US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6969

On February 25 2017 14:03 Plansix wrote:

If you want an argument that you can constantly go back to and point at numbers, money is a good place to go. But even you are not stupid enough to say it is the largest concern when it comes to refugees. Our reputation as a nation matters and its pretty shit right now. Every expert on terrorism has said that the refugee ban is an ISIS recruiter's dream.

On February 25 2017 14:04 Ghostcom wrote:


Cost reduction is just a fraction of the compelling argument for helping people closer to their point of origin rather than trying to import them.

On February 25 2017 14:07 Plansix wrote:

Refugees don't want to go back, so I fail to see the point. They apply. They do not want to return home and will take literally any county that will have them. And we are the most picky out of all refugee accepting nations. Not accepting them will do more damage long term to US reputation abroad and place our citizen in danger for years, if not longer.

On February 25 2017 14:28 LegalLord wrote:
Obamacare replacement has been leaked.
Document
Summary

On February 25 2017 08:26 Blisse wrote:
Yes, building a wall is just a metaphor for wanting a stricter immigration policy. Except that's not what many of his supporters mean and that's not what Trump plans and then continually flip-flops on. It didn't take radscorpion some killer intellect to diagnose what was wrong, it's right out there in front. And another note to the shitposters out there: you can still oppose Trump and understand why he's President and generally getting away with doing what he's doing. Context:

The seriously vs literally drivel is complete bollocks. You just cherry pick what Trump does and decide if it should be taken seriously or literally to fit whatever position you want because Trump changes his platforms so often that you feel justified in defending any one of all positions he's taken, and all his defenders/supporters choose whichever one of multiple positions he takes that fits their ideas of him. Absurd.

PITTSBURGH—“Running for president is a very important endeavor,” Donald Trump said. “What is more important, right?”

He leaned forward on his chair, separated by a heavy black curtain in a makeshift green room from the crowd waiting to hear him speak at the Shale Insight Conference.

“I am running because, number one, I think I will do a very good job. Number two, it’s really about making American great again.” He paused, as if realizing that repeating his campaign slogan might not seem genuine.

“I mean that; I really do want to make America great again,” he said. “That is what it is all about.”

The 70-year-old Republican nominee took his time walking from the green room toward the stage. He stopped to chat with the waiters, service workers, police officers, and other convention staffers facilitating the event. There were no selfies, no glad-handing for votes, no trailing television cameras. Out of view of the press, Trump warmly greets everyone he sees, asks how they are, and, when he can, asks for their names and what they do.

“I am blown away!” said one worker, an African American man who asked for anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. “The man I just saw there talking to people is nothing like what I’ve seen, day in and day out, in the news.”

Just before he takes the stage, I ask whether there’s one question that reporters never ask but that he wishes they would. He laughs. “Honestly, at this stage, I think they’ve asked them all.”

Then he stops in his tracks before pulling back the curtain and answers, so quietly that is almost a whisper: “You know, I consider myself to be a nice person. And I am not sure they ever like to talk about that.”

On stage, Trump began by addressing the unrest in Charlotte. He praised police, condemned “violent protestors,” and called for unity. “The people who will suffer the most as a result of these riots are law-abiding African American residents who live in these communities,” he said.

Turning to the subject at hand, Trump proceeded to tell shale-industry executives from around the country about his “America First energy plan” that, he vowed, would sideline the Obama administration’s climate-change blueprint, ease regulations, and support the construction of energy-based infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines.

The plan, he insisted, would revive the slumping shale-oil and -gas industries, beset by low prices for several years, and “unleash massive wealth for American workers and families.”

Troy Roach of Denver, Colorado, has seen how the reversal of fortunes in the shale and natural gas industries affected his own community. The 46-year-old vice president of health, safety and environment at Antero Resources says he was open-minded about voting and thought about Hillary Clinton, but ultimately decided on Trump.

“With her, there is too much uncertainty on how she will work with the industry,” he said. “I look at my company and the impact it has had, not only with jobs but charitable work in the area. Just last week we bought a truck for the local EMS.”

Clinton also was invited to speak at the conference but declined, organizers said. In March, during a town-hall discussion of the transition to “clean energy,” the Democratic nominee declared: “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Later, she declared it a “misstatement.” Two weeks ago, she again ignited controversy, describing half of Trump’s supporters as coming from a “basket of deplorables … racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”

Like Barack Obama’s description of his opponent’s supporters—“they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion”—eight years ago in San Francisco, Hillary’s remarks appalled many voters in this region, many of whom work in the energy sector or are affected by it. [...]

The best way, he says, is to provide good education and good jobs in these areas. “Fifty-eight percent of black youth cannot get a job, cannot work,” he says. “Fifty-eight percent. If you are not going to bring jobs back, it is just going to continue to get worse and worse.”

It’s a claim that drives fact-checkers to distraction. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the unemployment rate for blacks between the ages of 16 and 24 at 20.6 percent. Trump prefers to use its employment-population ratio, a figure that shows only 41.5 percent of blacks in that age bracket are working. But that means he includes full time high-school and college students among the jobless.

It’s a familiar split. When he makes claims like this, the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.

On February 25 2017 13:57 Plansix wrote:
The cost saving plan is not a compelling argument. Cost efficiency is not a major concern when providing aid to a humanitarian crisis. The argument can be made that it is cheaper, but refugees are still going to apply for refugee status.

But it is an easy argument to hang your hat on, because the number for not helping refugees come to your country will always be lower. And if you hold that to be the most important factor against all reason, you are unbeatable.

Edit: 25 billion a year across all of the US. Pocket change. And we are not even taking in as many as Germany. We got this. EZPZ.

Edit 2: not sold on the idea of top secret camps helping end the war.