We are running out of time!

[pcosmar]

We are running out of time!
True, BUT FOR THOSE THAT KNOW,,

We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.

Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out.

In physical science it is known as Entropy. but it is a Spiritual reality that drives it.

Time is in fact running out.

[Swordsmyth]

Restricting H1B visas is an anti immigration position whether you are willing to admit that or not.

It is a reduced immigration policy, it isn't anti-immigration and more importantly it isn't anti-immigrant.

Zero? If all you have to do to get into the U.S. is camp out at the wall....In fact that has happened. Really you are grasping at straws.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/29/ameri...ing/index.html
https://www.conservativereview.com/n...behind-fences/

Seriously, you believe people travel thousands of miles by foot, get to the wall, know that they will be brought across once the U.S. border patrol drives by and just say "Oops! There's been no border patrol for 5 hours. I guess we'll turn around and go back."

It can be very unhealthy to hang around in the desert.
And how will anyone know if the Border Patrol decides to look the other way and not see them?

No it doesn't matter. They are brought across the border by border patrol agents. And the immigrants that Trump is deporting are the ones who didn't even bother showing up for their asylum hearings. The next wave won't make that mistake. Again, the most important thing needed is immigration judges.

No, Trump is sending people who apply for asylum back to Mexico until their asylum hearings are due and he just expanded the program after Mexico succumbed to his tariff threat.
Those people will never be allowed into America once their asylum claims are found to be invalid.

Not all of it. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ng/1231151001/

He will get that money to once the case is appealed to a non-leftist judge.

Regardless, he still could have made the same emergency funding move if he had asked for money for judges and been turned down. And then the Democrats would have had to explain why they say they want to give asylum without funding the asylum process.

Since he did end up asking them for the money for judges it doesn't really matter what order he did things in.

Whatever dude.

I think "accept" would describe my position on the wall better than "support".

Except the wall doesn't actually help.

Except it does.

Except Trump is using the wall funding to install face scanning cameras on it.

And I oppose that but I can't do anything about it.

It didn't give Presidents the arbitrary right to declare what is an emergency when congress specifically said something is not an emergency.

Yes it did, Congress can end the emergency but they failed to override Trump's veto.

The only way a wall can prevent someone from seeking asylum in the United States is if it prevents them from setting foot on U.S. soil.

I explained how the wall helps and there are things other than the wall that can be done in our own territory.

[Swordsmyth]

Not very subtle satire detected. Is Texan currently serving time?

Perhaps the satire is so extreme because it is meant sarcastically.

[Swordsmyth]

We are running out of time!
True, BUT FOR THOSE THAT KNOW,,




In physical science it is known as Entropy. but it is a Spiritual reality that drives it.

Time is in fact running out.

Man can reverse entropy, the world may be destined to end eventually but that doesn't mean we can't reduce or reverse the decay in our time.

[jmdrake]

It is a reduced immigration policy, it isn't anti-immigration and more importantly it isn't anti-immigrant.

It doesn't matter how you label it. Asians rightly realized it wasn't in their best interest. So their shift in voting was a reaction to Republican policy and not the other way around. Using your "logic" nothing is "anti-immigration" including the wall.

It can be very unhealthy to hang around in the desert.
And how will anyone know if the Border Patrol decides to look the other way and not see them?

They just walked 1000 miles through the desert. And most of them walk right up to the wall. The current wall has not been a deterrent. Expanding a non deterrent will not magically make it a deterrent.

No, Trump is sending people who apply for asylum back to Mexico until their asylum hearings are due and he just expanded the program after Mexico succumbed to his tariff threat.
Those people will never be allowed into America once their asylum claims are found to be invalid.

I'm fine with that move by Trump. But it has nothing to do with the wall. And those deported people will be let back in next time until someone can run the database and see they were deported. I guess that's where the face scanning cameras you don't want come in.

He will get that money to once the case is appealed to a non-leftist judge.

Maybe. Of course you predicted by bumpfire stock ban wouldn't be upheld and a Trump appointed judge upheld it.

Since he did end up asking them for the money for judges it doesn't really matter what order he did things in.

There is a saying "strike the iron while it's hot." When the government was shut down over funding for the border wall he should have pivoted and asked for money for judges.

I think "accept" would describe my position on the wall better than "support".

Like some people "accept" the bumpfire stock ban because it takes away democratic talking points?

Except it does.

Nope.

And I oppose that but I can't do anything about it.

Okay.

Yes it did, Congress can end the emergency but they failed to override Trump's veto.

Well Ron and Rand both disagree with your assertion that this is the way it's supposed to work. One judge agreed with them. Maybe that judge isn't "leftist" after all. Or maybe the conservative judge that looks at it next will be a Rand/Ron Paul kind of conservative.

I explained how the wall helps and there are things other than the wall that can be done in our own territory.

Your explanation is laughable.

[Swordsmyth]

It doesn't matter how you label it. Asians rightly realized it wasn't in their best interest. So their shift in voting was a reaction to Republican policy and not the other way around. Using your "logic" nothing is "anti-immigration" including the wall.

Freezing or ending immigration would be anti-immigration.
It certainly wasn't anti-immigrant.
They defined their best interests as contrary to the best interests of the country they joined, that is reason enough to not want many more of them.
The value money for themselves and their relatives more than liberty.

They just walked 1000 miles through the desert.

And sitting around in the hot sun isn't a very good idea.

And most of them walk right up to the wall. The current wall has not been a deterrent. Expanding a non deterrent will not magically make it a deterrent.

Eliminating the gaps in it that they walk around will make it more effective.

I'm fine with that move by Trump. But it has nothing to do with the wall. And those deported people will be let back in next time until someone can run the database and see they were deported. I guess that's where the face scanning cameras you don't want come in.

The wall makes sure they are processed and can be dumped in Mexico while they wait and can be identified (with or without face scanning cameras) if they try to re-enter.

Maybe. Of course you predicted by bumpfire stock ban wouldn't be upheld and a Trump appointed judge upheld it.

I didn't say at what level it would be overturned or if I did I said SCOTUS.
And even if Trump doesn't get all the emergency money he wants he got more than the nothing Congress would give him.

There is a saying "strike the iron while it's hot." When the government was shut down over funding for the border wall he should have pivoted and asked for money for judges.

That is one tactic, there are others.

Like some people "accept" the bumpfire stock ban because it takes away democratic talking points?

No, I don't accept the bumpfire ban, it didn't improve anything, I accept the wall because it improves things even if it isn't the best option and I can't get the better options.

[pcosmar]

Man can reverse entropy,

???

You ascribe godlike powers to Man.. I have seen this before.

Entropy is a bookkeeping device, which tells us about the flow and distribution of energy. For any process to occur to occur spontaneously, it is a necessary condition that the entropy of the system undergoing the process should increase. If the entropy decreases, then that process cannot occur spontaneously.

It is a Law of Physics. Everywhere in Physics. ( a Physical reality)
a Countdown.. Everything comes to an end.

You can no more prevent entropy than you can your own death.

also the nail in the coffin proof of the fail theory of evolution..

for the Physical laws of reality would have to be reversed for evolution to ever occur.

[Swordsmyth]

???

You ascribe godlike powers to Man.. I have seen this before.



It is a Law of Physics. Everywhere in Physics. ( a Physical reality)
a Countdown.. Everything comes to an end.

You can no more prevent entropy than you can your own death.

Man is a child of GOD, we have the intelligence to reverse entropy.
Any time you build or organize something you are reversing entropy.
I didn't say we could prevent it or eliminate it but we can reverse it.

I already made that clear in the part you cut off:

the world may be destined to end eventually but that doesn't mean we can't reduce or reverse the decay in our time.

[pcosmar]

Man is a child of GOD, we have the intelligence to reverse entropy.
Any time you build or organize something you are reversing entropy.
I didn't say we could prevent it or eliminate it but we can reverse it.

I already made that clear in the part you cut off:

You made nothing clear..

You can not reverse the deep seated corruption in this world, any more than you can change the laws of Physics.

That humanist garbage deserves the Trash bin and not this Forum.

[Swordsmyth]

You made nothing clear..

You can not reverse the deep seated corruption in this world, any more than you can change the laws of Physics.

That humanist garbage deserves the Trash bin and not this Forum.

Man has the power to do much good in the world and reverse much wrong and GOD commands us to.
But you prefer to declare defeat and do nothing like the servant who hid his talent.

[pcosmar]

Man has the power to do much good in the world and reverse much wrong and GOD commands us to.
But you prefer to declare defeat and do nothing like the servant who hid his talent.

Man has no power.. The illusion of power is the Error of Nimrod..

endlessly through the ages,,seeking power or following after those with power.

it is error.

man is manipulated and misled to destruction..

Only Christ offers another way..

[Swordsmyth]

Man has no power.. The illusion of power is the Error of Nimrod..

endlessly through the ages,,seeking power or following after those with power.

it is error.

man is manipulated and misled to destruction..

Only Christ offers another way..

Bunk.
Man has the power to do good or evil and he will be judged on how he uses it.

Christ warned those like you who hide their talents that they will be punished and not rewarded like those who use what he has given them to do good.

[pcosmar]

Bunk.
Man has the power to do good or evil and he will be judged on how he uses it.

Christ warned those like you who hide their talents that they will be punished and not rewarded like those who use what he has given them to do good.

you really don't want to see my talents..

I am not fond of them.

[TER]

Man has the power to do much good in the world and reverse much wrong and GOD commands us to.

Man has been made higher than anything else in creation, to the envy of satan and the demons. Man can do much good, and is so commanded to do good by the Creator.

That may not be enough to save the world from the coming judgment (and it isn’t), but we fight the good fight nonetheless and glorify God for all the blessings He bestows.

[jmdrake]

Freezing or ending immigration would be anti-immigration.
It certainly wasn't anti-immigrant.
They defined their best interests as contrary to the best interests of the country they joined, that is reason enough to not want many more of them.
The value money for themselves and their relatives more than liberty.

You're just being intellectually dishonest now.

And sitting around in the hot sun isn't a very good idea.

So? Straw man argument.

[Swordsmyth]

You're just being intellectually dishonest now.

I'd say you are.

So? Straw man argument.

[jmdrake]

I'd say you are.

Say whatever you want. But Asians began voting against Republicans in response to republican policy and not the other way around as you falsely claimed.

[Swordsmyth]

Say whatever you want. But Asians began voting against Republicans in response to republican policy and not the other way around as you falsely claimed.

You can't change it to "Republican policy" now, you said Republicans were anti-immigrant and that is what changed Asian voting patterns, Republicans shifted farther towards being anti-immigrant because immigrants showed they didn't value liberty, even the Asians who had voted Republican were willing to vote for Demoncrats no matter how anti-liberty they were in pursuit of their own selfish interests.

[RonZeplin]

America's Managerial Elite Has Failed, But We Can't Get Rid of Them

The system is broken, and the managerial elite will keep it broken because it serves their interests to keep it broken.

America's managerial elite came to do good and stayed to do well--at the expense of everyone beneath them. Now that they've entrenched themselves at the top of the status quo, there's no way to dislodge them, even as their failure to address what's broken, much less actually fix what's broken, insures systemic breakdown.

In government, the managerial elite is known as The Deep State: those who remain in power regardless of who's in elected office. In local government, managerial elites often shift positions, moving from elected office to a plum position in the bureaucracy where they can draw a big paycheck out of sight until they retire.

In Corporate America, managerial elites also move around, leaving sinking ships (that they may well have helped sink) as needed, and moving to think tanks or academia if their failures start multiplying.

Changing elected officials does nothing to dislodge our managerial elite overlords. The new mayor, governor or president comes and goes, and all the major institutions--education, higher education, healthcare, national defense, critical infrastructure--continue down the same path of enriching entrenched insiders while the institution fails its core missions.

If you think this chart of soaring student loan debt is a sign of "success," you are 1) delusional 2) protected from the dire consequences of this failure 3) getting your paycheck from this failed system. That in a nutshell is the state of the nation: those who are protected from the consequences of failure are loyal to the Establishment, as are the millions drawing a paycheck from systems they know are irredeemable failures.



Let's review the central institutions of the nation:

1. Healthcare: a failed system doomed to bankrupt the nation.

2. Defense: a failed system of cartels and Pentagon fiefdoms that have saddled the nation with enormously costly failed weapons systems like the F-35 and the LCS.

3. Higher Education: a bloated, failed system that is bankrupting an entire generation while mis-educating them for productive roles in the emerging economy. (I cover this in depth in The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy and Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.)

4. Foreign policy: Iraq: a disaster. Afghanistan: a disaster. Libya: a disaster. Syria: a disaster. Need I go on?

5. Political governance: a corrupt system of self-serving elites, lobbyists, pay-to-play, corporate puppet-masters, and sociopaths who see themselves as above the law.

In Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform, I explain why the only possible output of these systems is failure.

The sole output of America's managerial elite is self-serving hubris.

In an open market, failed leadership has consequences. Customers vanish and the enterprise goes bankrupt, or shareholders and employees rally to fire the failed leadership.

In our state-cartel system, failed leadership only tightens its grip on the nation's throat. The Deep State can't be fired, nor does it ever stand for election. The two political parties are interchangeable, as are the politicos who race from fund-raiser to fund-raiser.

It's tempting to blame the individuals who inhale the wealth and power of our failed system, but it's the system, not the individuals, though a more corrupt, craven, self-serving lot cannot easily be assembled.

Centralized hierarchies concentrate power at the top of the pyramid. That power is a magnet for everyone who seeks to wield power and enrich themselves in the process.

In the financial system, this concentration of power is visible in the chart below: the super-rich have become immensely richer in the past few decades of central banks' vast expansion of credit and financialization.




As systems become more complex, the need for a professional class to manage the overwhelming complexity grows. This class excels at appearing to manage complexity while ignoring the larger dynamics driving the system over the cliff. And so we have endless meetings of highly paid people over trivial issues while the entire system careens toward meltdown. "Stakeholders" multiply in endless profusion, dooming every project to a glacial process that increases the sums paid to manage the glacial process and pushes the final cost to the moon.

The self-serving managerial elite always has one answer for every problem: give us more money. If the budget expands by 10% and nothing actually changes for the better, then the "solution" is a 25% increase in funding. Budgets expand by leaps and bounds, but none of the systemic problems are ever resolved.

It's not hard to figure out why: look at the system's incentives. If systems were radically simplified and made more efficient, the need for an ever-expanding class of permanent managers would diminish. And so the solution is always more fodder for the managerial elite: more complexity, more meetings, more accumulation of power, more managers and always, more money.

Thus it is no surprise that the calls for "free" college and "Medicare for All" are rising: the managerial elite that has bankrupted higher education and healthcare while enriching themselves desperately needs to be bailed out, lest the systems they've steered toward the fiscal cliff deservedly go broke. In a similar set of incentives, few weapons systems ever come in under budget when the Pentagon can always come up with another $10 or $20 billion for cost over-runs.

The system is broken, and the managerial elite will keep it broken because it serves their interests to keep it broken. Unfortunately we'll all suffer when the managerial elite is no longer able to stave off the dire fiscal consequences of their self-serving leadership.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com...as-failed.html

[UWDude]

Time is in fact running out.

You wish.

And that is why it is running out... ...for you.

For me, Time is expanding.

Until the day I die, I will never be a doomer again.
It is impossible.

I understand the power of the mind now.

[Anti Federalist]

It doesn't matter how you label it. Asians rightly realized it wasn't in their best interest. So their shift in voting was a reaction to Republican policy and not the other way around.

Was it?

Or does it just reflect the general political makeup of that demographic?



Asian migrants have always favored gun control for instance, by large margins, 80 percent or higher.

[jmdrake]

Was it?

Or does it just reflect the general political makeup of that demographic?



Asian migrants have always favored gun control for instance, by large margins, 80 percent or higher.

You're looking at 2011 and ignoring 1992. In 1992 Asians overwhelmingly voted republican. Overwhelmingly. Once someone decides to embrace one party over the other for his/her own interests ideology tends to change along with it. There are many people who were very liberal prior to gravitating to Ron Paul for no other reason than his antiwar message that later decided "Hey, he's right about the 2nd amendment and abortion as well." I'm speaking from experience.

[jmdrake]

You can't change it to "Republican policy" now

I'm not. I see that policy as anti immigrant. You are being pig headed and not admitting the truth. So rather than continue to argue with you about whether or not what is clearly an anti immigrant policy is anti immigrant, I am arguing the main point which is Asian voting patterns changed as a result of the H1B policy and not the other way around.

[Ender]

Bunk.
Man has the power to do good or evil and he will be judged on how he uses it.

Christ warned those like you who hide their talents that they will be punished and not rewarded like those who use what he has given them to do good.

He also said to love your neighbor as yourself.

[jmdrake]

Was it?

Or does it just reflect the general political makeup of that demographic?



Asian migrants have always favored gun control for instance, by large margins, 80 percent or higher.

Here is a graph you should consider.



Note that in 1992 Asians overwhelmingly voted Republican, but the trend was already happening downward. What happened to change that? Smart money is on the Bush administration anti immigrant policy of reducing H1B Visas. You're familiar with the concept of "blowback" which is looking at the unintended effects of government policy. This is an obvious example of blowback.

Edit: Sorry if the graph is hard to read. It's an SVG and I did my best to convert it. But you can see the original at this link.

[Swordsmyth]

I'm not. I see that policy as anti immigrant. You are being pig headed and not admitting the truth. So rather than continue to argue with you about whether or not what is clearly an anti immigrant policy is anti immigrant, I am arguing the main point which is Asian voting patterns changed as a result of the H1B policy and not the other way around.

No matter how you spin it we don't want more of them if they are willing to vote for the Demoncrats over something like that, they don't love liberty or our country.
Republicans weren't "anti-immigrant" just because they thought that a lower number of H1Bs was appropriate, to the extent that they are anti-immigrant now it is because the immigrants showed that they put their own selfish interests above liberty and the good of the country.

[Swordsmyth]

He also said to love your neighbor as yourself.

And he defined your neighbor as those who do good unto you like the Good Samaritan did unto the injured man.
He didn't tell us to love our enemies "as ourselves", it is enough love for them to leave them alone as long as they leave us alone.

[jmdrake]

No matter how you spin it we don't want more of them if they are willing to vote for the Demoncrats over something like that, they don't love liberty or our country.

There is no "spin" going on. Not by me anyway. Prior to a Republican president passing an anti immigrant law aimed at them they voted overwhelmingly republican. I wouldn't be shocked if a Republican president passed anti Mormon laws, and somehow they got upheld by the courts, and democrats were like "Hey Mormons. We oppose those laws too." that a large number of Morons would turn democrat.

[Swordsmyth]

There is no "spin" going on. Not by me anyway. Prior to a Republican president passing an anti immigrant law aimed at them they voted overwhelmingly republican.

It's not "anti-immigrant" to adjust the number of H1Bs, that's spin, it wasn't "aimed at them" it was aimed at people who weren't here yet, that's spin.

I wouldn't be shocked if a Republican president passed anti Mormon laws, and somehow they got upheld by the courts, and democrats were like "Hey Mormons. We oppose those laws too." that a large number of Morons would turn democrat.

I'm going to be charitable and assume that that was a typo and not a religious insult.

Laws actually attacking Mormons who already live here have no relationship to adjusting the number of H1Bs nor would laws specifically prohibiting the immigration of foreign Mormons.

[jmdrake]

It's not "anti-immigrant" to adjust the number of H1Bs, that's spin, it wasn't "aimed at them" it was aimed at people who weren't here yet, that's spin.

It's not spin. Every immigration law is either pro-immigrant, letting more in, neutral, not affecting numbers at all, or anti immigrant, reducing numbers. But using your faulty "logic" even a complete moratorium on all immigration could be spun as not "anti immigrant" because you are just "adjusting the number of people who weren't here yet." You claimed that Republican passed anti immigrant laws as a result of Asians voting against republicans. Care to name one law that fits your definition of "anti immigrant?"

I'm going to be charitable and assume that that was a typo and not a religious insult.

Yes. I meant "Mormon." Sorry.

Laws actually attacking Mormons who already live here have no relationship to adjusting the number of H1Bs nor would laws specifically prohibiting the immigration of foreign Mormons.

I was making an analogy. People tend to vote according to their perceived best interest. If one party takes an action that someone considers hostile to his/her interest its not illogical for that person to turn against that party, and unfortunately in America we only have two viable parties.