It’s always fun when a Republican jerk opens his mouth to say something stupid. Here’s Mike Huckabee, arguing that we shouldn’t accept Syrian refugees because Minnesota is cold.
If you ever get a chance to fly into the Minneapolis/St Paul airport, take a look around you: most of the service jobs are held by formerly Somali people. When you take a cab, you’ll probably have a Somali driver (there was some conflict a while back where Muslim drivers objected to transporting alcohol). There are Hmong areas in town — I’ve had a fair number of Hmong students over the years.
It seems to me that the problem isn’t the temperature of the climate, but the temperature of the citizens, and that human beings are fairly adaptable and capable of living just about anywhere. But none of them can thrive living anywhere near a reprehensible scumbag like Mike Huckabee.
There’s also some implicit racism in his remark. We aren’t surprised that white people live in both Alaska and Florida, and take for granted that we can live anywhere; why should we look at the color of someone’s skin and decide that they’re limited to living in just one kind of environment?
I may at times be geographically challenged but IIRC it can get quite cold in Syria, snow even. Huck is a ________. (fill in fave epithet)
I’m pretty sure by the time you’re a refugee, your life is already completely disrupted.
And there are probably a number of Indian expats owning and running your smaller, non-chain motels and convenience stores as well as working in high tech businesses. They also seem to be thriving. Why, even The Huckster himself, raised in steamy environs of Arkansas is able to somehow stay warm while he infests your state and other places in the frigid belt.
Nope, I think there is just a teensy bit of racism from Huckleberry, designed to stoke the fear and prejudices of the Faux News demographic. Asshole.
Even if the problem were the temperature of the climate, do you not have furnaces and heaters in Minnesota?
I’d wager that if folks are willing to pack up and flee to a country with a different language, different dominant religion, and different climate, they expect that adapting to this is better than whatever they are leaving. Suddenly moving across the world with no real plan beyond getting out and going somewhere they can be safe is not a decision most folks make lightly. Just because Huckabee can’t seem to imagine living in a country that isn’t an English-speaking Christian-majority one, doesn’t mean other people aren’t open to it when things get terrible.
Syria sometimes gets below freezing. Minnesota gets below freezing for months at a time. There’s a slight difference!
Saskatchewan is the only province that has opposed the call to resettle refugees. Accordingly:
Syrian refugees relieved they won’t end up in Saskatchewan.
What’s wrong with the US, anyway? You go and bomb the fuck out of a country, then haggle over maybe allowing 10k refugees per year in, maybe, but actually only a few hundred. Even the tories up here were looking at that many, and we’re a tenth the size! The Liberals are trying to get 25k here by the end of the year — the US would have to take in 250k to keep up.
You have a month and a half. GO!
I bet the Syrians will figure out how sweaters and boots and woolen hats work.
Jesus fucking christ, the feigned concern, 100% faked out pure unadulterated racism… as if anybody could possibly believe he gives a fuck….
So it’s about cold weather precaution in Muslim refugee journalism?
Huckabee has got to be my least favorite of the right wing loons. He truly is a champion of all the -isms of bigotry.
And don’t think we’ve forgotten how you publicly expressed regret for not having an excuse to shower with teenage girls. I’m not letting that one go.
Also, why does he say they’ll be “disrupted in terms of their religion”? What are you trying to tell us about your stance on the First Amendment, Mike?
Huckabee is what passes for a good christian these days.
Chris Christie commented on the refugees:
Here in Canada, we wait the arrival of 25,000 Syrian refugees. It gets damn cold here in the winter months, which seem to last forever.
Fortunately, we have discovered that a warm coat, long johns, sweaters, toques, scarves and gloves allow us to live comfortably in our frozen wasteland.
Don’t they have this stuff in Minnesota? How do the locals keep warm?
Huckabee is -such- an asshole.
Republican governors are issuing proclamations decreeing that they will not accept Syrian refugees in their states.
MSNBC link
And there’s this:
Talking Points Memo link
Cross-posted from the Moments of Political Madness thread.
The governors who want to refuse Syrian refugees are disconnected from reality and from the laws of the USA:
Think Progress link
Just another attempt to rationalize his own bigotry, and failing spectacularly in doing so.
The Huck is full of…
…Huckabee ess?
To bad this isn’t required reading for the xenophobes.
That’s Jeffrey Goldberg, National Correspondent for The Atlantic.
Huckabee is working for ISIS.
Cartoon tells the difference between ISIS and Muslims.
PZ:
Yabbut white skin is eminently adaptable to all climates! That’s why there’s no need at all for stuff like sunblock, and almost no incidence of skin cancer in white peoples, ’cause it’s the imperialistic best.
I posted this in the Paris thread, people with the wondrous luminous white skin have been falling all over themselves about refugees:
All articles at rawstory.com
In comment 13, I noted that 22 GOP governors have announced that they will not accept Syrian refugees. That number is now up to 27.
Okay, I’ve got to ask: What does speaking English have to do with whether or not you’re comfortable in Minnesota weather? Does contemplation of the random comma rules and odd spelling of English take one’s mind off the cold or what?
Also, a lot of Syrians speak English already. The parents at my daughter’s (German speaking) school have been talking about how they need to figure out some way to get the Syrian refugee kids down the road into the school not only for the sake of the Syrian kids but so that they could be a good example of how to speak English to the German kids.
Can’t remember where I read this so I can’t give proper attribution, unfortunately, but…
If only we had a seasonally appropriate holiday that showed the consequences of people in need being denied refuge by the prejudiced and cold hearted.
It’s just another bit of paranoia from the xenophobes. A lot of stores/medical facilities where I live are bilingual, much to the ranting and raving of the xenophobes. Somehow communicating effectively to people is plot by some nebulous anti-American group–never mind that a majority of those speaking Spanish are also *checks map, yep North or South America* Americans…
I’ve worked with many immigrants and refugees in the Twin Cities metro. Damn fine people, if you ask me. Even if it wasn’t the humanitarian thing to do, they absolutely bring something positive to the community.
I used to eat at a pho joint in Rockville, MD. The wait staff looked mostly hispanic. There was always a cluster of somali-looking north african taxi drivers in the corner (it was good pho!) The place was run by vietnamese. I was holding down the scandinavian-american end of the spectrum. In the winter, there’s nothing like a good hot bowl of pho. I always was slightly cheered by the way that everyone seemed to enjoy rubbing shoulders (often literally) and having a good meal in a bustling place full of human sounds and activity. Huckabee’s comments are not worth responding to beyond that.
There’s lots of good pho in minnesota; problem solved.
Also see this Shakesville roundup of all the nice things the Republican clown car of presidential wannabe’s have to say about Syrian refugees.
There really is no exception to the unchristian bigotry among them. They all have “zero compassion, decency, or integrity”.
Is there nothing that won’t become politicized? Over 20 Republican governors say they will refused refugees, while only Democratic governors (including my governor – Jay Inslee in Washington) are saying they will welcome refugees. Or is this somehow all about Obama? Obama says we should welcome refugees, so Republicans, almost as a reflex, say it’s wrong.
Can someone more knowledgable about constitutional law shed more light on this. I was under the impression that only the federal government has the authority to admit or reject refugees, same as anyone entering the country. And once someone has entered the country legally, they have the same right to travel as any US citizen – they can cross state lines at whim. So how could governors stop refugees from flying into liberal NYC and being officially admitted, then heading across the border to conservative NJ to settle? Could Texas or Florida do things like banning drivers licenses for refugees?
Depending on where you are in Minnesota, we’re actually more bigoted against southern accents than we are foreign ones.
Also, a huge number of the refugees are English-fluent middle-class people.
Also, we get more than cold. We get hot and sticky as balls in the summer.
GOP immigration panic not justified by facts of refugee screening. The video is 5:44 minutes long.
Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, describes the rigorous screening process for admitting refugees into the United States, which is not only objectively thorough, but contrasts starkly with the situation in Europe.
There’S some irony in the fact that some of the GOP supporters would happily beat Jindal to pulp because they would think he’S a Daesh terrorist if he just walked down the street.
But really, 25k?
That’s like a week in Germany
Dianne
I saw it on Twitter with the added twist of “middle eastern family”.
There is a substantial population of southeast Asian refugees in my cold-ass northeast town. In winter they say “Fuck, it’s cold out” and then go about their day just like everybody does.
I posted a couple of things on twitter expressing support for Syrian refugees and dismay at the xenophobia being exhibited by so much of the US. I got a couple dozen hate responses by strangers, including one calling me ugly and a kind of amusing one who wanted to know where the constitution put federal control over refugee status, and then rejected the authority of the Supreme Court.
Amanda Marcotte gets it right:
future chemist @28, see comment 14 for some shedding of light.
“Well, they are muslims, and muslims live in the hot, sandy, desert amiright? Why else do we call them ‘racial slur having to do with sand’?”
Jesus fuck, does this guy ever crawl outside of his ass for one second?
So, why is Huckabee running for President? Doesn’t he realize that this would require him to move almost a thousand miles away from his home town of Hope, Arkansas? Clearly, for his own protection, we can’t allow that.
@ Lynna
Clearly state goverment has no control over immigration since that’s a federal policy. I suppose my question is what, if anything, can these Republican governors actually do? I’ve seen vague statements like “make it more difficult to settle in that state”, but I don’t know what that means, and I don’t see how a state can treat a refugee different than anyone else admitted to the US legally. Basically, is there anything substantive behind all of their grandstanding and xenophobia?
Info at http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/refugees says that refugees can immediately start working, and can apply for permanent residency after 1 year, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to cross state lines, or get access to state benefits like a drivers license.
@23 dianne
I assume that’s referring to Christmas, but I think Thanksgiving is even more appropriate and also more imminent. The (idealized) story of a group of people fleeing religious persecution to find refuge in a new land and being welcomed by the people already there.
@37 future chemist,
That may not be a good analogy, considering the consequences to the welcomers. Obviously, their screening program for refugees was faulty.
I wonder how many refugee families could fit in the Huckster’s house if we tossed him out?
[*applause*]
Thank you, Dianne. Would be nice to re-purpose a holiday for that, I think. Looks like a lot of (self-appointed) innkeepers are putting up “No vacancy” signs already, alas.
“You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch…”
There’s a substantial Salvadoran community in Montréal. Many moons ago I lived in El Salvador for a couple of years, so on a trip to Montréal I sought out a Salvadoran restaurant. During the course of the meal I asked the waiter how he had adapted to the Canadian winter. He shrugged his shoulders and said it was better than dodging bullets.
futurechemist @37:
State governments will find ways to make it difficult for refugees to settle in some, Republican-controlled states.
New Republic link
In a way, this is like the Republican approach to women’s reproductive rights. Yes, there is the law, but they have ways around the law.
Here’s the list of states whose governors are showing their ugly, ill-informed side when it comes to Syrian refugees:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
Republicans except for Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire.
There may be more. It’s hard to keep up with the growing list.
Huckabee is not too bright. Has he never met any of the African or Caribbean immigrants who now live quite comfortably and successfully in the U.S.? Black and brown people are capable of adapting to climates that are different from those in which they grew up. What a dumb thing to say — even for a Republican.
These guys have actually lost the ability to speak publicly without dogwhistles.
What’s that Huckster? can’t hear ya!
Same kind of bullshit the Romans said about “barbarian hordes” like the Goths, who were also assumed to be a huge faceless mob of murderers and rapists and so forth. As if people don’t adapt to new circumstances when they migrate, even without modern comforts like air conditioning — who seriously believes that for even a minute, and what the fuck does it have to do with anything if it were true they’d have trouble adapting to a different climate? Anyway, belligerent sophistry like this in the face of a humanitarian crisis didn’t work out well for the Romans either (spoiler alert?), not that an ignorant dumbfuck like Huckabee actually cares what’s good for anybody but himself.
Oh, but you see, they had a bunch of corrupt and incompetent asshats running their government, not collecting enough taxes, spending too much on wars, etc., which is really what did the Western empire in…. Totally different story now.
Marcus:
I always was slightly cheered by the way that everyone seemed to enjoy rubbing shoulders (often literally) and having a good meal in a bustling place full of human sounds and activity.
Indeed, one of my favorite sights is (e.g.) a Pakistani family tucking into big plates of Mexican food, or some Salvadoran folks crowding their table with a Chinese feast. One of the best things about the US: everybody comes here, from all over the world, and they all bring yummy things to eat.
M’thew, #27
That was a great read. Thanks.
Wait… Chris Christie’s point about orphans is bugging me…
Even from the xenophobic point of view, this doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t it be older orphans who shouldn’t be admitted? Why is a four-year old orphan dangerous but a six-year old orphan is not?
Fucking logic.
States Can’t Ban Syrian Refugees But They Could Muck Up The Process:
Easier to trip over?
More tasty (a threat to the roast baby industry)?
Six year olds are in school so there won’t be any as refugees?
Infant–5 years old are you young to enslave and hence won’t contribute to the thug’s economy?
Christie’s an eejit?
Oh for feck’s sake, “are you young” → “are too young”…
Christie is assumining that to accept orphans, the government will assign them forcibly to some people on welfare, thus increasing the tab for welfare payments. Better to forbid them enty and let them starve elsewhere. Christie is a frakkin a-hole.
Hucky is another frak beyond all belief. Trying to say he’s not racist by mercifully dissuading those desert dwellers from having to adapt to cold hard winter.
pffft
waiting for some ashat to say that the Paris attack was just a ruse to get everyone to accept immigrants to infiltrate, to take over through grassroots actions, so on on and on. [oops, I just said it, hypothetically]
Seems the land of “give me you tired and hungry…” is trying to lock the gate to keep all those refugees away, completely disregarding the motivations for the refugees to be migrating.
I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota up until 50 years ago. It was pretty white, except for some of the visitors to the Mayo Clinic. When I went back to visit 30 years ago, I walked the route I’d walked so many times from the library and my junior high to my house. As I did I looked up a side street and sitting on her front stoop was an old Hmong woman. It was nice to see her there, so at home yet to my memories so out of place. In fact a pretty good-sized portion of my old SE neighborhood was various brown people. It was nice. Still the same, completely different.
[OT, sorta]
last night’s Minority Report took its name a little too literally and did a shout-out to current events. Postulating that in the near future the anti-immigrationists got the 14th amendment repealed, for which the accommodationists compensated by instituting Amnesty Day (the day all illegals were granted residency without citizenship) yet without 14th all their children would still be denied citizenship but allowed residency. Giving rise to the slang derogatory, “14s”. The show was not explicitly warning of where Trump et al are advocating we go, yet easy to see the warning. [ie didn’t work out too good]
back on topic (I hope) Still can’t understand why a terrorist attack should be motivation to exclude people trying to flee such terrorism. Mercy and compassion are unknown to the Rethugs, reinforcing our slang version of their actual name (not to be said).
Using sterotypes: Because the refugees are icky others; Don’t have any money; Don’t worship a dead man nailed to a tree; Won’t vote thug; Will get welfare and so won’t work; Will also take away jobs; Won’t pay taxes; Don’t speak “American”; Mr Obama is saying the opposite; Most of ’em are terrorists and the rest can be easily recruited by daesh; Aren’t actually refugees and aren’t fleeing daesh; It’s what all the other thugs and wingnut “pundits” are saying; and The recent crimes in Paris, Beirut, and elsewhere prove they are dangerous!
(What did I miss?)
Oh, and if they leave then it will be harder to kill them with drones, so they should say put.
Mareap is correct. It does snow in the Levant, particularly in the mountains. Omar Khayyam wrote about it, and you can see pictures of it for yourself on Google Earth. Desert is something of an oversimplification as there are areas that are relatively green and well watered…not unlike California from what I’ve read and heard..
I once transcribed an interview with a woman from Eritrea who was a refugee from the war with Ethiopia. After spending time in Sudan, and then Egypt, she was finally admitted to the US. They sent her to Bismarck, ND. Whoa, I thought. Her comment on how cold it was there evoked just how bone chilling it must be. Overall, she was fine there, and the people were very generous, but when she discovered California she moved. And that’s the thing about the US: If you land in Minnesota and don’t like the weather, you have the potential to move to another part of the country with very different conditions.
Really, though, Huck and his friends are just fear mongering to scare people into voting for them. What’s really scary is how well they might succeed.
Huckabee’s comments, whether deliberately or because he’s as ignorant as his supporters, also bring up the stereotype that Arabs live in a pre-20th Century fashion. “So of course we can’t bring those people over here, since they won’t know what cars are, or what indoor plumbing is. It will be too much of a culture shock, too hard for the ignorant primitives to figure those things out.”
Anthrosciguy @54
SE Rochester has significant Somali and Latino populations now. However, a lot of the people who work and go to school there live out of city limits in Marion Township, which is extremely white (and a teeny bit racist). In the northern part of downtown, there is an area where I’ve seen a lot of Halal stores and people in clothing that is, to my eye, vaguely Mideastern looking. There’s also at least one mosque in town, probably more.
Now that you mention it, despite the objections of douchebags like my dad, Rochester would probably be a decent place for Syrian refugees to settle. The ones heading into Europe are predominantly middle-class, educated, and already speak English. They’re basically the demographic the city’s PR types look for.
So, ignoring the fact that the refugees could probably acclimate to any weather in the US (being humans and all), Minnesota has places that are particularly suited to the needs and abilities of much of this refugee community.
Like Huckabee, Ohio Governor, John Kasich is a Republican candidate for the presidency. Also like Huckabee, Kasich is steeped in weirdness when it comes to his supposed christian values. Kasich seems to think that we can raise up a better class of future immigrants by using the federal government to spread christian values around the world. Missionary work, I guess.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-kasich-govt-agency-judeo-christian-values
Giliell@31: Canada is a third the size of Germany or so, and trying to bring in 25k Syrians over the next six weeks. So we’re aiming to get to half your weekly rate per capita.
We’re starting from basically no resettlement organisation after a decade of cuts to the refugee programs. We also mean to admit them directly from the camps around Syria, no need to hike across Turkey and so on.
The US is talking about taking in 10k over the next year, ramping up from 200 or fewer a month. The current process apparently takes two years (much as the old Canadian process took). Pathetic.
One could argue that a bomb on your house disrupts your life somewhat as well, or spending the rest of your days in a Jordanian refugee camp. Perhaps it’s easier to adapt to snow and Somalian taxi drivers.
Also, by calling this gentlemen “The Huck” or “Hucky”, you turn him into a cute little guy that you can safely make fun of because fundamentally you share a lot. Like “the Hitch”.
re @62:
fair point. howabout Fuckabee?
Wait, this asshole is saying that the entire US is inhospitable to people from a desert climate? Has he ever been west of the Mississippi?
Tororosoba @62: that’s why I call him the Huckster. He’s trying to sell something that I’m not buying.
neverjaunty @ 64: Can’t send refugees there. It’d spoil things for the rich retirees who winter in the Southwest.
That is exactly the reason I would not let Jesus come into America. I mean he’s been living his life in a god forsaken desert and he would not thrive a single day out in the cold here.