A Tale of Two Countries
Swimming to Cambodia
UPDATE 14FEB24: This story has it all - foreigners registered to vote, Rohingya refugees and dual citizens, as Indonesia’s election commission KPU works to clean up voter registrations.
Today’s soundtrack is brought to you by Bobby Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham.
In the Post-Enlightenment Age, Westerners have come to understand government to have two primordial functions: 1) provide a fair and unbiased judicial system, and 2) protect and defend the country from invasion. Whatever other functions are granted to a governing body, these two are the raison d'être for creating the government in the first place.
The word “invasion” stems from the Latin intrudere, meaning “to thrust in, force in,” with the clear implication of an outside entity applying force to press an object into some other entity. We also derive “intrusion” and “intruder” from this root. This is distinct from other concepts, such as inicere, the root of “inject,” which is “to throw in or on”.
With meaning and intent established, we can dissect the current situation in the US. I believe I am uniquely qualified to comment, since I am both a native Texan and know the border situation over time, and I am an immigrant.
Growing up in Texas, I know from experience the border with Mexico has always been porous. The two countries were once a single entity, after all. There are places in West Texas where the Rio Grande is just knee deep and people (including myself) routinely walk across. When I was a kid, Houston newspapers published the bull fighting results every week and matadores were minor celebrities. I know the states in Mexico as well as I do those in the US. I studied Spanish three days a week from first grade. I’ve worked along side illegal immigrants most of my life.
The major difference between years ago and now, is that most of the illegal immigrants then were seasonal workers who came up to work the fields during planting and harvesting, then went home again. No one fretted too much about a few thousand folks who stayed and did yard work and landscaping, or worked as maids. There were strong cultural ties and a symbiotic relationship between Texas and Mexico.
When I immigrated to Indonesia, I began by going to the consulate in Houston and applying for a 45-day visitor’s visa. After arriving here, I had to renew it once while my long-stay permit, known as an ITAS, was processed by my sponsor, a local company I came here to work with. The ITAS permitted me to stay a year, and with my work permit together cost about USD2,000.
Over the next five years, I had to renew my ITAS and work permit (IMTA) every year, and to do so I had to leave the national jurisdiction to get the stamps — usually going to Singapore — then returning for another year.
To get an IMTA, an employer must first apply and be approved to hire foreigners at all. There are a wide variety of jobs and sectors in which foreigners are not allowed to work, either for security reasons, or because the required skills can be found in the indigenous work force. Despite being approved, the employer must apply separately for each foreigner hired, and the employer must assign a local employee to shadow the foreigner with the goal of training the local worker to take over the job.
I had to get a national tax number, called NPWP, and each visa renewal required me to give a photo, fingerprints and signature, and I was strictly forbidden to work anywhere at anything other than my registered job.
By the time I got married, I had spent USD10,000 to maintain my immigration status. My wife then became my sponsor and I eventually got my ITAP, which is permanent alien resident status, and my KTP, or national identity card. That cost me USD3,000 for five years. I’ve since renewed it and I now no longer need a sponsor, but I still need an IMTA to hold a “job”. I still cannot own land, though I can buy a building (a house or apartment) for 99 years. If my wife dies before me, I have one year to sell all my real estate holdings or lose them. And through all of this, I’ve renewed my passport three times, at USD250 a pop, plus photo cost.
I could apply for citizenship, but Indonesia does not allow dual citizens, so I would have to pay about USD5,000 to renounce my US citizenship, plus another USD5,000 to get my Indonesian citizenship. This process would likely incur audits on both sides of the Pacific, which would incur additional expenses.
In contrast, the US government has been caught repeatedly aiding and abetting mass illegal entry into the continental United States. There are videos of fork lifts raising concertina wire to allow people to cross under it. Border agents report having orders to facilitate, rather than impede border crossings by undocumented hordes.
The US federal government is directly funding NGOs that aid and abet illegal entry into the US. Mike Adams (Health Ranger) reports eyewitness accounts of the feds funding “camps” in Panama, in conjunction with Chinese entities, to organize and operate busses up to the US border, as well as clothing and feeding the people being transported. Adams reports that roughly 200 buses per day are leaving Panama, and with 45 people to a bus, that’s more than 8,000 people per day being trafficked northward.
Once across the border, the feds are paying to fly and house illegal aliens all over the country. Even deep blue states like California and New York are crying “uncle” under the financial and political load. A commonly used estimate says over 30 million undocumented, illegal aliens are now resident inside the United States. Vast sums of taxpayer money are being handed over directly or indirectly to support and sustain this invasion (see intrudere at top). A similar situation is occurring in Europe.
These invaders have no intention of assimilating. They are not being offered, nor are they seeking language lessons, history lessons, or civics lessons, yet some jurisdictions are offering them the right to vote.
Though I’ve lived in Indonesia for 16 years, learned the language, history and customs, under stand the political system, can sing the national anthem, can cite passages from the constitution, and have closely observed three national elections (even meeting five former presidents and two governors), I still cannot and likely will never be allowed to vote here.
One other example. The situation in Myanmar is rather dire, especially if one is part of the Rohingya ethnic group, a native Muslim minority. This group is systemically being attacked by the current government and those who can escape have legitimate need of refuge. Boatloads of Rohingya refugees are coming ashore in Aceh, which is at the far northern tip of Sumatera. Keep in mind that Indonesia is roughly 75% Muslim, and Aceh is the most conservative and orthodox Muslim region in Indonesia.
The refugees are immediately arrested and either repatriated or turned over to UN organizations. Indonesia is very aggressive about illegal immigration, even with legitimate refugees and fellow Muslims. The government is highly protective of the indigenous labor force and maintains robust control over its borders, both land and sea. Regardless of how one feels about the refugees, one must admit that the government is consistent in its enforcement of immigration laws in any situation. At least in this respect, it is performing its inherent and organic duty to the nation.
All of this is to say that the US federal government has clearly and unmistakably abdicated its primary and organic responsibility to both protect the country from invasion and to uphold the laws in a fair and unbiased manner. All other considerations aside, such as stolen elections and illegitimate office holders, the Legislative branch is funding the invasion, the Executive branch is facilitating it, and the Judicial branch is rubber stamping it. This clearly violates every provision of the Constitution and negates the “social contract” with the electorate, thus making the national power center a rogue entity with no legitimate authority.
Without legal status or legitimate power, the federal government is effectively dissolved. Under the Lieber Code (General Orders No. 100), this is the precise condition under which the military can step in and declare Martial Law.
Under the US Constitution, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 64 Stat. 109, and 10 U.S.C. §§ 801-946, the President or Congress can declare martial law, but if those entities are compromised, what then? All of these require a functioning and legitimate national governing body. Can the States act together or separately in this regard? Does this allow/invite take-over by an international body?
There are some profound questions raised by the extant situation on the US border. When contemplating the future, American citizens would do well to factor these issues into their thinking, as they have significant implications for daily life in the near and long terms.
The initial reaction may be to dismiss these issues out of hand, from behind the veil of normalcy bias, but history has no such limitations.
Cross the border to the Far Side:
E-book: Paper Golem: Corporate Personhood & the Legal Fiction
Contact Bernard Grover at luap.jkt @ gmail . com
Radio Far Side is a labour of love. We don’t use a paywall, and we don’t sell stuff. We just create things to inform and entertain. But like any good busker on the digital mean streets, we put our hat down and if you feel inspired, drop a coin in to show your appreciation:
BTC wallet - bc1qth6drgzcyt7vlxxpvqh6erjm0lmaemwsvf0272
I linked to your essay about child slavery in my latest. Also put a link to it on my new Twitter.
https://l5news.substack.com/p/penetration
I don't think the United States exists. It's only a collection of grifts at this point.
Most Americans have absolutely no understand of the Founding Documents, immigration, or the level of corruption and malfeasance in their Regime.