Author: Joey deVilla

The “yeoman service” computer in my home office — a ThinkPad T430 running Linux — with the various “exhibits” that I’m including with Form I-751.

I spent this morning double-checking all the paperwork for filing U.S. government Form I-751, a.k.a. “Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence”, a.k.a. “My marriage to Anitra is real and not just for the Green Card, and I can ‘America’ with the best of them.” And what’s more American than having Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix in the background while doing so?

Celebrating my green card status the American way at Burger 21, on January 26, 2017.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that two years ago, I acquired a temporary Permanent Resident Status Card, better known by the vernacular “Green Card” (it’s in the article titled Our green card interview). Back then, I joked that I should celebrate the event the American way: by having a hamburger, just as “President Ronnie” does with you if you successfully complete the videogame Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja…

…without knowing that someday, this would be an actual scene at the White House:

Click the photo to see the parody come true at full size.

But I digress.

As I wrote two years ago:

Since my status was gained through marriage and since Anitra and I have been married less than two years, my permanent residence status is conditional and temporary. Two years from now, we’ll have to file an I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence) form to seal the deal.

Our immigration lawyer, Gerry Seipp, said that the bureaucracy takes their own sweet time processing I-751s — sometimes over a year, and how the shutdown will affect it is anyone’s guess. In less than a year, I’ll have the option to file for U.S. citizenship, and he’s seen cases where people have gained their citizenship while waiting for their I-751 applications to go through the system. We’ll see what happens later this year.

Cover sheet for my documentation, with my Alien Number redacted. And yes, I have an Alien Number! (Also, I am going to introduce Anitra to everyone as “My U.S. citizen wife” from now on.)

And so I spent my morning collating the 80-or-so pages that made up the I-751 form and supporting documentation, sent it off via FedEx, and went to the Sourcetoad office, where I think I do a pretty kick-ass job at contributing to the American economy as the law-abiding Lead Product Manager for one of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S.:

C’mon, look at that plaid shirt. How much more American can you get?

Wish me luck!

From the initial report:

The House floor erupted Thursday after Congress adjourned for the week when an unidentified Republican congressman yelled a controversial and potentially racially charged remark across the aisle as Democratic Rep. Tony Cárdenas was at the podium.

“Go back to Puerto Rico!” the lawmaker shouted, punctuating a stream of Republican whooping and hollering at the Democratic majority for holding a voice vote — instead of the normal roll call vote — to pass a continuing resolution that would reopen nine Cabinet departments through Feb. 28.

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and other Democrats in the chamber shot out of their seats demanding to know who shouted the comment.

Cárdenas walked over to the Republican side of the aisle and huddled with some GOP lawmakers, but none stepped forward to admit they had shouted the remark.

The bravado of making a cheap shot from the safety and anonymity of one’s “wolf pack”, followed by the craven cowardice of not owning up to your own actions — again, from the safety and anonymity of the pack — is the not the sort of thing that people who claim to be grown men do. One would hope that they’d have left this sort of behavior in high school — perhaps this high school:

Later, this man called Cardenas to apologize:

From another report:

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) called Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) to apologize for yelling “go back to Puerto Rico!” while the California-born Democrat prepared to speak on the House floor Thursday.

“While waiting to speak on the floor of the People’s House, a member of Congress shouted, ‘go back to Puerto Rico!’ I was shocked, because I often heard those kinds of comments when I was a kid growing up in Pacoima, California, where I was born and raised,” Cardenas told TPM through a spokesperson. “A few hours later, I received a call from Congressman Jason Smith, who took responsibility for the comment and sincerely apologized. I accepted his apology.”

“I told him I look forward to having a nice and respectful conversation when we return to D.C. on Tuesday. He agreed that we should get to know each other better,” Cardenas continued. “I appreciate his call and our future relationship. There is a saying that I was taught by my parents, de todo lo malo, siempre sale algo bueno, which in English means, ‘from everything bad, something good will come of it.’”

 

Click the photo to see it at full size.

If you’re in Tampa’s Carrollwood neighborhood and you’re looking for a sweet deal, there are a handful of these at the Publix at Village Center.

…and remember, this graphic is from the pre-household-internet era, when television (with only 3 major networks) and newspapers were how people got their news. Even then, before ubiquitous networking and supercomputers in our pockets, it was said that there was too much information.

The term “information overload” is said to have made its first appearance in the 1964 book The Managing of Organizations: The Adminsitrative Struggle by social scientist Bertram Gross, and popularized in Future Shock by futurist Alvin Toffler.

As long as I’m talking about Future Shock, here’s the documentary film version of the book, in all its 1972 glory (dig that soundtrack!), with narration by none other than a cigar-hoovering Orson Welles:

Another ’70s gem on the topic worth checking out: 1979’s Information Overload, from the underappreciated punk/prog band Alien City:

Also worth checking out: Wikipedia’s entry on “information overload”.

I found the graphic via Reginald Braithwaite, who found it via Sardonicus.

…is from Joe Walsh:

Be sure to read the article!

Click the photo to see the national shame at full size.

No, this isn’t a scene from Idiocracy. This is the president* of the United States standing before an official dinner of fast food to commemorate the Clemson Tigers were invited to meet President Trump after defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the national collegiate football championship.

Here’s how he announced it:

Late-night comedians — who are now pretty much some of the best news sources in these debased, Trumpian times — had a field day with this:

The comedians weren’t the only people who thought that serving fast food wasn’t the best idea:

:18 in on @DarrenMHaynes video a Clemson player says “I thought it was a joke” while eating the White House fast food buffet pic.twitter.com/4VhweRd5e3

— Brody Logan (@BrodyLogan) January 15, 2019

“We have everything that I like,” said Trump when he announced what he was serving at the dinner.

They did try to make it a slightly more formal event. “Candles make it classy!”

And they broke out some guest china:

Kudos to the players for dressing up for the event. It’s a shame that they were fed food that:

• They probably get on a regular basis, and
• thanks to all the necessary ceremony prior to the dinner, had gone cold. I’m not such a snob that I don’t like the occasional Big Mac, Whopper, or Wendy’s burger, but when they’re straight from the counter. After a half hour of sitting on a table without heat lamps, they’re not so good (especially Big Macs — the special sauce seems to know how to congeal in exactly the wrong way).

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the President of the United States of America, circa 2040:

The whole “burgers” thing reminds me of one of my favorite videogames from the ’80s, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. Your mission in the game is to rescue a kidnapped “President Ronnie”:

After many levels of ninja ass-kicking…

…you’re rewarded with this screen:

I used to think that this silly ending was the result of the Japanese developers misunderstanding American culture. It turns out that they understand it all too well.

Before the game rolls credits, you see the president with a burger in hand, posing for the photo op:

In case you’ve never seen the game in action (or if you need a nostalgia fix), here’s the gameplay: