You may have noticed that I generally don’t write on Saturdays, but have a couple of comments I need to respond to….
Donations?
First, I have had requests again about donations for my work (I assume from new readers who haven’t seen my previous discussions about the issue).
I did for awhile have a paypal button here at RRW, but took it down when paypal began to be selective about who could and who could not use paypal based on the website’s political views. I think they have since reversed themselves on that wrong-headed business practice, but I never put the button back.
In a week, RRW will be eleven years old and my work has been my charitable gift to the country!
That said, occasionally people have sent me checks with small gifts to my Post Office box (address in lefthand side bar) and I am very appreciative of that thoughtfulness because I know it is a show of support and thanks for my work.
Charitable work=freedom!
One of the great advantages of doing what I do—working for no one, for free—is that I can post pretty much whatever moves me when I get up each morning!
As you may have noticed there are certain topics I’m passionate about and am very aware that repetition is needed in order for readers to absorb a particular point. So from time to time, as a faithful reader, you may say, why am I hearing this again? It is for that reason—repetition matters—and for the fact that every day new people show up here who haven’t been here for eleven years, or eleven days!
But, some things bore me! One, is this issue of the mostly unaccompanied alien children. I wrote extensively about the subject during the Obama years (2014 and 2015 were particularly critical years) and I told readers till I was blue in the face that in addition to federal childcare contractors like Southwest Key, Catholic Charities and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service were also in the business of housing the ‘children’ as they received lucrative government contracts. And, now I am annoyed to see the same issue cropping up and everyone acting surprised!
A few more years….
….and I will be done! If by 2020, immigration isn’t under control here and in Europe, we are all done.
Thanks as always for continuing to follow my work here at Refugee Resettlement Watch!
For previous messages from me, see my ‘blogging’ category here.
Category: blogging
A little housekeeping: You must sign up to receive blog posts and to post comments
From time to time someone tells me that they can’t sign up to receive the e-mails that are automatically generated to RRW followers each time I post.
I got a request yesterday to sign someone up as a subscriber, so I thought I best explain the problem….
I don’t know enough about the technology that goes on behind the scenes with perhaps your own server, or perhaps with WordPress. But, I want you to know that I can’t sign you up. And, I can’t re-sign you up if for some reason you have stopped getting e-mails from RRW.
In fact my subscriber list is virtually at a standstill and hasn’t been growing for months.
I have questioned WordPress about why people are dropped without warning, and they never have an adequate explanation.
The best thing to do is to just come visit every day, or every few days and scroll back to see what I have written.
It is very simple, plus there is more useful information at RRW itself. So please visit directly, if you can’t for some mysterious reason subscribe!
Commenting?
Readers should know that I moderate comments and do not post anything where violence is threatened, or comments that reveal personal information (I take off phone numbers often). If you send me just a bunch of links with no explanation about how they relate to the post, I usually don’t post those. And, finally, I don’t post unnecessary foul language (an occasional word might slip in when it is part of a more informative comment).
I apologize for not posting comments as fast as you might like, but I usually head out to my farm chores or other activities and don’t get back to RRW sometimes until the following morning.
I can’t post your comments for you!
Recently an incident occurred where I was accused of posting a chain of personal e-mails in a comment thread to a post three years ago.
After discussing the issue with WordPress, I was told it was a “pingback” from something I had linked. I was reminded by the WordPress tech people that I cannot post a comment for someone else.
Occasionally people tell me they can’t get a comment to post for some reason and they send it to me to post. The problem is (and WordPress re-confirmed) that if I post the comment for you, it will be posted under my name and not yours!
I explained all of that to my accuser who very publicly charged (after I explained what happened) that I posted an e-mail discussion from a private e-mail group that I am not even a member of.
And, when my accuser brought it to my attention, I immediately took down the whole post because it was impossible to remove only that exchange.
With ‘friends’ like these….
It was never clear to me what my motive might be in purposely posting an e-mail thread that would have looked like gibberish to my readers.
My accuser also charged that I should have seen the chain of e-mails sooner. I never posted/moderated them, so I never saw them.
As of yesterday I have written 9,206 posts in nearly 11 years and am not in the habit of revisiting comment threads at posts from years ago (or recent ones for that matter!).
So to my faithful readers and wannabe readers…. I’m sorry if you can’t subscribe, or are having difficulty getting comments to come through to me. I have no control, or even any great understanding, of what goes on behind the scenes with my WordPress host.
And, LOL! I so much prefer researching and writing posts that might increase your understanding of a complex issue, then to figuring out the mechanics that make it possible for my work to reach readers!
Thanks for continuing to read RRW!
Reminder: Saturday is catch-up day
If you have been wondering why no news from me on recent Saturdays, it is because I’m using the time to try to get through e-mail backlogs and other related duties.
If you subscribe and usually read my posts in your e-mail, please see that yesterday in the story about the SPLC, I’m trying something new with longer posts.
Some of you may have noticed this line:
Read the rest of this entry »
Please click on it to read the rest of the story at my blog itself?
I would really love for you to come to the blog rather than just read stories in your e-mails. Although clicks don’t matter as RRW is not monitized, I want you to see what else is available.
In the right hand side bar I have a summary of Trump refugee admission numbers, most recent posts and top posts and my twitter feed (14.5K followers).
In the left hand side bar I have a link to RRW’s facebook page where an associate adds stories that are not at RRW, but are related in content. The page has 48,000 likes!
And, btw, when you read the post at RRW itself, there are sharing icons at the end of each post. (I don’t send those wordpress subscriber e-mails and have no control over whether they come to you daily or not, and I don’t know if there is a way to put share-buttons on those!)
My snail mail address is there.
There is a drop-down with categories and archives going back nearly 11 years, as well as a blogroll you could use to access other news websites.
And, finally, in the header you will find links to my videos, my little book and a useful Frequently Asked Questions. Unfortunately the fact sheet is way out of date and it would be a daunting task to rewrite it now.
Thanks as always for visiting Refugee Resettlement Watch!
Saturday, the catch-up day….
I’m trying something new starting today. Because there are always so many interesting things to write about each day, I use my limited time at the computer to write posts and so end up with little time to answer your many e-mails (I have two e-mail accounts with thousands of e-mails each, yuk!).
My goal for Saturdays (Ha! we will see) is to answer e-mails, and get caught up on facebook and twitter, and to fix some technical things here at RRW. For example, someone asked that I add ‘Gab’ to my sharing choices and I think I accomplished that.
And, btw, while in the bowels of RRW, I noticed I never had turned on the sharing button for your e-mail subscription notices. On that subject, I recommend you visit RRW on a regular basis instead of relying on the e-mails every time I post. There is much more right here including my twitter feed (right hand sidebar). Even if you aren’t on twitter you can see the many important issues I tweet that never make it to my blog pages.
Also on the right hand sidebar you can see recent posts and the top posts of the last few days. The Frequently Asked Questions tab is on the header, here.
I am @RefugeeWatcher on twitter.
RRW’s facebook page is here: RefugeeInfoResource and includes items placed there by a partner administrator.
Thanks for visiting, thanks for all your comments, and thanks to those also who send me snail mail at my post office box. (P.O. Box 55, Fairplay, MD 21733). And, sorry I can’t keep up with everyone’s comments and questions, I’m trying harder starting today!
While I am away…..
Because there is so much material archived at Refugee Resettlement Watch, I encourage, especially new readers, to visit and explore.
Knowledge is power!
Since July 2007, I’ve published over 9,000 posts. You might explore the categories in the drop down in the left hand side bar or use the search window with a couple of key words.
Categories of special interest might be ‘crimes,‘ ‘health issues,’ ‘Europe‘ or ‘what you can do.’
I recommend that you check out Frequently Asked Questions as well, at the top of the page under the header.
I’ll try to tweet occasionally while I’m away, so you might want to keep an eye on the right hand side bar here at RRW to see my latest tweets. At twitter, I am @RefugeeWatcher .
Be back early next week!