đź”· Open Thread

KentXie said:
Me thinks that you and other Trump supporters think it's okay to have unregistered people running around in our country as long as they are WHITE.
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Hmmm, so much for your recent call for civility. You must be so used to throwing out this kind of casual racism you can't even see it for the racism it is.
 
How can people think it’s okay to have unregistered people running around our country?
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To be clear, there was until recently a very successful program that had been in place for many years, which turned "unregistered" people into "registered" people, and once they "registered" they were able to pay taxes, comply with OSHA, get their kids vaccinated, invest in their own education, call the police to report crimes and dangerous situations, etc.

But now the current administration is kicking these "registered" people out of the country anyway. And it has stopped the program that was very successfully "registering" large numbers of "unregistered" people. And it has blocked proposals to expand the program to additional groups of "unregistered" people.

All of these actions have the effect of increasing the number of "unregistered" people "running around the country". To be clear - yes, this is the effect of the current GOP & Trump admin policy.

So it should be clear that "unregistered people running around the country" is not the real issue (or at least, not the real target of the Trump/GOP policy) ... and if you think it is, then I can only suggest that you should consider finding better sources of news and information.
 
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Brad Plaid said:
Hmmm, so much for your recent call for civility. You must be so used to throwing out this kind of casual racism you can't even see it for the racism it is.
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Racism is to say that white are inherently inferior to other races which I did not make any mention of. Racism is to treat a white person differently because of their skin which I did not. I did not once disparage white people in my statement. I stated that Trump supporters do not care for illegal immigrants who are white (i.e. of European descent) which can be inferred, as Trump and his supporters never once mentioned kicking illegal Europeans out but mentioned many times when they happened to be black, Hispanic, or of Middle Eastern descent. That, by the way, is what racism actually is because you are treating a group of people differently (read 'worse') based on their skin color. It would have been casual racism if I said that white illegals should be treated worse than other illegals, which I didn't. Instead, I'm pointing out they are not subjected to the same treatment as other illegal immigrants. In this case, illegal immigrants who are Europeans are given a pass whereas other illegal immigrants are not.

But nice try Brad Plaid. Stick to something you actually know about.
 
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Just a more neutral explanation about political appeals to various demographics- the gop narrative to rail on "illegals" while quietly working to also disadvantage legal immigrants is so that they won't lose the support of their surprisingly large Latino electorate while at the same time touting accomplishments to their um. Angry old white guy demographic. The GOP itself isn't racist. They are just executing a strategy that involves racial demographics. Talk to a Republican Latino in the southwest, they seriously think the rhetoric is only targeting "illegals".

Unfortunately the angry white guy demographic is still important for winning elections... So you know. Pandering to them.
 
KentXie said:
...In this case, illegal immigrants who are Europeans are given a pass whereas other illegal immigrants are not.
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Source? I'd like to see this mysterious pass.
In other much more positive news congratulations to Elon Musk and his team on their SpaceX Falcon Heavy achievement. There is now a Tesla roadster orbiting the sun! Love the can-do spirit of go getters, such a contrast to the sad pathology of professional victims and safe space betas.
 
You forgot "snowflakes" and "cucks".

I almost had Bingo with that one post dammit.
 
Brad Plaid said:
Source? I'd like to see this mysterious pass.
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Here is your hard evidence:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122414553656

It takes a particularly insecure person to be jealous of the so called "entitlement" of others.

Brad Plaid said:
Love the can-do spirit of go getters...
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Those with true can-do spirit take the high road and concern themselves with their own quality-of-being, rather than belaboring themselves with concern over whether someone else has it slightly "easier" than they *think* is equitable. I thought Atlas was supposed to shrug?
 
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122414553656

Despite current U.S. laws that forbid discrimination on the basis of nationality, we find that labor certification approvals differ significantly depending on immigrants’ foreign citizenship, even after controlling for key factors.
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This was a rigorously controlled study. A "scientist" or "engineer" from "Germany" is significantly more likely to gain legal status than an otherwise IDENTICALLY credentialed applicant from "Mexico"
 
Honestly, I really don't understand why libertarianism has to go hand-in-hand with an obsession that the present system must already be 100% meritocratic?

Why can't one (such as Brad) believe in the value of freedom and can-do spirit, while also being willing to admit that we might not, at present, have a perfect meritocracy?

(Here's a hint: yes, Brad, you can believe in can-do attitude AND look at quality data and admit we might not be at a state of meritocracy yet.)
 
bigpicture7 said:
Honestly, I really don't understand why libertarianism has to go hand-in-hand with an obsession that the present system must already be 100% meritocratic?

Why can't one (such as Brad) believe in the value of freedom and can-do spirit, while also being willing to admit that we might not, at present, have a perfect meritocracy?

(Here's a hint: yes, Brad, you can believe in can-do attitude AND look at quality data and admit we might not be at a state of meritocracy yet.)
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Koch Brothers spending lots of money to teach Americans the evils of "collectivism", Ayn Rand, etc. have distorted American libertarianism. It's more ideological zealotry than it is real libertarianism.
 
Justin7 said:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/

Free to Play for a few days, but you'll probably end up buying it.
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I have it, and I also have a few expansion packs. It's honestly the best city builder since SimCity 4, in large part due to the sheer volume of custom content out there. The sheer variety of transportation infrastructure included in the game is staggering, as is the size of the maps and the freeform nature of placing it (think: curved roads with development that hugs it, irregular street grits, etc).

The "building styles" feature is something SC4 dabbled with, but CS has perfected. This gives you the ability to create super unique and distinct neighborhoods. I have a city with dense, low-rise Brooklyn style buildings interspersed with some high-rise commie blocks, and an "Old Town" with a dense, irregular street grid full of Baroque residences and retail centered around a cobblestone square in front of the Parish Church of St. Anne (Busdapest). Of course, the maps can be huge, so I also have classic American suburbs and even farmland well outside of the city center. It's the most realistic city builder I've played (if you want it to be). I just wish I could get my regional rail network to be a bit more efficient.

Definitely checkout the Cities Skylines Reddit for inspiration: https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/
 
^ Badass! My favorite warbird of WWII. Dad and I built the model when I was a kid.
 
KentXie said:
It would be great if it happens but Trump has a habit of saying he is "open to something" and then backtracking when his base gets pissed off.
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He'd be sticking it to his most ardent supporters in flyover country who have to drive thirty miles to Wal-Mart so I'm all in favor of it. Tax the shit out of them!
 
It's a use tax, which in most cases ends up being a regressive tax. It makes sense in urban areas, but much of america does not live in an urban area.

Before this century republicans were always in favor of use taxes.
 
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