I know I shouldn't be, but I'm now genuinely scared of a Trump presidency

[Benvolio]

There are some heavily taxed countries in Europe that would disagree with you. While taxation without proper representation is a civil rights issue, taxes being used to provide the services and needs that the people want is not. And you are not going to reduce the debt and balance the budget on spending cuts alone, not and have a country that resembles what you want. The problem is there are too many on the far right that thinks we can just cut our way out of deficit. The solution is a balanced, logical approach to both revenue and spending.

Taxation to reduce the debt is possible now. It could not work with democrats; you could never tax enough to catch up with their spending. More taxes encourage more spending by dems. With a trillion a year deficit, Obama wanted to reward the unions with exaggerated infrastructure expenditures.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

The problem is that you have allowed name calling to become an integral part of your thinking process, preventing you from actually thinking about social problems. Instead of calling people names, try to think about the social effects of immigration, for instance. Answer these questions: how does massive immigration help the people who are already here? How does it help unemployed black or hispanic people? Your impulse will to call me names. For once, try to think about the questions.

There is no massive immigration. You have no proof of this and it has been debunked many a times on here. Social "problems" or non-issue issues that Republicans like to use to make the bottom of the barrel America all uppity with their own prejudices, should not be involved in Government at all. The fact that they need to be a part of Politics in order for marginalized groups of people to be able to stand equal in this Country should be a complete embarrassment.

I think and use my brain, I don't get swayed by bullshit rhetoric that you, other jubbers of your ilk and the Republican party like to stir. Again, if you don't want to be labeled or be perceived as a racist, misogynist, homophobe, xenophobe, etc, then don't vote for one.

 

[Benvolio]

There is no massive immigration. You have no proof of this and it has been debunked many a times on here. Social "problems" or non-issue issues that Republicans like to use to make the bottom of the barrel America all uppity with their own prejudices, should not be involved in Government at all. The fact that they need to be a part of Politics in order for marginalized groups of people to be able to stand equal in this Country should be a complete embarrassment.

I think and use my brain, I don't get swayed by bullshit rhetoric that you, other jubbers of your ilk and the Republican party like to stir. Again, if you don't want to be labeled or be perceived as a racist, misogynist, homophobe, xenophobe, etc, then don't vote for one.

You did not answer the questions: how does immigration help people already in America? How does it help unemployed blacks and hispanics?

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

That is not the way democrats think. No democrat would ever admit that welfare encourages illegitimate births or that it encourages people to be work shy or criminal. They would prefer to ignore the problem of black unemployment and crime than admit a flaw in the welfare ideology. Any one who thinks about the subject is a racist, etc.

pure bullshit

 

[Benvolio]

pure bullshit

There, you see?

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

You did not answer the questions: how does immigration help people already in America? How does it help unemployed blacks and hispanics?

I didn't answer because it's the same old tired shit you bring to every thread that has everything to do with nothing.

 

[Kabluey]

A century or so ago farms were small and transportation by horse and wagon. So small towns sprung up to serve them. Since then mechanization has caused farms to grow, with fewer farmers and they can travel further to shop. The demise of small towns has been inevitable and not necessarily bad. Small farms do not work: they do not generate enough income to support a family.
Beyond that poverty is largely caused by immigration and welfare. Hopefully Trump will make some progress against those problems.

Immigrants don't move to small towns.

In fact it appears the average Trump voter comes from an area of population shrinkage, not overpopulation.

The fearful people left behind are those who are trying to protect a way of life that is impermanent.

 

[opinterph]

A refugee is only a refugee once they leave their homeland in fear of persecution and reach the FIRST safe haven who accepts them.

Refugees are eligible to seek resettlement in the United States, unless they are “firmly resettled” in any foreign country.

 

[opinterph]

If the US accepts them as refugees, they receive welfare for a period of years, so of course many claim to be refugees and stupid old Uncle Sam lets them get away with it.

Are you referring to the Refugee Cash Assistance & Refugee Medical Assistance programs?

 

[Kabluey]

Refugees are eligible to seek resettlement in the United States, unless they are “firmly resettled” in any foreign country.

Correct! Distant racists have no ability to prevent the moment and resettlement of people in war zones and stateless refugees.

 

[Benvolio]

Are you referring to the Refugee Cash Assistance & Refugee Medical Assistance programs?

It is broader than that. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feds-spend-nearly-20000-to-settle-every-refugee/article/2593331

https://muslimstatistics.wordpress....ees-91-4-on-food-stamps-68-3-on-cash-welfare/

 

[mikey3000]

Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement

The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States (U.S.) is part of the U.S.–Canada Smart Border Action Plan.
Under the Agreement, refugee claimants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in, unless they qualify for an exception to the Agreement.
The Agreement helps both governments better manage access to the refugee system in each country for people crossing the Canada–U.S. land border. The two countries signed the Agreement on December*5, 2002, and it came into effect on December*29, 2004.
To date, the U.S. is the only country that is designated as a safe third country by Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The Agreement does not apply to U.S. citizens or habitual residents of the U.S. who are not citizens of any country (“stateless persons”).

 

[Kulindahr]

Here's a problem.

I saw someone yesterday say that they are for gay rights but they voted for Trump. You do not get to do that, you cannot say that and then vote for someone who is an partners themselves with a very anti-LGBTQ politician.

You cannot also say that you disagree with that side of it and then still vote for that person because when that person does actually take action on taking away rights from these people said voter supported that by voting for said candidate.

There is a difference between disagreeing with someone who does not think LGBTQ people should have rights and someone who will actually be able to take those rights away.

Of course you can -- you can just say that gay rights isn't all you support, and Trump stood for a lot more that you favored.

I know people who strongly support the Second Amendment, who are solid NRA members, who voted for Hillary because they considered her more fiscally responsible, which at this point they judged to be critical. But that doesn't mean they don't support the Second Amendment.

 

[Kulindahr]

That is not the way democrats think. No democrat would ever admit that welfare encourages illegitimate births or that it encourages people to be work shy or criminal. They would prefer to ignore the problem of black unemployment and crime than admit a flaw in the welfare ideology. Any one who thinks about the subject is a racist, etc.

This is bullshit on (at least) two levels: first, Democrats do indeed acknowledge when there are problems with programs they support -- that's why welfare got reformed under Clinton. But second, studies have shown that welfare doesn't encourage illegitimate births; that comes from other factors such as continuing racism and lack of good education.

 

[Kulindahr]

Don't immigrants deserve a living wage too? Once here, labour laws should protect them too. But that is NOT what is happening. Service industries are using willing immigrants as an excuse to devalue everyone's wages, and that is what Trump wants to fix. Business is getting richer while the middle class is disappearing. 5% unemployment is nothing to brag about when many are actually working below the poverty line.

Ben would rather have the government engage in corporate welfare by making up the gap between what companies can get away with paying and what it takes to actually live.

Trump is supposed to be a businessman. If he is going to run the government like a business, he could start by billing corporations for the cost of government services to their employees (which would just be honest economics; those government services are actually costs the corporations are externalizing, i.e. forcing other people to pay so they can increase their profits).

 

[eastofeden]

Here's a problem.

I saw someone yesterday say that they are for gay rights but they voted for Trump. You do not get to do that, you cannot say that and then vote for someone who is an partners themselves with a very anti-LGBTQ politician.

You cannot also say that you disagree with that side of it and then still vote for that person because when that person does actually take action on taking away rights from these people said voter supported that by voting for said candidate.

There is a difference between disagreeing with someone who does not think LGBTQ people should have rights and someone who will actually be able to take those rights away.

Agreed....I see who they are now.....and nothing they say will change my perception of them.

I used to beat myself up privately for judging them and reminding myself they are all individuals..and I was right to do that. Now I see them as individuals who said FUCK YOU to gay people..women...people of color...the rest of the free world....

Alot of people can overlook it...I can't...I won't.

 

[Kulindahr]

And just so people understand, if they didn't want to be perceived as a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc. Then you shouldn't have voted for a racist, misogynist, homophobe, xenophobic, etc.

I think the situation was that a lot of people decided they'd rather be associated with all that than with a corrupt, lying, manipulative bitch who thought the country owed it to her to elect her. As a neighbor said today, "Thank God we didn't get Hillary -- but shit, look at what we had to go with to avoid her! Talk about a no-win situation."

 

[eastofeden]

I think the situation was that a lot of people decided they'd rather be associated with all that than with a corrupt, lying, manipulative bitch who thought the country owed it to her to elect her. As a neighbor said today, "Thank God we didn't get Hillary -- but shit, look at what we had to go with to avoid her! Talk about a no-win situation."

Well bless your neighbor's heart. I hope they are happy with the Supreme Court....and don't complain too much anymore since they helped make it.

 

[Kulindahr]

Wages are determined by supply and demand, like other prices. If you flood the country with surplus labor willing to work cheap, it pulls down wages. By competition, that lowers the wages for all but those who have valuable skills. By controlling immigration, we can reduce surplus labor and force employers to compete for good employees with higher wages.

At the moment they aren't, because companies can get away with externalizing the actual cost of labor by pushing it onto government programs. That's why Trump should move to start billing corporations for the cost of government services such as food stamps for their employees -- it's just honest economics.

 

[Kulindahr]

In the last eight months, I have been to small town America from coast to coast and the decline I saw was very upsetting. Whole towns boarded up, shut down and empty. I was shocked to put it mildly. Los Angeles has neighbourhoods of extreme wealth, but go just a few blocks and you enter extreme poverty. The story is the same everywhere. The prevalent drug problem is visible everywhere. I couldn't believe how far America The Great has fallen.

But that's a trend that the GOP has encouraged the whole time Obama has been in office, and even before, by opposing spending on infrastructure: lousy highways mean it's more cost-effective to locate things in big cities rather than small towns.

And we have neighborhoods of extreme poverty because companies know they can get away with paying serf-like wages because the government will take up the slack. And that's a self-feeding cycle; if companies paid wages on par with what was standard on the 60s, most of the people who now don't pay federal income tax would be doing so, so by paying low wages corporations hurt the government twice -- eliminating tax revenue and requiring government spending.