All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

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Ponder this broski - most of those immigrants were part of the ruling classes in those countries before the socialists took over and expropriated all of their wealth. And if there's one thing that a "gentleman" absolutely can't stand, it's being asked to roll up his sleeves and toil like some peasant. Better to claim to be oppressed by cruel dictators and flee to a place where opportunities for passive income and rent extraction are still plentiful.

Tidy but untrue as we aren't talking about White Russians, Iranians or other deposed elites which are only a fraction of the crushed and willing to find a better tomorrow by their own sweat. All the populist wants is that every person tend their own garden.

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Still equating the Communism of Cuba or N Korea with the Social Democracies of Europe or Japan or S Korea. Right Wingers never accept what progressivism really is. They need their Stalinist boogeymen.

well it does help balance the books when someone is sending you a check every year to pay for defense.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In happier(?) news, the Space Force has announced their new uniforms. It went about as well as you would think.

To be honest, I'm surprised Biden didn't Executive Order Space Force out of existence because it's been a farce and the butt of jokes from day one. And those uniforms....Christ on a crutch! Whoever the designer was must literally be laughing all the way to the bank after conning the government into okaying those ugly things. Sheesh!

[Kirby101]

well it does help balance the books when someone is sending you a check every year to pay for defense.

Progressives also think we spend too much on the military.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Progressives also think we spend too much on the military.

And if Democrats propose to subtract so much as one dollar from the military in budget talks, right wingers and conservatives go apoplectic and scream bloody murder about how Dems don't support the troops. Look, I was in the military (Navy: 1976-1996) and even I think they get WAY too much, more than they need in fact.

[PwrdOn]

Tidy but untrue as we aren't talking about White Russians, Iranians or other deposed elites which are only a fraction of the crushed and willing to find a better tomorrow by their own sweat. All the populist wants is that every person tend their own garden.

Communist states have been around for over a century now and yet somehow we continue to delude ourselves into thinking that people living under communism are suffering and yearn to live free? If that were really true, then all of the CIA's many attempts to engineer coups to overthrow communist governments would have met with a lot more success than they did. Life under socialism is not exactly comfortable by our standards, but the vast majority of people saw their quality of life greatly improve by just about every metric. Of course, for the tiny elite of landed aristocrats and industrial magnates, the transition was quite traumatic as all of the privileges they took for granted evaporated basically overnight and they were reduced to living like the common people they were used to bossing around. So the logical option for many was to flee, often taking as much of their wealth as they could bring with them, which in turn helped them set up successful businesses once they arrived in America. If you thought that your average Cuban ex-slave or Korean peasant with no wealth to speak of could make it to America and succeed by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, I have a bridge to sell you.

And if Democrats propose to subtract so much as one dollar from the military in budget talks, right wingers and conservatives go apoplectic and scream bloody murder about how Dems don't support the troops. Look, I was in the military (Navy: 1976-1996) and even I think they get WAY too much, more than they need in fact.

The problem is that the US military hasn't had an enemy that came close to parity for quite a long time, so it's under no external pressure to make sure that it's spending its money wisely and taking good care of the troops. Burning more cash for flashy weapon systems creates a ton of jobs and looks great on recruitment videos, and because F-35's aren't flying actual combat missions that could expose their design flaws, the military isn't forced to re-evaluate unless there's some freak accident which is a rare occurrence.

[Robotman]

To be honest, I'm surprised Biden didn't Executive Order Space Force out of existence because it's been a farce and the butt of jokes from day one. And those uniforms....Christ on a crutch! Whoever the designer was must literally be laughing all the way to the bank after conning the government into okaying those ugly things. Sheesh!

I was hoping he would too but at the end of the day it’s a new branch of the military which means it pretty much gets blank checks to do what ever the hell it is that it’s supposed to do (which is?!?). The US military doesn’t like any threats to its unlimited resources. There’s gonna be a lot of push back if someone wants to get rid of Space Force. Ugh god just saying that ridiculous name makes me cringe.

Could they at least change the name to something less asinine? How about Galactic Warrior Corps.?

[skyvolt2000]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pe...d=winp1taskbar

administrators in a Kansas City area school district were furious after a racist petition was circulated in a local high school calling for the reinstatement of slavery.

The petition was posted online by students at a nearby high school in the same district - LEAD Innovation Studio.

Stutterheim said that she attended a meeting on Monday at LEAD Innovation, where the principal, Ryan Staley, told parents it was his understanding that the petition called for reinstating slavery.

Park Hill High School has a student body that is 14.4 percent black and 63 percent white. As of last year, the school's student body numbered 1,906 pupils.

As of 2019, the population of the school district stood at 71,541 people. Its K-12 student enrollment stood at 11,617.

Of those, more than 67 percent are white while 12.3 percent are African-American.

Hispanics make up slightly more than 1 in 10 students, according to district data. Just 3.5 percent of students are Asian while 5.5 percent are multi-racial.

[BeastieRunner]

I was hoping he would too but at the end of the day it’s a new branch of the military which means it pretty much gets blank checks to do what ever the hell it is that it’s supposed to do (which is?!?). The US military doesn’t like any threats to its unlimited resources. There’s gonna be a lot of push back if someone wants to get rid of Space Force. Ugh god just saying that ridiculous name makes me cringe.

Could they at least change the name to something less asinine? How about Galactic Warrior Corps.?

A Cyber Defense Force makes WAAAAAAAAAY more sense but WTFDIK.

[Mister Mets]

what I am not a fan of is political constructs that play on emotions of a moment over a larger reality. Calling these people, yes people, desperate is to place their concerns over a world of desperation and the nation-state system which controls migration of peoples. Is not the child picking through a garbage pile in Lagos equally desperate or the political prisoner of HK freedom just as so but these people for no better reason than than being able to make it to the US border get a pass for looking more desperate? That isn't about humanity but support for people who are 'getting over' on a system that is designed to protect what people in this country have built for themselves. What about their humanity? US properity doesn't well up from out of the ground you know or come from Apple and Google stock prices.

It's fair to call Haitians desperate people because many of these are desperate people.

However, I certainly agree that playing on emotions is a poor way to determine policy, because there is no limiting principle. The desperation in Haiti does not mean that everyone there who wants a road to American citizenship should be free to get it. I can understand that people in Haiti may not want to go to the neighboring Dominican Republic, due to the history of self-serving policies that penalized Haitians, but it doesn't stand to reason that the US, a country with a high cost of living and a major push for a higher minimum wage, is the right place for them. Desperate people would be willing to compromise.

I dont know as much about immigration or the reason some of the 3rd world countries and Latin American countries are in the state they are in.

But I have a couple thoughts. Haiti has suffered a murdered president, a major earthquake and a hurricane. There are counties in South America that have an insane amount of violence, infrastructure that is a mess, no real access to health care. What is wrong with people from those nations wanting what they think will be a better life in America. They are not criminals, they are people who want a petty shot at having a good life. Why should they be told no just because of where they were born? America was founded on white people from other countries coming here and killing of the native people and stealing their land through violence and trickery all in the name of freedom. And now we claim hardcore ownership to this country and how dare anyone else come here.

I dont see why they are thrown into these cages and processing centers that are Hell to live in. At least from the photos and videos.

We supply our criminals with some pretty good halfway houses to help them get back into society after prison. (I know I lived in one for close to 8 months.) I know they are not all great and some are pretty damn bad but there are many that give a good chance.

So why do we throw immigrants into these processing centers and just forget about them? Why cant we build good facilities where they can live and help get services like access to legal aide to help them process their applications to stay in the country? Help them with things they will need to adjust to life in America? I dont know there just has to be a better way then running people down on horseback and shoving kids into cages away from their parents. Maybe if we didnt make it so hard to get here there wouldnt be this mess we are in now.

I have no idea how to fix it. maybe my little thought here seems a bit naïve. I know that in our current political climate that things will take a long time if ever to fix but I am just a bit frustrated at times.

There is a strong moral argument for Open Borders. The libertarian economist Brian Kaplan made a decent graphic novel about this with Zach Weinersmith (SMBC.) It remains politically unpopular.

It becomes more unpopular if there's the idea that everyone who wants to be an American citizen will have access to good facilities and services.

One of the big questions is what the limiting principle should be. Should everyone who wants a shot at American citizenship be granted it?

A political complication is that Democrats do not want to enforce immigration policies, and want to make it clear that if they get their way on immigration reform, anyone who gets into the United States prior to the reform is on the way to citizenship. That encourages more people to try, but Democrats don't have the votes to make them citizens.

[thwhtGuardian]

It's fair to call Haitians desperate people because many of these are desperate people.

However, I certainly agree that playing on emotions is a poor way to determine policy, because there is no limiting principle. The desperation in Haiti does not mean that everyone there who wants a road to American citizenship should be free to get it. I can understand that people in Haiti may not want to go to the neighboring Dominican Republic, due to the history of self-serving policies that penalized Haitians, but it doesn't stand to reason that the US, a country with a high cost of living and a major push for a higher minimum wage, is the right place for them. Desperate people would be willing to compromise.

There is a strong moral argument for Open Borders. The libertarian economist Brian Kaplan made a decent graphic novel about this with Zach Weinersmith (SMBC.) It remains politically unpopular.

It becomes more unpopular if there's the idea that everyone who wants to be an American citizen will have access to good facilities and services.

One of the big questions is what the limiting principle should be. Should everyone who wants a shot at American citizenship be granted it?

A political complication is that Democrats do not want to enforce immigration policies, and want to make it clear that if they get their way on immigration reform, anyone who gets into the United States prior to the reform is on the way to citizenship. That encourages more people to try, but Democrats don't have the votes to make them citizens.

The argument isn't that there shouldn't be limits, we really can't take in every one who wants in, it's that hunting down those entering on horse back and throwing them to the ground like animals isn't the way to enforce said limits...it seems like a pretty easy point to grasp.

[Mister Mets]

The argument isn't that there shouldn't be limits, we really can't take in every one who wants in, it's that hunting down those entering on horse back and throwing them to the ground like animals isn't the way to enforce said limits...it seems like a pretty easy point to grasp.

So what are the limits, and where are the limits being articulated?

[thwhtGuardian]

So what are the limits, and where are the limits being articulated?

I'm not sure what they'd be...just that those trying to enter should be treated humanely at all times which I don't think is a big ask.

[PwrdOn]

So what are the limits, and where are the limits being articulated?

The reason nobody is stating any exact limits is because immigration quotas are silly and arbitrary. In terms of broader targets, given that our natural population growth rate is slowing and will likely turn negative soon, we should aim for at least 3-5 million new arrivals per year try and stabilize our population trajectory at a 1% growth rate at minimum. Of course, these new immigrants should be fast tracked to citizenship and strategically settled in swing states in order to dilute the Bubba vote as much as possible.

[Tami]

It's not the number, it's the process.

In my opinion, if immigration could be streamlined, simplified, and made easier to access then we might have less issues.

Having people huddled under a bridge isn't good.

Having people able to get visas or the right documentation before they reach the US border, or something that speeds up the process ....

People shouldn't have to swim across the rio grande, or huddle in make shift camps with little food or necessities.

People should know ahead of time if they are even eligible to immigrate to the US before leaving, and if not the US there should be other countries they can go to

There has to be a better way. And if we can figure it out here in the US, then maybe we can help other countries dealing with similar situations figure it out.