Just started my first day at a new job yesterday, which on top of the new project, is yet another reason you haven't seen so much of me lately. I've been playing phone tag and attending meetings with the management over the last several weeks as well.

Things Are Dicey In Retail

It's in the retail sector and I'm feeling kind of ambivalent about it as I've dealt in this type of work before and it can be rife with abuse. A little background about me: I've never been arrested or had any trouble with the law, ever.

What I have seen is a lot of theft in this industry in the form of drug-addicted employees stealing to support a habit, or more often, managers stealing from the workers and blaming it on them. I discussed that history with the manager and how the chaos of hiring unvetted employees who had sticky fingers swirled around me while leaving myself unscathed.

With my past retail experience, I know what to look for and am used to keeping a sharp eye out.

Growth, But Not Of The Good Kind...

So you might say, "why take the job at all?" If you've read my blog over the years, you've heard me mention that this was a once safe town (top 25 safest in America 40-years ago), which has been devastated by the building of a federal "kids in cages" immigration/refugee center, and its proximity to several big cities.

This flooded our once quiet little town with thousands of un-vetted refugees (including a number of MS-13 gang members), and big city folk fleeing the crime of their metropolis, but bringing fresh criminals along with them.

Here, immigrants tend to refer and hire other immigrants to the exclusion of American citizens like me, leaving jobs for us very hard to come by. Each ethnic group looks out only for their own and sees us native Yanks as wealthy and not needing to work which is not the reality at all.

So Americans get pushed out of jobs and are replaced by foreigners willing to work for cash "under the table." It has devastated the local economy, causing a financial/drain brain as steady taxpayers are replaced by grifters looting the system and sending the proceeds overseas.

It's the reason why my city went for Bernie Sanders in 2016/2020, but the larger population of the county voted for Donald Trump, TWICE.

Anyone who thinks that he (or someone like him), can't win in 2024, should think again.

Half the people of America live in poverty. Many of the foreigners I met in Europe were surprised to hear that. You can see it all over my state if you look, its all over right in front of you. Many people are a few missed paychecks away from foreclosure. People are losing homes, cars and their entire livelihoods, yet the migrants keep coming. It's not the land of "milk and honey" that many think it is.

But it is my home and I'm proud to be an American.

Many foreigners think of the country as rich, but trust me, in my area, the people here are not. This is the "Rust Belt" and here; there's not a whole lot left to take. It's like a carcass that's been picked clean. You can see it best in the temp agencies where refugees who once stole jobs from Americans, now stab each other in the back for "no questions asked" employment. They're flooded with hundreds of people fighting over 30 jobs.

So there you have it. There are very few places left here where an American can find work without an advanced degree. So when a job comes along, one has to give it serious consideration. Keeping in mind that as "The Responsible One" in the family, I have an ill relative to care for with what little proceeds I have as a student. So now you know why I had to take that job.

The big question is: will I stay? I can tell you this much; my eyes are peeled and I know what to watch for, and won't be tolerating any bullshit, all of which I expressed to the management during the interview. I know "how they do that thang that they do" and will be out of there in a hot minute if it happens.

We do what we can with the cards we're given, and that's what I've dealt with my entire life.

Now there are still parts of the country that aren't near federal refugee centers or near crime-ridden big cities, with Americans in the majority. The cost of living is much higher, but there are more opportunities available for actual English-speaking, patriotic American citizens. I've been exploring such places, and I'd hate to have to join the "brain-drain" and flight of good people leaving this community, but the ever-increasing crime and lack of jobs for Americans may just make that a necessity one day.

It's sad because this used to be such a nice area years ago. But our location on the East Coast and near several big cities is what doomed us. The building of that federal refugee center and regional criminal justice center, was the final nail in the coffin.

Short-Sighted "Dreamers" Killing Their Own Dreams

I can still remember the day at a large factory here where immigrants had run Americans out of jobs announced that they were relocating to Mexico. We'd seen the production line I was working on go from go from 21 Americans down to just me and one other, after hearing the jeers from illegal aliens that they were going to take our jobs as well. I'd met with management many times about it, but nothing was ever done. So me and the last citizen looked out for each other until the day the announcement was made.

The foreigners who'd spit on, stomped, and burned the US flag outside during breaks, now looked on with astonishment as the plant relocated to the country that many of them had fled from. The owners were chasing the low wages that could be found there, and I told them they should be happy to leave this country they despised so much and return to the land of their birth to work. As the plant wound down, the burning of our flag and the disrespect shown to our country subsided, as they faced the new reality. It was a turning point in the lives of those that had reached "The Land Of Hope."

It's odd that the people coming here for a "better life" and to live the "American Dream" have no problem taking that dream away from actual Americans. Working for cash under the table and sending the money back to their home countries, depleting the tax base, and they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

This causes the city to repeatedly raise taxes on the ever-shrinking number of actual Americans that are left in order to pay for police/fire/schools and emergency services. The intellectual and capital flight causes a downgrade in the business community as well. It's like watching a snake eat it's own tail. There are a number of towns like this all over the country that have been looted in this way, until the day that the last major employer closes up shop for good.

I know things are hard in their home countries, but the "take, take, take" mentality of shipping money out, leaves the local businesses floundering, and they eventually close as the citizens who once had some money are pushed out by rising taxes and the newcomers who only look out for their own.

I've visited countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa and have seen the poverty up close. Walking the streets of Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti was an eye-opener for me, so I've seen it. But the answer can't be to impoverish the people of the country you're fleeing to with no thought for how it affects the future of everyone.

People with huge families and no money caused us to wonder why you would keep pumping out children that you couldn't feed. Shortsighted. Thinking only of the pleasure of the moment, but not of the future of their children. The goal was to send the excess children to Europe or America when they were older, but how much longer can you keep doing that before the resources of the host country are depleted? and what happens then?

A number of refugee men in Greece have resorted to prostitution with other men in order to survive.

I was astonished to read that an Afghan refugee upon arriving in Greece, demanded to know where his New house, new car, new wife, and 1,000 Euro a week benefit payment was! Turn out the traffickers are lying to these people, telling them of the riches awaiting them if they can only make it to the West. Upon arrival, they are shocked to realize it isn't true at all.