The evil ones are the people that put out the welcome mat for great caravans of immigrants, then looked the other way or even threw them out of their community when they arrived in their backyard.
Such people were great humanitarians when the immigrants were staying close to the border. That changed quickly when the first bus arrived at Martha’s Vineyard.
The truly evil ones are the NIMBY crowd, when they were the welcoming crowd for somebody else’s back yard.
Because we know who design, built and allowed this to happen
But your statement not only shifts the blame to some disconnected group, it absolves the only people with direct action from the guilt associated with it
The immigrants that were sent to Martha’s Vineyard were immediately escorted elsewhere, under care of the National Guard. ( Money can do those sort of things. )
The desire to house immigrants often seems to apply to locales removed from the ‘good people’ espousing the immigration.
The truly evil ones are the hypocrites that want to seem virtuous, but don’t want to do any of the messy part themselves. The people who realistically say they don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices are only being honest, not evil. It seems very few people really want a great bunch of immigrants in their own back yard.
Just as easy as you can live in a wealthy enclave, far from the messy logistics of processing immigrants while virtue signaling that the unfortunate hosts are bad people for saying ‘slow down’. The level of entitlement is appalling.
Just exactly where do you propose the immigrants should live? Designated places far from the nice, wealthy enclaves?
You're complaining about alleged hypocrisy of Martha's Vineyard finding places for people who were literally sent away from Texas as a political stunt. They were dropped off by one-way chartered flights, with no real destination, on an island with a small tourist economy where supplies basically arrive by boat. And then you're feigning outrage from the government having to get involved to provide them shelter and services!
There might have been a legitimate point if Tiny DickSantis had found them places to stay (paid or otherwise), but yet they were made to move on. But the only things you're demonstrating are your needs to stop being so gullible and to examine your own filter bubble.
Here is a speech about illegal immigration from President Obama. He describes the problems caused by excess immigration. He also describes how he was stepping up efforts to stop illegal immigration and to deport those already over the border.
Do you think Obama was wrong, and was he evil in your eyes? Remember, he used ICE exactly the same way Trump is using ICE. ICE leadership is even the same team Obama used.
It’s providing context. To understand DeSantis’ motivation, you have to understand the context.
Biden had sharply changed direction from what prior administrations had done, including Obamas. Biden did not only fail to secure the border ( he claimed only Congress could do that, which Trump definitively disproved ), but he even sold off materials being used to build the border. Remember the huge caravans of immigrants arriving and passing through the border? Governors of states most affected were doing their best to protect their constituents.
Biden would not listen to reason. He continued to defy precedent and logic ( again, completely reversing Obamas actions ). He needed a wake up call.
That’s why DeSantis did what he did. The people of Martha’s Vinyard played perfect stooges, using the National Guard to move the immigrants out of their back yard immediately.
Now for you. Was Obama evil for doing what every other president except Biden did? Were the people that voted for Obama evil?
Sorry no, you don't get to dredge up "context" of something bad someone else did to set an emotional stage of urgency for justifying another bad thing. That is how we get a race to the bottom where things keep getting worse and worse, as half of the useful idiots cheer it on at any given time.
FWIW I did not vote for Obama either time. If you want to talk about the evil things that he did, a much easier starting touchstone is the extrajudicial drone assassinations.
Also FWIW I don't have strong feelings on the actual immigration issue here! If people were being arrested in an orderly fashion based on good faith investigation per case, by officers with public identities and systems of accountability, given due process opportunity to possibly show they are a citizen or otherwise here legally, held in clean humane conditions, with all of this publicly documented to show the whole process was above board - I'd have very little problem! The problem is exactly the manner in which this is being done - masked paramilitary gangs wholesale assaulting civil society in American cities, using some God-knows-what dowsing rod app to scan people and declare them uncitizens (thereby not worthy of human rights), then being disappeared from interested people (eg family, attorneys), and held in concentration camps or shipped off to foreign countries. This destroys the rule of law and Constitutional rights for all of us. And if you really can't understand this, then you need a crash course in individual Liberty to get your head screwed on quick. The way I see it, the immigration issue is essentially just a pretext.
Well, some of what you have written is agreeable to me.
Remembering that Obama built the steel cages for immigrants, I believe you are not placing blame only on the present administration. I find that fair.
FWIW, the ACLU takes a similar stance. They condemn Trump strongly, and condemned Obama just as strongly. I find no fault with their reasoning there, either.
I just sold my 2005 CRV with the same 4. At 170,000 miles, the engine burned no oil, started first crank every time, moved the car adequately, and got 25 mpg in an suv.
I replaced it with a Corolla hybrid. It gets 60 mpg. I have expectations of longevity for this one, too.
One of the most important benefits will be the example being set.
People will have a visible example of the power of compounding. It’s just a shame there isn’t more time in the equation so they could see the real magic happen.
Did you know that at typical market rates, someone saving $1000 at age 20 would have $64,000 at age 62?
Even more illustrative, if the same person waited until age 27 to save the same $1000, they would only get 32k. If they started at 34, they’d only get $16k!
The importance of time as the secret ingredient is the best kept secret ( that’s endlessly explained by people like Warren Buffett ). Hopefully these accounts will help the message stick.
There is a wall in place that causes people to believe things others don’t, and vice versa.
To those seeing awful corruption here, Hunter Bidens $500k Ukrainian gas job was legitimate. They were not outraged by the emails describing a 10% cut for ‘the big guy’. Joe Biden joining business conference calls was fine.
It seems like the end of the world, but it’s no worse than we’ve seen, historically. It’s always been there.
Doubtless Hunter Biden's job was a naked nepo quasi-bribery thing, and he said and did all sorts of ridiculous things. Dude is indefensible.
But on one hand you have a president joining a conference call and not discussing business, and on the other hand you have a president literally demanding tribute, gold bars, a ballroom, firing all available oversight, blackmailing all of the universities to toe his ideological line, installing crypto and antivax scammers, and looting like it's going out of style, and meanwhile all of his kids are becoming millionaires trading openly off the name and the power.
"Barron’s first major business move came in 2024, when he co-founded World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture launched with his father and older brothers. He is even credited inside the family with explaining basic crypto concepts to his father. After Trump won the presidency, the company exploded in value. Forbes estimates it added more than $1.5 billion to Trump family wealth—about 10% of which belongs to Barron." (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/etimes/trending/net-wort...)
Given your statements about Hunter, I believe you have decent visibility into both sides of the issue. Kudos to you.
I don’t disbelieve what you say about Trump and his family. I am certain they are cashing in on his time in office, at a tremendous pace. ( It has to be worth it, given the damage being done to the Trump corporate brand. )
I’d like your opinion on something. What do you make of these allegations?
1) Romania: On September 28, 2015, Vice President Biden welcomed Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to the White House. Within five weeks of this meeting, a Romanian businessman involved with a high-profile corruption prosecution in Romania, Gabriel Popoviciu, began depositing a Biden associate’s bank account, which ultimately made their way into Biden family accounts. Popoviciu made sixteen of the seventeen payments, totaling over $3 million, to the Biden associate account while Joe Biden was Vice President. Biden family accounts ultimately received approximately $1.038 million. The total amount from Romania to the Biden family and their associates is over $3 million.
2) China- CEFC: On March 1, 2017—less than two months after Vice President Joe Biden left public office—State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company, wired $3 million to a Biden associate’s account. This is the same bank account used in the above “Romania” section. After the Chinese company wired the Biden associate account the $3 million, the Biden family received approximately $1,065,692 over a three-month period in different bank accounts. Additionally, the CEFC Chairman gives Hunter Biden a diamond worth $80,000. Lastly, CEFC creates a joint venture with the Bidens in the summer of 2017. The timeline lays out the “WhatsApp” messages and subsequent wires from the Chinese to the Bidens of $100,000 and $5 million. The total amount from China, specifically with CEFC and their related entities, to the Biden family and their associates is over $8 million.
3) Kazakhstan: On April 22, 2014, Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakhstani oligarch used his Singaporean entity, Novatus Holdings, to wire one of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca entities $142,300. The very next day—April 23, 2014—the Rosemont Seneca entity transferred the exact same amount of money to a car dealership for a car for Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer would represent Burisma in Kazakhstan in May/June of 2014 as the company attempted to broker a three-way deal among Burisma, the Kazakhstan government, and a Chinese state-owned energy company.
4) Ukraine: Devon Archer joined the Burisma board of directors in spring of 2014 and was joined by Hunter Biden shortly thereafter. Hunter Biden joined the company as counsel, but after a meeting with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky in Lake Como, Italy, was elevated to the board of directors in the spring of 2014. Both Biden and Archer were each paid $1 million per year ( note: I am quoting a source here. I’ve always seen this number at 500k, not 1M ) for their positions on the board of directors. In December 2015, after a Burisma board of directors meeting, Zlochevsky and Hunter Biden “called D.C.” in the wake of mounting pressures the company was facing. Zlochevsky was later charged with bribing Ukrainian officials with $6 million in an attempt to delay or drop the investigation into his company. The total amount from Ukraine to the Biden family and their associates is $6.5 million.
Are people that ignore these ‘feckless traitors’? Why or why not?
Why do you think that I'm going to defend Biden? Politics are not sports, and I don't have a "favorite team". Your silly gotcha questions won't work on me because I don't reflexively defend people just because they are supported by corrupt political organizations.
Two wrongs don't make a right, and one person's crimes do not excuse another's. Arrest them all.
We need fundamental changes in our political system, and we're not going to be able to achieve anything if you keep pretending like these whataboutisms are worth anyone's time. Wake up.
How is Hunter Biden writing a letter to an embassy the same as untraceable investments into Trump's meme coin? No deals or payments ever materialized from the Burisma letter or "the big guy" email... while Trump and his family have literally amassed billions (with a B) in profits and net worth from crypto grifting.
To compare these things to what is happening now is disingenuous. I believe you know that, but you choose loyalty to MAGA over any principles or ethics.
Hunter was paid $500k per year by a gas company. He has no expertise in the domain, and does not even speak the language. To pretend this is not corruption is amazing.
I believe you know this, but are not mentally acknowledging it because that would lead to uncomfortable internal reckonings.
What special deals did Burisma get for having Hunter Biden on their board?
Nothing about the right wing obsession with Hunter makes me uncomfortable. He has never held public office and was investigated for multiple years (along with his family) by Congress.
It’s odd that you complain about untraceable transactions in Trumps favor, but hold Biden blameless in spite of amazingly obvious corruption.
The icing on the cake is Bidens conviction on tax evasion and gun charges ( against a Democrat! The irony is too rich ). Of course Joe Biden issued a pardon, so Hunter did not go to prison.
Did you miss the part in that article where he paid back all taxes and penalties? We got a real criminal on our hands! Untimely tax payments because you were a drug addict? Straight to jail.
The gun charges were the result of a fishing expedition; rarely is anyone ever charged with those things stand-alone[0].
But that's okay, keep ignoring my questions and applying the highest scrutiny to a former drug addict and private citizen who has never held public office. Trump might give you a medal for your service in deflecting to Hunter Biden slop anytime Trump's unprecedented corruption is brought up.
Hunter Bidens crimes ( which he was convicted of ) had a 17 year sentence associated with them. Yes, that was serious jail time.
You overlooked an important aspect, one that a fair view would reveal.
Hunter Biden was central to all the business deals with foreign interests. He introduced people to Joe Biden, he brought Joe onto phone calls with them, he received and distributed millions of dollars. Hunter Biden had intimate knowledge of all these visibly corrupt dealings with President Joe Biden.
And he faced 17 years in prison. A drug addict with a history of indiscretions, yet central in all these shady dealings.
Of course he never saw jail for the crimes he was convicted of. Joe Biden pardoned his business partner. His weak link business partner.
Did that thought ever cross your mind? You throw fits about things you can’t prove about Trump, but find ways to justify and diminish anything bad about ‘your side’. Your brain is playing tricks on you.
All of what I have written is provably true. Yet you will find ways to ignore, justify, diminish.
It’s not uncommon, many people do it. For either side.
The pardons were completely justified in the face of endless political witch hunts done by Republicans in Congress and the upcoming (at the time) revenge tour from the second Trump administration.
I’m sorry, I truly believe you are incapable of seeing truth when it is in front of you. It is an amazing phenomenon of today’s bifurcated political culture.
> throw fits about things you can’t prove about Trump,
What things aren't proven? He's running a meme coin while in office, he started a mobile service provider while in office, he's pardoned crypto fraudsters, accepted a $400M jet as a "gift" from Qatar, dropped a case against Eric Adams in a quid-pro-quo attempt, and said he'd put the President of Indonesia in contact with his son for business questions. I'm sure there is much more that I'm missing but I'll ask again: how does that compare to the "Biden crime family" who's apparently sooo corrupt that they let the investigations and cases against Hunter play out under Joe's DOJ? Meanwhile Trump is literally assigning insurance lawyers to go after people because no serious prosecutor will take the case; that's a revenge tour and everyone saw it coming.
Again, the corruption is unprecedented. Whatever the Biden criminal masterminds were doing is tame in comparison to this.
EDIT: don't forget the Whitehouse dinner for investors of the meme coin either.
First: we agree, the things you have listed about Trump look like corruption to me, too. What we seem to disagree on is the corruption in the Biden administration. You seem to be unable to see that.
About the Trump allegations ( again, which look like corruption to me ): is there any more firm evidence of corruption than there was against Biden? It looks to me like both sides are accepting money, diamond rings, jets (!), luxury automobiles, etc. for similar consideration. ( Namely, access to the Executive branch of the US government ).
So why is the corruption on one side totally obvious and evil, and on the other side doubtful and excusable?
I often say this even as a Nissan diehard, all our hero cars are slow as snails by todays standards.
I've had the pleasure of driving a lot of these cars in factory form, like the Nissan Silvia, various years of Skyline, Supras and such. They are connected, more raw than todays cars, and that is their killer feature. But they would get gapped by a 2025 Toyota Camry.
I too am a Nissan diehard, I just bought a P10 Primera eGT, the British built one, and regret very much selling my previous 4WD P10 (to be honest though, the dicky idle valve was very annoying), but that 4WD was amazing.
And yeah, driving my current P10, the steering feeling is so much more... real, my son owns a P12, and it feels far more disconnected from the road.
(I also drive a 350XV Fuga, and gosh darn, that VQ35DE(NEO) engine is a rather lovely V6).
P10 primera (1st gen infinity G20, for the Americans) was a great handling car... I think the front suspension was a very similar setup to the 300zx. Bit hard to find parts for these days unfortunately.
Currently I drive an 8th gen civic which I'd rate on par handling wise and is much more safer and modern...
You can get a Nissan Pathfinder or a Honda Odyssey minivan with automatic 6 cylinder engines, faster performance, better gas mileage, and room for an entire family
What you won't get is the haptic experience of a sports car.
Nor the potential aesthetic experience...potential because people have different aesthetic values.
But the haptic experience of a sports car can't be replicated in a mini-van or SUV because the suspension, driving position, acoustic and mechanical output, etc. are all vastly different from a sports car. And of course curb weight, suspension rates, and center of gravity.
To be clear, I am not saying there is anything wrong with SUV's and/or minivans. Only that the map is not the territory.
When I was a youngster getting into cars, I obsessed over the quantifiables. Which car had better horsepower, 1/4 mile, or skid pad scores. I couldn’t drive, much less afford, any of the cars so it’s the best I could do to form an opinion.
Now that I’m a grownup, I’m capable of doing qualitative assessments on cars because I can drive them and judge their intangibles.
Lots of cars have sub-par specs, especially compared to modern engineering, but it overlooks that they are just fun. The top speed doesn’t matter because you’re rarely going to touch it. But how does it feel when you downshifting into 2nd to pass somebody? Or take a windy corner a little faster than you should? Does it make you grin? Because that’s a good car.
I've owned a 62 Studebaker Lark and a 71 MG Midget. Both pretty damn slow by any modern measure, but both an absolute blast to drive. The Midget especially was stupidly fun on back roads with the top down. Less pleasant on city streets looking eye to eye with every pickup's lugnuts, of course.
It started when I was younger. I had 2 unreliable, but fun muscle cars. ( Souped up Corvette and souped up El Camino. ) When they both broke down at the same time, I over reacted and bought a reliable, new Saturn coupe with a 5 speed.
After 3 years of trouble free motoring in the Saturn, I traded it off for a Gen 1 Ford Lightning pickup. ( Strong acceleration for the day. ) I followed that up with a Lexus GS 300, hardly a hot rod.
The cycle continued, back and forth. My last 3 cars have been WRX STi, Lexus ISF, and now Corolla hybrid.
I love trying to keep the hybrid in EV mode, it’s kind of a game. A very different game than rowing the STi through the gears, but oddly similar.
If I am not scared for my life going over 120 km/h in a car, I don't want it
I love lightweight cars. They are harder and harder to make due to regulations so the options are older vehicles. Or motorcycles, but that's too scary.
I recently had the pleasure of finally driving a car on a track and it was so insanely fun even if I was driving a FWD hatchback with like 70 or 80 horsepower and a worn out shifter
2. The article is right. Boys without good fathers/mentors are worse off in many ways. Readers, please consider helping Boys and Girls Club, scouting organizations, etc.
The evil ones are the people that put out the welcome mat for great caravans of immigrants, then looked the other way or even threw them out of their community when they arrived in their backyard.
Such people were great humanitarians when the immigrants were staying close to the border. That changed quickly when the first bus arrived at Martha’s Vineyard.
The truly evil ones are the NIMBY crowd, when they were the welcoming crowd for somebody else’s back yard.
reply