The Monkey Wrench Gang Review

Yeah, so you should read this book.... It's awesome!!

The book The Monkey Wrench Gang is a work of genius; it’s an iconic work of anarchy and environmentalism. Not only is the book action packed and full of explosions and adventure, but the characters are probably the best part. They’re grizzled, absurd, their actions grandiose and delusional, and you feel a strong sense of solidarity and sympathy throughout the reading. These characters take things to the extremes, all to protect the great outdoors from society. !
! Though this book is a little old, (published in 1975), it has sold over half a million copies, and is loved by many. Houston Chronicle says, “A thing of beauty... A wildly funny, infinitely wise, near to tragic tale of man against the bog god machine.”!
! Even if you’re not into the whole “save the environment” “western” vibe, it is almost impossible to not like this book. It’s so interesting to find out what wacky things these eccentric characters are willing to do to carry out their plans. It’s really a joy to read. 

The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey

    I've started reading this book called The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. It's about these people who go around destroying stuff the government has built (such as bridges, dams, etc.) if said things are "disrupting the harmony of the earth" which is the best I could describe it as.

    I really like the characters in this story. They're all so eccentric and quirky, and all have their own reasons for wanting to be part of the gang. Most of them just hold some sort of grudge, and some just want to be free from society.
    I don't really dislike anything about the characters, but I wish the author had described what the characters looked like a little more specifically because for example, I didn't even know one or two of the characters were African American until later.

    If I were a character in this story, I would most definitely be in the gang with them. How cool would it be to do all the wacky things they do? I would definitely be friends with Bonnie, one of the characters' lover. I love her personality and would love to know her in person. She does things that I enjoy doing, and not to mention her spunk. When she makes up her mind, she isn't changing it. She gets what she wants when she wants it and makes things so because she wants them to. Some people might find her annoying, but I think she's a bit of a role model in a way.

I can definitely predict two of the characters aren't going to get along well at all throughout the book. Bonnie, as I just discussed, has a hatred to one of the men in the story, Hayduke, because she thinks he's a pig that drinks too much. Hayduke doesn't like Bonnie mostly because of the sass that she gives him and because she's a woman. I hope that they can settle their differences, though, because they do way too much bickering and it probably isn't good for anyone.

Fernando Espuelas Slams National Review's "Delusional Analysis" of Latino Voters

First women, then African-Americans, and now this? Once again republicans are shutting out the immigrants. As you know, Obama's second term is soon coming to an end and elections are coming up in 2016. As expected, the Republicans aren't going to be counting the Latino voters. So naturally, as a result of Republicans wanting nothing to do with Latinos, and are trying to drive out the Latimo community, they aren't going to get their votes. The article states that 63% of Latino voters know someone undocumented, so it's common sense not to vote for a party that wants your friends and family gone.

Thenceforth, the article delivers a long "quote" by Fernando Espuelas talking about why the Republicans are making a mistake on how they are treating the Latinos/immigrants and how it will affect them in the future. He even briefly speaks of Steve King, which I am familiar with. I watched a video yesterday of him being confronted by two DREAMers and them lashing out at each other. If you would like to watch it, click here for the full seven minute video. And if you want to read this article and Fernando Espuelas' thoughts, click here.

House GOP Won’t Allow Immigration Vote on Legal Status for Military Service

From all of the articles I've read so far, I have picked up one well known fact: Republicans do not like illegal immigrants. They won't let them vote, and they really won't let them do anything except go back to the country that they came from. Democrats on the other hand, are welcoming them into the US with open arms. (Most likely why Obama is pushing for the laws favoring immigrants).

Moving on, since Republicans heavily dislike them they immediately decline a new law the Democrats are trying to pass up. "A proposal that would allow children brought into the country illegally to gain legal status through military service," as quoted from the article. I told this to my aunt and she said "They just fired a bunch of troops due to them making too much money." I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this situation, since I haven't researched it, but I find it odd that they want people from ANOTHER COUNTRY fighting for the US instead of American soldiers. On the other hand, I don't really think it matters if they were from another country. They came here when they were little kids, so naturally the US feels more like home than their previous country.

Further into the article, it explains that when the proposal was brought up by two men, they received heavy dissaproval from the "higher-ups," John Boehner and Eric Cantor. It had surprised me that both of them had supported the idea, but are now suddenly against it. John Boehner said it just wouldn't be right to put it onto the Natural Defense Authorization Act (which is basically US federal law), while Jeff Denham, one of the men who proposed the idea, says it is fine because it doesn't have anything to do with immigration laws. 

Before I go on, this reminds me of a book I read a couple years back called FlyGirl. It takes place in WWII following about a young African-American woman who wants to being a pilot in war but really wasn't able to because she was black and a woman. Those two didn't mix if you wanted to be in the army back then. If you compare it to this situation, it really isn't all that different. People of a different race wanting to join the military and fight for the US but can't because of their differences.

In the article, it talks about a man who thinks the US could use DREAMers to their advantage. He said that “The ENLIST Act would provide a path to citizenship for DREAMers who are willing serve, fight and put their lives on the line for this country." I can kind of agree with him on that. I mean, don't they need as many troops as possible anyway? If so, then why are they trying to push them away?

After that the article mainly talks about whether or not they will even go through with the act. Boehner says it's all up to the President now, so it probably won't go any further before mid term elections. In my opinion, at the pace everything is going now, it most likely won't.

If you want to read deeper into the subject, click here to read the full article.

Texas Eases Rules for Housing Immigrant Children

This article really shocked me. It may be short, but it was a big surprise when I read it and knew I had to do a reflection on it. The article began by saying that Texas was overwhelmed by thousands of immigrant children coming into the state, and they had no choice but to house them. They had to reduce to number of square feet for each child to stay in (I'm guessing because there were so many), and allowed more than one child to a sink, toilet, and shower. Texas even approved children to sleep on cots, but denied air mattresses.

If you don't know what a cot is, it's basically a beach chair or bench with what is almost like tent fabric that you can lay on. Most people use these when they go camping because they're portable, comfortable, and they're off the ground so no bugs crawl on you and/or you aren't sleeping on the cold hard ground. Cheap cots can range from $20-$60. I'm not sure why they denied air mattresses, though, because they can range at cheaper prices, from $20-$40.

The article continued to explain that, "More than 57,000 children entered the U.S. illegally between October and June without a parent or guardian." This is what shocked me the most. I never knew so many children could cross the border by themselves without getting caught! Reading the article also made me think of the memoir The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande. On pages 147-149, Reyna's father was going back to the US. He was planning to take her brother and sister, but not Reyna. She was sad and begged and begged to go across the border with them. Eventually, her father said yes, but I wonder what would have happened if he didn't? Would she sneak across like all those thousands of kids?

I know the article is short, but if you still want to read it click here.

Immigrants, Both Documented and Undocumented, Are Helping Save Medicare and Social Security

Have you ever wondered if illegal immigrants are actually helping the economy instead of ruining it? I didn't think so either until I read this article. Due to immigrants being younger and healthier than Americans, they contribute more to programs like Medicare and Social Security. Not to mention how much they contribute to job growth thanks to them needing so many. I find that funny because a couple years ago, my mother found it very difficult to find a good paying job because they were all taken. I'm not sure if it was because of immigrants, though.

On the topic of Medicare, the Washington Post stated that they (meaning the immigrants) were the best thing that happened to Medicare as a result of them putting more money in than taking it out. In fact, the article even said that immigrants were contributing $252 billion (my own calculations) more than Americans. To go even further, immigrants contributed $62 more per person to the trust fund than Americans, and claim $172 less in benefits. That means that the immigrants were giving the government $62 more and they got back $172 less than the average American. That's a lot of money. I looked it up, and each American pays $426 if you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for fewer than 7.5. Each month (in 2014) each person pays $104.90 premium each month if your annual income is below $85,000 ($170,000 for couples). If you add $64 to that each month it really adds up. 

In the long run, the article stated that the net $183 billion that immigrants contributed to Medicare during 1996 and 2011 was "enough to ensure the prolonged buoyancy of the Medicare trust fund, which will remain solvent through 2030." That means America is pretty set until then!

You may be wondering, though, what about the undocumented immigrants? For Social Security, undocumented immigrants pay almost $13 billion while only recieving about $1 billion. I don't know what those numbers are in comparison to Americans, but still with those kind of statistics the US is really rolling in the dough! Stephen Goss said "In total, undocumented workers have contributed more than $100 billion over the last decade while living in the shadows." Holy cow! The only problem is, they say that having the undocumented immigrants "living in the shadows" won't really help Social Security in the long run. In fact, they said it would be better to legalize them so they are sure they are all paying into the system. It's ironic, really. Wasn't everyone saying it was bad to have so many immigrants?

The article ends on talking about what I reflected on last: Obama wanting protection and relieving deportation from undocumented immigrants. If you want more on that, check out my post and its article. If you want to read this one, click here.

Barack Obama's Immigration Moves Could Be Unstoppable

In Barack Obama's Immigration Moves Could Be Instoppable, it explains that Obama plans to give more illegal immigrants work permits and relief from deportation. A lot of people are remonstrating on the President for the actions he wants to take and is only making them angrier. Not to mention, due to the House of Immigration Reform not following up on his plans, Obama said he wants to take newer and bigger actions to overhaul the immigration system. This could include reordering the priority list of deportation cases, or expanding the deferred action program. (The deferred action program allows immigrants to who entered into the US illegally is children to apply for a two-year deportation reprieve. Does this mean that if Reyna, the author of the book The Distance Bewteen Us didn't become a legal citizen, would she be getting this "special treatment" along with her sister and brother?).
Though a lot of people are disagreeing with his actions, most lawyers are saying that Obama has little restrictions on what the US should do on deporting immigrants. This means that he could deport them or not deport them depending on he feels about the situation, which I don't think is right at all. This reminds me of a book I read (sadly, I cannot recall the name), where the main character talked about her childhood in which when she was young her and her friends were playing a game. One of her friends was the "leader" in the game and decided everything on her own and didn't ask for anyone's opinions. Since she was the leader the other kids did what she said even if they didn't agree to her rules. I find the story similar to this situation in a way in which the friends are like the people who disagree with Obama's plans and the friend who was the "boss" or "leader" is Obama. If you think about it, they really aren't all that different.
The article then continued explain that there are about 11 million people in America who aren't supposed to be here in the US. In mathmatical terms that doesn't seem like that much if you compare it to the other 300 million Americans living in the US. Still though that's quite a lot of illegal immigrants, and it's just going to keep growing. Who knows how many illegal immigrants will be in the US by 2020 if Obama is successful in extending and making new laws on keeping immigrants here? If per say all the laws he wishes to make come true, would that mean that even more immigrants would come into the US and be assured that they would be here for just another couple years or so? We will never know.
Even though it says that Obama will try his hardest to do what he can so immigrants can stay in the US longer, a man named Hiroshi Moromura says, "I think there are real constraints on him. He cannot give people a permanent immigration status. He cannot give people green cards. He cannot bypass the process… He cannot give people a path to citizenship." Not only him but a lot of people think that Obama doesn't have as much freedom to act on rights for immigrants. I'm not really sure if this is a good thing, but what will he do if he doesn't have the authority that he thinks he does?
All in all after reading this article I'm not really sure if Obama will continue with his plans or not. Will so many people rebel and sue against him so that he would eventually stop? Or maybe he won't and the 11 million will double? Triple even? We'll have to wait and see.

If you want to read the full article here is a link.