aquascoot wrote on Jan 9
th, 2019 at 11:13am:
america is in a lot of trouble.
things cant go on the way they are.
innovation must come in cycles to renew a system.
so we have had the printing press, the industrial revolution, the production line, the financial wave, the tech wave and now the social media wave.
these innovation cycles need to keep hitting a system at closer and closer intervals to keep the system afloat.
so even the tech revolution and the social media revolution are going to need to be transcended by another paradigm shift.
trump probably represents that paradigm shift which the system will need if it is not to stagnate.
the next shift will probably be to some sort of virtual reality which the consumer will construct.
plastic surgery, the gender fluid push, the virtual reality experience, the atomisation of the individual to the big tech companies and the false reality most people now live in, the cultural hypnosis, the ability to use crisper technology to enhance genetics.
people seem to be pyning for some mythical truth in a new paradigm where truth doesnt matter anymore.
if people are going to relate to their phone and be fed a reality that is individualised , then how can there be an objective truth.
trump is ushering in this new world.
i dont think that the trump haters quite get it.
if elizabeth warren wants to be an indian, then in this new world she can
if you want fake body parts , you can be whatever you want
if russians want to be kids from idaho on facebook and share fake news then they can.
its no good bitching about it
trump is a bit of a phony construction of trumps mind.
so what
everyone is.
embrace that
work with that
what you resist, will persist
None of this has anything to do with the Wall, dear. Illegal border crossings are at an all time low - down by over two-thirds since 2000. There is no "humanitarian crisis".
The majority of illegal aliens in the US are visa overstayers. Most of the crime Mr Trump referred to was not done by border crossers, but as he said, "illegal aliens".
The majority of drugs aren't smuggled in over the border, most come by plane or boat.
Mexico will not "indirectly" pay for the Wall. This doesn't make any sense - Mr Trump didn't even try to explain it. Raising the idea of walls around politicians' homes makes even less sense. Mr Trump's trying to build a Wall, for the most part, in the middle of a desert.
A government shutdown won't pay for the Wall either. No president has ever cut off government funding under similar circumstances. Imagine, 800,000 US employees are now off work or working for no pay at all.
The 5.7 bil won't even pay for the Wall, just one year's funding in an estimated 28 billion project over many years. All experts say this is a huge underestimation of the total cost.
Feel free to stick to the topic, Aquascoot. You don't care about the Wall, you're just here to defend a "strong, confident leader".
Others, however, defend Mr Trump solely because of the Wall. They see it as a race issue - "they're rapists, murderers, they bring in drugs and some, I assume, are good people".
The Wall is essentially a race issue - keeping out people from "shthole countries". It's not a humanitarian crisis and we all know this. The only humanitarian crisis has been the detention of illegal border crossers and the removal of their children. Mr Trump has created a problem, and now, he wants to present a solution.
But a wall is not the solution. Mr Trump said he'd been asked by border security officials to build a wall. This is false. There have been no formal requests, suggestions or reports from ICE or any other agency requesting a wall. The reports, which Democrats and Republicans in congress have already acted upon (and funded) recommended more electronic surveillance.
Mr Trump has changed the design from a "big beautiful wall - not a fence" to steel fenceposts so that border police can see through. They specifically recommended
against a wall. A wall would actually
hinder their work. They don't want the very thing Mr Trump promised - a fortress that would block off the murderers and rapists and keep them out of sight.
Did you know? The nearly 2 billion already funded by government to secure the border has not even been spent. In a "humanitarian crisis", Mr Trump hasn't even got to work on what border officials have requested, and what the congress and senate have already funded. And this, from a property developer "who builds things", who always comes in "ahead of time and under budget".
Mr Trump's speech was surprising in that it just reiterated what Mr Trump's already said. Nothing was announced - no emergency powers or military intervention. It was a last-ditch effort from a president who is utterly out of his depth, and possibly in his last days.
This is certainly the feeling in the White House by
all accounts. Mr Trump is desperate to fund a core erection promise that no one wants or needs. Mr Trump, as president of the United States, is blindly tilting at a windmill. He doesn't even care about the Wall, he's just worried he'll have no political clout if he doesn't at least try.
Maybe, but he's not going to get it, so why try so hard?
Obama, with all his concessions and deals, finally got health care through a Republican house and senate. Mr Trump can't get his Wall through a Republican house and senate. Why would he succeed now?