blueingreen

Just gonna piggy-back off this to start a little rant, don't mind me @kaputt. Many of Trump's trade / tariff policies certainly seem impulsive and short-sighted, I just don't have the economic expertise to propose an optimal alternative, and at a certain point you just need to make a leap of faith when electing a president and hope he surrounds himself with intelligent and talented people who can help steer the ship in the right direction. It's clear that what we've been doing for the past 30+ years isn't working; We've hollowed out our industrial capacity, offshored American jobs, and undercut domestic labor from both ends with H1B and illegal labor. We're also leaking tons of money in the form of foreign remittances. As for principled conservatism and "center-right leadership", what have they even accomplished in the 21st century? They sat idly by and conserved absolutely nothing while our country and culture was ravaged by radical progressivism. I was just listening to the oral arguments for the Supreme Court case involving LGBT books in classrooms this morning and couldn't help but think about how far down this slope we've slipped. First it was "Leave us gay folks alone and let us do what we please in the privacy of our bedroom," which seemed fair enough. Then it was "Bake the cake for us, you Christian bigot!" After that it became "Let my son compete against your daughter in the swim meet / wrestling tournament / etc. you transphobe!" And now we're at the point where the Supreme Court is going to decide if parents have the right to opt out of school lessons on drag queens. It seems like the LGBT people can't leave everyone else alone. I'm simply a man of the Right, and the right-leaning politicians we've elected in the recent past haven't done enough to reject the fundamentally erroneous premises that the Left has foisted upon us during their cultural ascendancy and tenure in power. I reject the premise that my country is an economic zone for the world's tired masses to benefit from. I reject the premise that every man, woman, and child on this planet is an American waiting to be "documented". People aren't owed access to my home just because it's better than the shithole they came from. The Overton Window has shifted rightwards more in the past 6 months than in the 25 years preceding that, and it wasn't because of principled conservatives like Romney, Ryan, or the Bushes.

What confuses me is the people acting like the Trump administration would be crossing some kind of Rubicon if they went ahead with these expedited deportations to combat an unprecedent illegal immigration crisis anyway. I'm not advocating for it, but the guardrails of the Constitution have been ignored many, many times. Japanese internment, COINTELPRO, NSA mass surveillance, Lincoln suspending Habeas Corpus, just to name a few. Today, we view Japanese internment and similar actions as dark chapters in our history. However, there isn't a lot of public outcry over Lincoln's unconstitutional actions. In fact, he's widely considered to be a national hero. I think it scares a lot of people to acknowledge this kind of historical asymmetry because it implies that, on occasion, violating the law in pursuit of "the greater good" is sometimes excusable. And if you acknowledge that, the bigger question of "what constitutes the greater good?" arises (good luck answering that one!).

I don't know the right answer, but how do you think we should approach this situation? The previous administration ignored all rules and norms in order to import millions of foreigners who should never have been here in the first place. Giving each illegal alien the time + resources required for a deportation hearing is quite literally impossible when we're dealing with a phenomenon of this magnitude. Where / what is our recourse? If the Supreme Court says we can't deport these people without going through a process which is logistically impossible, where does that leave us? A constitutional crisis?

I've seen some people saying this was the case, but it just doesn't seem accurate. The footage in question looks exactly like the FSU campus, there are gunshots ringing out in the background, and that gunshot wound looks 100% real

Saw a video clip from the FSU shooting of some stupid bitch sipping on her starbucks while walking past and filming a shooting victim who clearly needed medical attention. What the hell is wrong with people?

Very good post and thank you for sharing that report. I can only speak for myself, but I'm actually in favor of pausing most forms of legal immigration for some time while we try to sort out our domestic affairs. US immigration policy has historically been about keeping our doors shut and only opening them to newcomers when we need them. The four major influxes of people into the US occurred during the Colonial Era, the Civil War, the Ellis Island era, and now the floodgates have basically been open since 1965. We used to have a robust national quota system which ensured the country wouldn't be inundated with people from nations whose culture and values are radically different from our own, but this was removed by the Hart-Celler Act in 1965. And of course, regardless of where people are coming from, the expectation used to be that immigrants would assimilate completely (e.g., learn English, change their names, refuse to teach their children their native language or speak it in public, etc.) I also want to push back a bit on the traditional narrative of America being "built by immigrants", maybe you can give me your thoughts on it. To me, America was built by settler-colonialists, pioneers, and frontiersmen; The kinds of people who turned a vast, empty, and dangerous swath of land into a prosperous and functioning modern civilization in record time, on par with anything found in the Old World. It always irks me a bit when today's immigrants, both legal and illegal, are compared to those founding settlers, as if hopping on a plane and going to your new H1B job at Microsoft or crossing the Rio Grande and receiving government handouts is comparable to what newcomers used to have to go through. Maybe it's just the modern connotations of the word "immigrant" that I find objectionable. Still, it's undeniable that many people contributed to the success of our country.

You're not wrong, I just think there's more to the story. I'd say that among my generation (Z), 80% are neurotic lemmings who get anxious about ordering a pizza on the phone, and 20% are some of the smartest, most capable, and forward-thinking people I've ever met. The problem is that the "American Dream" wasn't meant for just the sharks/hunters who are able and willing to ferociously compete. They'll always do fine, regardless of the circumstances. Maybe that dream also wasn't meant for neurotic lemmings, I don't know. It just seems to me that you were supposed to be able to follow the rules, do your best in school, stay out of trouble, go to college or work in the trades, etc. with a relative guarantee of employment, property, family, and peace. Now, educational institutions have been hollowed out and a college degree's value has been inflated into oblivion (nearly 40% of Americans now have a bachelor's degree). The truth is that older generations did not have to work as hard to afford the standard of living that younger generations are seeking today. The data is pretty clear when you look at median home price compared to median wages over time. For many smart and well-meaning young people, affording a home in a nice neighborhood while supporting a family is simply a mathematical impossibility. The question is, what happens to a society when lots and lots of young people, especially young men, become restless and disenfranchised with little to no economic, social, or marital prospects?

You're probably right about the economic austerity on the horizon. I think the key is that, especially among young Trump voters, people actually want this to happen. They feel like their backs are against the wall and they have nothing left to lose. We're at the point now where people are genuinely open to the idea of purposefully crashing the economy and bursting this bubble (and make no mistake, we are in a bubble) through deflationary policies, tariffs / trade wars, etc. There is a growing feeling of resentment and disenfranchisement among young people toward a generation of boomers for whom the stewardship of a prosperous economy (which they were the biggest beneficiaries of) seemed like an afterthought that ought to be considered once they retire and start collecting their social security checks. Big businesses have been taking advantage of illegal labor and legal programs like the H1B visa (which is basically indentured servitude under threat of deportation) to undercut domestic wages while countless young Americans are applying to hundreds of jobs without receiving a single response, let alone an interview. This influx of people also clogs up the housing market and drives up demand while Byzantine development and zoning regulations + huge asset management firms keep the supply of homes artificially low. Not to mention the damage done to the demographics and social trust of a society that imports millions upon millions of foreigners without any plans for assimilation. Social standards of decency and decorum in just the past few years have declined dramatically, which you've probably noticed while interacting with the many foreigners and dullards who now bizarrely seem to occupy the majority of customer-facing roles in businesses across the country. To be fair, COVID probably also played a role in making people socially retarded. I don't think we've ever fully recovered from that. As for "trans rights" (a ridiculous neologism that didn't exist before 2014) and abortion, they're part and parcel of the neurotic and parochial worldview that dominates modern progressive politics. The science is clear: There are only two sexes (I refuse to use the word "gender," which is a loaded term popularized by freaks like John Money who explored their psychosexual fetishes and pathologies through medical experimentation on vulnerable children). I'm not a bleeding-heart Pro-Lifer but the Pro-Abortion crowd in America seems to view any limitation on abortion as some kind of dire violation of fundamental human rights (as if the baby gestating inside a pregnant woman isn't human?). Even the most progressive countries in Europe have abortion policies that would be considered strict in the US, usually something like a 8 - 14 week cutoff, often with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother (exceptions account for a tiny fraction of abortions; most are elective). It's easier and more approachable to discuss these social and moral issues, which is probably why people prefer to talk about them compared to the finer points of other "real policies" (whatever that means, like social issues aren't "real").

I can only speak to my own experience, but as a young guy who studied abroad in Europe as recently as 2022, I found that young Europeans hate Russia just as much, if not more than, previous generations. Some of the older Central and Eastern Europeans actually look at the Soviet era with rose-tinted glasses, which younger generations have no connection to or delusions about (except for the typical Marxist / Socialist acolytes you'll find at any university campus). My hope is that cooler heads prevail and we can find some middle ground between communist apologetics and starting WWIII with Russia.

Americans often underestimate how much Europeans hate Russia. For the US., Russia is an adversary, but we’ve had some positive albeit brief moments that demonstrated the potential for amicable relations, like the Alaska Purchase in 1867, helping the White Army fight the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, and allying again in WWII. For Europeans, it’s way deeper. Russia and Europe have been clashing for centuries, long before the US even existed—wars over historical territories and Soviet domination during the Cold War. Some historians like Robert Kaplan have even argued that America and Russia share a similar national spirit stemming from the historical origins of their national formation: Pioneers and settler-colonialists exploring and conquering vast swathes of uncharted lands on the edges of the known world, something he calls "continental powers". For Europeans, Russia is a historical oppressor. The hate runs a lot deeper over there. So in the event of some pan-European military alliance, I think we can safely say that Europe's hate for Russia is much stronger than their current frustrations with us.

I also highly doubt this was some 4D chess move from Trump, but it's amazing how it might finally get the ball rolling on his original strategic objective: To get Europe to start funding their own defense

I haven't heard much about Hanania before, and I didn't post his tweet originally, but here's another tweet from Konstantin Kisin, a co-host on Triggernometry, expressing the same thing. There isn't even much of a "position" here to support or object to. People just need to listen to the whole Trump / Zelenskyy interview for context...

Why not deal with the content of his tweet straightforwardly as opposed to parsing it through the lens of whatever "racism" a wikipedia editor accused him of? Don't we make fun of the progressive left for pre-screening ideas based on ideological alignment?

I think we can all agree that the public spat we just witnessed wasn't very statesmanlike for all parties involved. The Hanania tweet that @tac airlifter shared was pretty spot on, though. People on social media are watching short clips and commenting without the full context of the entire event. We all know that these types of arguments happen all the time behind closed doors, so it's interesting to see the kabuki theater disappear for once. What do people think about that mineral deal?

I'm genuinely asking you because I'm still a wannabe fighter pilot going through the rush / application process and you'll have more experience with this: Don't federal civilian employees who fall under OPM purview still use ".mil" email addresses? That's the kind of stuff I was imagining might be annoying to comb through on an agency-by-agency basis.