WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.439 We like to do kind of big picture thoughts here 2 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.879 on John Girardi Show. I like using the radio as 3 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:09.320 my sort of sounding board for my larger sort of 4 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.160 thought pieces. And maybe I'll do a Maybe I'll do 5 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.240 a written essay on this. I want to talk about 6 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.399 illegal immigration, and I want to talk about it from 7 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:27.120 the problem of macro harms versus micro harms, and the 8 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:33.960 inclination to want to address micro issues not understanding how 9 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:39.759 they impact macro issues, and sort of the macro bad 10 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:44.799 outcomes that result from intentionally I think in many cases 11 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:48.840 result from our status quo that we have that we 12 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.880 have had in America of allowing as much illegal immigration 13 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:56.679 as we do one political party just being kind of 14 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.439 dedicated as a party to a policy of just not 15 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:07.560 really enforcing American immigration law. So I maybe one way 16 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:12.120 of thinking about this. I've seen this tension myself in 17 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:15.599 my own work. Okay, So I helped start a nonprofit 18 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:24.359 opgyn clinic. From the perspective of that work, I have 19 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:27.680 had frustration in the past because so I started the 20 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:31.719 clinic in January of twenty twenty two. 21 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:34.159 The clinic's been in three twenty four to twenty five. 22 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:38.239 So the clinic's been open for three years, okay, between 23 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:39.760 twenty twenty two and twenty twenty five. 24 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:41.200 I think it was in twenty. 25 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:47.079 Three Gavin Newsom and the California legislature changed California law 26 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:53.480 opening medical eligibility to everyone under the required income threshold, 27 00:01:54.439 --> 00:02:00.719 regardless of your immigration status. So medical health insurance became 28 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:08.039 open to illegal aliens. Before that, I had had instances 29 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:09.400 where it was frustrating. 30 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:10.919 You know, we're trying. 31 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:13.000 You know, we have all of our pro life work 32 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:14.639 that we're doing through Right to Life and through our 33 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:18.039 Overria Clinic. We're trying to help women in difficult situations. 34 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.759 People are pregnant, they might be considering abortion. We want 35 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:24.560 to provide them with care. They're pregnant, but they're not 36 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:29.360 in the country legally and they're nervous about you know 37 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:31.439 that they can't sign up for medical so how do 38 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:34.680 they get health insurance? That's a big push to drive 39 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:41.360 them towards abortion. So there's a part of me that's like, well, yes, 40 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:49.159 I'm glad that Gavin Newsom provided medical eligibility to people 41 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.840 who are in the country unlawfully, because then it means 42 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:53.479 I can take care of this person. 43 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.400 That's the micro benefit. 44 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:04.560 On a macro level, though, oh, I could very easily 45 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:10.439 understand how giving health insurance government funded health insurance to 46 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:17.879 illegal aliens is a terrible idea. Maybe not it by itself, 47 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.280 but it along with a suite of other social welfare programs. 48 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:28.080 Why are we expending state resources to make it easier 49 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.639 to come to the country illegally. You're making California almost 50 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:35.840 like a magnet for illegal immigration. If word gets out, 51 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:38.400 Hey you can go to California. You can get health insurance, 52 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:40.159 you can do this, you could do get this program, 53 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:41.759 that program by bah blah blah, bah bah blah, blah 54 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:46.840 bah bah. At a certain point, you're on a macro level, 55 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:53.360 you're encouraging this behavior that's not good. So I see, 56 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.400 and I have seen, and I have felt this tension 57 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.599 between my as a nonprofit. What is my concerned Well, 58 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:05.199 I'm not as concerned about in my day to day work. 59 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.240 I'm not as concerned with the problems, the macro level 60 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:17.800 problems of immigration, illegal immigration and the vast social and 61 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:25.199 economic pluses and minuses that it brings, economic, social, national security, 62 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:29.279 whatever pluses and minuses it brings. All I'm seeing is 63 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:32.399 this pregnant woman who overstated or visa who's scared to 64 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:33.720 sign up for medical. 65 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:36.279 And I want to help her out. 66 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:41.959 I think, for example, a lot of the criticisms of 67 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:47.879 the Catholic Church a lot of and its service to immigrants, 68 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:49.959 and I think a lot of the ways in which 69 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:58.600 the bishops in America advocate around the immigration issue is 70 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:05.920 infected by this micro level concern. They have people in 71 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:08.639 their parishes who are in the country, either they over 72 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:10.519 state of visa or maybe they came into the country 73 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:13.439 illegally at some point years ago who are now scared, 74 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:18.399 and they see their fear and concern. And these are Catholics. 75 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:21.040 These are people in their parishes whom they love and 76 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.639 care for and want to help, and that is what 77 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:29.480 motivates this sort of almost knee jerk reaction resistance to 78 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:35.399 immigration enforcement efforts. They see the micro harms, but there 79 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:37.959 sort of there's this unwillingness to sort of step back 80 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.040 and look at the macro picture. All right, So I 81 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:44.319 want to look step back and look at this macro picture. 82 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:48.639 And one of the things that sort of alerted me 83 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:53.040 to this was the episcopal female bishop in Washington, d C. 84 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:58.920 Who at the National Cathedral started wagging or started lecturing 85 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:05.319 President Trump and Vice President Vance, and she's sort of 86 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:08.879 lecturing that they need to be merciful towards Is this 87 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:11.079 one part of her sermon in fairness, I don't think 88 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:12.959 it was the whole thing, But in this one part 89 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.759 of her sermon, she says she's urging them to be merciful, 90 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:22.720 to be kind to transgender kids and to the immigrants 91 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:28.399 who are picking vegetables in our fields. Now, first, the 92 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:32.759 transgender kids thing is revealing that mercy and kindness is 93 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.439 not what this person's about. This person has a warped, 94 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:44.279 perverted sense of human nature that thinks that biology is meaningless, 95 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:48.160 that the body is meaningless, that the body can be 96 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:52.439 reshaped into whatever we want, and that therefore, giving a 97 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:59.000 child a label like transgender is even something that is sane, 98 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:02.519 which it is not. Again, it's a denial of this 99 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:06.800 child's biology. To assign that kind of a static identity 100 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:13.240 to a child, I think is practically child abuse. So 101 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:17.680 I know she's already not coming from a head screwed 102 00:07:17.720 --> 00:07:23.480 on right Christian starting point, but she mentions to be 103 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:24.879 merciful to the people who are. 104 00:07:24.759 --> 00:07:26.600 Picking the vegetables in our field and. 105 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:32.920 A lot of pro immigrant people, especially white pro immigrant people, 106 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:36.759 especially white pro immigrant people from the Northeast, who've never 107 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:37.720 actually seen. 108 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:38.480 A Mexican before. 109 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:41.360 And by that that is one dynamic in all this 110 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.800 is that Northeast liberals who claim to care about the 111 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.199 plight of Latino farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley 112 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:55.839 or of Latino immigrants whatever, don't actually interact with that 113 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:56.879 many Latinos at all. 114 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:01.160 You go to Washington, d C. 115 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:05.480 You go to one of these big Northeastern cities, it's 116 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:10.199 often it's you know, yes, some parts of New York City, Yes, 117 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:17.279 have large usually Dominican populations. It's different kinds of Latin 118 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:21.800 American immigrants. It's not you know, the Northeast is pretty 119 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:25.519 far away from Mexico. It's not as many actual Mexican 120 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:29.040 or Central American you know, immigrants who are coming up 121 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.600 through our southern border. There just aren't that many of them. 122 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:35.879 They're not as understanding, they don't understand as well the 123 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:39.960 day to day realities of illegal immigration and its consequences 124 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.720 as we see it here in the San Joaquin Valley, 125 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.320 or people see it in Texas or Arizona or New Mexico. 126 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:47.960 But their bleeding hearts still go out. 127 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:50.759 To all those people picking the vegetables in our fields. 128 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:52.440 But why do we accept that. 129 00:08:54.759 --> 00:09:00.720 Step back for a second, here's the Democratic Party, the 130 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:10.960 party allegedly of labor, of the working man. You know 131 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:13.879 that there's this repeated line that farm workers, you know, 132 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:19.519 they're doing the jobs Americans won't do. Why won't they 133 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:25.240 do it? It's not that we haven't had other kinds 134 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:26.879 of heavy industry in this country. 135 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.159 We did. We had heavy industry in this country of 136 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:33.840 various kinds, various kinds of construction work that Americans. 137 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:42.039 Did basically, I mean, I mean, look at Detroit, look 138 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:46.080 at the entire auto industry was built on men from 139 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:54.799 America working really hard making cars. Why did farm labor 140 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.039 wind up being the way it is that it's dominated 141 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:04.840 by people either or on worker visas from Mexico or 142 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.639 people who are here on questionably legal status. Why is 143 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:18.360 it dominated by that? Well, in many ways, it's financially 144 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:23.679 advantageous to have workers not from America rather than from America. 145 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:26.320 And it's not because workers from Latin America work harder. 146 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:32.600 The advantages come from their tenuous legal status on a 147 00:10:32.679 --> 00:10:38.000 visa and or the fact that they are illegal all right. 148 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:42.080 If you're a factory, if you're working the line at 149 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:46.720 Ford or GM in Detroit, and your boss treats you 150 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:54.279 like crap ely and eventually this did happen, you unionize, okay, 151 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:59.000 you unionize. A whole political party organizes itself around your right. 152 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:03.399 Because you're a citizen, and because you're a voter, a 153 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.240 whole political party organizes around your right to unionize. 154 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:09.960 You're a citizen, you're a voter. 155 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:12.000 And by the way, if you want to quit your 156 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:16.279 job at Ford and go work for GM, you're totally 157 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:20.440 free to do that. If you want to quit your 158 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:25.200 job at Ford and go work for anyone else, you're 159 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:31.799 free to do that. When you're in America just on 160 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.679 a visa of some sort, some kind of work visa, 161 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:39.639 you have to still be working to keep that visa going, 162 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:42.279 all right. The H one B visa debate, what was 163 00:11:42.279 --> 00:11:45.919 a classic example of this. The H one B visa 164 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:48.759 is a visa that's basically given to people for certain 165 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:52.279 kinds of like technical work. It seems that a lot 166 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.240 of this is happening, bringing engineers over from India on 167 00:11:55.440 --> 00:12:01.440 H one visas. Guess what company like doing that because 168 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:04.279 they can get away with paying them less and they 169 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.679 don't complain. What Well, if you're an H one B 170 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:12.320 visa holder and you complain and you get fired, your 171 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.919 rear end is going right back to India because the 172 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:18.200 whole point of your visa you maintain your visa as 173 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:22.360 long as you maintain your work. So employers are able 174 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.320 to treat you worse, pay you less, give you worse 175 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:28.840 working conditions, treat you like crap. Generally, if they do 176 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:33.000 that to an American citizen, what can happen? Well, One, 177 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:35.879 the American citizen can just quit and go find another job. 178 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.679 That they always have that option. You know nothing, you 179 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:40.759 know other than you know they need income. But they 180 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.399 can just quit. They can just go get another job. Two, 181 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.679 the American citizen can say, hey, uh, if you're violating 182 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:50.720 labor law, I'm gonna sue you. American citizen can say that. 183 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:55.200 American citizen can say, Hey, all of us here working 184 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.879 for this company, none of us are being treated very fairly. 185 00:12:57.879 --> 00:13:00.159 We don't have great bargaining power. Why don't we unionize? 186 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:04.240 American citizen workers can do that. American citizen workers can 187 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:08.240 alert their congressmen. American citizen workers can alert their state 188 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:14.000 assembly member their state Senator, American citizen workers have actual 189 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:23.080 rights and employers have to treat them well. You know, 190 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:27.000 liberals always complain about farm laborers, how they're poorly treated, 191 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.120 and you know what, if I'm being honest, I think 192 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:34.200 there have been, at various times, various places, various ways, 193 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:39.440 total legit concerns. Farm labors work, in many cases bone 194 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:44.919 breaking hours, under very difficult conditions, under you know, et cetera, 195 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:49.360 et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes they're mistreated. There's plenty of 196 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:56.960 historical examples of that. Why did the farm labor industry 197 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:01.399 get so dominated that way? Well, if you're in the country, 198 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.200 has a farm labor on some kind of work visa, 199 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.440 and you're working some job at some farm where there's 200 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:12.039 bad conditions, they're not giving you off water breaks, they're 201 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.840 not doing blah blah blah blah blah, are you gonna complain? 202 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:19.399 You're only there with that work visa. Your only reason 203 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:22.960 for being in America is to work. Are you gonna 204 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:28.679 complain and risk losing this job? You might you're in 205 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:32.200 the country not legally, either you came across illegally or 206 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:33.320 you overstayed your visa. 207 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:34.840 Are you going to. 208 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:38.600 Bring attention to yourself. Are you gonna get all the 209 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:42.639 other workers at the farm together to unionize and join 210 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:49.720 UfW when half of you, or whatever significant percentage of 211 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:54.919 you maybe don't want to rock the boat given your 212 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:56.639 tenuous legal status. 213 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:03.559 So, on a. 214 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:10.240 Micro level, I think a liberal like that liberal episcopal 215 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:12.960 bishop in Washington wagging her finger at Donald Trump, be 216 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.879 merciful to the people picking our vegetables. Why are you 217 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:23.919 okay with a permanent subclass, permanent legal subclass, and I'm 218 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:30.080 talking both both in certain cases, legal immigrants here on 219 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:35.960 work visas and illegal immigrants. Why are you okay with 220 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:44.720 a permanent racial nationality subclass of people with fewer working 221 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:50.399 rights than actual American citizens being the ones who pick 222 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:53.679 your vegetables, make the beds in your hotels, do your 223 00:15:53.759 --> 00:16:00.279 janitorial work, clean your toilets, et cetera, et cetera. When 224 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:09.360 the only people you're benefiting are big corporations, big corporate 225 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:13.039 entities who want to make a lot of money and 226 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.480 would like to pay their workers less, pay their workers less, 227 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.399 have them work under worse conditions, et cetera, et cetera, 228 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:24.279 et cetera. There's no real reason why the farm labor 229 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:29.559 industry in America couldn't have developed in the way that 230 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:38.720 the autoworker industry developed, with American citizens unionized, working under 231 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:47.080 good conditions, getting good pay, making careers out of it. Obviously, 232 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:49.799 Yet there are probably certain conditions that are different that that, 233 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:52.000 you know, the seasonal nature of the work, et cetera, 234 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:55.639 et cetera. I understand that the seasonal nature of the work, 235 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:57.720 the fact that crews of workers tend to go from 236 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.399 different places from one part of CALEI need to the 237 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:01.639 next part of California. 238 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:06.400 But I still would contend there are certain kinds of 239 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:10.599 historical accidents that allow the farm labor industry to develop 240 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:12.519 in a way that was very different from the say, 241 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:19.039 the auto industry. Clearly, immigrant labor. 242 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.519 Benefits big time corporations because they can get away with 243 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:26.160 paying them less. And this is the bizarre sort of 244 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.799 horseshoe that on the one hand you have these liberal, 245 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:35.839 pro unrestricted labor folks who don't believe in borders and 246 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:42.000 have these insane sort of ethno nationality ideas about, you know, 247 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:44.799 wanting America to have lescent national sovereignty. On the one hand, 248 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:49.920 these ultra lefty people on the other hand, in this 249 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.039 sort of horseshoe politics. You have a lot of the 250 00:17:54.039 --> 00:17:59.359 people who support unchecked immigration are people on the libertarian 251 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:02.359 extreme right, who, you know what they want. 252 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:08.519 They want cheap labor. They want cheap labor, cheap ununionized labor. 253 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:10.839 That's not going to complain, that's not going to demand 254 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:14.880 better wages, it's not going to demand better conditions. Are 255 00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:18.039 you really doing something great for the world? You know, 256 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.839 I understand your micro concern for the suffering of this 257 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:24.960 individual group here, but why are we just okay with 258 00:18:25.079 --> 00:18:31.119 this whole setup of a permanent subclass working for us 259 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.160 when we return I want to talk about. 260 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:35.160 Some historical examples of this. 261 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:39.960 That's next on the John d'ardy show, a historical example 262 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:43.160 of all this with regards to illegal immigration and the 263 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:47.720 compassion we should be feeling for the illegal immigration situation. 264 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:52.720 Basically, what I'm saying is the. 265 00:18:54.279 --> 00:19:02.119 Status quo of having a permanent underclass of immigrant workers 266 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:11.880 who necessarily have fewer rights than Americans would. It's inherently 267 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.720 just helpful to corporations to allow them to pay them worse, 268 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:22.640 give them worse working conditions, and it's a huge disincentive 269 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:29.519 to them unionizing. There's no, I mean, I don't see 270 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:34.799 any super clear reason why farm labor, for example, or 271 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.480 hotel workers or this or that, why so many of 272 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:46.519 these industries that are currently dominated by illegal labor, why 273 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:53.240 so many of these industries couldn't be done by American citizens, 274 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:58.759 other than it's advantageous to employers to have a bunch 275 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:03.680 of workers who are here either as immigrants not with 276 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:10.000 full citizenship status, or here illegally. If you're you know, 277 00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:11.920 if you're here on work visa, you got to work. 278 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.079 You got to keep a job. So if you cause, 279 00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:22.960 if you you know, act up at work and your 280 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.759 employer fires you, your reason for being in the country 281 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:30.079 ceases to be and you lose your visa and you 282 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:31.839 get your rear end shipps home. 283 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:33.079 So you shut up. 284 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:37.079 You shut up in a way that American citizens wouldn't 285 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:42.480 the American citizens wouldn't tolerate. If you're paid poorly, you 286 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.799 don't have the flexibility just as well, I'll just leave 287 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:50.599 and go to a job that pays me better. And 288 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:52.720 the whole thing, honestly kind of reminds me of the 289 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:58.039 Helots and the Spartans, So Sparta in kind of like 290 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.720 sixth fifth century b see ancient Sparta is kind of 291 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:09.440 heralded in older you know, history and classics textbooks as 292 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:14.519 like these great heroic warrior culture. And then they were 293 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:17.759 in the movie three hundred. It's the movie three hundred, 294 00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:24.000 which is sort of a dramatization of Herodotus's account of 295 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:27.680 the Spartans and their defeat of the Persians, well sort 296 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:31.599 of their peric the persians peric victory against the Spartans 297 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.119 at the Battle of Thermopyli. The Battle of Thermopyla was 298 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:41.400 this sort of amazing moment where just a group of 299 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:45.039 three hundred Spartans held off for an enormous length of 300 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:49.079 time at this point called Thermopyli, which means the hotgates, 301 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:54.400 an enormous army of Persians who were coming to basically 302 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:00.160 take over all of Greece, and this group of three 303 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.279 hundred Spartans just killed tons and tons and tons of Persians. 304 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:07.839 And so the sort of manly virtues of the Spartans 305 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:09.839 have been sort of talked about and written about and 306 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:14.200 heralded by you know, Herodotus, certainly in other Greek historians 307 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:20.079 for you know, over to millennia and what a you know, 308 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:24.119 they're sort of militaristic culture that Sparta had, where every 309 00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:27.839 male citizen was basically a soldier and from a young 310 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:30.119 age was raised in a sort of military setting. 311 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:31.519 Well. 312 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:35.920 Spartan society was also, in various ways, as were many 313 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:41.319 many societies in the ancient world, fundamentally unjust in various ways. 314 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:44.000 Their slavery was very common practice in the ancient world, 315 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.359 but the particular kind of slavery that was practiced in 316 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:49.559 Sparta was particularly bizarre and kind of gross kind. 317 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:55.440 There was a nearby town to Sparta called Messenia that 318 00:22:55.480 --> 00:22:58.039 the Spartans had conquered and it was part of their 319 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:03.880 sort of regional territory, and the people of Messenia were 320 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:12.359 made into this permanent slave subclass called helots, and the 321 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:17.480 Spartans treated them horrifically. In some cases they're writing about, 322 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:21.079 part of a young Spartan male's training involved, you know, 323 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:24.599 going out and killing helots, just sort of almost indiscriminately. 324 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:30.640 Helots were subjugated by the Spartans for forever. 325 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:37.400 And this idea of having this permanent underclass whose job 326 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:41.279 is to do the jobs that Spartans won't, to do 327 00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:43.000 the jobs that Americans won't do. 328 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:47.759 It's fundamentally unjust. 329 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:53.799 And I can understand the small picture concern of I 330 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.799 want to help this immigrant right here, right now, but 331 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:04.039 I think to restore a more broadly just system is 332 00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:10.799 going to require cutting off the border now and maybe 333 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:13.200 deporting lots of people who shouldn't be here in the 334 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:18.079 first place. When we return government by executive order. That's 335 00:24:18.119 --> 00:24:22.759 next on the John Girardi Show. The first week, I 336 00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:25.559 guess what are we at? Nine days now, Day ten 337 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:30.720 of Trump administration has been dominated by executive orders. 338 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:33.720 Executive orders seems to be the. 339 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:41.559 Preferred main method of governance that we have in this country, 340 00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:43.680 and I want to talk about it. 341 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:45.240 I want to talk about it as a phenomenon. 342 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:50.799 We're seeing this massive uptick in executive actions and greater 343 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:54.839 creativity on the part of executives of the executive branch 344 00:24:54.920 --> 00:25:01.400 to get stuff done, greater pushing of the envelope for 345 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:06.039 what is within the competency of the executive branch, to 346 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:10.880 the point of within twenty four hours, both Donald Trump 347 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:18.279 and Joe Biden tried to make significant changes to constitutional 348 00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:25.160 law itself via executive action via tweet in Joe Biden's case, 349 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:28.519 with Joe Biden declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment had 350 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:32.240 been In his opinion, I think it's part of the Constitution. 351 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:35.160 I think it should be recognized as the twenty eighth 352 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:37.960 Amendment of the United States. A preposterous legal or a 353 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:41.920 preposterous thing for him to say, like, you know, a 354 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:46.279 day before he's leaving office, and not like ordering that 355 00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:49.160 it be so recognized, not ordering the Justice Department that 356 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.240 we are going to treat the ERA as the twenty 357 00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:55.640 eighth Amendment in the context of all litigation efforts, and 358 00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:57.839 I'm ordering the National Archives to publish it, and blah 359 00:25:57.880 --> 00:25:58.440 blah blah blah. 360 00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:00.519 No, he didn't do any of that. He just sort of. 361 00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:02.880 Said, it's my opinion that the ERA is part of 362 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:07.359 the twenty eighth Amendment, basically meaningless. Subsequently, though I believe 363 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:09.599 that this was a Day one executive order, Donald Trump 364 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:16.160 said that the fourteenth Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship, 365 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:18.759 that just because you happen to be born on American 366 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.119 soil does not automatically make you an American citizen, particularly 367 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:30.079 if you were born here the parent to illegal migrant parents, 368 00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:37.440 unlawful migrant parents, so illegal immigrant parents, whatever terminology you 369 00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:41.920 want to use, and that's a pretty ambitious thing for 370 00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:46.400 Trump to do. I mean, in the best case scenario 371 00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:50.000 that executive action by Trump. Say what you will about 372 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:53.720 whether it is wise or not wise as a policy. Frankly, 373 00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:56.119 I think as a policy matter, I think it's ridiculous 374 00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:59.759 that we just that we would say that someone breaks 375 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:03.200 our laws coming to be in the country and just 376 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:05.440 has a baby here, and that that baby is therefore 377 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:06.920 automatically an American citizen. 378 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:07.119 No. 379 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:11.000 I think that's a terrible policy idea. It's a perverse 380 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:16.119 incentive to and frankly, could be a dangerous incentive to 381 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:20.440 get extremely pregnant women to do extremely dangerous things to 382 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:23.160 cross into the country to have a baby for the 383 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:26.319 obvious immigration benefits that would accrue from having a son 384 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:29.920 or a daughter who's an American citizen. I think it's 385 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:34.759 a wildly terrible from a policy perspective. Now, it's a 386 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:38.759 separate question of is that actually what the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees? 387 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:43.440 The Fourteenth Amendment says, all persons born or naturalized in 388 00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:47.799 the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are 389 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:54.880 American citizens. What does that subject to the jurisdiction thereof mean? Okay, 390 00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:58.519 We've always interpreted that to mean that, well, the children 391 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:03.599 of diplomats living in America. So if you're the French 392 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:04.920 ambassador and. 393 00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:10.000 You you're if you're a woman or your wife a woman, 394 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:12.960 if you have a baby in America and you're the 395 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:16.039 French diplomat, you you're the French ambassador, and you're living 396 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:16.960 in Washington, d C. 397 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:19.839 And you and your wife have a baby in Washington, 398 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:24.160 d C. Well, that baby's not an American citizen. That 399 00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:31.839 baby's a French subject. And the rationale being well, ambassadors 400 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:36.640 are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. 401 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:38.319