President Donald J. Trump

[Faustina]

One of the reasons that Donald may win it all:  many Democrats are apathetic as regards their two candidates, esp. Hillary (who will most likely get the Dem nomination) whereas Republicans are fired up about theirs (with the exception of an enthusiastic Bernie supporters group, although I get the feeling its smallish in the large scheme of things).

[Faustina]

Looking forward to the CNN Debate tonight.  I'm curious as to if Donald can contain himself in order to try to appear more Presidential.  His behavior in the last debate did hurt him, I felt.

[SciFiAuthor]

Cultural changes, OK, by and large that isn't a problem, anywhere, except on Fox news. I have been watching this laughably called clash of cultures for more than four decades. I have yet to be impacted past the point of better choices of restaurants.

It's all about integration. If a group comes in, say the Italian Americans or Irish Americans years ago, you see cultural clashing up until the point that they integrate. Was it worth being able to get good salami at the cost of importing the Sicilian mafia? In the long run, probably, though a lot of people got shot up in the process. But it was only a good thing because the Italians integrated and the mafia lost power as a result. Had they come in sufficient numbers not to need to integrate, then business owners in downtown Chicago would be paying protection money like they still to this day do in Italy.

When immigrant groups do not integrate, you have a serious problem. We did not integrate with the Native American cultures, we simply marginalized them through the power of sheer numbers and we damned nearly wiped them out. The state of Israel was created by immigrants very much determined not to integrate, and they were very successful in both not integrating and clashing with the people that were already in the region. You can say that for Australia and the aborigines, or South America or even Mexico. Immigration is not always a good thing especially if it involves massive numbers of people that do not integrate with the existing culture.

Integration is key. So the question is, are the Mexicans integrating? Yes, they are as far as I can tell. Most of the ones I've known speak enough English to get by. Yet, I see an awful lot of bilingual signage around. Seemingly every time I try to fill a prescription or get tech support for something, there is always a Spanish option. There are never Italian or French options. So that indicates to me that we have an integration issue, not a big one yet, but an issue nonetheless. The way to fix that issue before it becomes a problem is to enforce our own laws and maintain an actual national border like most other countries do. Call it cultural prudence.

[The King of Kings]

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/10/donald-trump-supporter-threatened-at-gunpoint-in-g/



Proud and patriotic American and Trump supporter threatened by three mexican thugs.

They look like such nice immigrants too.  I wonder what drove them over the edge for violence concerning political differences?

BUILD THE WALL

[onan]

It's all about integration. If a group comes in, say the Italian Americans or Irish Americans years ago, you see cultural clashing up until the point that they integrate. Was it worth being able to get good salami at the cost of importing the Sicilian mafia? In the long run, probably, though a lot of people got shot up in the process. But it was only a good thing because the Italians integrated and the mafia lost power as a result. Had they come in sufficient numbers not to need to integrate, then business owners in downtown Chicago would be paying protection money like they still to this day do in Italy.

When immigrant groups do not integrate, you have a serious problem. We did not integrate with the Native American cultures, we simply marginalized them through the power of sheer numbers and we damned nearly wiped them out. The state of Israel was created by immigrants very much determined not to integrate, and they were very successful in both not integrating and clashing with the people that were already in the region. You can say that for Australia and the aborigines, or South America or even Mexico. Immigration is not always a good thing especially if it involves massive numbers of people that do not integrate with the existing culture.

Integration is key. So the question is, are the Mexicans integrating? Yes, they are as far as I can tell. Most of the ones I've known speak enough English to get by. Yet, I see an awful lot of bilingual signage around. Seemingly every time I try to fill a prescription or get tech support for something, there is always a Spanish option. There are never Italian or French options. So that indicates to me that we have an integration issue, not a big one yet, but an issue nonetheless. The way to fix that issue before it becomes a problem is to enforce our own laws and maintain an actual national border like most other countries do. Call it cultural prudence.

Lots of things here. It is hard to argue against the story of the mafia shoot em ups. There is no way to justify or account for those incidents. However, most Italian subs didn't have goodfellas hindering or helping them succeed. I buy caviar three or four times a year. There is a Russian mob, at least Law and Order tells me there is. I have yet to be threatened.

If we are going to make our judgments on criminal behavior, we all have blood on our hands.

Before I say much more, I think religious extremism should be outlawed in every form that shows it's head. But I also think most people are not criminals.

I Also think immigration needs to be managed by the laws we have.

I agree integration is key for everyone. I have told this story a few times before, I will condense it.

The day after 9/11. I was on my way to to work. I drove through a section of Raleigh that was residential. A man was standing in his yard waving an American flag, he was of middle eastern descent. I wondered if he was afraid or patriotic, probably both.

A couple years ago, I was driving on a back road heading to Louisburg, NC. There was a family broken down on the side of the road, they were Hispanic. I stopped and asked to help. One young man, the driver spoke broken English. He explained they had run out of gas. I took him to the nearest gas station to purchase gas. The people at the gas station refused him. I walked in and purchased the gas. they didn't like it but they sold it to me. When we got back to the truck, the young man offered to pay me for my troubles. I refused. I don't know what happened after that.

Coming to this country has to be a frightening experience. People coming here must have powerful motivations to come. As Americans, I can easily see the bigotry that would cause immigrants to hide in numbers of their own. That doesn't engender integration. None of this is easy. Not for the immigrants or for us here. But those are the ideals of the US. And I'm not going to let fear deter me.

[21st Century Man]

I'm sure our capitalistic energies would take advantage of any opportunity to increase market share.  I just think it is insane to legalize a toxic, gaseous, free-floating substance "in the home" without accounting for millions of children who are forced to inhale it along side their parent-users.  Especially considering that pot has many more serious physiological effects on children than adults.  Equally crazy is to legalize pot use, but criminalize pot cultivation.  Economics 101: creating demand necessitates supply, one way or another. 

Childhood exposure to marijuana
https://greenkidsdoc.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/childhood-exposure-to-marijuana-what-you-should-know/

I'd like to add my 2 cents.  Marijuana is not the import drug that law enforcement is most concerned about.  Heroin is. Take New Hampshire where there is a terrible heroin problem and that state is not alone.  Most of the heroin comes from the drug cartels in Mexico and this trafficking needs to stop.  A wall would be the best choice to deter such activity.  Sure I guess the cartels can make tunnels going under the wall  but I imagine there are only certain sections on the border that are viable for such operations.  Plus it would be very expensive to build such tunnels.

[mikuthing01]

Proud and patriotic American and Trump supporter threatened by three mexican thugs.

They look like such nice immigrants too.  I wonder what drove them over the edge for violence concerning political differences?

BUILD THE WALL

If i was the neighbor i would have shot all three of them, we need a wall.

[onan]

I'd like to add my 2 cents.  Marijuana is not the import drug that law enforcement is most concerned about.  Heroin is. Take New Hampshire where there is a terrible heroin problem and that state is not alone.  Most of the heroin comes from the drug cartels in Mexico and this trafficking needs to stop.  A wall would be the best choice to deter such activity.  Sure I guess the cartels can make tunnels going under the wall  but I imagine there are only certain sections on the border that are viable for such operations.

You had better get prepared for a wall along the Canadian border. If you think heroin will be stopped by a wall, I think you are wrong.

[Jackstar]

Most of the heroin comes from the drug cartels in Mexico and this trafficking needs to stop.  A wall would be the best choice to deter such activity.

It's amazing how little you profess to know about the world you live in. Is it an act? I think it's an act.

[Jackstar]

However, if we as US citizens are vaccinated those threats are not a significant issue

It's amazing how little you profess to know about the world you live in. Is it an act? I think it's an act.

[Jackstar]

I always find it pretty pathetic when people talk about how we can use "technology" to enforce our southern border.  Guess what?  It doesn't work, it's never worked and it WILL NEVER WORK.

It's amazing how much you know about THE FUTURE.

:

[21st Century Man]

You had better get prepared for a wall along the Canadian border. If you think heroin will be stopped by a wall, I think you are wrong.

Well so far most of the New Hampshire heroin is coming in from Mexico and I expect Canadian Police do a much better job of  engaging the traffickers than those in Mexico.

[Jackstar]

Innocent children are subjugated to it and don't have a choice.  That fact is neatly kept out of the national debate on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SnrnzmlG-k

You anti-cannabis, pro-alcohol people disgust me.

[21st Century Man]

It's amazing how little you profess to know about the world you live in. Is it an act? I think it's an act.

Why aren't you using your normal forum name, Jockstrap?  Errrr,  I mean Jackstar.  My mistake, sometimes I have absolutely no control over what characters my fingers hit on the keyboard.

[Jackstar]

Why aren't you using your normal forum name

You are dead to me.

[21st Century Man]

You are dead to me.

It was a lure to draw you out. Nothing personal.

[albrecht]

Are you troubled because people are growing more potent strains? Or that laws once ignored are now being targeted to make sellers choose between alcohol and marijuana?

The article mentions that marijuana with more than 15% THC will be considered a "hard drug". I don't really know what that means. I understand what they are getting at but "hard drug" has no clinical meaning. What I find interesting is that alcohol has no standard for strength other than how much one pays for a bottle.

I believe there are state laws, perhaps federal, limiting how much "booze" one can make privately.

No matter what benchmark one uses, alcohol is more toxic than marijuana, but people carry on like it isn't a concern.

Look, no matter what intoxicant one uses there are risks. Marijuana use even on a daily basis is so much less likely to ever need medical treatment.

In the Dutch usage "hard" drugs would be like heroin, cocaine, meth, etc, "soft" was cannabis and, formerly, things like mushrooms. I think they changed the law and now prohibit the "smart" shops (mushrooms, etc.) Technically even marijuana is still illegal but there is a non-enforcement policy (for the most part.) And it is not everywhere and society hasn't gone nuts. More problems are caused by the immigrants than the stoners. The main problem is the tourists and criminal gangs (a lot of drugs are transported through or in the case of ecstasy produced there) as the local population drug use rates, of all the drugs, is less than countries that have total bans and strict 'law and order' punishments. Portugal has gone even further and, according to reports I've seen and anecdotal evidence, experience less drug-related crime and problems. Treating addiction as a health or civil problem and not making an already bad situation worse by punishing the drunk or addict with prison time. And going after the gangs and organized crime people.

[creepygreenlight]

It's amazing how much you know about THE FUTURE.

:

You seem to have a short memory.
In 2006 George W Bush told all Americans that he will fix the border problems with "technology"...

Guess what?  It's now ten years later and it STILL does not work.  Illegal immigration is just as bad as ever.  It's never going to work.  Drones, camera, sensors, they are all meaningless when you have a president that allows people to be "released" when caught.

Thinking that it will work in the future is the very definition of insanity.  A wall is a much better idea.

[FightTheFuture]

As long as there is an appetite for drugs in this country, there will be a robust market to satisfy that appetite. That is just the way it is. No matter how high the wall, or how strict the law, the sh*t will get here.

[Juan]

Or we could legalize marijuana and take the profit out of the equation and stop a great deal of that type of crime. But we don't because we need to be tough on crime.

We don't do it because there's not enough graft and corruption in legalization.

I lived in High Point, North Carolina for a couple of years.  There were Vietnamese and Pakistani gangs which were scary. 

[creepygreenlight]

As long as there is an appetite for drugs in this country, there will be a robust market to satisfy that appetite. That is just the way it is. No matter how high the wall, or how strict the law, the sh*t will get here.

Your assumption that drug users get it all from Mexico is bullshit.

Using your logic why even lock your front door when people can just break a window to enter your home?  After all, using your logic "they will always get in" so why even bother?

Just give up, that's the solution right buddy?  No thanks.

[Lt.Uhura]

As long as there is an appetite for drugs in this country, there will be a robust market to satisfy that appetite. That is just the way it is. No matter how high the wall, or how strict the law, the sh*t will get here.

Ding!

I heard the same thing in the 90s from a family in a small Mexican village where I briefly stayed.  The family of 4 lived on $5/day earned by the fisherman dad, in a tiny house made of sticks, with no electricity.  Water was supplied by an outside garden hose.  Their only source of world news outside their little village was a small radio wired to the sticks of the kitchen wall, where they heard Mexican radio programs and the Voice of America.  They fed me and refused my repeated offers of help to pay for anything.  They were the kindest, most well-adjusted family I've ever known.  They were well-aware of how the Latin America drug cartels have contributed to their own country's poverty and oppression of its people.

America's voracious appetite for drugs (both legal and illegal) is no secret to anyone else but ourselves.  Like the individual addict, there is serious collective denial and blame shifting regarding addiction in this country.  Hospitals and mental health clinics treating acute and chronic drug (and alcohol) related health issues are overwhelmed.

Our addiction to foreign drugs and cheap goods is our own undoing.  And Donald Trump's Wall, however fortified, can't hold our own demons at bay.

[creepygreenlight]

Our addiction to foreign drugs and cheap goods is our own undoing.

Nobody wants to smoke Mexican "dirt weed" that was smuggled in a donkey's ass.

The high quality hydroponic marijuana being smoked today is grown in American Suburbs, not in Mexico.  Not to mention places like California, Washington State, and Colorado that all grow local crops nowadays (both legal and not).

You old farts need to get up to speed.  A lot has changed since your glory days in the 90's.

[Lt.Uhura]

Nobody wants to smoke Mexican "dirt weed" that was smuggled in a donkey's ass.

The high quality hydroponic marijuana being smoked today is grown in American Suburbs, not in Mexico.  Not to mention places like California, Washington State, and Colorado that all grow local crops nowadays (both legal and not).

You old farts need to get up to speed.  A lot has changed since your glory days in the 90's.

I'm not taking about marijuana.  Americans have been providing their own pot for decades.  Where have you been?

[albrecht]

I'm not taking about marijuana.  Americans have been providing their own pot for decades.  Where have you been?

When the Bush administration tried to show that using illegal drugs supported terrorism it was laughed off and ridiculed, although it is true. Every line snorted or drug shot-up funds people that make ISIS sometimes look benign. The violence might not be religious or politically based but just as nasty. And much of that money is funneled, with some winks, through our banks and businesses to great profit. And, when caught, the banks or businesses just get some fines.

[creepygreenlight]

I'm not taking about marijuana.  Americans have been providing their own pot for decades.  Where have you been?

You are either willfully ignorant or just uninformed if you think that drugs are the primary source of income for these cartels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/drug-cartels-iron-ore_n_4978564.html

[Lt.Uhura]

You are either willfully ignorant or just uninformed if you think that drugs are the primary source of income for these cartels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/drug-cartels-iron-ore_n_4978564.html

Your words, not mine.

I'll make it simple for ya:  My point is, we are a nation of addicts who blame others for our disease.

[creepygreenlight]

Your words, not mine.

I'll make it simple for ya:  My point is, we are a nation of addicts who blame others for our disease.

I don't disagree with you, but it's certainly not some magical reason for us to give up on enforcing immigration laws.

If you want to blame someone for the USA being a "nation of addicts" look no further than the American pharmaceutical industry.

[Lt.Uhura]

I don't disagree with you, but it's certainly not some magical reason for us to give up on enforcing immigration laws.

If you want to blame someone for the USA being a "nation of addicts" look no further than the American pharmaceutical industry.

Again...your fears, your words.

Uh, you go ahead but I don't want to blame anyone.  I'm promoting self-reflection.

[Faustina]

Ben Carson to endorse Trump:  it's official.

Cruz just paid for his under-handed trick in Iowa.