In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

I still find myself in a peculiar rabbit hole trying to make sense of the various refugee resettlement programs for which the Trump administration has cut funding, especially those delegated by various departments to the US Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities. No discussion I've seen is especially precise or seems to reflect any real understanding of how these programs work, much less which program is which, especially those under the Catholic umbrella. Let's start with the USCCB's lawsuit against the Trump administration filed in February : Catholic bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday [February 18] over its abrupt halt to funding of refugee resettlement, calling the action unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees and to the nation's largest private resettlement program. . . . The conference's Migration and Refugee Services has sent layoff notices to 50 workers, more than half its staff, with additional cuts expected in local...

I'm surprised that I hadn't even heard of the CHNV program before I learned just the other day that the Trump administration had discontinued it. According to Wikipedia , which appears to be the most complete account: Humanitarian Parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans was a program under which citizens of these four countries, and their immediate family members, could be paroled into the United States for a period of up to two years if a person in the US agreed to financially support them. The program allowed a combined total of 30,000 people per month from the four countries to enter the US. The program was implemented in 2022 (Venezuela) to 2023 (Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua) in response to high numbers of migrants and asylum seekers from these countries crossing into the US at the southwest border with Mexico. . . . The CHNV Program is credited with greatly reducing numbers of people of these nationalities crossing into the US at the southwest ...

The goal of the Biden administration was to strategically place illegals in swing states and make their status legal, thereby turning swing states Democrat. The net result would have been permanent one-party rule of the USA, just like what they did in California. https://t.co/n9iOL6QP7P — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2025 Whatever Elon Musk may be, one thing he certainly isn't is a Biblical scholar. But there's scriptural support for his position in the post above, and it's something the USCCB, among whom there must certainly be some Biblical scholars, omit in their web page outlining the Church's teaching on migration : Both the Old and New Testaments tell compelling stories of refugees forced to flee because of oppression. Exodus tells the story of the Chosen People, Israel, who were victims of bitter slavery in Egypt. They were utterly helpless by themselves, but with God's powerful intervention they were able to escape and take refuge in the desert...

Now and then, I've mentioned here the role Catholic Charities has played in enabling settlement of quasi-legal migrants in places like Springfield, OH and Charleroi, PA, to the extent that the large numbers of those resettled have badly strained community resources and driven up housing and insurance costs. I've also questioned the apparent lowball estimates of how much money the US bishops receive from the federal government . This story gives an indication of the effect Trump administration cutbacks have had on Catholic Charities, at least in Columbia, MO: The Central and Northern Missouri chapter of Catholic Charities will end its resettlement program March 31. In an email to supporters, Executive Director Litz Main said the nonprofit had to end the program due to the lack of federal funding. “We deeply appreciate your partnership and shared commitment to serving those in need,” Main said in the email. “As we navigate this transition, we welcome opportunit...

DOJ charges 3 suspects in separate Molotov attacks on Tesla properties—each facing up to 20 YEARS in prison. - Elias Marquez – Salem, OR - Jordan Weller – Loveland, CO - Darnell Brooks – Charleston, SC pic.twitter.com/aXKHCrW8zC — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 20, 2025 David Strom at Hot Air posted Trans Violence Is a Real Thing, and It Is Out of Control this morning, and he embedded the post above that lists three trans-identifying people who've been charged by the Department of Justice for arson against Tesla dealerships. Transgender people make up a TINY fraction of the population, even with the explosion in self-identity and trans propaganda. Several of the recent school shooters have been trans, for instance, and more relevantly to today's issues the Tesla terrorism includes a large number of trans activists for some reason. Actually, the three charged by the DOJ aren't the only ones. An instagram post from February 26 discusses a Colorado man id...

Via CNN : Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner is stepping down from his position to “to ensure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the full faith and confidence of this administration,” he announced in a statement. The decision comes as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk said he believes the US Postal Service and Amtrak need to be privatized. There's little other information on the circumstances, except that most outlets quote from Elon Musk's recent remarks : Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom conference, Musk said it was “kind of embarrassing” that other countries, such as China, have superior passenger rail. “Amtrak is a sad situation,” Musk said, according to CNN Business, which first reported his remarks. “It’s like, if you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail. It can leave you with a very bad impression of America,” Musk said. This is actually quite true, alth0ough I'm not ...

Although Trump consistently refers to Canadian annexation in terms of making the whole country a "51st state", it seems to me that there are obstacles nobody has mentioned in swallowing Canada whole. There are major differences in national policies on hot-button issues like gun control, universal medical care, and medically assisted suicide, as well as questions over the status of the French language -- if annexing Canada would create special circumstances for French in the US, wouldn't fairness demand the same treatment for Spanish? As a practical matter, the US would also have to offer Canadians some major enticement that would overcome the reluctance or distaste of many individual Canadians to vote for annexation. One such would be to offer some form of dollar equity, equivalent to what the German Federal Republic offered the German Democratic Republic at the time of reunification : The Deutsche Mark played an important role in the reunification of...