March 20, 2025 • 56 mins
We start with the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a centuries-old law that’s suddenly back in the conversation. What does it mean, and how could it impact immigrants today? Then, we dive into the rift between Senate Democrats, as Michael Bennet openly criticizes Chuck Schumer’s leadership—what’s behind the tension, and what does it mean for the party moving forward? We also tackle a hard truth: undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes while billionaires dodge them—how does the system keep letting this happen? Bad Bunny breaking the internet and finally, we’re celebrating Becky G’s latest win as she becomes the first Latina to receive the Pionera award at the Latino Sports Awards, proving once again that she's more than just a music star.
https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/news/alien-enemies-act-1978-explainer/
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5205304-michael-bennet-chuck-schumer-senate-democrats/
https://fiercebymitu.com/news/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-vs-billionaires/
https://fiercebymitu.com/news/becky-g-pionera-award-latinos-sports/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Alright, let me talk about here we go. He said
he lived life pas a ringo, where you question when
you feel in every time you mingle, they say you
do this would not of that. My rapins really mad
this life pasicingo. Yes, hello and welcome to anotherisode of
Life as a Gringo. I am dramas of course, and
(00:27):
we are coming to live once again from La Coscina,
my kitchen here in Puerto Rico. Enjoying my time out here.
Thank you for asking. I got to go hang out
and visit some a DJ buddy of mine yesterday and
catch up with him, somebody who I met on Instagram.
So it was cool I actually get to meet in person.
(00:50):
Random fun fact, we actually have mutual friends from his hometown,
the West coast in Puerto Rico. That was really random.
We found out about that last night while talking. It's
a beautiful small world and synergy. Yeah, I had a
good time with that. Said, we're talking about Thursday trends today, right,
(01:10):
it's Thursdays. That means we're talking about Thursday trends today.
We're gonna talk a bit about It's kind it's like
a lot of a shit show of things. That's pretty
usual happening here. I'm hopped on coffee. If you can't
tell right now, I just did like some cold brew
and this creamer just like it just feels like it
was mainline into my brain right now. So bear with
(01:33):
me as I get through the jolt of coffee anxiety.
But anyway, let's talk about the latest with Donald Trump
and a two hundred and twenty eight year old law
that he has enacted as a means to support Venezuelan migrants.
We'll also talk about the controversy with Democrats and ongoing
(01:58):
controversy that's happening right now as Democrats or specifically a
few Democrats did not take a chance to stand strong
against Trump, but instead went along with his agenda and
many are criticizing that move. And we'll talk about a
(02:22):
new study that found that undocumented immigrants actually pay more taxes.
They pay more in taxes than billionaires do. Interesting and
on a positive side things, let's celebrate the lovely Beckage
for a second. Okay, she has received an honor and
(02:43):
also her entrepreneurial spirit here is showing at it res.
She is a co owner of a professional sports team,
So we'll talk about that, celebrate her, and I think
we'll probably do honorable mention for ved Buddy's Calvin Klein
campaign because it seems to be all that people are
talking about on the internets. But first and foremost, to
(03:05):
talk about the nonsense the bs. In a segment, we
call for the people in the back say a lot
for the people in the say a lot of the
people in the say a lot of the people of
the That coffee is hitting just right. Anyway, where do
(03:33):
you want to start saying? What do I want to
get angry? Let's get angured first and foremost. Donald Trump,
he just recently invoked a two hundred and twenty eight
year old law, it's called the Alien Enemies Act of
seventeen ninety eight, as a means of bolstering his mass
deportation activities. Now, this law grants the president sweeping the
(03:57):
power to imprison and deep undocumented people. Now, critics of
this believe the invocation of the law is meritless and
intended for use only during wartime. Republicans have built a
case that this law, have built a case for this
law to be enacted for years now. This is what
(04:19):
Kim Castro, a Democrat, saying that if President Trump invokes
the Alien Enemies Act to start mass deportations, it would
be an abuse of power. It is a wartime measure
most recently used in World War II to in turn
many Japanese, Italian, and German Americans, and it has remained
(04:39):
a dark stain on the nation's history. Now, this law
has been invoked three times during the War of eighteen twelve,
World War I, and World War Two. And during World
War two, the law allowed the federal government to arrest
people of Japanese origin. The federal government placed people in
(05:00):
internment campus between nineteen forty two and nineteen forty six.
Around one hundred and twenty thousand people of Japanese ancestry
were caught in the mass imprisonments of the nineteen forties.
Now breaking down, I guess the background of this law.
I mean, you think about in terms of why it
(05:23):
was enacted during World War two, specifically with the Japanese,
and that just being like a dark history that we
don't really talk about. If I'm not mistaken, families of
the like the Japanese people were who were imprisoned, they
actually received checks in the mail, like retribution checks from
(05:56):
the government because of this, like following Yeah, So following
the if I sounded like here crazy persons, I was
saying that I'm literally typing as I'm talking here, just
to get you the exact information. But following the interment
of Japanese Americans during World War Two, the Civil Liberties
Act of nineteen eighty eight acknowledging injustice and provided twenty
(06:18):
thousand dollars in reparations to each surviving individual who had
been incarcerated, along with a formal apology. So, while this
is sort of used as a means of bolstering up deportations,
(06:38):
and they're not particularly talking about mass incarceration camps, although
one could argue we've seen inklings of that. I mean,
you have some people being held in places like Guantanamo Bay.
We've seen when children were separated from their parents and
the conditions they were staying in. But we saw how
(06:59):
that was a state and even during then. While I
don't think there's an excuse for mass incarceration, the reason
why this was enacted for World War Two against the
Japanese was the fear of Japanese spies during World War
two and obviously in World War Two. What led to
(07:20):
the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. You know, around that
there was a lot of fear and during an active
wartime where the US basically the war was brought to
the United States of America. That being such a crazy
period in our history, this was enacted. Now, obviously we
(07:44):
are not at war with Venezuela and we are not
being attacked by a group of people, So the enactment
of this is really just a means for him to
have to skate around any sort of.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Red tape that.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He would fall upon. And there's already been plenty of stories,
you know, about people being deported that aren't criminals. People.
There's been stories of there's been stories of people with
(08:26):
tattoos being misread as gang tattoos and being targeted as
a result of that. You know, it's just terrible, you know,
and it's it's just again, by by any means necessary,
(08:58):
of sort of the whitening of America once again. You
had a US judge actually blocking the invocation of the law.
The decision is a response to a lawsuit bob by
the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward. The lawsuit
was preemptive in anticipation of Trump's invoking of the law
(09:18):
to the five Venezuelan migrants, and you had a hearing
and Trump's actually sending these people not even to Venezuela,
but to Honduras and l Salvador. The judge actually all
ordered that the planes turn around mid air and return
to the US, but it appears they've landed in those countries,
(09:40):
so it would seem what they're saying is that this
decision that Trump made is actually defying a court order
from a federal judge. And that's the bigger conversation I
think even around even more so, and I'm not downplaying
(10:01):
the effects that it has on people being deported and
being imprisoned in countries they're not even from, or being
sent to countries they're not even from. But the sort
of larger conversation that affects everybody in this country is
(10:22):
the idea that this man, Donald Trump is openly defying
court orders. Right. Judges are blocking things that he's doing,
and he's doing them anyway. And then that sort of
(10:44):
begins a scary conversation around what happens when we have
a president that defies the courts, that is, believes he's
bigger than the justice system, the system that is supposed
(11:04):
to be in place to keep him in check. Right,
that's how we become, you know, under dictator, under a
rule of a dictator. Right, that's what dictators do. They
are the end all be all the United States of America.
The beauty of our country and the beauty of this
democracy is that we have a checks and balances system. Unfortunately,
(11:27):
it seems like that checks and balance the system is
falling short because I don't think anybody ever anticipated a
person being in office that would not respect our democracy
and not respect the rule of law the way that
(11:48):
Donald Trump has. I saw this. I can't remember that
the representative's name, but he was the one who was
kicked out of Donald Trump's recent address to to Congress,
and he was on the breakfast if I saw a
clip where he was basically saying, I'm an attorney, and
I didn't realize Donald Trump or the president could do
(12:09):
all these things. I didn't realize that there wasn't more
of a checks and balance this system, right, that we've
never been tested like this. Our founding fathers, you know,
didn't anticipate someone standing in the oval office and completely
disgracing and disregarding democracy as we know it. And that's
(12:35):
sort of again when we talk about these stories and
why I think it's important to share them outside of
the fact that as a Latin the Latin community to
know what's going on with our brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
But be.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
The idea of what does this mean for us moving forward?
And I don't I don't say these things to scare anybody.
I'm not, you know, trying to invent a boogeyman, you know,
and and stir the pot. But if we don't begin
sort of thinking a couple of steps ahead of like
what could this potentially mean if God forbid it does happen,
(13:12):
we're sort of caught with our pants down, so to speak,
you know. And that's why it's important to be thinking
ahead and not waiting for the day that this man
decides to just become dictator, but to start trying to
develop ways and be aware of what he's doing so
that we can combat it before it gets to that point,
(13:35):
before we're at the point of no return, essentially, And
that's why it's important to sort of talk about all
that's going on in these with these stories and things
of that nature. And that sort of is a great
segue into the next story, because you sort of have
this difference of opinion right now going on in the
(13:59):
Democrat Party of where we are, and Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer, who is essentially the most powerful Democrat, doesn't
believe we're in the crisis that many others do, myself included.
And he's getting a lot of backlash because for many people,
(14:22):
he's not rising to the occasion and not seizing an
opportunity to fight back. So we'll talk about that. Well,
pause here, we'll take a quick break, and then we'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
All right, we are back, And.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
There's been a lot of controversy going on amongst Democrats.
You have people calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
to resign from his leadership position. A lot of people
in the Democratic Party feel like he is not the
leader that they need with the backbone that they needed
to fight. All that's happening with with Donald Trump. That
(15:02):
is all stems from a recently passed Republican spending bill.
The bill has sparked controversy over potential impacts on things
like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. While the bill does
not explicitly cut Medicare or social security. Concerns remain about
the indirect effects, such as issues with Medicare payments that
(15:25):
could reduce access to care. Medicaid faces the most significant risk,
with proposed cuts of up to eight hundred and eighty
billion dollars over the next decade, potentially leading to loss
of coverage for many people. Public backgrash has been strong,
with Democratic leaders and constituents criticizing the bill for undermining
(15:45):
social safety nets, despite Republican claims that it preserves essential services.
So what does that mean? Republicans seem like they're gas lightened,
as they always are. Right, they're telling you, oh, no, no,
we're not doing anything wrong here. But their purpose is
sort of leaving out the verbiage and the protection to
(16:11):
effectively protect things like Medicare, social Security, and Medicaid. And
that's by design, right, that is so that they can
leave the door open to make these disgusting cuts. And
these are you know, conversations that are happening out in
the open with people like Elon Musk, who believes that
(16:31):
things like social Security are a Ponzi scheme, doesn't believe
that we should be taking care of our elderly in
this country, doesn't believe that people should be receiving these benefits. Right,
and ironically coming from a person whose company companies receive
(16:54):
billions of dollars in government funding taxpayer dollars. Right, Okay,
that our money goes into their company that he's profiting
off of and becoming the world's richest man. But God forbid,
the government does what it's supposed to do and has
programs created to protect working people when they get into
(17:19):
the ages where they can no longer work. Right, God forbid,
we protect those people who have spent their entire lives
working and paying taxes, and again, are partially responsible for
the funding that goes into people like his companies that
make him even richer. Now, the controversy now, or as
(17:41):
far as Democrats go, it starts because the Republicans needed
to get a certain number of Democratic votes in order
for this to pass, and many people on the Democratic
side on the left were saying, this is our opportunity
(18:03):
to stay strong and to hold them accountable and create
a real checks and balance the system of saying no,
we're going to push you to amend this bill to
terms that we can feel comfortable with. Right, the same
way Republicans have done to Democrats when they when Democrats
(18:25):
were in office with Biden. They need to votes. Now,
the problem with this, and I'm trying to make this
as not as like fucking boring, as like you know,
a boring civics class, but essentially the means by which
Democrats could influence this bill was by having a government
(18:46):
shutdown essentially, and by not voting and not giving these votes.
Hitting a stalemate, the government would essentially shut down, which
is not good for anybody essentially. Right. You got to
think from the most sort of basic of of jobs,
(19:10):
that's the post office, you know, t SA, I get
all these these government jobs that that affect our lives.
But it's also those who work in government. You're talking
about their inability to get money and things of that
nature be paid. And that's not like a great it's
(19:30):
not a great option. But the other option is to
just which what Chuck Schumer essentially did was go along
with the terrible bill and just you know, politic with
some other Democrats as a met and vote along with
it to keep the government open. It's you know, essentially,
(19:55):
it's it's not a great situation whatsoever, no matter any
of the decisions, right, it's sort of a lose lose
it's but it's about picking the lesser of the two evils.
And I heard Chuck Schumber talking about this. He was
being interviewed on MSNBC, and essentially he was saying that
while he does believe that Donald Trump and Elon Musk
(20:18):
and everybody associated with you know, this Republican part, that
they are a threat to democracy, but doesn't believe that
we are yet at a place of desperation, or that
we are at a place of sort of you know,
all the gloves, like the gloves are off and now
we have to go to desperate measures. He doesn't believe
(20:41):
we're there. And the critique to that is he's not
realizing the detriment, the sort of gravity of this moment
right now, and he is not rising to the occasion
to protect this country, essentially, protect democracy as a whole,
(21:01):
and to sort of force the Republican Party to have
to dial back some of these crazy plans that they have.
So that's sort of the tea, if you will, with
all that stuff. And the's a lot of people calling
for AOC to primary Chuck Schumer. In twenty twenty eight,
(21:23):
there's an article that I'm going to include a link
to in from the Hill where he actually had Democratic
Senator Michael Bennett from Colorado saying, quote to know when
it's time to go, And he didn't directly say that
Chuck Schumer should resign, but he did have that quote,
(21:47):
and you had him in a town hall saying, I
do think on the leadership question, it's always better to
examine whether folks are in the right place. And we're
certainly going to have that conversation, and I think it's
really interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
This goes back to.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
A lot of what we have talked about in general
of people's obsession with power, and they get to a
point where they're no longer doing this for the right reasons.
Right because Struck Shumer is seventy four years old. I'm sorry,
but at seventy four years old, go retire, Go enjoy life,
(22:30):
go consult if you want to have your hand in something,
but you don't need to be in this position. You
no longer sort of represent the future of this country.
And it's a lot of these people and it's sort
of I think why the Democratic Party is the hot
mess that it is, because you have this power struggle happening,
(22:54):
And regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on,
you have peopleeople that love the power that comes along
with being in office, and their love of the power
of being in office supersedes their love of helping people.
They love the perks, you know, of being this person.
(23:17):
Their ego loves it. And this goes on both sides
of the dial, like I said, And unfortunately, we are
in a time right now where we have a president
that is testing the limits of democracy and a Republican
party that has been radicalized and are falling in line
(23:38):
as a means of keeping their jobs essentially and have
lost sight of what their actual job is, which is
helping the everyday person. And you have capitalism to the
most extreme degree, as the world's richest man seems to
be the right hand man to the President of the
(24:02):
United States and has free reign to just destroy lives.
I mean, there's no way around that, free reign to
destroy lives of so many people, and of course destroying
the fabric of this country as well and doing that
and it's I want to mention this story and that's
(24:25):
not the most exciting or like the sexiest, but it's
it's necessary because it's it's calling out sort of the
coward that is the modern Democratic Party. It's why we
lost to Donald Trump because they've lost touch with the
American people. They've gotten comfortable, they've gotten complacent, they are
(24:48):
not rising to the occasion when when necessary, and they're
not providing us with leaderships that people can can get
behind and believe. And again, there's no reason why the
most powerful Democrat in the country is a seventy two
year old man. You know, give up the reins. There
needs to be term limits, it needs to be age
limits to all these things. So I don't I don't
(25:13):
have a way of a concise way of tying that altogether.
It's just fucking it sucks. But you know, keep the faith,
I guess, is what I would say. I think, also
my hope is oftentimes in life we sort of need
(25:34):
to go through a bit of destruction, a bit of
chaos to learn lessons. Right. That's to talk about like
learning lessons the hard way, Like sometimes you need to
fall on your face in order to really learn a lesson.
You need to hit rock bottom. And it's painful to
hit rock bottom. It's painful to imagine that our country
has to sort of hit rock bottom. But maybe these
(26:01):
sort of terrible moments, particularly a moment like Donald Trump
winning the presidency once again, hopefully this sort of creates
that come to Jesus moment of like we need actual change,
we need a real leadership in this country, specifically from
(26:22):
the Democratic Party, and hopefully this motivates them to begin
to actually enact change that speaks to the people and
helps the people. Unfortunately, Chuck Schumer had that opportunity and
drop the ball on it, which is what many people feel,
myself included, and I don't know. Hopefully we'll see. Maybe
(26:48):
this opens the door for somebody like AOC to really
get into a position of influence with the Democrats, and
you know, potentially that might provide the progress that we need.
But fuck, twenty twenty eight feels so far away. Anyway.
Let's lastly touch on here this new report. Okay, this
(27:12):
new report finds an interesting fact about undocumented immigrants right now.
This is a report from the Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy, and it highlights in uncomfortable truth and I'm
reading this from were metwo dot com says undocumented immigrants
contribute significantly to the US economy, yet they receive little
(27:35):
in return. According to the ITEP, undocumented immigrants paid a
staggering ninety six point seven billion dollars in federal, state,
and local taxes in twenty twenty two. That's more than
the tax contri tax contributions of some of the wealthiest
corporations and individuals in the country. Despite this, they remain
(27:59):
ineligible for or key social programs funded by their own
tax dollars. The idea that undocumented immigrants drained public resources
is a political talking point, not a reality. According to
a twenty twenty four analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness,
these immigrants actually pay a higher tax rate than some
(28:20):
of America's richest individuals and largest corporations. In twenty twenty two,
undocumented immigrants paid a federal tax rate of five point
two seven percent, higher than what some ultra wealthy Americans pay.
According to Pro Publica's tax data, at the state and
local levels, undocumented immigrants paid an effective tax rate of
(28:43):
ten point one percent, higher than the seven point two
percent rate paid by the top one percent of earners.
Despite their contributions, undocumented workers are barred from receiving benefits
like Social Security Medicare and unemployment insurance, even though they
paid thirty three point nine billion dollars into these programs
(29:04):
in twenty twenty two. Meanwhile, corporations like Tesla and Fortune
five hundred companies collectively paid ninety percent less in federal
taxes than undocumented workers did atf reported.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Yet political rhetoric.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Continues to paint these immigrants as an economic burden. Let's
unpack that a little bit here now. Right off the get,
what I will say is I don't believe undocumented immigrants,
regardless of them paying taxes, I don't believe that they
(29:42):
should get federal benefits if they're here illegally. I do
think that that right remains for America, should remain for
actual citizens, and you know, the yes, they're paying tax
but they're also benefiting from the American economy and the
(30:03):
opportunities that it does present. With that said, I do
believe those who are working and paying taxes should be
fast tracked a pathway to citizenship so that they can
receive those benefits. I think the major issue is how
long it takes for people to become citizens, and the
(30:25):
process is ridiculous, particularly when you have those who have
been here for years, or are working or like this,
are contributing tax dollars to this country. They should be
given a pathway to citizenship so that you know, we
we and the issues associated with their with their status
(30:45):
essentially right. And then that's just I guess being specific
about my point of view in general of where I
stand on an immigration I think the the larger problem
is our immigration system is highly inefficient and slow, which
(31:06):
leads to people just having an illegal status unnecessarily and
not being able to collect on benefits that they would
if they were an American citizen, which again, if they're
contributing to the economy, they should be given citizenship. Now,
(31:27):
when it comes to the political I guess angle of
all of this, we know why statistics like this are
not spoken about. Often the rhetoric about opportunities being taken
from American citizens as results of immigration are blown out
(31:48):
of proportion. And I've mentioned this a million and one times.
This is the same rhetoric they used against black people
years ago. Black people are taking your jobs, right, this
is why black people weren't allowed to join unions. And
now the rhetoric has shifted from from African Americans to
(32:11):
Ali immigrants, are taking your jobs. And it's all rooted
in racism. It's all a scare tactic to villainize people
who aren't white, and it is.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
A gross exaggeration.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And these sort of statistics are important, these studies because
it sort of shows you who the real enemy is,
these people in office, specifically those who are anti immigrant.
They want you to believe that these brown people are
the problem, that they are the reason why you can't
(32:54):
get a job or why you and your family are struggling,
and this, that and the third h and it's a
means to distract you and to sort of pull the
veil over your eyes away from the real enemy, the
real issue, and that is the ultra wealthy are sucking
(33:20):
this country dry or bleeding this country dry. And why
I said sucking this country like that's the comment, the
covet analogy, but you know, bleeding this cutchry dry. Rich
people are bleeding this cutry dry. And sorry if I
(33:42):
painted a weird picture there, but they are rich people
are bleeding this country dry. Those are the real enemies.
You're telling me that the wealthiest people who are just
making money hand over fist are paying less than illegal
immigrants in taxes. And by the way, illegal immigrants are
(34:08):
not becoming rich coming over here. Right. Their status has
a direct effect on the quality of work that they
can receive. Right, If you're illegal, you're probably not working
a high paying job. You know, you're not able to.
You can't get the paperwork for that. Yet somehow you're
(34:32):
contributing more to our local economy as a worker making
less money. Essentially, as a low paid worker, you're contributing
more to the economy than people that are literally living
these exorbitant lives of extreme wealth. That's the problem, right,
(34:53):
we're talking about our countries and debt or we need
to find money, find money. It's not cutting these government
agencies and making the government more inefficient as a result,
it's making people pay their fair fucking share. At the
end of the day, if these billionaires and these corporations
were paying what they should be paying in taxes instead
(35:16):
of this country relying on the everyday person like you
and I, we would be far better off, this country
being a far better place. But we've gotten them so
used to the idea and this has shifted. I think
I did talk about in the podcast, but sort of
like the mindset, you know, of the fifties and sixties
(35:36):
was like companies and the rich found it to be
patriotic paying taxes to pay their fair share. They believed
in reinvesting essentially into a country that provided them the
opportunity to have a business, to become wealthy, right, and
they didn't feel the need to have, you know, this
(35:59):
sort of exorbitant wealth that goes beyond anything in them
or their next of kin and beyond could ever spend. Right.
And that doesn't mean we haven't always had people who
are wealthy and this and that, but when you talk
about wealth in twenty twenty five, the amount of money
(36:20):
people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or whomever they
have that was unimaginable in an era of like the
fifties and sixties. And then as we transitioned into sort
of this version of extreme capitalism, it opened the floodgates
for decadence. And this just gross misuse of I don't know,
(36:49):
opportunity and money and just turned everybody into greedy, disgusting
individuals that did didn't care about the fact that they
literally are draining the very country that is providing them
the opportunity to be wealthy. They will, they'll sell their
(37:11):
mother for another check essentially, right, and that's where we've
arrived to. And that's the real problem. Right, Look at
what someone like Elon Musk is doing. It's incredibly unpatriotic.
Let's fire a bunch of hardworking people. Let's strip agencies
(37:34):
that provide aid to citizens in this country and that
on a global scale make this world a better place.
I just saw today Trump was ordering Linda McMahon, yes McMahon,
Vitce McMahon's wife from we she's the head of the
(37:54):
Department Education, ordering her to shut it down. The Department
of Education. It's literally agency, a branch of government, an
organization that is helping the future of this country, that
(38:16):
is in place to provide resources for children, who again
are the future of this country. But to people like
Ela Musk, who have no concept of what it's like
to actually be a normal human being going through life
and struggling on a daily basis, or are so far
(38:40):
removed from that they can't remember what it was like.
To them, this is just another unnecessary spend, just like
Social Security.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Again Meanwhile, they're hoarding money. They have more money than
they could ever need, and their answer, rather than saying,
you know what, maybe we should start giving back a
little bit more. We have too much, their solution is,
how about we just take more from those who are
(39:19):
already struggling. That's the real villain in this country. It's
the ultra wealthy whose greed knows no boundaries. And that's
what we're seeing play out in real time, and it's
existed for a long time. I think what we're seeing
right now, though, is a president and a government that
(39:43):
is openly co signing that level of extreme greed and
the creation of real inequity between the haves and the
have nots, And not only a co sign but empowering
somebody who believes in extreme greed and extreme capitalism to
(40:06):
head a government agency that has the power to affect
the lives of millions of people in this country. That
just giving this guy free rein. It's just I don't know,
(40:29):
I think about it. I'm like it almost say, it's
like disorienting to me, right, because I can't put myself
in the shoes of a person like that who is
literally has everything they could ever want in terms of money,
like and literally could stop working today and they would
(40:49):
be good their kids would be good, their kids kids
would be good, right, and they still are saying, how
can I become even more rich? And at the same time,
in an even more disgusting fashion, can look at those
who are struggling and have zero empathy for them, like,
(41:16):
I can't fathom it. It's so beyond my realm of
comprehension as a human being. And then to sort of
bring it all home. On top of that, then have
the balls to not take responsibility for the fact that
(41:40):
you're the true villain, but then try and villainize immigrants
or the elderly as their issue and allow them to
take the heat for the fucked up shit that you're doing.
(42:03):
Like this is like this is levels of just like psychotic,
disgusting behavior. It almost reminds me in a smaller, obviously
less consequential way. But it's why I have a I
never could look at Alex Rodriguez the same after the
steroids thing, the baseball player Alex Rodriguez, because he got
(42:26):
caught using steroids whatever like that. It's not you know,
it's it's not morally right. It's happened. I can look
past that eventually, But for me, what we saw was
a real character flaw and something I can't look past.
Regardless of fact he's Latin, know, I think he's half
(42:48):
he's half putter, going to have to make and I
want to say anyway, But regardless of those facts, what's
disgusting about that story is when he got caught, he
blamed the technician that took his sample, and that technician
ended up getting fired. And then it came out eventually
(43:10):
that he admitted that he was actually taking steroids. But
this guy was so successful, had everything, and instead of
taking responsibility for where he fucked up and just owning it,
he was willing to throw an average person under the
(43:33):
bus to save his own ass. And again, it wouldn't
have meant like everything he ever worked for was taken
away from him. Blah blah. No. He yeah, would have
been a stain on his social record, if you will,
but he would still be a multi millionaire. And I
don't remember how long he got suspended for whatever. He
still could keep going like he has. He's on television
now doing baseball games. But instead of just fucking owning
(43:58):
the stupid thing he did, he threw some guy under
the bus who lost their job as a result. And
this is probably somebody making I assume probably under six figures, right, like,
not a rich person, but he was okay with throwing
that guy under the bus who would leave, you know,
and eventually get fired. And I just I just think
that's like a good analogy for the mentality of the
(44:23):
wealthy people. They lack that empathy gene. They have no concern.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Or their their greed, their ego.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And the goal that they have in mind supersedes like
normal moral human stuff. And that's what's fucking scary because
people like that shouldn't be in charge of leading anybody,
let alone the government. So yeah, and I was like
(45:02):
long winded. So I'm like in my kitchen over here,
just like pacing around. I'm actually I'm enjoying being able
to have this little microphone that could just walk around
with and just fucking stew a bit. I'm just venting
to you guys. I apologize I'm coming off a little
little wild, but yeah, I just you know, next time
(45:22):
you get into an argument with a maga person, remind
them of this. The fact that LEO immigrants are paying
more money in taxes than billionaires just some food for thought. Now,
with that said, let's take a quick break and then
we'll come back with Army Hint the segment some positivity,
(45:57):
all right, so let's quickly just some moments of positivity here,
honorable mention. You have bed Bunny. You've probably seen this
all of the interwebs. He released a collaboration with Calvin Klein,
and everybody's going fucking crazy and all the girls are
going wild reposting it. Everybody's losing their fucking mind. You know,
(46:20):
it's not for me personally, you know, I'm not I
was interested in bed Bunny in terms of how he
looked in underwear. But again, just amazing moment for the
culture to be on a platform like that, you know,
Calvin Klein, uh A just gigantic, like gigantic platform and
(46:57):
iconic campaign like Calvin Clent, Like everybody knows the Calvin
Client underwear campaigns, and like when I break it down
and I think, like this is a guy from a
small town in a small island in the middle of
the Caribbean has reached that level.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
It It really like.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Just energizes me, like, fuck, anything is really possible, and
that's the beautiful thing about it. Also, shout out to
Becky g She was actually she was honored with the
Bayonetta Award, and that's an organization that recognizes leadership in
sports or so Latinos in sports is the organization. The
(47:43):
award is the Bianetta Award, and she actually is co owner.
This is why she got the award. She's co owner
of angel City FC, which is Los Angeles first professional
women's soccer team, which is crazy. This was an award
ceremony that celebrated thirty Latino figures shaping the business of sports. Furthermore,
(48:05):
the event highlighted the role of Latinos as fans, decision makers,
and industry leaders. Now it's interesting here and it's a
beautiful moment. She's quoted saying, sports, music, and culture have
always been deeply connected, and as a Latino, I'm so
proud to be a part of this movement that is
(48:26):
elevating our representation in the game. She said, my primary
interest is more than just a team, but rather on
creating opportunities for the next generation of young women in sports,
ensuring they see themselves in these spaces and feel empowered
to dream big, which is absolutely fucking crazy. It's just wild,
(48:47):
and she's talking about like in her speech, she says
my family was made of valet workers, bus boys and gardeners.
These are my greatest source of inspiration of what it
is to be a hard worker. It's absolutely nuts and
she's part of the Angels City FC is actually part
(49:09):
of a larger movement of Latina leaders in sports ownerships,
joining names like Eva Longora, America Ferrara and Me and
Hamm who are also part of the ownership group. And again,
do you want to be inspired the daughter of, you know,
a family member of bus boys and valet workers has
now gone on to not only have a successful music
(49:33):
career and a successful career in entertainment, but also is
uh has ownership stake in a professional sports team. And
then on top of that it's a women's league, right,
and it's from a city she's from in La. It's
just again like we need these moments of inspiration to
(49:56):
really recognize what's possible for us out there. That's why
I love highlighting this stuff. And on top of that,
again it's like, this is entrepreneurship, This is becoming something
bigger than just what you do and never being allowing
yourself to be you know, kept in a box. Right,
(50:17):
There's a beauty in that there is a beauty in
throwing the ladder back down in terms of, like, you know,
putting up your money here to be a part of
creating a space for female athletes, right and particularly the
representation of someone like her and Eva Longoria being latinas
(50:42):
it's just on all front. It checks the boxes of
just like man again, anything is really possible. And I
don't know in those moments that I'm feeling down or
kind of like, you know, am I doing the right thing?
(51:02):
Or is am I just a fucking crazy person? Stories
like this one definitely uplift me and pushed me to
keep on pushing, if you will, not to be redundant.
But yeah, so really cool stuff. Gradulations to her, graduations
to bed Bunny as well for sitting the Internet on fire,
breaking the Internet, if you will. But that said, this
(51:23):
tire thing we talked about today in a Nate little
Bow in a segment we call conclusion stew time. All right, Yeah,
so I've been pacing around his kitchen for the better
part of an hour. I feel like I really dove
in deep here. I'm literally going to give just like
(51:44):
baseline conclusion here. Trump and this law that he's enacting
to the Port Venezuelan's terrible in general, but the bigger
conversation of like him potentially buying court rulings, and then
at that point, what do we do. It goes to
(52:05):
the Supreme Court, and you hope that the Supreme Court,
which he has stacked with supporters, you hope that their
loyalty to American democracy supersedes their loyalty to Donald Trump.
And that'll be a scary sort of interaction when we
ineftit to get there at some point. But this man
(52:26):
right now is making dictatorship moves, which is then why
sort of what someone like Chuck Schumer backing down and
giving into Republicans' demands and not even trying to get
them to renegotiate certain terms and not using the tools
that were available to them of a threatening a government shutdown,
(52:49):
but instead just giving in. It makes you question our
Democrats a able to are ready to fight this fight,
and what the fuck doesn't mean for the rest of
us who are not Trump supporters, but are we just
(53:11):
sort of supposed to sit back and watch everything get destroyed?
And you know a country, especially for those of us
who are you know, people of color. It's like we're
being targeted right now, and it seems like nobody is
doing anything to protect us or in the larger scale
(53:32):
protective democracy. And then this other article about Venezuelan's I'm
sorry undocumented immigrants paying more in taxes than billionaires. Yeah,
it's it's again. It's not about wanting to do what's fair.
(53:52):
It's about the whitening of America. And it's about protecting
the rich in this country and trying to throw people
off the scent of who and what is actually destroying
this country. And rather than holding these disgusting capitalists accountable
(54:14):
for the fact that they're bleeding this country dry, we'd
much rather just target brown people and use them as
a distraction so that rich people can keep getting even.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
More rich while the rest of us pay for.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Them to get rich. Essentially, again, Elon Musk, our tax
dollars are funding or contributing funds to his companies that
are making him richer and richer like that, In what
world does that make sense? On the positive side of things,
the girl he's got to see some or the fans
of Benetho beyond just his music. I know that that
(54:55):
stretches beyond gender. They got to see him and the
Calvins again, I'm cool on You know, I didn't watch
the entire I start to finish per se, or maybe
I did. I yeah, I did. I ended up eventually
just because I was interested in the way it was
(55:18):
the song and everything that used ale. But I was
more like just inspired by the fact that's like it's
Calvin Klein, They're using his song, and it's just like
a big moment for the culture and continues to knock
down doors for opportunities for people like you and I,
(55:40):
and that's amazing. And then Becky Gee again another inspiration,
like her talking about coming from a family of valets
and bus boys, and then like now she's up owner,
has ownership stake, you know, fucking professional sports team. Like
it's just wild. And again like then it's a female
sports It's like it just keeps adding layers of inspiration
(56:03):
of what's really possible in this world, and it provides
some light in a world that can be incredibly dark
at times. So that's beautiful. With that said, thank you
so much for tuning in again. No shows next week.
I'll be on the road in Miami and I won't
have the downtime that I have right now to work
(56:24):
throughout the day. I'm gonna be kind of just like
running around from the moment I get up to the
moment I go to bed when I'm over there. So
no shows next week, but we'll return. What is it
the first week of April already? Its fucking crazy. Yeah,
So I'll see you guys then. Until then, be safe
and we will talk soon. Is Life as a Greno
(56:49):
is a production of the micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio.
Alright, let me talk about here we go. He said
he lived life pas a ringo, where you question when
you feel in every time you mingle, they say you
do this would not of that. My rapins really mad
this life pasicingo. Yes, hello and welcome to anotherisode of
Life as a Gringo. I am dramas of course, and
(00:27):
we are coming to live once again from La Coscina,
my kitchen here in Puerto Rico. Enjoying my time out here.
Thank you for asking. I got to go hang out
and visit some a DJ buddy of mine yesterday and
catch up with him, somebody who I met on Instagram.
So it was cool I actually get to meet in person.
(00:50):
Random fun fact, we actually have mutual friends from his hometown,
the West coast in Puerto Rico. That was really random.
We found out about that last night while talking. It's
a beautiful small world and synergy. Yeah, I had a
good time with that. Said, we're talking about Thursday trends today, right,
(01:10):
it's Thursdays. That means we're talking about Thursday trends today.
We're gonna talk a bit about It's kind it's like
a lot of a shit show of things. That's pretty
usual happening here. I'm hopped on coffee. If you can't
tell right now, I just did like some cold brew
and this creamer just like it just feels like it
was mainline into my brain right now. So bear with
(01:33):
me as I get through the jolt of coffee anxiety.
But anyway, let's talk about the latest with Donald Trump
and a two hundred and twenty eight year old law
that he has enacted as a means to support Venezuelan migrants.
We'll also talk about the controversy with Democrats and ongoing
(01:58):
controversy that's happening right now as Democrats or specifically a
few Democrats did not take a chance to stand strong
against Trump, but instead went along with his agenda and
many are criticizing that move. And we'll talk about a
(02:22):
new study that found that undocumented immigrants actually pay more taxes.
They pay more in taxes than billionaires do. Interesting and
on a positive side things, let's celebrate the lovely Beckage
for a second. Okay, she has received an honor and
(02:43):
also her entrepreneurial spirit here is showing at it res.
She is a co owner of a professional sports team,
So we'll talk about that, celebrate her, and I think
we'll probably do honorable mention for ved Buddy's Calvin Klein
campaign because it seems to be all that people are
talking about on the internets. But first and foremost, to
(03:05):
talk about the nonsense the bs. In a segment, we
call for the people in the back say a lot
for the people in the say a lot of the
people in the say a lot of the people of
the That coffee is hitting just right. Anyway, where do
(03:33):
you want to start saying? What do I want to
get angry? Let's get angured first and foremost. Donald Trump,
he just recently invoked a two hundred and twenty eight
year old law, it's called the Alien Enemies Act of
seventeen ninety eight, as a means of bolstering his mass
deportation activities. Now, this law grants the president sweeping the
(03:57):
power to imprison and deep undocumented people. Now, critics of
this believe the invocation of the law is meritless and
intended for use only during wartime. Republicans have built a
case that this law, have built a case for this
law to be enacted for years now. This is what
(04:19):
Kim Castro, a Democrat, saying that if President Trump invokes
the Alien Enemies Act to start mass deportations, it would
be an abuse of power. It is a wartime measure
most recently used in World War II to in turn
many Japanese, Italian, and German Americans, and it has remained
(04:39):
a dark stain on the nation's history. Now, this law
has been invoked three times during the War of eighteen twelve,
World War I, and World War Two. And during World
War two, the law allowed the federal government to arrest
people of Japanese origin. The federal government placed people in
(05:00):
internment campus between nineteen forty two and nineteen forty six.
Around one hundred and twenty thousand people of Japanese ancestry
were caught in the mass imprisonments of the nineteen forties.
Now breaking down, I guess the background of this law.
I mean, you think about in terms of why it
(05:23):
was enacted during World War two, specifically with the Japanese,
and that just being like a dark history that we
don't really talk about. If I'm not mistaken, families of
the like the Japanese people were who were imprisoned, they
actually received checks in the mail, like retribution checks from
(05:56):
the government because of this, like following Yeah, So following
the if I sounded like here crazy persons, I was
saying that I'm literally typing as I'm talking here, just
to get you the exact information. But following the interment
of Japanese Americans during World War Two, the Civil Liberties
Act of nineteen eighty eight acknowledging injustice and provided twenty
(06:18):
thousand dollars in reparations to each surviving individual who had
been incarcerated, along with a formal apology. So, while this
is sort of used as a means of bolstering up deportations,
(06:38):
and they're not particularly talking about mass incarceration camps, although
one could argue we've seen inklings of that. I mean,
you have some people being held in places like Guantanamo Bay.
We've seen when children were separated from their parents and
the conditions they were staying in. But we saw how
(06:59):
that was a state and even during then. While I
don't think there's an excuse for mass incarceration, the reason
why this was enacted for World War Two against the
Japanese was the fear of Japanese spies during World War
two and obviously in World War Two. What led to
(07:20):
the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. You know, around that
there was a lot of fear and during an active
wartime where the US basically the war was brought to
the United States of America. That being such a crazy
period in our history, this was enacted. Now, obviously we
(07:44):
are not at war with Venezuela and we are not
being attacked by a group of people, So the enactment
of this is really just a means for him to
have to skate around any sort of.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Red tape that.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He would fall upon. And there's already been plenty of stories,
you know, about people being deported that aren't criminals. People.
There's been stories of there's been stories of people with
(08:26):
tattoos being misread as gang tattoos and being targeted as
a result of that. You know, it's just terrible, you know,
and it's it's just again, by by any means necessary,
(08:58):
of sort of the whitening of America once again. You
had a US judge actually blocking the invocation of the law.
The decision is a response to a lawsuit bob by
the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward. The lawsuit
was preemptive in anticipation of Trump's invoking of the law
(09:18):
to the five Venezuelan migrants, and you had a hearing
and Trump's actually sending these people not even to Venezuela,
but to Honduras and l Salvador. The judge actually all
ordered that the planes turn around mid air and return
to the US, but it appears they've landed in those countries,
(09:40):
so it would seem what they're saying is that this
decision that Trump made is actually defying a court order
from a federal judge. And that's the bigger conversation I
think even around even more so, and I'm not downplaying
(10:01):
the effects that it has on people being deported and
being imprisoned in countries they're not even from, or being
sent to countries they're not even from. But the sort
of larger conversation that affects everybody in this country is
(10:22):
the idea that this man, Donald Trump is openly defying
court orders. Right. Judges are blocking things that he's doing,
and he's doing them anyway. And then that sort of
(10:44):
begins a scary conversation around what happens when we have
a president that defies the courts, that is, believes he's
bigger than the justice system, the system that is supposed
(11:04):
to be in place to keep him in check. Right,
that's how we become, you know, under dictator, under a
rule of a dictator. Right, that's what dictators do. They
are the end all be all the United States of America.
The beauty of our country and the beauty of this
democracy is that we have a checks and balances system. Unfortunately,
(11:27):
it seems like that checks and balance the system is
falling short because I don't think anybody ever anticipated a
person being in office that would not respect our democracy
and not respect the rule of law the way that
(11:48):
Donald Trump has. I saw this. I can't remember that
the representative's name, but he was the one who was
kicked out of Donald Trump's recent address to to Congress,
and he was on the breakfast if I saw a
clip where he was basically saying, I'm an attorney, and
I didn't realize Donald Trump or the president could do
(12:09):
all these things. I didn't realize that there wasn't more
of a checks and balance this system, right, that we've
never been tested like this. Our founding fathers, you know,
didn't anticipate someone standing in the oval office and completely
disgracing and disregarding democracy as we know it. And that's
(12:35):
sort of again when we talk about these stories and
why I think it's important to share them outside of
the fact that as a Latin the Latin community to
know what's going on with our brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
But be.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
The idea of what does this mean for us moving forward?
And I don't I don't say these things to scare anybody.
I'm not, you know, trying to invent a boogeyman, you know,
and and stir the pot. But if we don't begin
sort of thinking a couple of steps ahead of like
what could this potentially mean if God forbid it does happen,
(13:12):
we're sort of caught with our pants down, so to speak,
you know. And that's why it's important to be thinking
ahead and not waiting for the day that this man
decides to just become dictator, but to start trying to
develop ways and be aware of what he's doing so
that we can combat it before it gets to that point,
(13:35):
before we're at the point of no return, essentially, And
that's why it's important to sort of talk about all
that's going on in these with these stories and things
of that nature. And that sort of is a great
segue into the next story, because you sort of have
this difference of opinion right now going on in the
(13:59):
Democrat Party of where we are, and Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer, who is essentially the most powerful Democrat, doesn't
believe we're in the crisis that many others do, myself included.
And he's getting a lot of backlash because for many people,
(14:22):
he's not rising to the occasion and not seizing an
opportunity to fight back. So we'll talk about that. Well,
pause here, we'll take a quick break, and then we'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
All right, we are back, And.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
There's been a lot of controversy going on amongst Democrats.
You have people calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
to resign from his leadership position. A lot of people
in the Democratic Party feel like he is not the
leader that they need with the backbone that they needed
to fight. All that's happening with with Donald Trump. That
(15:02):
is all stems from a recently passed Republican spending bill.
The bill has sparked controversy over potential impacts on things
like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. While the bill does
not explicitly cut Medicare or social security. Concerns remain about
the indirect effects, such as issues with Medicare payments that
(15:25):
could reduce access to care. Medicaid faces the most significant risk,
with proposed cuts of up to eight hundred and eighty
billion dollars over the next decade, potentially leading to loss
of coverage for many people. Public backgrash has been strong,
with Democratic leaders and constituents criticizing the bill for undermining
(15:45):
social safety nets, despite Republican claims that it preserves essential services.
So what does that mean? Republicans seem like they're gas lightened,
as they always are. Right, they're telling you, oh, no, no,
we're not doing anything wrong here. But their purpose is
sort of leaving out the verbiage and the protection to
(16:11):
effectively protect things like Medicare, social Security, and Medicaid. And
that's by design, right, that is so that they can
leave the door open to make these disgusting cuts. And
these are you know, conversations that are happening out in
the open with people like Elon Musk, who believes that
(16:31):
things like social Security are a Ponzi scheme, doesn't believe
that we should be taking care of our elderly in
this country, doesn't believe that people should be receiving these benefits. Right,
and ironically coming from a person whose company companies receive
(16:54):
billions of dollars in government funding taxpayer dollars. Right, Okay,
that our money goes into their company that he's profiting
off of and becoming the world's richest man. But God forbid,
the government does what it's supposed to do and has
programs created to protect working people when they get into
(17:19):
the ages where they can no longer work. Right, God forbid,
we protect those people who have spent their entire lives
working and paying taxes, and again, are partially responsible for
the funding that goes into people like his companies that
make him even richer. Now, the controversy now, or as
(17:41):
far as Democrats go, it starts because the Republicans needed
to get a certain number of Democratic votes in order
for this to pass, and many people on the Democratic
side on the left were saying, this is our opportunity
(18:03):
to stay strong and to hold them accountable and create
a real checks and balance the system of saying no,
we're going to push you to amend this bill to
terms that we can feel comfortable with. Right, the same
way Republicans have done to Democrats when they when Democrats
(18:25):
were in office with Biden. They need to votes. Now,
the problem with this, and I'm trying to make this
as not as like fucking boring, as like you know,
a boring civics class, but essentially the means by which
Democrats could influence this bill was by having a government
(18:46):
shutdown essentially, and by not voting and not giving these votes.
Hitting a stalemate, the government would essentially shut down, which
is not good for anybody essentially. Right. You got to
think from the most sort of basic of of jobs,
(19:10):
that's the post office, you know, t SA, I get
all these these government jobs that that affect our lives.
But it's also those who work in government. You're talking
about their inability to get money and things of that
nature be paid. And that's not like a great it's
(19:30):
not a great option. But the other option is to
just which what Chuck Schumer essentially did was go along
with the terrible bill and just you know, politic with
some other Democrats as a met and vote along with
it to keep the government open. It's you know, essentially,
(19:55):
it's it's not a great situation whatsoever, no matter any
of the decisions, right, it's sort of a lose lose
it's but it's about picking the lesser of the two evils.
And I heard Chuck Schumber talking about this. He was
being interviewed on MSNBC, and essentially he was saying that
while he does believe that Donald Trump and Elon Musk
(20:18):
and everybody associated with you know, this Republican part, that
they are a threat to democracy, but doesn't believe that
we are yet at a place of desperation, or that
we are at a place of sort of you know,
all the gloves, like the gloves are off and now
we have to go to desperate measures. He doesn't believe
(20:41):
we're there. And the critique to that is he's not
realizing the detriment, the sort of gravity of this moment
right now, and he is not rising to the occasion
to protect this country, essentially, protect democracy as a whole,
(21:01):
and to sort of force the Republican Party to have
to dial back some of these crazy plans that they have.
So that's sort of the tea, if you will, with
all that stuff. And the's a lot of people calling
for AOC to primary Chuck Schumer. In twenty twenty eight,
(21:23):
there's an article that I'm going to include a link
to in from the Hill where he actually had Democratic
Senator Michael Bennett from Colorado saying, quote to know when
it's time to go, And he didn't directly say that
Chuck Schumer should resign, but he did have that quote,
(21:47):
and you had him in a town hall saying, I
do think on the leadership question, it's always better to
examine whether folks are in the right place. And we're
certainly going to have that conversation, and I think it's
really interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
This goes back to.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
A lot of what we have talked about in general
of people's obsession with power, and they get to a
point where they're no longer doing this for the right reasons.
Right because Struck Shumer is seventy four years old. I'm sorry,
but at seventy four years old, go retire, Go enjoy life,
(22:30):
go consult if you want to have your hand in something,
but you don't need to be in this position. You
no longer sort of represent the future of this country.
And it's a lot of these people and it's sort
of I think why the Democratic Party is the hot
mess that it is, because you have this power struggle happening,
(22:54):
And regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on,
you have peopleeople that love the power that comes along
with being in office, and their love of the power
of being in office supersedes their love of helping people.
They love the perks, you know, of being this person.
(23:17):
Their ego loves it. And this goes on both sides
of the dial, like I said, And unfortunately, we are
in a time right now where we have a president
that is testing the limits of democracy and a Republican
party that has been radicalized and are falling in line
(23:38):
as a means of keeping their jobs essentially and have
lost sight of what their actual job is, which is
helping the everyday person. And you have capitalism to the
most extreme degree, as the world's richest man seems to
be the right hand man to the President of the
(24:02):
United States and has free reign to just destroy lives.
I mean, there's no way around that, free reign to
destroy lives of so many people, and of course destroying
the fabric of this country as well and doing that
and it's I want to mention this story and that's
(24:25):
not the most exciting or like the sexiest, but it's
it's necessary because it's it's calling out sort of the
coward that is the modern Democratic Party. It's why we
lost to Donald Trump because they've lost touch with the
American people. They've gotten comfortable, they've gotten complacent, they are
(24:48):
not rising to the occasion when when necessary, and they're
not providing us with leaderships that people can can get
behind and believe. And again, there's no reason why the
most powerful Democrat in the country is a seventy two
year old man. You know, give up the reins. There
needs to be term limits, it needs to be age
limits to all these things. So I don't I don't
(25:13):
have a way of a concise way of tying that altogether.
It's just fucking it sucks. But you know, keep the faith,
I guess, is what I would say. I think, also
my hope is oftentimes in life we sort of need
(25:34):
to go through a bit of destruction, a bit of
chaos to learn lessons. Right. That's to talk about like
learning lessons the hard way, Like sometimes you need to
fall on your face in order to really learn a lesson.
You need to hit rock bottom. And it's painful to
hit rock bottom. It's painful to imagine that our country
has to sort of hit rock bottom. But maybe these
(26:01):
sort of terrible moments, particularly a moment like Donald Trump
winning the presidency once again, hopefully this sort of creates
that come to Jesus moment of like we need actual change,
we need a real leadership in this country, specifically from
(26:22):
the Democratic Party, and hopefully this motivates them to begin
to actually enact change that speaks to the people and
helps the people. Unfortunately, Chuck Schumer had that opportunity and
drop the ball on it, which is what many people feel,
myself included, and I don't know. Hopefully we'll see. Maybe
(26:48):
this opens the door for somebody like AOC to really
get into a position of influence with the Democrats, and
you know, potentially that might provide the progress that we need.
But fuck, twenty twenty eight feels so far away. Anyway.
Let's lastly touch on here this new report. Okay, this
(27:12):
new report finds an interesting fact about undocumented immigrants right now.
This is a report from the Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy, and it highlights in uncomfortable truth and I'm
reading this from were metwo dot com says undocumented immigrants
contribute significantly to the US economy, yet they receive little
(27:35):
in return. According to the ITEP, undocumented immigrants paid a
staggering ninety six point seven billion dollars in federal, state,
and local taxes in twenty twenty two. That's more than
the tax contri tax contributions of some of the wealthiest
corporations and individuals in the country. Despite this, they remain
(27:59):
ineligible for or key social programs funded by their own
tax dollars. The idea that undocumented immigrants drained public resources
is a political talking point, not a reality. According to
a twenty twenty four analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness,
these immigrants actually pay a higher tax rate than some
(28:20):
of America's richest individuals and largest corporations. In twenty twenty two,
undocumented immigrants paid a federal tax rate of five point
two seven percent, higher than what some ultra wealthy Americans pay.
According to Pro Publica's tax data, at the state and
local levels, undocumented immigrants paid an effective tax rate of
(28:43):
ten point one percent, higher than the seven point two
percent rate paid by the top one percent of earners.
Despite their contributions, undocumented workers are barred from receiving benefits
like Social Security Medicare and unemployment insurance, even though they
paid thirty three point nine billion dollars into these programs
(29:04):
in twenty twenty two. Meanwhile, corporations like Tesla and Fortune
five hundred companies collectively paid ninety percent less in federal
taxes than undocumented workers did atf reported.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Yet political rhetoric.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Continues to paint these immigrants as an economic burden. Let's
unpack that a little bit here now. Right off the get,
what I will say is I don't believe undocumented immigrants,
regardless of them paying taxes, I don't believe that they
(29:42):
should get federal benefits if they're here illegally. I do
think that that right remains for America, should remain for
actual citizens, and you know, the yes, they're paying tax
but they're also benefiting from the American economy and the
(30:03):
opportunities that it does present. With that said, I do
believe those who are working and paying taxes should be
fast tracked a pathway to citizenship so that they can
receive those benefits. I think the major issue is how
long it takes for people to become citizens, and the
(30:25):
process is ridiculous, particularly when you have those who have
been here for years, or are working or like this,
are contributing tax dollars to this country. They should be
given a pathway to citizenship so that you know, we
we and the issues associated with their with their status
(30:45):
essentially right. And then that's just I guess being specific
about my point of view in general of where I
stand on an immigration I think the the larger problem
is our immigration system is highly inefficient and slow, which
(31:06):
leads to people just having an illegal status unnecessarily and
not being able to collect on benefits that they would
if they were an American citizen, which again, if they're
contributing to the economy, they should be given citizenship. Now,
(31:27):
when it comes to the political I guess angle of
all of this, we know why statistics like this are
not spoken about. Often the rhetoric about opportunities being taken
from American citizens as results of immigration are blown out
(31:48):
of proportion. And I've mentioned this a million and one times.
This is the same rhetoric they used against black people
years ago. Black people are taking your jobs, right, this
is why black people weren't allowed to join unions. And
now the rhetoric has shifted from from African Americans to
(32:11):
Ali immigrants, are taking your jobs. And it's all rooted
in racism. It's all a scare tactic to villainize people
who aren't white, and it is.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
A gross exaggeration.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And these sort of statistics are important, these studies because
it sort of shows you who the real enemy is,
these people in office, specifically those who are anti immigrant.
They want you to believe that these brown people are
the problem, that they are the reason why you can't
(32:54):
get a job or why you and your family are struggling,
and this, that and the third h and it's a
means to distract you and to sort of pull the
veil over your eyes away from the real enemy, the
real issue, and that is the ultra wealthy are sucking
(33:20):
this country dry or bleeding this country dry. And why
I said sucking this country like that's the comment, the
covet analogy, but you know, bleeding this cutchry dry. Rich
people are bleeding this cutry dry. And sorry if I
(33:42):
painted a weird picture there, but they are rich people
are bleeding this country dry. Those are the real enemies.
You're telling me that the wealthiest people who are just
making money hand over fist are paying less than illegal
immigrants in taxes. And by the way, illegal immigrants are
(34:08):
not becoming rich coming over here. Right. Their status has
a direct effect on the quality of work that they
can receive. Right, If you're illegal, you're probably not working
a high paying job. You know, you're not able to.
You can't get the paperwork for that. Yet somehow you're
(34:32):
contributing more to our local economy as a worker making
less money. Essentially, as a low paid worker, you're contributing
more to the economy than people that are literally living
these exorbitant lives of extreme wealth. That's the problem, right,
(34:53):
we're talking about our countries and debt or we need
to find money, find money. It's not cutting these government
agencies and making the government more inefficient as a result,
it's making people pay their fair fucking share. At the
end of the day, if these billionaires and these corporations
were paying what they should be paying in taxes instead
(35:16):
of this country relying on the everyday person like you
and I, we would be far better off, this country
being a far better place. But we've gotten them so
used to the idea and this has shifted. I think
I did talk about in the podcast, but sort of
like the mindset, you know, of the fifties and sixties
(35:36):
was like companies and the rich found it to be
patriotic paying taxes to pay their fair share. They believed
in reinvesting essentially into a country that provided them the
opportunity to have a business, to become wealthy, right, and
they didn't feel the need to have, you know, this
(35:59):
sort of exorbitant wealth that goes beyond anything in them
or their next of kin and beyond could ever spend. Right.
And that doesn't mean we haven't always had people who
are wealthy and this and that, but when you talk
about wealth in twenty twenty five, the amount of money
(36:20):
people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or whomever they
have that was unimaginable in an era of like the
fifties and sixties. And then as we transitioned into sort
of this version of extreme capitalism, it opened the floodgates
for decadence. And this just gross misuse of I don't know,
(36:49):
opportunity and money and just turned everybody into greedy, disgusting
individuals that did didn't care about the fact that they
literally are draining the very country that is providing them
the opportunity to be wealthy. They will, they'll sell their
(37:11):
mother for another check essentially, right, and that's where we've
arrived to. And that's the real problem. Right, Look at
what someone like Elon Musk is doing. It's incredibly unpatriotic.
Let's fire a bunch of hardworking people. Let's strip agencies
(37:34):
that provide aid to citizens in this country and that
on a global scale make this world a better place.
I just saw today Trump was ordering Linda McMahon, yes McMahon,
Vitce McMahon's wife from we she's the head of the
(37:54):
Department Education, ordering her to shut it down. The Department
of Education. It's literally agency, a branch of government, an
organization that is helping the future of this country, that
(38:16):
is in place to provide resources for children, who again
are the future of this country. But to people like
Ela Musk, who have no concept of what it's like
to actually be a normal human being going through life
and struggling on a daily basis, or are so far
(38:40):
removed from that they can't remember what it was like.
To them, this is just another unnecessary spend, just like
Social Security.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Again Meanwhile, they're hoarding money. They have more money than
they could ever need, and their answer, rather than saying,
you know what, maybe we should start giving back a
little bit more. We have too much, their solution is,
how about we just take more from those who are
(39:19):
already struggling. That's the real villain in this country. It's
the ultra wealthy whose greed knows no boundaries. And that's
what we're seeing play out in real time, and it's
existed for a long time. I think what we're seeing
right now, though, is a president and a government that
(39:43):
is openly co signing that level of extreme greed and
the creation of real inequity between the haves and the
have nots, And not only a co sign but empowering
somebody who believes in extreme greed and extreme capitalism to
(40:06):
head a government agency that has the power to affect
the lives of millions of people in this country. That
just giving this guy free rein. It's just I don't know,
(40:29):
I think about it. I'm like it almost say, it's
like disorienting to me, right, because I can't put myself
in the shoes of a person like that who is
literally has everything they could ever want in terms of money,
like and literally could stop working today and they would
(40:49):
be good their kids would be good, their kids kids
would be good, right, and they still are saying, how
can I become even more rich? And at the same time,
in an even more disgusting fashion, can look at those
who are struggling and have zero empathy for them, like,
(41:16):
I can't fathom it. It's so beyond my realm of
comprehension as a human being. And then to sort of
bring it all home. On top of that, then have
the balls to not take responsibility for the fact that
(41:40):
you're the true villain, but then try and villainize immigrants
or the elderly as their issue and allow them to
take the heat for the fucked up shit that you're doing.
(42:03):
Like this is like this is levels of just like psychotic,
disgusting behavior. It almost reminds me in a smaller, obviously
less consequential way. But it's why I have a I
never could look at Alex Rodriguez the same after the
steroids thing, the baseball player Alex Rodriguez, because he got
(42:26):
caught using steroids whatever like that. It's not you know,
it's it's not morally right. It's happened. I can look
past that eventually, But for me, what we saw was
a real character flaw and something I can't look past.
Regardless of fact he's Latin, know, I think he's half
(42:48):
he's half putter, going to have to make and I
want to say anyway, But regardless of those facts, what's
disgusting about that story is when he got caught, he
blamed the technician that took his sample, and that technician
ended up getting fired. And then it came out eventually
(43:10):
that he admitted that he was actually taking steroids. But
this guy was so successful, had everything, and instead of
taking responsibility for where he fucked up and just owning it,
he was willing to throw an average person under the
(43:33):
bus to save his own ass. And again, it wouldn't
have meant like everything he ever worked for was taken
away from him. Blah blah. No. He yeah, would have
been a stain on his social record, if you will,
but he would still be a multi millionaire. And I
don't remember how long he got suspended for whatever. He
still could keep going like he has. He's on television
now doing baseball games. But instead of just fucking owning
(43:58):
the stupid thing he did, he threw some guy under
the bus who lost their job as a result. And
this is probably somebody making I assume probably under six figures, right, like,
not a rich person, but he was okay with throwing
that guy under the bus who would leave, you know,
and eventually get fired. And I just I just think
that's like a good analogy for the mentality of the
(44:23):
wealthy people. They lack that empathy gene. They have no concern.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Or their their greed, their ego.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And the goal that they have in mind supersedes like
normal moral human stuff. And that's what's fucking scary because
people like that shouldn't be in charge of leading anybody,
let alone the government. So yeah, and I was like
(45:02):
long winded. So I'm like in my kitchen over here,
just like pacing around. I'm actually I'm enjoying being able
to have this little microphone that could just walk around
with and just fucking stew a bit. I'm just venting
to you guys. I apologize I'm coming off a little
little wild, but yeah, I just you know, next time
(45:22):
you get into an argument with a maga person, remind
them of this. The fact that LEO immigrants are paying
more money in taxes than billionaires just some food for thought. Now,
with that said, let's take a quick break and then
we'll come back with Army Hint the segment some positivity,
(45:57):
all right, so let's quickly just some moments of positivity here,
honorable mention. You have bed Bunny. You've probably seen this
all of the interwebs. He released a collaboration with Calvin Klein,
and everybody's going fucking crazy and all the girls are
going wild reposting it. Everybody's losing their fucking mind. You know,
(46:20):
it's not for me personally, you know, I'm not I
was interested in bed Bunny in terms of how he
looked in underwear. But again, just amazing moment for the
culture to be on a platform like that, you know,
Calvin Klein, uh A just gigantic, like gigantic platform and
(46:57):
iconic campaign like Calvin Clent, Like everybody knows the Calvin
Client underwear campaigns, and like when I break it down
and I think, like this is a guy from a
small town in a small island in the middle of
the Caribbean has reached that level.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
It It really like.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Just energizes me, like, fuck, anything is really possible, and
that's the beautiful thing about it. Also, shout out to
Becky g She was actually she was honored with the
Bayonetta Award, and that's an organization that recognizes leadership in
sports or so Latinos in sports is the organization. The
(47:43):
award is the Bianetta Award, and she actually is co owner.
This is why she got the award. She's co owner
of angel City FC, which is Los Angeles first professional
women's soccer team, which is crazy. This was an award
ceremony that celebrated thirty Latino figures shaping the business of sports. Furthermore,
(48:05):
the event highlighted the role of Latinos as fans, decision makers,
and industry leaders. Now it's interesting here and it's a
beautiful moment. She's quoted saying, sports, music, and culture have
always been deeply connected, and as a Latino, I'm so
proud to be a part of this movement that is
(48:26):
elevating our representation in the game. She said, my primary
interest is more than just a team, but rather on
creating opportunities for the next generation of young women in sports,
ensuring they see themselves in these spaces and feel empowered
to dream big, which is absolutely fucking crazy. It's just wild,
(48:47):
and she's talking about like in her speech, she says
my family was made of valet workers, bus boys and gardeners.
These are my greatest source of inspiration of what it
is to be a hard worker. It's absolutely nuts and
she's part of the Angels City FC is actually part
(49:09):
of a larger movement of Latina leaders in sports ownerships,
joining names like Eva Longora, America Ferrara and Me and
Hamm who are also part of the ownership group. And again,
do you want to be inspired the daughter of, you know,
a family member of bus boys and valet workers has
now gone on to not only have a successful music
(49:33):
career and a successful career in entertainment, but also is
uh has ownership stake in a professional sports team. And
then on top of that it's a women's league, right,
and it's from a city she's from in La. It's
just again like we need these moments of inspiration to
(49:56):
really recognize what's possible for us out there. That's why
I love highlighting this stuff. And on top of that,
again it's like, this is entrepreneurship, This is becoming something
bigger than just what you do and never being allowing
yourself to be you know, kept in a box. Right,
(50:17):
There's a beauty in that there is a beauty in
throwing the ladder back down in terms of, like, you know,
putting up your money here to be a part of
creating a space for female athletes, right and particularly the
representation of someone like her and Eva Longoria being latinas
(50:42):
it's just on all front. It checks the boxes of
just like man again, anything is really possible. And I
don't know in those moments that I'm feeling down or
kind of like, you know, am I doing the right thing?
(51:02):
Or is am I just a fucking crazy person? Stories
like this one definitely uplift me and pushed me to
keep on pushing, if you will, not to be redundant.
But yeah, so really cool stuff. Gradulations to her, graduations
to bed Bunny as well for sitting the Internet on fire,
breaking the Internet, if you will. But that said, this
(51:23):
tire thing we talked about today in a Nate little
Bow in a segment we call conclusion stew time. All right, Yeah,
so I've been pacing around his kitchen for the better
part of an hour. I feel like I really dove
in deep here. I'm literally going to give just like
(51:44):
baseline conclusion here. Trump and this law that he's enacting
to the Port Venezuelan's terrible in general, but the bigger
conversation of like him potentially buying court rulings, and then
at that point, what do we do. It goes to
(52:05):
the Supreme Court, and you hope that the Supreme Court,
which he has stacked with supporters, you hope that their
loyalty to American democracy supersedes their loyalty to Donald Trump.
And that'll be a scary sort of interaction when we
ineftit to get there at some point. But this man
(52:26):
right now is making dictatorship moves, which is then why
sort of what someone like Chuck Schumer backing down and
giving into Republicans' demands and not even trying to get
them to renegotiate certain terms and not using the tools
that were available to them of a threatening a government shutdown,
(52:49):
but instead just giving in. It makes you question our
Democrats a able to are ready to fight this fight,
and what the fuck doesn't mean for the rest of
us who are not Trump supporters, but are we just
(53:11):
sort of supposed to sit back and watch everything get destroyed?
And you know a country, especially for those of us
who are you know, people of color. It's like we're
being targeted right now, and it seems like nobody is
doing anything to protect us or in the larger scale
(53:32):
protective democracy. And then this other article about Venezuelan's I'm
sorry undocumented immigrants paying more in taxes than billionaires. Yeah,
it's it's again. It's not about wanting to do what's fair.
(53:52):
It's about the whitening of America. And it's about protecting
the rich in this country and trying to throw people
off the scent of who and what is actually destroying
this country. And rather than holding these disgusting capitalists accountable
(54:14):
for the fact that they're bleeding this country dry, we'd
much rather just target brown people and use them as
a distraction so that rich people can keep getting even.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
More rich while the rest of us pay for.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Them to get rich. Essentially, again, Elon Musk, our tax
dollars are funding or contributing funds to his companies that
are making him richer and richer like that, In what
world does that make sense? On the positive side of things,
the girl he's got to see some or the fans
of Benetho beyond just his music. I know that that
(54:55):
stretches beyond gender. They got to see him and the
Calvins again, I'm cool on You know, I didn't watch
the entire I start to finish per se, or maybe
I did. I yeah, I did. I ended up eventually
just because I was interested in the way it was
(55:18):
the song and everything that used ale. But I was
more like just inspired by the fact that's like it's
Calvin Klein, They're using his song, and it's just like
a big moment for the culture and continues to knock
down doors for opportunities for people like you and I,
(55:40):
and that's amazing. And then Becky Gee again another inspiration,
like her talking about coming from a family of valets
and bus boys, and then like now she's up owner,
has ownership stake, you know, fucking professional sports team. Like
it's just wild. And again like then it's a female
sports It's like it just keeps adding layers of inspiration
(56:03):
of what's really possible in this world, and it provides
some light in a world that can be incredibly dark
at times. So that's beautiful. With that said, thank you
so much for tuning in again. No shows next week.
I'll be on the road in Miami and I won't
have the downtime that I have right now to work
(56:24):
throughout the day. I'm gonna be kind of just like
running around from the moment I get up to the
moment I go to bed when I'm over there. So
no shows next week, but we'll return. What is it
the first week of April already? Its fucking crazy. Yeah,
So I'll see you guys then. Until then, be safe
and we will talk soon. Is Life as a Greno
(56:49):
is a production of the micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio.
Host
DJ Dramos
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