SpankyMcFarland

If illegal immigration is such a problem, why block Lankford’s bill? https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-deal-rejected-lankford-immigration-045fdf42d42b26270ee1f5f73e8bc1b0

Trump’s wobble on TikTok illustrates a wider vulnerability. His friend Jeff Yass has a large stake in the company and may thus be vulnerable to manipulation by the PRC. Even more serious are the investments that Tesla and Apple have made in that country. Can they be trusted to advocate for America’s interests instead of their own bottom line?

This is the point I’m making: if you want to send them home, fine, but show that you are aware of the consequences of doing that and the speed of doing that. If it was done abruptly it would cause a tremendous shock to the economy. I don’t see how a big spike in inflation could be avoided, for example. Doing it all at once is not a reasonable policy to suggest. On the Republican side, there’s a clear schism between voters and big donors on this issue that is not always acknowledged. Many businesses knowingly employ large numbers of illegal workers year after year and yet the businessmen who do this rarely face the threat of jail. If it’s such a problem why aren’t more employers facing real consequences? Like this guy, for example, and he’s by no means the worst: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/trump-organization-undocumented-workers

Internees in neutral Ireland, also called ‘guests of the nation’ and usually airmen or sailors stranded there, had a much better time. I think the Germans were better off. The British were quietly repatriated to fight another day but the Germans had a cushy war: I don’t think any of them tried to escape. As noted above they had to promise not to! https://www.historyireland.com/german-internees-curragh-camp/#:~:text=By the end of the,Biscay on 27 December 1943.

And who would do their jobs? And for how much more? Do you know how much work they do in the economy? And they work darn hard too. If this was possible to do tomorrow it would cause a godawful shock to the system - the farms, nursing homes and hotels of the nation.

I see a British mortician, appropriately named John O’Looney, is promoting the claim that the Covid vaccine cause blood clots. https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/scicheck-died-suddenly-pushes-bogus-depopulation-theory/

A lot of people talk like this when they are in Opposition, shocked, shocked, I tell you, by the level of corruption, undefended borders, parlous finances etc.etc. that’s going on. He will have to win multiple elections and get serious stuff done before he deserves comparison with the likes of Chrétien or Mulroney.

So can one of you Trumpsters explain what is going on here? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13199503/Trump-TikTok-Billionaire-Jeff-Yass-Treasury-Secretary.html

She wasn’t sitting at home doing a crossword when she was shot. This is getting foolishly pedantic. The Jan 6 rioters were trespassing but many of them were doing much more serious things than that.

There was no riot? All that coverage was as fake as the moon landing?

Here’s some validation for those who have suffered long Covid symptoms, especially brain fog. Their condition is associated with measurable brain dysfunction, an elevation in blood levels of S-100, a protein common in the brain, and other evidence of blood-brain barrier abnormalities. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01576-9#:~:text=Our results suggest that long,the TLs and frontal cortex. Loss of smell does not seem to be part of long Covid syndrome and may have an inflammatory basis.

No, it’s Ukraine’s choice to be free and fight on for now. If they want a deal then we are in a different situation. Remember that we are more than a century from this kind of imperial thinking across Europe where everything was determined by a handful of well-dressed megalomaniacs. Disputes between states in Western Europe aren’t sorted out by wars any more.

And what credibility would such a deal have? Putin would sign a deal, then press on, perhaps at first with cyber warfare and terrorism. He’s not going to stop if he thinks he can steal more.

Many people who voted for Brexit now regret what they did. Such feelings even have a rather ugly name: https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-poll/ And immigration remains a problem. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/uk/uk-net-migration-figures-gbr-intl/index.html Britain still has to negotiate trade deals but as one medium-sized country that’s turning out to be far more difficult than predicted by Brexiteers all those years ago. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-uk-trade-cheese-1.7094817 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/18/joe-biden-signals-he-has-no-interest-in-signing-us-uk-trade-agreement It is said that no man is an island. Well, it turns out that no island is an island either. Any country that desires a standard of living ahead of North Korea’s needs good relationships with other countries. Absolute sovereignty does not exist. Leaving a bloc which contained so many major trading partners was a rash decision opposed in two of the UK’s non-sovereign ‘countries’, more like provinces, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as London whose wealth sustains the whole shebang. Such internal divisions make the future of the UK itself less certain. As Andrew Coyne noted recently, many european countries have surpassed Canada’s GDP per capita. They certainly don’t have to depend on intergenerational wealth to live like us. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-is-no-longer-one-of-the-richest-nations-on-earth-country-after/ And as for social mobility by country… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index

Let’s be fair to Democrats. They also do their bit to help the rich. Over the years both parties have found ways to ease the path for friends and donors. And one particularly clever scheme has been perfected by our old friends at the big accounting outfits - if you don’t like the tax rules, change them. From the NYT. The largest U.S. accounting firms have perfected a remarkably effective behind-the-scenes system to promote their interests in Washington. Their tax lawyers take senior jobs at the Treasury Department, where they write policies that are frequently favorable to their former corporate clients, often with the expectation that they will soon return to their old employers. The firms welcome them back with loftier titles and higher pay, according to public records reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with current and former government and industry officials. It was funny to see Republicans vocally denying last night that they will try to renew Trump’s tax breaks for the rich. With Democrats you get high taxes and high spending; with Republicans these days it’s low taxes and high spending.

Both parties have failed. As I pointed out, both Democrats and Republicans employ vast numbers of illegals. Ordinary Americans prefer not to think this matter through. While they may not want to compete with illegals in their own industry, they prefer not to consider their effect on the price of tomatoes or of all the guys who go to work at 4am to keep America clean, not to mention all those nannies and gardeners who come in handy. A radical solution to illegal immigration is very unlikely to happen. So there is an acceptable level of illegality in this matter?

I’m sceptical about arguments regarding the unique evil of a particular group or nation. They’re usually in some way opposed to us for a start. Secondly, do they decide to be evil? That would require free will to exist and I’m afraid the evidence is making the room for free will in any decision ever smaller despite our powerful subjective experience of it.

Everything? So you don’t believe in threatening the employers of illegal workers with jail time? Believe me, over time would have a definite effect on the flow of migrants into the country.

Are the following statements true or false: 1. Many Republican voters and donors to the Republican Party hire illegal workers. 2. The US agricultural sector is currently dependent on illegal workers. Immigration reform has to be realistic and recognize the magnitude of the problem. If Republicans could get everything they wanted tomorrow on immigration there’s no way they would take it because sending everybody home would crash the economy. As far as I can see Republicans are happier complaining about the problem than trying to solve it. Like so many Americans they can’t do without illegals.

I think both parties need to be honest on the subject. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/5-questions-about-president-trumps-use-of-undocumented-workers/2019/12/04/29439928-16a2-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html Why reject a bipartisan bill on immigration? Yes, the law should be obeyed but America has become dependent on work by illegal migrants. Just imagine what would happen to the hospitals etc. down there, not to mention the fruit and vegetables in our stores in Canada, if they were all abruptly sent home one day. One key change would be to punish those who employ illegals. Otherwise America shows it is not serious about this.

I had to look it up and was surprised by the result myself.

Let’s get real here. Why don’t Republicans go after the major employers of illegal migrants in America, e.g. farmers, builders, hoteliers etc.? Might it be because many of them are Republicans too? https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/07/21/tim-michels-troubles-expose-republican-hypocrisy-on-immigration/

Is our planet carbon-based? Life is based on carbon but it’s not that abundant in the earth’s crust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust

Insightful, my painful backside, just a bunch of balloons yelling at each other.

Where did you learn this retro vocabulary about Catholics? These days, people with any education in Scotland would be embarrassed by you.