12-13-2018, 04:01 PM
(12-13-2018, 12:30 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:I'm sorry but sitting around reading books for fun/pleasure and writing personal essays and learning about stuff that doesn't interest me or matter to me and my life just ain't my cup of tea. How much time do you spend reading stuff and learning about stuff and adding more stuff to personal knowledge vs the time spent doing stuff and learning from/by doing stuff and accomplishing stuff. I think you know what I've been doing since I graduated from vocational school/technical college (Fancier term), I haven't been spending time with bunch of former academics, talking with academics, debating with academics, feeding/stroking academic ego's, attempting to impress academic's or fit in with academics and competing with academics for academic stature or prowess and attacking or mocking people who's academic stature isn't perceived as being up to par with theirs or the academic view that they had once established for/of themselves.(12-13-2018, 12:34 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(12-12-2018, 11:10 AM)David Horn Wrote: Let's start with the caravan, if that's even the right word for a group of unarmed poor people fleeing danger. Do they all have an asylum right? Probably not, though it's incredibly stupid of us not to try our best to address the problems they face back in their home countries. Having them come or not come is not an open question. They will come if it seems less scary than staying. After all, it's not a trivial journey. Could you walk 1000 miles?
Of those we call illegals, 40% are here legally, though they overstayed their visas. Many, if not most, are skilled tradesmen. "Legals" differ from "illegals" by virtue of H-1B visas, that are a giveaway to large companies, providing highly skilled engineers and other STEM-H professionals to those companies at below market rates. So it comes down to cui bono: who benefits. Arguably, the entire country benefits from immigrants arriving here. The3 real issue: how do we assure native Americans that they are not put at a disadvantage, and that's an entirely different discussion.
And please, give me a break on this hyper-patriotism that pervades the right. Most people in the military or first responders are just doing a job … one that tends to pay well and has good benefits. So do teachers, but they don't seem to get recognized for it. Carrying a gun into a dangerous situation is actually less scary than walking in unarmed.
Does entering illegally or staying illegally really matter when we're talking about legality and legal status? Does term honesty really apply to people who are guilty of stuff that most Americans would most likely view as being dishonest or associate with dishonesty? Dude, the politics has already been shifted to one side (you're side). If you haven't noticed, the Republican voters got rid of some opposition to Trump policies and some who were unable to work as Republicans in the house. I can't blame the Trump supporters for not showing up and supporting a Republican candidate who is opposed to using tariffs or failed to deliver on a promise to replace Obamacare with a bill that's focused on lowering healthcare costs or not supporting a party who doesn't seem to be supportive of him. Nope, I'm going to blame them or label them as deplorable or make excuses for the Republican party and so forth.
Good people do what they must do for the survival of themselves and the welfare of their families. To do anything less would characterize them as complicit in their own misery.
As far as I can tell, the Republican voters of 2010 and 2014 who were the keys to Republican wave elections going for the GOP sdtill came out to vote if they had not died or become unable to vote. A huge number of people who have not usually voted in midterm elections came out to vote -- people mostly under 40 (largely Millennial with some late-wave X) much more liberal than the electorates of 2010 and 2014. That makes a huge difference in the composition of the House of Representatives and kept Democrats from getting shellacked in the Senate. Republicans can count on keeping most of their typical voters of 2010 and 2014 going to the polls and voting for near-fascists. But consider something that happened in a state that is you state's neighbor to the east: Scott Walker, a vehemently right-wing Governor elected in 2010 and 2014 who has seemingly never found a corporate interest that he did not serve when he had the choice of doing something liberal, was defeated in 2018. Wisconsin is a highly-polarized swing state, but it voted in the Congressional election as if it were a very Blue state.
More people will come out to vote in 2020 than in 2016 or 2018, and the new voters will largely be under 40. In view of the pattern in House elections, such bodes ill for Trump. Democrats outdid Republicans in states that together have 285 electoral votes, a fair warning for 2020. I expect the Presidential vote to be as hostile to Trump in 2020 in those states than it was toward House Republicans, and that will be enough with which about any Democrat can win the electoral votes of enough states. Things will probably be worse for Republicans in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio, too. President Trump will need miracles or extreme dirty work with which to get re-elected. He will not be able to count on Democratic Governors or Secretaries of State in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin to do his electoral dirty work.
Quote:So, if illegal immigration primarily benefits wealthy elites and wealthy corporations and proposes a threat to higher wage American workers who are more likely to vote Democratic based on what I've been told by liberals about the makeup of their political base these days. Why are blues opposed to cracking down on illegal immigrants and shoring up border security and tightening up/strengthening our rather lose immigration laws? You're a blue, do you think the money and tax dollars associated with those elites and corporations has something to with their hesitance.
It does -- and that is hypocrisy. It helps sweatshop owners who supply cheap clothes to American clothing stores. It aids agribusiness whose giant-scale corporate farmers hire the bulk of illegal aliens who do farm labor or do much of the work in dairy and meat-processing establishments. That could be a divide in the GOP in 2020 -- and in view of the hypocrisy inevitable among people who believe that no human suffering can ever be in excess so long as it allows ostentatious splendor and unrestrained indulgence, that could create some rifts in a cadre Party that deserves them.
There is another side. I am thinking that many Americans, especially Mexican-Americans who will be critical in the Presidential voter in some states in 2020, know an illegal immigrant. That could be an in-law, a good friend, or even a parent or spouse. An administration that does bad things to such people or threatens to do bad things to such people, will have a hard time getting the vote of Mexican-Americans who are US citizens who have some intimacy with such a person. For them the policies of immigration and deportation are not abstractions as they might be to you. Mexican-American culture is strong, and it can assimilate people not Mexican-Americans. Consider this: if you are dating, are you more likely to ask about citizenship status or something else first?
I consider cruelty a major sin -- for all practical purposes the Eighth Deadly Sin, in the realm of destructiveness of anger, lust, gluttony, sloth, greed, envy, and vainglory. (Ninth and Tenth in my 'book' are deceit and cowardice, and I consider the rejection of learning a form of sloth). American voters generally distrust cruelty, deceit, and cowardice as much as they distrust the classic Seven Deadly Sins.
Quote:As far as my hyper patriotism as you say, my support of the American military and American law enforcement, where would you be without them? Would you be living in America and enjoying your liberties and all the modern comforts associated with American life and the Constitutional protections that you have now and often display here?
At the least they are protecting illegal aliens here too, which is a good idea. Criminals who try to exploit the illegal status of illegal aliens are scum deserving of the full harshness of the American legal and penal system.
Quote: Back in the day, we had two types of teachers. We had teachers who were there to teach and make a living teaching and we had teachers who were there to work as teachers. The teachers who were there to teach were often recognized and often viewed in high regard and remembered as important contributors to our lives and careers. The teachers who there to work and go through the motions associated with their job weren't recognized, weren't viewed in very high regard and most were eventually forgotten. So, I understand why most teachers don't feel they get the recognition and the pay they feel they deserve and so forth. I also understand why most people view most teachers as workers instead of teachers and view them as workers who have rather cozy jobs, a few weeks off for holidays during the school year, several other days off and the entire summer off as well.
Teaching is work even if it is a delight to the teacher. It is a particular blessing to make a living in an activity that one loves. Indeed teachers are among the lowest-paid professionals, but many would never dream of doing some other work that they consider pure drudgery but that pays better. The best teachers are salespeople, and if I were looking for someone to sell cars I would love to get a teacher out of the classroom and into my showroom to show the wonders of an SUV instead of how the political system works.
The teachers who simply go through the motions usually find themselves doing something more lucrative or are disappointed with their jobs. They may be burnt out.
OK, I recognize that you have done well materially without a college degree, which is fine. I wish more people could succeed like you. Maybe your life would be richer if you read more and got exposure to great music, art, and literature. You would be no worse at HVAC installation and repair if you experienced rapture while hearing the fourth movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in a concert of the Minnesota Symphony or read a little Dostoevsky. I find Kafka and Orwell highly relevant in discussing how bureaucracies work.
Maybe you never had that teacher who inspired you to develop some curiosity beyond vocational life. Whether that reflects your teachers or your values is not for me to say. Don't get me wrong; we need good HVAC technicians and installers. Great music and literature are not what I most need should I ever face heatstroke.