First, I moderate comments and sometimes I’m very remiss in getting to them, and for that I apologize.
A friend just now alerted me to the fact that she had commented a day ago and I hadn’t posted it. When I went to look for her comment I found about a dozen others that I missed somehow yesterday. Were they even there yesterday when I last checked?
Also, I screen-out comments that threaten violence to anyone. I also try hard to screen out comments with foul language. That is difficult to do sometimes because an otherwise excellent comment might have one common swear word that I let go in order to not lose the whole comment.
If you send a link as your comment with no explanation as to how it fits my post, I often don’t post those because I haven’t the time to go to the link to find its connection to my story. For new readers, it is just me here, no staff, no interns, no volunteers.
And, finally, I don’t want commenters making personal attacks on other commenters. Frankly when you do that it is a sign to me that you have not enough brain power to make a reasonable argument and are resorting to name-calling.
Yesterday I broke my rule (posted attacks) when an apparent troll was busy with infantile names for other commenters and suggested we white people are lazy and all live in trailer parks (racist much!). I posted those comments just to give you a flavor of the sorts of people who do read RRW—including followers of the religion of peace like this man.
And, finally I do post opposing views and don’t weed out comments where I absolutely do not agree with the commenter’s views, just as long as there is no name-calling, foul language or threats to kill or physically harm someone!
Sorry again that I am pretty lousy at getting comments posted in a timely manner!
I’ll be leaving today for a ten day visit to various family members in the west.
It is going to be a challenge to not write a post for those ten days. It might be the longest stretch in 11 years that I won’t have helped to educate my devoted readers about the US Refugee Admissions Program and related migration issues here and abroad.
Even when I did my 2016 (6,000 mile) roadtrip to visit towns struggling with refugees, I managed to post along the way. However, right now I haven’t a decent laptop in good working order. So, maybe that is a message that I need to take a break.
This is the artwork the SPLC created when they named me in their now deleted report: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/04/20/splc-takes-down-their-field-guide-to-anti-muslim-extremists/
But, I want to leave you with somethings to read! (9,275 posts to choose from!).
So, let me tell you what is available here at RRW especially for new readers, but also for longtime readers who need a refresher.
On the header here at RRWyou will find a link to Frequently Asked Questions, check it out! It isn’t completely up to date, but you might find something useful there.
I also have a category entitled ‘Where to find information’with hundreds of posts about reports, documents, research etc. You might want to look down the categories drop-down in the left hand column and see if there are any categories of information that interest you. I recommend ‘crimes’ and ‘health issues.’
I have a few Youtube videos available here, if you have never seen them. You might also want to see the talkI gave in May of 2015 in Iowa (that is the day I had an opportunity to speak with candidate Donald Trump solidifying my support for his candidacy).
By the way, RRW has a very good search function. Simply type a key word or words in to the search window (upper left hand column) and it will lead you to posts on that topic. I recommend you begin by typing your state name and see what I have said about it on previous occasions over the years.
Pivotal posts!
Here are some pivotal posts we wrote in early years. They aren’t so much brilliant revelations as they are posts about news that became important for my thinking about the issue of refugees in America.
In 2007, I was frustrated with my local newspaper—the Hagerstown Herald Mail—which refused to investigate when refugees began arriving quietly in our rural county with the help of the Virginia Council of Churches. Citizens were first concerned about news that the refugees were being neglected and wanted to know the facts. I asked a reporter at the paper to help find the answers to a series of question.
You canread those questions here, they are pretty reasonable and still relevant today, but the paper was not interested in answering them. I began writing this blog as a response to the paper’s lack of interest in finding facts.
We had a public meeting and ultimately the US State Department closed the program in Hagerstown, here. The Virginia Council of Churches said we were an “unwelcoming” community just because we wanted all the facts put on the table!
Another important revelation occurred over the next two months, when blog partner Judy reported here and hereabout how so many refugees in Ft. Wayne, Indiana had to be treated for TB that it was busting the county’s health department budget.
What the heck? We aren’t screening out people with TB!
Early on, I found out the program was pretty much controlled by nine non-profit groups funded with millions of tax payer dollars—-this wasn’t about heartfelt private charity. We were paying for it at the same time we were being kept in the dark about how the program operates.
Then came revelations about lies….
In 2008 we learned that thousands of Somalis had gotten in to the US fraudulently, see here. Family reunification was closed for Somalis and some other Africans as a result. It stayed closed for years.
Not long after, in 2009, we began to see reports that Somali ‘youths’ raised in America (on your dime!) were secretly leaving the country to join the Jihadists in Africa, see here.
By that time in 2009, I was hooked on the issue. I was appalled at the secrecy of the program generally. Why are local citizens kept in the dark as refugees are moved to unsuspecting towns and cities? How were they getting in to the US with communicable diseases, and what is going on in Muslim ‘communities’ where those refugee kids we raised preferred jihad to a good life in America?
Bottomline, as I said, I was hooked at that point and since the mainstream media wasn’t eager to find and report answers, I figured it was up to me.
Eleven years have flown by!
I won’t be completely absent…..
@RefugeeWatcher
While I am away I’ll be tweeting (see my twitter feed in the right hand column here at the blog). I have over 14,000 followers, but twitter seems intent on keeping my numbers stagnant. Every time I add about a hundred, they wipe them out in the coming days!
My partner on facebook will continue to post there at our facebook page, here.
If I come across access to a computer in my travels and something exciting happens with refugees, I will try to post, but no promises.
Oh, and since I moderate comments, your comments might not show up for days, but will try to get them up eventually.
Am I nuts or what!
Eleven years ago RRW was launched because refugees were being quietly placed in the county seat, Hagerstown, of my rural western Maryland county and I (and others) wanted some answers about who was doing this and why.
Our local newspaper, theHerald Mail, refused to investigate and write an article that would explain what I eventually learned, on my own, was that the US Refugee Admissions Programwas responsible.
I didn’t start out with strong opposition, in fact, one of my initial concerns was that some of the refugees placed here seemed to have been abandoned in some pretty lousy neighborhoods.
But….
Why the hush-hush about the program? (The secrecy part was what really hooked me!)
So, I figured I would have to learn about it myself and let people know what I found. How much time could that take? Little did I know, my life would change forever. Since that first day, July 1, 2007, I have rarely missed a day (slowing a bit lately by skipping Saturdays!) writing about some aspect of the program and/or more broadly about refugees and immigration generally.
For me, immigration and how it is managed worldwide is all there is—the only issue that will determine how our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will live.
As far as I am concerned, no other political issue matters!
In those eleven years, RRW has published 9,244 posts that have been read by people in every country or territory in the world (except one country and one island group).
And, if you are wondering, what about those tiny Pacific Islands like Kiribati, Tongo, and Vanuatu—-yes, I’ve had readers from there as well!
Here is my wordpress countries map:
It looks like only people of Western Sahara in Africa and Norway’s Svalbard Islands have never been visitors to RRW!
Thanks for continuing to read RRW.
For new readers, see my category entitled‘blogging.’
That is where you can find posts detailing other facts about RRW with guidance on how to find information archived here.
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.
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. Visit RRW every few days! Why bother with subscribing?
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 yearsand 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!
