have to assume he's acting in good faith, what else can we do?" And that's a huge problem with the courts, that they don't have in their big bag of precedents and rulings one that says "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Nope, EVERY claim, no matter how ridiculous, must be treated with deference and an assumption that the people making it are sincere and honest. If the past 6 years have taught us anything, it's that the courts are a completely inadequate tool when dealing with powerful and pathological liars.
Also Merrick Garland, who I imagine saying, "Sorry, I have checked, and there's no record of us ever holding rich and powerful people accountable in this country, so there is no precedent for us doing what you want to do."
Illegal immigrants can't vote, so that scare tactic isn't that useful. Look at the Paul Pelosi attacker - a visa overstay from Canada - the howls of "illegal immigrant" from the wingers didn't land at all.
Well, could also be that skin-color thing.
No doubt they thought "hey it's none of my business if Paul Pelosi's gay lover, who got a little overheated during one of their typically gay violent sex sessions, isn't properly documented."
With trepidation I suggest Roy is wrong, based on my watching Good Morning America, which has been beating the “crisis on the border” drum for months, including an interview with Gov. Abbott about the “catastrophe.” Adrienne Bankert’s new morning news show from Chicago has also been touting the border crisis. I can’t speak to the other networks, but ABC consistently amplifies the latest Republican talking points. “Inflation!” “Gas prices!” “Border crisis!” If it wasn’t for bad weather, and the recent Antigay Games, GMA would just be GOP.
And then there's the crew at Morning Joe, consistently hammering "Crisis at the Border!" with the help of NYC's own Eric Adams.
But Byron York is the one claiming the networks aren't covering this, Roy's point, I think, is that the fear-mongering isn't registering with the general not-crazy-racist public.
[reprise Inspector Clouseau voice] Yes, yes that is what I am saying
Ah yes, crazy leftist Morning Joseph on eventheliberal MSNBC is very concerned.
If your response to Abbot and DeSantis busing migrants to NYC is "My God, this TIDAL WAVE of migrants is an OVERWHELMING CATASTROPHE" then you're doing "criticize the Republicans" wrong and should find another line of work, especially if you happen to be the mayor.
I too am Mourning Joseph, or at least his presence on the national airwaves of ETLMSNBC, which apparently absolves him of his sordid Repub past.
MJoe doesn't get a rat's patoot from me...but I guess it's Mourning in America, so maybe I need to get programmatic.
Byron York (onstage at mic, tugging at his collar & pretending to sweat): What a crowd, what a crowd. Let me tell ya, most people don't know how bad the border crisis is...
Audience: How bad is it?
BY: It's so bad, [Biden head of USCIS] Ur M Jaddou just wears one sparkling glove & squeals "hEEe-hee" on her tiptoes.
[There's more to the routine, feel free to add ur own]
[wags cigar] “I wouldn’t be a member of any caravan that would have me as a member.”
You call that a wall? That ain't a wall! THIS is a WALL!!
Thanks for this, a ray of snarky sunshine to brighten my morning. Since the midterms, I've been feeling like maybe the fever is passing, not among all Americans, of course, but in just SLIGHTLY enough Americans. And, following my lifelong belief that "the secret to happiness is low expectations", I'll take "slightly enough" and enjoy it.
Fair enough, tho I'm holding out for 'plenty'.
Wait till Byron hears what his pals are saying about Fox. "Might as well be CNN now", according to various folks on twitter.
Well, jeez, FAUX doesn't have Nick Fuentes on as a commentator, so they're OBVIOUSLY cucked.
Yeah, what we need is a network willing to go all 'authentic east coast self-entitled white boy gibberish'...
I checked, and during its peak years, Ellis Island admitted nearly two thousand people a day, or nearly three quarters of a million people a year, year after year into a country much poorer and less populous than the one we enjoy today. Did that qualify as a "crisis"? Well, no, it was an orderly process because we were willing to let people in instead of trying to keep everyone out.
Also, my inner math teacher can't resist pointing out we could be admitting FOUR MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR and it would amount to just a 1% annual increase in our population. As much as reporters like to claim they want to "put things in perspective", doing so through the use of arithmetic is something they generally avoid.
But raw numbers are so much more eye-catching and alarming, don’t you think? Why let accuracy and perspective get in the way?
Odd how they had no difficulty operating a calculator when it was "Only 1% fatality rate for Covid!" And notice how 1% is a SMALL number when it's the risk of DYING, but it's a HUUUUGE number when it's an annual percentage increase in population. "Why, at that rate, we'll DOUBLE our population in only SEVENTY YEARS!"*
*Actual math done to arrive at this number
Knock it off! You're intimidating the children!
Also, while I'm getting all Mathy here, I think most Americans really have no conception of how tiny these countries are, the ones involved in this latest wave of immigration (Honduras has a total population of about 10 million people).
Taking potato-famine Ireland as an example: total population 8 million, 1 million died, one million emigrated. In other words, seven eighths of the country just stayed and starved where they were, and that was when he had the door wide open. Even in the worst circumstances, most people don't emigrate. If, GOD FORBID, Biden did actually institute an "open border" policy, we'd see about a million Hondurans, tops, a number we could easily assimilate through our "Taco Truck on Every Corner" program.
"When asked how many illegal crossers are entering the U.S., they grossly underestimate the number."
Are they including legal asylum-seekers?
In other words, many Americans fail the Guess the Number in Byron York's Head test.
I especially enjoy that Republicans never touch just how Biden "opened the gates", or beyond the raw number just what the "crisis" actually is. Kevin Drum of all people notes today that the stuff Republicans claim a result of "illegal immigration", rising crime and unemployment, that stuff, none of it is happening. Of course, none of this puppet show is meant to convince anyone of anything. It's an old standby button and by God they're gonna keep pushing it.
Kevin Drum! Link please?
https://jabberwocking.com/the-past-two-years-show-that-illegal-immigration-isnt-a-very-big-problem/