Would you feel better if he used "Tonkin'd the Gulf" instead?
Asking for an enduro closeter.......
Donald Trump’s Presidency 2017 - 2021 AND 2025-202X
Asking for an enduro closeter.......
Opinion | The Nightmare Stage of Trump’s Rule Is Here (Published 2020)
Unstable and impeached, the president pushes the U.S. toward war with Iran.
:does cocaine furiously:Opinion | The Nightmare Stage of Trump’s Rule Is Here (Published 2020)
Unstable and impeached, the president pushes the U.S. toward war with Iran.www.nytimes.com
To the people who say "the left" isn't giving him a chance, and have had it out for him from the beginning, this is the sort of thing that we knew was coming.
www.nytimes.com
These decisions are back-asswards, and any infrastructure built today or in the next 4-5 years (heaven forbid), will lock-in emissions for the next 40-70 years. He's not just fucking shit up in your country, he's fucking shit up for the planet. for no good reason other than "to make the libtard, snowflake, cucks cry". That's great fucking policy. bravo.
Trump Rule Would Exclude Climate Change in Infrastructure Planning (Published 2020)
The administration will propose that federal agencies be allowed to disregard climate change when assessing the environmental effects of major projects.
These decisions are back-asswards, and any infrastructure built today or in the next 4-5 years (heaven forbid), will lock-in emissions for the next 40-70 years. He's not just fucking shit up in your country, he's fucking shit up for the planet. for no good reason other than "to make the libtard, snowflake, cucks cry". That's great fucking policy. bravo.
Are you guys serious about this?! France had mandatory military service up till Y2K or thereabouts. Class discrimination was alive and well despite "everyone being in it together". Rich kids would get cushy assignments managing logistics or sitting in an office somewhere, and poorer kids would be digging ditches or build latrines or some horseshit. You could go the "conscientious objector" route if you were willing to donate 2x the months, but then you'd get assigned to a position that would related to your field of study or something.
This system was not all bad, but by and large, connections and social status ensured a much different experience. It was the very definition of cronyism, imo.
I was a dual citizen of Canada and France for a while. At 18, i had to choose where to live. The military service was still a thing back then, and I just couldn't abide, even if I was able to secure some sort of dispensation...
I'm curious where this was... As I mentioned above, the system is not necessarily all bad, but there is a lot of latitude for cronyism in a system such as this.
unless you were shipped off and came back in a box.
and yet you're ok with Trump doing this to others, by actually physically separating them, by force. What ever happened to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". From where I stand, this looks precisely like "I have mine, now GTFO".
I likely would have ended up in something brain related, given my academic testing at the time. Others I know from HS who were in the same or lower testing range all ended up in non-combat positions.
Absolutely. I said this in 2017
Soooooo........Basically the system we've always had?
How many wars of choice has France engaged in since WW2? Serious question. A brief google search gives me a pretty comprehensive list of "modern" French military involvement, but I honestly don't know enough about modern French politics/history to know how many of these were "wars of choice", so to speak.
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I was a 90's kid. Everyone I know who did a turn did 4-5 years during one of the most prosperous and peaceful decades this country has ever enjoyed, you know, when it was a SUPER BIG DEAL that the president got a BJ. I sometimes regret no joining the military, god knows I could have used some direction. Should have been a Coastie like my dad.
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that's my point too. it doesn't change anything. so instead of opting for a new system, why not try and make the existing system better?
I'm not going to argue with that list, especially since I chose to live in Canada and I'm not really current with French politics. That said, I know they were, and remain, very active in Africa.
Yeah - the compulsory service program isn't a panacea... but as pointed out earlier, there are a LOT of kids that could use some "reality" before making a decision to head into higher education, etc.
In my travels over the years, I've come across a good number of Peace Corps kids. Maybe make this compulsory, rather than the military? Seems like a worthy endeavor.
Yeah - military/civil service. Just some actual "work" would be good for a lot of these kids. Shit - my kids could use it. Pushups can only do so much.
Ahh.....But it does, depending on how you answer the second part, no? Active in Africa because you've convinced the nation that "National Interest" or because "Military Industrial Dick Swinging"? We all know the French love a good protest, so it stands to reason, does it not, that if the public is ready to burn Avenue des Champs-Élysées over a gas tax/and or world cup game, it would stand to reason they would do the same over an unpopular war where anyones kid might be the one coming back in a box, right? Hell, they protested our wars of choice. Remember how fucking stupid "freedom fries" was?
Americans don't have the same skin in the game. Not my kid, not me, someone else will do it, etc. They "knew what they signed up for" when they "volunteer". That's the mentality.
I've also said that.
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Military service is no longer a thing in France. So their army is now "professional" (aka volunteers). I think they maintain a presence in Africa for the same reasons any other G7 country does - natural resources. There may be vestiges of colonialism, but IMO, it's about the resources.
Back when they had compulsory military service, and went to war (indochina and algeria) the ruling class was indeed directly involved in the fighting. mostly because they were trying to protect their colonial acquisitions. I've drank with a few of those people, and the stories they tell are horrifying. make you want to lose faith in humanity level shit. this is why I'm not for war - any war. it defeats the humanity in us. no matter how noble, no matter how justified, it can extinguish the last flicker of beauty that resides within us, and I question whether it's ever really worth it.
Oh, don't get me wrong. This hippie has pacifist all over him, and that's my point. I firmly believe that one of the biggest contributors to 'Murica being so "Fuck it bomb everyone" is because they can justify it through so called "professional army" being the ones that take care of it. The absolute biggest, militaristic, warmongering, bellicose, "Oh Rah!" assholes I know have neither served, or have any chances of any one they know serving. It's not just about giving some 18 year olds something to do.
This is where I would give you rep, IF I STILL COULD!
Germany, and I’m not saying that the system was perfect, far from it actually, but that I gained invaluable experience from my very particular service. First of all, military service was the default option and the type of community service I did required you to go the conscientious objector route, which admittedly wasn‘t terribly hard as you only needed to write a letter to the military explaining your reasoning for declining to serve and hope it would get accepted. Oh, and of course as community service was just an afterthought when this was implemented in the 50s, only males were required to serve, which is why this system had no business being continued in this form, even though it was abandoned for other reasons.
Overall, German society is more egalitarian than France and the elite have far less opportunity to stick to themselves and game the system. The high school I went was predominantly made up of kids from upper middle class families, and I can only recall one guy from my graduating class getting an exemption due to an issue with his spine. I honestly don’t know how the assignment process within the military branches worked, but everyone had to undergo the same basic training and I’ve never heard that kids from well off families had an easier time or that their families could exert any influence once they had completed basic training. The one point where the bettter off kids might have been at an advantage could have been the faking or exaggeration of medical conditions that could get you an exemption. It’s certainly easier to claim bone spurs if your parents happen to play tennis with a bunch of doctors, but nevertheless your fitness for service would be assessed by a military doctor.
What I really liked on the community service side was that you could either wait to be assigned to a job or proactively look for one that appealed to you. As I was still inexplicably idealistic at the time, I put in some effort to get my job working in an ER and doing night shifts while a lot of my friends showed remarkable aptitude in finding the least challenging jobs possible and managed to substantially out-party me.
I certainly don’t want the old system back, but I’m all for an updated version that doesn’t have military service as a default and applies to all genders. There are lots of instances where the upper classes can employ their power to gain advantages for their offspring over here, but the compulsory service system was thankfully no such case. I came out of it with a far better sense of the society I was living in and my status as a citizen, while at the same time becoming more aware of my privileges and the safe middle class bubble I had grown up in.
They are here illegally, they crossed the boarder illegally at that point they were separated. Its not like our boarder patrols wonder over the border capture immigrants, bring them to the US and then separate them. End of the day, laws were broken. Is this right? Probably not, however it's meant to protect the children from the bad adults that may harm them. What is your solution to the problem that does not involve using more tax payer dollars than we already are?
We need workers desperately here. Give the adults green cards and ss numbers, tax them, and educate their children to be the next generation. let the wives open restaurants and clean houses, and let them pull themselves up from their Zapatos. There you go.
"meant to protect the children from the bad adults that may harm them"? That's bullshit.
I have zero problems with that. If they can come here and be self sufficient, by all means! However not using tax payers dollars, collecting welfare, medical etc. I guess that would require people to step up and sponsor a family as many come here with nothing. I wonder how many would actually do that?
This is where we differ in philosophy. I believe that it is appropriate for the government to provide the services you describe.
One problem with military service at that age is you really don’t know that the fuck you are doing at 18 years old. You don’t make reasonable and sound life decisions due to brain development. You don’t understand that you can come home in a box. Same with college loans and the impact, etc. Make the age 30 years old. That’s when you start. I’d love to see that.
Obviously they are safer in the hands of Border Patrol/ICE.
Criminal misconduct by US border officers has reached a 5-year high
The offenses range from fraud to capital murder, according to an internal government report obtained exclusively by Quartz.
qz.com
Chicken and egg. Give them a fucking chance, and see how they do. Here, they are the hardest working mother-fuckers in town.
"ThEy TerK Er JuRbS!"
At a bare minimum they should be able to apply for asylum in accordance with international norms and laws.
I am curious if anyone has any data related to Brian's assertion that undocumented immigrants / refugees use our social services. My own experience has been with my Japanese wife and she wasn't even counted as a member of my household for SNAP or other means tested welfare since she had not resided in the US for five years.
So I find the idea that undocumented immigrants somehow use welfare they do not qualify for and become a burden to the state hard to swallow.
When in reality if they are *using* a ss# to gain employment they are paying into our system, but will never be eligible for said benefits when they age.
Damn lazy freeloaders indeed.
I am curious if anyone has any data related to Brian's assertion that undocumented immigrants / refugees use our social services. My own experience has been with my Japanese wife and she wasn't even counted as a member of my household for SNAP or other means tested welfare since she had not resided in the US for five years.
So I find the idea that undocumented immigrants somehow use welfare they do not qualify for and become a burden to the state hard to swallow.
When in reality if they are *using* a ss# to gain employment they are paying into our system, but will never be eligible for said benefits when they age.
Damn lazy freeloaders indeed.
Every undocumented worker here I know (and I know a lot) go to the local doc in a box and pay cash for care so they don’t end up in any database anywhere. Same for basically all other social services.
UnTaXeD Ca$h!
This is a snip-it from the Hill 4/2019
The costs of illegal immigration are comprehensive. Even after deducting the $19 billion in taxes paid by illegal immigrants, the 12.5 million of them living in the country results in a $116 billion burden on the economy and taxpayers each year. About two-thirds of this amount is absorbed by local and state taxpayers, who are often the least unable to share the costs.
That's still a good chunk of coin
Shit! Every undocumented worker that uses fake SS numbers has fed taxes pulled out but nobody ever claims anything!
Thanks for link. Unfortunately the John Stanton Network that funds FAIR is far from impartial.
I find data that includes sources to have higher credibility.
I find data that includes sources to have higher credibility.
llp
Not necessarily.
1099 workers don't have any taxes pulled (despite providing 'SSN') and then can skate at year end by never filing and using a new number the following year.
A friend of mine almost got dinged by IRS for $500k due to this but he hired a PI, tracked them down and proved to IRS that he followed law in hiring.
The government has no handle on this and it's rampant in the trades.
Well I suppose I am speaking for what is common around here in the agriculture community. Our farm hires H2A seasonal farm workers, Mexican nationals who come up for 6 months a year. They don't pay taxes on their paychecks. But they are here legally.
Another thought about the "burden" of illegal immigrants. A quick Google search put the Washington State apple crop at a value of 2.5 billion dollars. Without illegal immigrants there is no apple crop. No cherries, no pears, no vegetables, no chicken, no beef.
Illegal immigrants make this nation what it is today. The cost and availability of food in every corner of this nation is directly tied to the presence of illegal immigrants. So when we look at all the agriculture, construction, landscaping, and everything else, they are contributing major dollars to their employers and the economy in general.
That said I am seeing a growing demographic of people who are finding that if they stop working and start making babies they can live off federal assistance.
Nothings for free! Living off the government has it's own consequences that may not be apparent immediately.
Another thought about the "burden" of illegal immigrants. A quick Google search put the Washington State apple crop at a value of 2.5 billion dollars. Without illegal immigrants there is no apple crop. No cherries, no pears, no vegetables, no chicken, no beef.
Illegal immigrants make this nation what it is today. The cost and availability of food in every corner of this nation is directly tied to the presence of illegal immigrants. So when we look at all the agriculture, construction, landscaping, and everything else, they are contributing major dollars to their employers and the economy in general.
That said I am seeing a growing demographic of people who are finding that if they stop working and start making babies they can live off federal assistance.
Nothings for free! Living off the government has it's own consequences that may not be apparent immediately.
Given that there's too many people on this planet, breeding shouldn't be encouraged with subsidies and tax benefits.