Neil Gorsuch officially nominated for SCOTUS, deepening the constitutional crisis the Republicans engineered last year.
So he's banning all Muslims maybe forever? My goodness, what a terrible person. Mistreating all foreign Muslims like this, they have rights you know! Seriously, who cares? Why not finally fix the immigration system and in this day in age of perpetual manufactured fear known as the GWOT, get it right? Let's not repeat Europe's mistakes. That is of course if you are a Nationalist and believe in borders. If not, let's just do away with the borders, do away with the flag and most of all, let's do away with the taxes. Then we can let 'em all in. I know, I know, who will pay for the roads and bridges, right? I am cool with walking through the woods everywhere I need to go. Futhermore, why are Middle East refugees our problem? Why is everybody so keen to take in a bunch of people who don't speak the language, don't have skill sets that can be absorbed by our labor market and will be a further drain our system? Are all of you in favor of this nonsense going to send in extra tax money to pay for it? Or are you just being very gracious with other people's money? The ONLY refugees I am in support of are women and children. Military age males need to get the fuck back over there and take their society back. Enough is enough, if you aren't willing to fight for it then why the fuck should we? The rest of the Muslim community should all be ashamed of themselves that they have allowed this to happen. They should take this very personally and their entire society should be over there fixing this. You know what though, they aren't. They don't give a shit about these people, their own people. So if they don't care, I don't care. Let the grass grow.
I don't understand this view that some Americans, and white Americans in particular, have that we are somehow getting screwed by the rest of the world. We've set up a system where we basically run this shit from pole to pole, in a way that funnels massive benefit in our direction, and yet people vote to blow it all up because someone else gets a tiny sliver of benefit. Blows my mind.
We stole it fair and square. Make them fight for that sliver, no hand outs. That's how oppression is supposed to work...
Basic human decency. I'm sure you're unfamiliar with that, but it's kind of a neat concept. Check it out sometime. Also, from a serious standpoint: your understanding of history and law in regard to "foreign Muslims" is about as "college freshman who decided the only thing he hated more than brown people was doing the assigned reading" as you can get.
Your posts never cease to amaze. Please do enlighten me as to what parts of history and law I am missing that you find so important. I can't wait for this.
The tried and true approach of calling people who disagree with you uncouth morons. It's been doing wonders for the liberal causes lately, has it not? Please do continue.
Fuck off. I've watched the video; you are still calling me trailer trash. I stand by my last response. You younger folks here who don't pay much in taxes, or who live in cities or are still college kids have all lived rather sheltered existences. I hate to tell you that and you are more than free to say I don't know what I am talking about. BUT you haven't even really seen human nature up close and personal. Humans at their most base, the ones in places where life is really cheap; that is where you learn what it is to be human. Sure you traveled a little bit, you've been to Asia or the Caribbean or Europe. You backpacked it or were a tourist. Hell, maybe you even came over to the Middle East. I have actually lived in these places. I have actually been to two of the places on the banned list and lived in one. I have spent a decade of my life living in this part of the world. I know the people, I know their attitudes. I have lost friends who were killed there for no other reason than knowing me. While I was doing that. You read some books or attended some lectures. I can assure you that neither one of us is 100% right. We have different world views, different perspectives. With that said, when your response is to call the opposition stupid, people like me realize you don't even know what you don't know.
Funny you should mention that. I just got my W2 and last year I paid more in federal taxes than the median income of Mississippi. And yet I still support my state taking in mistreated refugees from backwards places dominated by an oppressive religion... like Mississippi.
Reasons to allow them in to the US: Basic human decency. I have a real hard time blaming a person who grew up dirt poor in a middle eastern or African country for not learning English. We also had a hand in causing many of the problems there and are ignoring/have been ignoring genocides going on in many countries. I don't know how someone can feel good about saying fuck every adult male in those countries who won't fight back against a government that will kill them for dissent. If you live in an area of Lebanon under Hezbollah control what are you supposed to do? Fight them? Protest in the streets? It's in our own selfish best interest to get grew things straightened out. Do people really think we can just isolate ourselves and raise our standing by stepping on/ignoring other countries and it won't cause long term problems?
I think part of the problem comes from the political disparity. Everything is either true or false, yes or no, black or white... nothing is ever shades of grey. We might be seeing that ingrained, knee-jerk reaction that is "if that's what Obama/Dems were doing, then stop it". Full stop. No compromise, no adjustment, just do the opposite. Combine that with an inexperienced new staff and I'm sure there's some "how hard can it be?" thrown in as well. This travel ban is a prime example... "it's easy... just ban them. Oh... there are some complexities we didn't think of..."
Whether I like it or not, here is the reality I see: There is a part of the world with big problems. Problems that need solving. Problems that have spread and will continue to spread. Allowing the people to run from their problems is not going to fix it. Running from your personal problems have never fixed them either, same thing. Suppose we do take these unfortunate souls in, where will it end? How many millions of people? How many nations crumbling? I have said this before; I understand the urge to help everyone , always. I feel it too but the reality of the situation is by showing them that they can just run from their problems we are making it worse. When (not if) it spreads, those countries will expect us to react the same way and will immediately give up on their situations. We can't take them all. I'm sorry, that is the reality of it, we just can't. That means that they have to solve this. Sure we can help them and sure we should expect the other nations surrounding the area to help them. It's in everyone's best interest to solve it but they have to fight for it. For fuck sakes, look at how this country was formed. You have to fight for it and sometimes that means they die for it too.
And I agree just letting everyone into the US or any other country isn't the answer. But letting people in while attempting to do something in the home countries I think is. We fought against the British army with muskets and bayonets. I don't see it as a true comparison. The guy living on $3/day in Syria can't fight back against the military when they come in with tanks. Has Trump ever said one word about what he's going to do in those countries to fight back against terrorism at the source? All I've heard has been let's fight them and take their oil so that after the country is still poor and a festering ground for more terrorism.
I understand that weaponry has changed. If you need a modern day example, look at the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. They sent the Red Army home with nothing more than AT rockets, Stingers and a resolve to win. It's not going to be easy and a lot of people are going to die but a lot of people are going to die anyway. Might as well make the sacrifice mean something. As far as Trump's plan? I doubt he has one. If I had to guess, he will cede Syria back to Russia, which will severely piss of KSA and Qatar who are depending on the Nabucco pipeline to get a direct connection to Europe. That's what this is all about anyway. Money. As far as the rest of the Middle East and Trump? He definitely doesn't have a plan.
Reread this in the context of World War Two, and you will see why I disagree with your take on history. More specifically: If my problem is that some guys who I can't hope to stop are coming to kill me, then running from my problem, can and will solve it. A bit of a pyrrhic victory though as I will lose my homeland, my culture, my friends, parts of my family, and I will have to figure out how to learn a whole new way of life. And you're assuming that these people didn't fight for it. The war in Syria has been going on since, what, 2011? At some point, the best you can do is survive. You would have them die for nothing rather than let them try to live for something. These people are just fighting for a chance to live normal and decent lives. It's funny though because you're making an argument that the current administration isn't making. They say refugees are a terror threat (less publicly, Bannon has said that they amount to a civic threat). You're saying that refugees amount to an economic threat. I disagree with both ideas. Refugees have paid us back a billion times over. A refugee helped give us Google. A refugee gave us Lolita. A refugee gave us The Sympathizer which just won a Pulitzer prize. And hell, refugees basically processed every piece of meat I've eaten in the last ten years or so I think. Anyway, here is a quote that I've been thinking about a lot from Zadie Smith in her book White Teeth. I also read a great book that I think everyone should read (it is in my top five of all time) about the Rwandan genocide where a million people were slaughtered for essentially nothing. The UN, the US, France...someone could have stepped in, but we all just sort of sat around and said, "Eh, fuck it. This is something they have to work out." [edit: that may be inaccurate; I don't remember the book well enough] Here is a passage that I can't shake two years later. We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
So in regard to the new Supreme Court pick, what does everyone think? From what I've read, I actually tend to like the guy, though I disagree with him to varying degrees on a few things. At least his opinions have come from a place of intellect and interpretation of the law, rather than gut beliefs and emotional reactions. That being said, of course I think the republicans should have allowed Obama to appoint, but I don't understand the whole "stolen seat" argument dems are now gonna use to protest this pick. It's water under the bridge. You can't change it. Move forward and just don't do it again. Maybe you strike a deal like hey, if we allow this guy through with no issues, you owe us one in the future.