Is the US President supposed to represent all the people?

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Then you don't think the US should have any immigration laws?

Either that, or abide by the laws they do have. Not ignore them at their convenience and then go ballistic in misapplying them when a scapegoat is needed. A third alternative would be to make constitutional, sensible, enforceable and consistent laws.

Personally I can't see what Americans are moaning about.

Every-goddam-thing. And the moaning regularly erupts in gunfire.

Your population is big enough to absorb probably ten times as many immigrants as you take, without swamping the host population.

Our population is a little under 32 million, and we've already set a higher quota on refugees than the US has.

Many countries don't have that luxury.

In the US - as in many countries - luxury is increasingly concentrated in a small percentage of the population, while it recedes from the reach of the masses. The masses are, justifiably, anxious, and thus easy to turn against designated fellow victims. Trump is a particularly irresponsible tosser of hapless fish to other hapless fish.

I assumed you must live there. The US population is certainly big enough to absorb a large number of immigrants. I wouldn't comment on the US immigration policy-- immigration is a country's own business--except to say that as the US caused the muslim refugee crisis, it should be taking most of them. It's a bit rich of them the blow up their countries then expect the rest of the world to try to clean up the mess it's left.

[Skip]

I assumed you must live there.

No, but way too close for comfort!

The US population is certainly big enough to absorb a large number of immigrants.

That's a difficult situation to assess. They have never been a homogeneous or coherent population: after the hideous mistake of instituting a republic that enslaves a distinct visible minority, and introducing even a partial democracy to a loose and uneven federation with unfinished genocides at its frontiers and traditional enemies on both flanks, it also encouraged large influxes of particular European populations that had never gotten along on the old continent, and allowing several mutually hostile Christian sects far too much legal and economic leeway.
The American population has never been the "melting pot" they like to lie about; even as a patchwork, it's always had armed and irritable regional boundaries. The problem is very much further compounded by disparate states with their own rights, robber barons, huge land grants, the unregulated railway and resource exploitation, with all their importation of cheap labour, that little unresolved fracas in 1865, a bunch of constitutional amendments that don't match up well with the local enforcement agencies and their prerogatives.

... It's a bit rich of them the blow up their countries then expect the rest of the world to try to clean up the mess it's left.

Which empire has not done similarly?... and then demanded to purge "their own" country for whatever they defined as the native people?

[Hobbes' Choice]

*

The sub-cutaneous chip (SCC), would be provided free of charge as one of the many benefits of status and good citizenship, but designer chips with complimentary tattoos would open up a new industry of employment for those humans displaced by the scanners. The chips will be as ubiquitous as smart-phones, but less obvious. :

Welcome to the machine.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I assumed you must live there.

No, but way too close for comfort!

The US population is certainly big enough to absorb a large number of immigrants.

That's a difficult situation to assess. They have never been a homogeneous or coherent population: after the hideous mistake of instituting a republic that enslaves a distinct visible minority, and introducing even a partial democracy to a loose and uneven federation with unfinished genocides at its frontiers and traditional enemies on both flanks, it also encouraged large influxes of particular European populations that had never gotten along on the old continent, and allowing several mutually hostile Christian sects far too much legal and economic leeway.
The American population has never been the "melting pot" they like to lie about; even as a patchwork, it's always had armed and irritable regional boundaries. The problem is very much further compounded by disparate states with their own rights, robber barons, huge land grants, the unregulated railway and resource exploitation, with all their importation of cheap labour, that little unresolved fracas in 1865, a bunch of constitutional amendments that don't match up well with the local enforcement agencies and their prerogatives.

... It's a bit rich of them the blow up their countries then expect the rest of the world to try to clean up the mess it's left.

Which empire has not done similarly?... and then demanded to purge "their own" country for whatever they defined as the native people?

We have rather bigger weapons now. Justifying today by harking back to the past isn't helpful to anyone. Humans can't afford to be warmongers any more. Not when we have weapons that can wipe everyone and everything out. Unfortunately humanity hasn't matured at a rate equal to its technological advances.

[Skip]

We have rather bigger weapons now. Justifying today by harking back to the past isn't helpful to anyone.

No, it wouldn't. And the size of the weapons has very little moral suasion at any time; it isn't more or less ethical to decapitate people than to explode them; it isn't really better to torture sequentially than concurrently.
I was attempting to explain the state of affairs. Not only in the US: Britain and France are also having to to deal with the chickens that come home to roost, and not doing it very well. The USSR has spawned its own mess of imperial problems.

Humans can't afford to be warmongers any more. Not when we have weapons that can wipe everyone and everything out. Unfortunately humanity hasn't matured at a rate equal to its technological advances.

Why tell me? I don't have my chubby stubby grubby fingers on a nuclear button.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

We have rather bigger weapons now. Justifying today by harking back to the past isn't helpful to anyone.

No, it wouldn't. And the size of the weapons has very little moral suasion at any time; it isn't more or less ethical to decapitate people than to explode them; it isn't really better to torture sequentially than concurrently.
I was attempting to explain the state of affairs. Not only in the US: Britain and France are also having to to deal with the chickens that come home to roost, and not doing it very well. The USSR has spawned its own mess of imperial problems.

Humans can't afford to be warmongers any more. Not when we have weapons that can wipe everyone and everything out. Unfortunately humanity hasn't matured at a rate equal to its technological advances.

Why tell me? I don't have my chubby stubby grubby fingers on a nuclear button.

I was looking at it from in a practical way. Another World War = no more humans. Preaching morality isn't going to make an iota of difference to warmongers (and they are evidently in the majority). Yes, there were protests against the Iraq invasion, but there's been barely a peep about it since. Instead, soldier thugs have attained almost god-like status, automatically earning the label of 'hero'. The Vietnam war protests were more about concern for the number of American dead than any empathy towards the Vietnamese people. Plus, the draft meant young people had a vested interest in ending it.

[Greta]

Yes, there were protests against the Iraq invasion, but there's been barely a peep about it since.

I remember the excitement as I found we had a quarter of a million people marching. People power! Surely Howard can't ignore this? The gathering was FAR too large to be "professional protesters". Comes the news and Howard is interviewed. His comment, "Oh well, everyone is entitled to their opinion", and that was that.

People with busy jobs and families don't have the time or opportunity to keep taking to the streets. So we lost comprehensively. Utterly. At that point I realised that individuals truly are powerless today. The other reminder was when Dad's new Toyota had known issues from the start. He wrote to them. Their response was a polite "fuck off". Once there was a time when a customer's opinion mattered and companies would go to great pains to preserve their reputation. Now there's so many people, and various checks and balances have been so deconstructed, that large companies (and governments) can blithely ignore complaints - lose one customer and another ten turn up.

[Skip]

I was looking at it from in a practical way. Another World War = no more humans.

And that's a bad thing....?

Preaching morality isn't going to make an iota of difference to warmongers

Probably not. I wouldn't recommend doing it, even if there were a possibility of converting some: Look what happened to John Brown.
Jesus, too, but his self-styled followers have better music to march to on their way to turn someone's other cheek to pulp also.

(and they are evidently in the majority).

Most of them aren't mongers, but dupes. But once the lust for violence infects them, they're ashamed to disengage from the gang mind.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I was looking at it from in a practical way. Another World War = no more humans.

And that's a bad thing....?

Neither good nor bad. Just the way it is. Plus, we aren't the only species that would perish of course. Cockroaches might be ok though.

[Arising_uk]

...
On that same train of thought, sub-cutaneous ID chips would be a tremendous cost savings for national security. Random transponder checkpoints could act as filters during sweeps of illegals, speeding up the process of ID checks.

The personal ID chips, which would likely contain much information, would be treated sort of like a gold-card. Scanners would eliminate the need for conscientious-citizen chip-holders to endure the indignities of human intervention in random street pat-downs.

The sub-cutaneous chip (SCC), would be provided free of charge as one of the many benefits of status and good citizenship, but designer chips with complimentary tattoos would open up a new industry of employment for those humans displaced by the scanners. The chips will be as ubiquitous as smart-phones, but less obvious.

Of course the implants will be voluntary, after all, it is a free country. But few workers, already weary from cost of living, will pass up incentives for the free and painless procedure of implant. Incentives such as income tax breaks, non-harassment from the authorities, and elevation from the lowlife status of the non-chippers with their cheap cars and clothes, as depicted in song and film and media opinion.

In the TV jingles people will sing, I’m chipper! You can be a chipper too!”

Disney will make an animated film about the life of a chip named Oliver Twist.

Brilliant! And scarily prophetic I think.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Real news.

He said he would do this.

Homeland Security unveils sweeping plan to deport undocumented immigrants

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /98190192/

*

If in doubt make sure your papers are in order.
Most notable is the authority of anyone with a badge to question a human being’s right to walk the streets and breathe the air.

The infrastructure is now in place, thanks to President Obama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fO-usAlqak

To be fair, why wouldn't the US deport people who aren't allowed to be there? Especially those who have committed crimes. Isn't this normal practice? The US has had strict immigration laws for a long time. Why are people acting as if this is a completely new phenomenon?
The trouble with Trump is that he doesn't have a clue how to talk like a politician, as his rare press conferences have made painfully clear. This has made him a figure of ridicule. I don't happen to think being good at political-speak bullshit is a sign of high intelligence. It's often quite the opposite. People who can't answer difficult (or even simple) questions become adept at sounding as if they can, without actually saying anything.
Mike Penis is by far the scarier figure, and he's only a hair's width away from the top job.

On that same train of thought, sub-cutaneous ID chips would be a tremendous cost savings for national security. Random transponder checkpoints could act as filters during sweeps of illegals, speeding up the process of ID checks.

The personal ID chips, which would likely contain much information, would be treated sort of like a gold-card. Scanners would eliminate the need for conscientious-citizen chip-holders to endure the indignities of human intervention in random street pat-downs.

The sub-cutaneous chip (SCC), would be provided free of charge as one of the many benefits of status and good citizenship, but designer chips with complimentary tattoos would open up a new industry of employment for those humans displaced by the scanners. The chips will be as ubiquitous as smart-phones, but less obvious.

Of course the implants will be voluntary, after all, it is a free country. But few workers, already weary from cost of living, will pass up incentives for the free and painless procedure of implant. Incentives such as income tax breaks, non-harassment from the authorities, and elevation from the lowlife status of the non-chippers with their cheap cars and clothes, as depicted in song and film and media opinion.

In the TV jingles people will sing, I’m chipper! You can be a chipper too!”

Disney will make an animated film about the life of a chip named Oliver Twist.

See? You can make sense when you put your mind to it, although I'm not entirely convinced that this is supposed to be satirical. You are , after all, a huge Trump fan.

[Skip]

... we aren't the only species that would perish [in the next world war] of course

.
Would they fare any better if we stuck around and kept proliferating, requiring more and more energy, more and more raw material, more and more space, more and more and more and more ....?

Cockroaches might be ok though.

With all those lovely rads to promote mutation, they'll be just like us before God knows what hit him.

[Greta]

... we aren't the only species that would perish [in the next world war] of course

.
Would they fare any better if we stuck around and kept proliferating, requiring more and more energy, more and more raw material, more and more space, more and more and more and more ....?

Cockroaches might be ok though.

With all those lovely rads to promote mutation, they'll be just like us before God knows what hit him.

Yup, we were always going to be unsustainable. The ancient doomsday prophesies were probably based on the suspicion that their activities were already unsustainable in the long term.

I personally think enough humans and technology will survive this to keep advancing etc. If worst came to worst, though, rats would seem a good candidate to carry on - smart, eat just about anything, super tough, breed like crazy, handlike front paws. I suspect they'd be a bit like us - until their first excavations revealed advanced human technology. Their progress would go through the roof, which I guess means they'd probably be too immature to handle their empowerment and wipe themselves out in extra quick time.

Maybe then it would be the roaches' turn? :)

[Skip]

I wonder what the Trump-analogue on Planet of the Rodents will wear on its head.
And whether he'll represent all the rats filling up their rallies or alleys that nobody knows where they came from.

[Walker]

See? You can make sense when you put your mind to it, although I'm not entirely convinced that this is supposed to be satirical. You are , after all, a huge Trump fan.

Underdog Trump.

Just a humble fan of the truth noting that one who had it all really did not need to step into the quagmire of generations on behalf of the people and the principle of truth. But for some reason or t’other, he had to.

Trump has a strong ego.
Strong ego is only a personality trait.
No one has ego as a motive.
Ego is method of motive.

What do you think is the motive of President Donald J. Trump, POTUS?