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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Why are we actually wasting our time when the guy unironically quoted The Dude as a retort? For millennials, that's the definitive "Not listening, LALALA" statement.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Question: If you told a company "I've never bought your product before and I probably won't in the future, but if you ignore the millions of people buying your product as it is right now and change your product so it's exactly what I want, I might consider doing so" would you expect them to listen and do what you want?
If the answer is no, why would you expect a political party to do any different?
Regardless of whether you vote or not, things are going to be happening that affect not just you, but people all across the world. The only way not to be part of the problem is to mitigate the potential harm that could be done and to work to improve things. Otherwise, whether you're actively voting for the "greater evil" or just giving more power to the plutocrats, theocrats, and fascists by not opposing them, you're part of the problem.
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Main character of the movie The Big Lebowski. Classical Anti-Hero slacker who inadvertently gets caught up in the schemes of the people around him. The "That's, like, just your opinion man" line is a quote from the film.
edited 18th Mar '17 7:22:24 PM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |![]()
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A character from The Big Lebowski
Hence my use of "real or imagined" when bringing up Clinton's corruption scandals.
edited 18th Mar '17 7:57:33 PM by sgamer82
I'm just gonna' leave this here:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." ~Edmund Burke
edited 18th Mar '17 8:05:15 PM by kkhohoho
We still have goofballs talking about Hillary's unproven corruption after three months of concrete proof of Trump's evil? "Corruption" is a word bandied so often we've forgotten what it looks like.
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."@ kkhohoho
Before we got sidetracked by yet another "BUT HILLARY", you mentioned that the Wall would just lead to a boom in Mexico's ladder industry. I have to object to that.
Cartels would simply use catapults (seriously), tunnels, or take advantage of the Coast Guard getting its budget slashed and use more boats. Or they will go with the classic "bribe the underpaid people manning the wall".
As someone of Chinese ancestry, I can attest that a big honking border wall vanity project isn't all that effective at keeping out people who really, really, want in.
edited 18th Mar '17 8:35:09 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedThat type of vanity project seems to be a thing with tyrannical, despotic governments. The military dictatorship in Brazil did the exact same thing in an effort to make themselves look big and impressive and inspire "patriotism" among the people.
Spoiler: they were all horrendoulsy mismanaged and most of them weren't even finished, eating up a bunch of money and time for no real reason.
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What immigrants? People wanted OUT of the GDR and the wall only covered Berlin, so it's a whole lot different than the Great Wall of China or Trump's pipe dream.
Because it "only" had to cover a comparatively small area it was more effective in achieving the regime's goal - keeping its citizens in East Berlin - than other walls. Didn't stop people from trying, though. I'd suggest looking up some of the escapes and escape attempts. People got really creative to get out of there.
edited 18th Mar '17 8:42:35 PM by DrunkenNordmann
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyHasn't it already been established that most illegal immigrants in America are people who have overstayed their visas, rather than crossed illegally?
I seem to recall at one point that he actually said (paraphrasing here) "They told me we didn't really need a wall, but I said 'I wanna build a wall!' " Which to me says that he should pay for it, not the American public. Let him waste $20 billion that way.....
x6 Oh, I said nothing of the sort. I have no illusions of the ladder industry suddenly seeing a boom practically overnight, and most people would probably use the methods you've described. But you can bet that there would be at least one crazy yahoo (or group of yahoos,) who would be ready and willing to match Trump at his own game for one reason or another. Not even necessarily just to transport drugs, but more just to give him one big Fuck You.
edited 18th Mar '17 8:47:10 PM by kkhohoho
That plus, the wall would be a powerful symbol.
- To future generations and many of us, of stupidity, xenophobia, and ineffectual malice.
- To our Mexican neighbors, a daily slap in the face. (Seriously, it was worse to hear that the average Mexican reaction to Trump's rise was genuine hurt and not outrage/collective middle fingers/ something less gut punchy).
- To cosmic irony, the ultimate vanity project/bridge to nowhere built to the cheers of the party of fiscal responsibility
- To Texas, a source of frequent complaints for cutting off property and impeding border traffic to their businesses (Go figure...)
- To all of us, a visible manifestation of an open wound and probably a trophy that can enjoyed equally by extremists of all stripes, both foreign and domestic
- To all of us, N numbers of schools, healthcare subsidies, etc ad infinitum that weren't made.
- and so on
It's worth noting that in the past giant border walls have generally gone hand in hand with closed borders, that's another absurdity of the wall, Trump isn't planning to close the border with Mexico as part of building it.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran![]()
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It's a shame that even if the Senate goes Blue in 2018, the Democrats won't have a Super Majority that could over-ride a President's Veto. If the Republicans do finance the stupid wall, it won't be until 2020 that they could end the construction and financing of the thing, and by then it will be mostly there, and it would cost just as much to tear it down.
This, I feel, will sadly be the fate of a lot of Government Agencies and Programs, at least under the Trump administration: They're going to have to be funded by the Public directly instead of through the Government. Maybe someone could make a website that is similar to Patreon, but for Government Agencies? Call it "Charity.org" or something.
edited 18th Mar '17 9:02:24 PM by DingoWalley1

@3of4: The US was headed for a crisis regardless of who won, that much has been clear for a while. That's less an indictment of Clinton personally though than it is of American policymakers in general.
edited 18th Mar '17 5:03:27 PM by CaptainCapsase