UK announces stricter immigration policy

photo: AP

{Sky News 12 May} PM: 'Without strong migration rules, we risk becoming an island of strangers'

Sir Keir’s immigration crackdown announcement came with decidedly forced conviction—all stiff delivery and hollow passion, as is his wont. Seems to me, in eternal exile an ocean away, Britain has often been ‘an island of strangers’ throughout its history, at certain junctures more so than others. Make no mistake, this is a necessary declaration—and perhaps these moves might blunt ReformUK’s momentum and appeal to centre-right voters. At this perilous juncture—with fascism resurgent and commandeering history’s most destructive war machine—keeping parties like ReformUK and Germany’s AfD from power is vital. The regime in Washington is openly voicing support for the AfD, and are at least flirting with Nigel Farage, and Sir Keir and Labour tread a precarious tightrope.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-Twitter, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Another rotten week in #Murica and the world. Trump credits himself with Ukraine’s military success; President Biden gets things done, but to little to no credit; CBP officials now interrogating international travelers on whether they’ve had an abortion, more

Ukraine Emergency Service

Russian missiles strike the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, killing at least twenty-three and injuring many more - Deliberately targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure in an area with little-to-no militarily strategic value. The cruelty *is* the point, just as with our domestic Fascists in #Murica. It is vital that President Biden and other world leaders heed Zelenskyy’s call, and designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Слава Україні. (AP 7/14)

Nothing’s shocking anymore: Trump brags that Ukrainian forces are performing well because of weapons he falsely claims he authorized to be sold to Ukraine while he was president - Incredible nerve; he withheld congressionally-authorized military aid in an unsuccessful scheme to blackmail Zelenskyy for ‘dirt’ on Mr. Biden. For which, in January 2020, the GAO issued a report plainly stating that the then-president broke the law, and thus was the impetus for the first of two impeachment trials. Yet, people still believe Donald Trump’s horses**t. It is so insulting to our intelligence, but that is exactly what #Cult45 wants to do: Supporting this fool is their collective way of telling the other half of the country to go f**k ourselves, and it is very much an anti-intellectual, radically populist movement. Therefore, he must be stopped and the GOP cannot be allowed to control Congress and the presidency so long as they are domestic tyrants and international menaces. No Ukrainian-Americans or American supporters of Ukraine should involve themselves with the Republican Party right now; for it’d be akin to a Jew supporting the pro-Nazi ‘America First’ movements of the 1930s. (Political Tribune 7/13)

Fred R. Conrad/NYT

Trump’s first wife and the mother of his three-oldest demon spawn dies at 73 - Conspiracy theories suck and I do not like engaging in them, but it’s not hard to put two and two together here: She knew too much, and he is owned by the Russians. This is how Russians kill their sacrificial lambs. By ‘accident.’ Falling down stairs, out of windows, that sort of thing. Very basic, but very effective. (New York Times 7/14)

Susan Walsh/AP

Mexico agrees to contribute $1.5 billion for infrastructure improvement along the border with the U.S. - Interesting: Trump famously made a campaign promise that he would make Mexico pay for a border wall; of which only 450 miles of construction ever came to fruition, and that Mexico did not contribute to but was instead funded by raiding the Pentagon budget. President Biden and his counterpart, López Obrador, have actually just made a substantial investment that should do a lot more to strengthen national security than some stupid wall. Not that #Cult45 and its media organs - or even most of the general public - will acknowledge any of this. (ABC News 7/12)

Debbie Hill/pool/AFP

President Biden visits Israel, offers words of comfort to Holocaust survivors. (Times of Israel 7/13)

President Biden and interim Israeli PM Yair Lapid sign joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear weapons - Another important achievement for this administration that will go completely unnoticed in #Murica. (Reuters 7/14)

Average U.S. gas prices fall for twenty-eight days in a row, though still well over $4.00 a gallon. (New York Times 7/13)

Australian woman trying to get to Canada via the U.S. is interrogated by CBP over minor visa violation, asked if she has had an abortion. (The Guardian 7/12)

HERE & THERE

Jury selection to begin Monday in the trial of Steve Bannon after judge rejects request to delay. (CBS News 7/14)

Trump invites Saudi-backed ‘LIV’ golf circuit to his New Jersey course, outraging 9/11 families. (New York Daily News 7/15)

Canada’s central bank raises interest rates by a full point to combat inflation. (AP 7/13)

New 988 mental health emergency hotline launches, and has great potential to revolutionize mental health treatment in America. And Lord knows we need it. (AP 7/15)

Rest in Peace, Kitten’s Joy: Legendary racehorse and leading sire dies at 21. (Bloodhorse 7/15)

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The stark realization that the America and world I came of age in is no longer

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Donald Trump seriously could shoot an entirely innocent person in the middle of 5th Avenue, and his supporters would rejoice, while those who merely just tolerate him and other right-wing extremist GOP politicians out of fervent opposition to the Democratic Party would twist themselves into pretzels trying to downplay, ignore, or justify it. The rest of us would be justifiably furious, as we always are every single time the s.o.b. does or says something rotten; as usual, it’d basically be to no avail. At this point, Trump would not be charged if he were to maliciously, and beyond any shadow of doubt, literally murder another individual. The only reason the DOJ has not and will not charge him with a multitude of crimes is the knowledge that #Cult45 will officially kick off the new civil war in earnest the moment it happens. Know what we are dealing with, for the American people are showing their true colors like never before. America today is 100% unrecognizable from what it was in my post-war childhood in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, preserving our democratic values was sacrosanct, as was upholding the global order that so many had shed blood to achieve in World War II. Now is a period where Americans have turned exclusively inward and are only - key word - concerned with their grievances against one another. We’re not going to survive; the damage has been done, and was self-inflicted. Maybe someday the tide will turn again toward relative peace and prosperity, but not in this generation or the next, and not before millions are slaughtered.

Poll: About half of Americans say Trump should be charged for his role in the January 6 Insurrection - Major caveats here, starting with the fact that polls are never entirely reliable. But, with the possible exception of Nixon following Watergate, it would have been unthinkable for most any American - let alone 48% of the public, and 58% overall believing he bears at least some level responsibility - to want to see a current or former president of either party put in prison prior to Trump. Paradoxically, what is wrong with the other 52%? To be fair, in this poll ‘only’ 31% actually responded that they do not believe Trump should face any charges for January 6 and another 20% somehow don’t have an opinion. 31% is a large number, just shy of one-third, and to take a ‘guesstimate,’ the ultra-right, nationalist populist bunch probably are roughly a third to 40% of the population. So, this poll may very well be accurate; one-third of the population is more than enough for any tyrannical movement to conquer an already-divided country, and that is exactly what is continuing to happen here. #Cult45 - has been radicalized, and we face a situation here very similar to Iran in the mid-to-late ‘70s: President Biden finds himself in the role of the Shah, while Trump is playing the role of Ayatollah Khomeini; and Ayatollah Trump has millions of acolytes prepared for revolution against modernity, and to serve as enforcers of the crackdown on civil society that is already underway. (AP 6/30)

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Liz Cheney, not mincing words - ‘We are confronting a domestic threat we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.’ (NPR 6/30)

José Luis González/Reuters

Supreme Court rules the president is entitled to overturn his predecessor’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy - So, as #Cult45 has itself had a love fest with the high court in the past week, how do they now reconcile with this ruling disobeying their orange messiah? (The Guardian 6/30)

Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Russia appears to have defaulted on its international debt - Due to a number of factors at play, Russia is not facing certain economic doomsday, but none of this can be making the lives of ordinary Russians any easier. (New York Times 6/27)

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U.S. records its lowest population growth in the nation’s history during the pandemic; Deaths outnumber births in more than two dozen states

AFP via Getty Images

AP - US population growth at lowest rate in pandemic’s first year

In the long run, fewer mouths to feed and fewer people to cause problems in the United States would be a net positive for the planet, though will likely be offset by the uncontrolled and unacceptable levels of population growth in places like India, Africa, and other poverty-stricken backwaters of the world. There is a (very humane) reason we spade and neuter our cats and dogs, and necessity demands we will soon have no recourse but to apply the same to humans. Make no mistake, there are going to be some severe issues that result from lower birth rates in the U.S. – some are already present – but overpopulation will eventually lead to humankind’s demise. - 

U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday. 

The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the nation’s count to 331.8 million people, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The U.S. has been experiencing slow population growth for years but the pandemic exacerbated that trend. This past year was the first time since 1937 that the nation’s population grew by less than 1 million people. (Read more)

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The White House cracks down on the border as migrant arrests soar to 21-year-high and the Delta variant surges

Photo: Getty Images

The pro-migrant lobby will balk, the other side will only continue to claim that the president is allowing illegal aliens to enter in a conspiracy to destroy America. The opinions of malcontents and ideologues be damned, we’re in a national emergency and have to do what is necessary. CBS News - 

The Biden administration is ramping up deportations and prosecutions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally amid a 21-year high in migrant arrests and concerns about the rapid spread of the coronavirus Delta variant.

U.S. authorities are now flying Central American migrants deep into the Mexican interior using a Trump-era public health order that was extended indefinitely last week, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, who said the expulsions are meant to curb repeat border crossings and the spread of the coronavirus.

The Biden administration has also restarted "expedited removal" flights for some migrant families who can't be expelled to Mexico under the public health authority, known as Title 42. Since the end of July, the U.S. has carried out six expedited removal flights to Central America, deporting 242 migrant parents and children under the procedure, DHS officials said. (Read more)

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Week in review, 04/17 - 04/23

A man who - agree or disagree - showed great candor, didn’t put on airs, and didn’t just always tell the lemmings what they wanted to hear (as opposed to what needed to be said.) Rest in Peace, Vice President Walter Mondale

Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges. The right verdict, of course, but I just can't help but be sad and angry that all of this ever happened. It's the 21st Century, time to move on from Jim Crow. Rest in Peace, George Floyd

Photo: AP

‘The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France’

A disaster of potentially epic proportions. 1.3 billion living in one landmass: India reports over 200,000 daily new COVID-19 cases for the sixth consecutive day

Great Britain adds India to COVID-19 ‘red list,’ temporarily banning travelers from the country of 1.366 billion as new variant spreads

‘If you’re pregnant and infected with Covid-19, there is an increased risk of negative outcomes for both you and your baby, according to a new study published Thursday in JAMA Pediatrics’

‘The coronavirus has killed an estimated 1,300 babies in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic, even though there's overwhelming evidence that Covid-19 rarely kills young children’

‘Germany — ostensibly a nation of efficient, reliable and punctual people — is succumbing to chaos. How is this possible?’ A very German way of handling the COVID-19 pandemic

The United States reaches President Biden’s goal of 200 million COVID-19 shots in the first 100 days of his presidency, as small businesses are offered tax credit as reimbursement for giving employees time off to get vaccinated

FDA finds unsanitary conditions at Baltimore plant contracted to make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; none of the vaccines produced had been distributed

‘A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt’

States are relaxing mask mandates, but many major retailers are not ready to follow suit: At this point, I’d be fine if wearing masks in public became permanent, standard practice. I’ve enjoyed not having people spreading their germs all around us, no spittle and other nasty stuff emanating from their big mouths. Colds, the standard flu, etc. are virtually non-existent, and that’s because masks work. It’s also been nice having an excuse not to shake anybody’s grimy hands, or not to feel compelled to accept a hug, and just having the freedom of not being obligated to even see people most of the time. Social distancing should also stay, but most people are basically herd animals and can’t help but always be in the space of others

‘Last month, even as the unemployment rate fell and more states relaxed restrictions on business operations, the poverty rate hit a pandemic high of 11.7 percent — a full percentage point greater than it was in early 2020’

Photo: Reuters

GOP eyes new strategy to derail Biden infrastructure plan: We believe ourselves to still be the most advanced nation on earth, but our infrastructure is crumbling and these Republican idiots think it is smart politics to stand against the president’s efforts to enable necessary upgrades? Whatever procedural problems there are, work them out like grown-ups, but do not allow our nation to literally crumble to the ground just for the sake of harming Mr. Biden politically

‘A group of Senate Republicans outlined their infrastructure plan Thursday, unveiling a much narrower vision for how to revamp U.S. transportation and broadband than the sweeping approach backed by President Joe Biden’

A lot of good all that sloganeering, caterwauling and fear mongering did: $5.00 ladders ‘defeating a wall that cost $12 million a mile’ at the U.S.-Mexico border

Former President George W. Bush slams the modern GOP, saying ‘it’s not exactly my vision,’ and ‘I’m just an old guy they put out to pasture.’ Also expresses concern over President Biden’s decision to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan

Medical examiners confirm Officer Brian Sicknick died of a stroke following the U.S. Capitol riot

Florida woman charged with threatening to kill the Vice President

Only in the GOP would royally screwing up a state’s response to the pandemic be seen as a positive: Florida Gov. DeSantis emerges as a presidential favorite for 2024

Research determines about one-fifth of QAnon posts between January 2020 and February 2021 came from foreign sources, mostly in China and Russia

Red alert: ‘Sophisticated Chinese government hackers are believed to have compromised dozens of U.S. government agencies, defense contractors, financial institutions and other critical sectors’

Mass demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg calling for Alexei Navalny’s release

Score one for the good guys: Herd of elephants trample suspected poacher to death in South Africa

Colorado prosecutors file more than forty felony charges against suspected supermarket shooter Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa

About time somebody took noise pollution seriously: Burlington, VT, bans the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, requiring citizens and businesses to use quieter electric-powered blowers

Los Angeles set to limit the use of disposable napkins and utensils at restaurants: The sort of Nanny State b.s. that has driven otherwise reasonable people into the arms of demagogues like Trump. Not to mention, just plain gross. I’ll use as many napkins as necessary when eating, thank you

Expectant parents in NH town get a bit too full of themselves, set off explosives at gender reveal party that could be felt for miles around and may have damaged some homes. An awful lot of hype for a kid who may very well turn out to be a loser in life

Rest in Peace, Tempest Storm: The great burlesque star, ‘who disrobed to enduring acclaim,’ dies at 93

Rest in Peace, Jim Steinman. Creator of melodramatic and theatrical balladry for the likes of Celine Dion, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, and many other artists. The man definitely had a signature style all his own, as much an artist as he was a producer and composer

Big upset in the world of horse racing: Letruska outduels heavy favorite Monomoy Girl in the Apple Blossom Handicap

Wishing Alex Smith a very happy retirement from football. It was awesome to see what this QB did this past season in Washington, earning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

Week in review, 01/20 - 01/26: First week of the Biden administration

Photo: Getty Images

The amount of personal loss and/or sickness I’m seeing being posted about by contacts on FB and Twitter in, say, the last month-and-a-half to two months has been astronomical in scope. Like no period I can ever recall or ever want to see again. #WearAF**kingMask

Straight to work, as he said he would do: President Biden’s first-day executive orders in detail

Masks now required for interstate travel; centralized data collection, sped-up vaccine production, increased testing capacity mandated: President Biden issues executive orders aimed at defeating COVID

President Biden reinstates COVID travel restrictions, adds South Africa to the list of countries affected

First known U.S. case of Brazilian COVID-19 variant found in Minnesota

National Guardsmen on COVID protocols: ‘There’s none. We are on top of each other all day, every day. We’ve given up.’ Scores of National Guard banished to the Senate parking garage during inauguration

Brian Karem: Energy (and honesty) in the Executive. ‘A spectral administration of lies is swept out, replaced by an active new team and a president talking of unity’

President Biden inherits one of the worst job markets for any incoming presidency, as jobless claims remain at historic highs

Regardless of how one feels about illegal immigration, the United States should not be in the business of hurting children of any nationality: President Biden’s immigration bill would provide more protections for child migrants

This lady is nuts: Freshwoman GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files articles of impeachment against President Biden

Perhaps the prospect of being sued into the next century will be the greatest deterrent to future coup plotters: Giuliani sued for $1.5 billion by Dominion Voting Systems over false election claims

A once-proud party that destroyed itself on the altar of a failed real estate king from New York: Republicans grapple with their future post-Trump

Crazy Trump supporter issues tear-stained video, says she doesn’t even see the American flag anymore. I watched the inauguration, there were American flags everywhere. Prime example of what cult-like devotion will do to a person when everything falls apart

‘(S)trung from failed promise to failed promise.’ QAnon adherents in disarray as President Biden takes office, prophecies fail to materialize

Group of GOP senators seek to block President Biden’s moves on Paris Accord, Keystone XL

American Petroleum Institute: ‘Impeding American energy will only serve to hurt local communities and hamper America’s economic recovery.’ President Biden imposes sixty-day suspension of oil and gas leases and permits on U.S. lands and waters

Under President Biden, China faces renewed trade pressure

Massachusetts: Gov. Baker lifting 9:30 p.m. curfew for restaurants and other businesses as COVID metrics improve

1,900 doses of COVID vaccine thrown away after incident at Jamaica Plain (Boston) facility

Getting the vaccines to everyone will continue to be a lengthy and difficult process: Merck ends COVID-19 vaccine program, citing inferior immune responses, will focus on treatments instead

New CDC director says COVID vaccine won’t be in every pharmacy by late February

Researching the possible connection between COVID and ME/CFS: What if you never get better from COVID-19?

ILO: 255 million full time jobs lost due to pandemic; $3.7 in lost earnings, economic damage four times higher than during the 2008 financial crisis

COVID vaccinations for cats and dogs? ‘(N)ot unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might... be necessary to curb the spread’

Evidence emerges that an anticipated COVID ‘baby boom’ has not come to pass, and is more likely a ‘baby bust’

An American icon. Rest in Peace, Hank Aaron, you will never be forgotten

Unbelievable. First time since 1960 there will not be a new group of inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, the silver lining is the delayed 2020 class will have the stage to itself

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.