Even Greener Pastures

No, Alharacas, I`m not comparing the US to dictatorships, like in Turkey, or other places. But, Trump does admire “strong leaders” as he calls them. And, it`s not just Erdogan but others all over the place too, like in the Philippines, etc.

I just saw on Yahoo news briefly, and I don’t know the news source (it could have been CNN or MSNBC) where either trump or Ted Cruz said he (one or the other or both) had never heard of citizenship by birth and didn`t know what it was. This is like junior high school social studies stuff for a 12 year old. It`s pretty shocking. So, if they don’t think its birth place that triggers citizenship, what standard are these guys expecting to use? Do they want everyone to fill out an Ahnentafel or something? (Genealogy chart)?

It´s really getting bizarre. We can only hope for a big win for the democrats in a week to save the country. Otherwise, it`s going down the drain.

That`s right Jerry, right down the tubes.

Well, that was on Yahoo news this morning, but it doesn’t matter. Trump thinks he can eliminate birthright-citizenship by executive order, or his law-making-by-fiat philosophy. I thought that`s the way dictators did things? The entire notion is pretty ridiculous and unprecedented.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/politics/trump-birthright-citizenship.html

Neal,

You and those guns aren’t going to protect you against the US war machine. Seriously? Neal, what are you going on about? You wouldn’t be safe if you were even allowed to own a tank.

I don’t know how clearer the 14th Amendment can be when it says all persons born in the US are US citizens. What’s ambiguous about that? Is there an exception for tourists and illegal aliens? Well, it sure doesn’t say or imply that.

Here´s a great example of where the conservatives want “judicial activism”, which they claim to hate (in other words interpretation), when it suits their agenda, but not when it doesn’t. You can`t have it both ways. Either the Supreme Court has a kind of law-making function through interpretation (Marbury v. Madison) or it doesn’t.

In 1958 the State of Arkansas took a segregation case to the US Supreme Court (about segregated schools) and argued that the US Supreme Court had no right interpret the Constitution, effectively asking it to reverse Marbury v. Madison, which goes back to the late 1700s I think, and the Court said, “No. You´re wrong. So, go away.” And, the State of Arkansas did go away. Now, we’ve got all the “strict constructionists” not wanting strict construction, but free and open interpretation so long as it follows their political agenda.

I don’t know about other countries offering citizenship by birth to tourists and illegal aliens, but if you read the article, Mexico and a few other countries do have citizenship-birth rules. It doesn’t mention tourists or illegal residents.

Yeah, I know of no European country that offers citizenship by place of birth. They all, generally speaking, require at least one parent be a citizen and place of birth in the world becomes irrelevant.

There was a really odd story on German TV not long ago, a documentary, about a strange situation where some guy had German citizenship and his parents moved when he was very young to the US, like when he was a month old or something. They somehow lived in the US for decades and he was raised here. Either the parents died or something, and he never got US citizenship, but just lived here somehow because his parents had residency permits. When the parents died or whatever happened to them, he had no legal status in the US and the US just deported him to Germany (he doesn’t know how lucky he was). But, the guy didn`t speak the language, he was older when deported, and didn`t have job skills of any sort that he could carry over to Germany, but he had German citizenship. I think he ended up on public assistance renting a room out from someone. A very odd story.

Neal,
I don’t know how clearer the 14th Amendment can be when it says all persons born in the US are US citizens.

FALSE. That is not what it says.

Neal,

I think there’s something about people from Long Island, New York that make them gun lovers. I don’t know what it is exactly. Maybe something in the water.

I had a friend once from Islip, or between Brentwood and Islip I think he said, who sounded just you with that AA-12 thing.  If you showed him that AA-12 he’d have thought it was the most amazing thing in the world, his eyes would have glazed over, and he`d have wanted to know all about it. And the gun collection this guy had? Oh my god. This guy was off the scale cookoo about guns. I never figured it out. It`s got something to do with people from your area, or at least the Brentwood/Islip area. They love their guns and ammo.

Steve, what would rioting liberals want with my farm?  The only thing that has value in case of a societal breakdown.  And no it isnt gold, its food. 

I also don't fear the US army, I figure in most cases they would be on my side.  I do think my weapons make the expropriation wackadoos like your pals at PSL or those people murdering white farmers in South Africa ( just one worlwide example) think twice.  And I refuse to be a pathetic sheep, entrusting the safety of my life and property to the government, when all around and throughout history there is example after example of how tragically foolish that can be.

And yes I do believe some of the overreach of the previous administration was kept in check by the fact that the people are armed.

Send me the links, I could use some third grade level reading material, right after I finish "See Dick Run".

The Mission district, swell.  Perhaps I could pick up a tasty taco when I visit.
I will be sure to leave a donation.  I wouldn't want any of the third graders to miss the big field trip to Sea World.

You realize of course that a large portion of their teaching materials are basically Communist Comic books?

Or do you prefer the title Graphic Novel?

Plus, I got upgraded here with a special award status (not sure what that means but it sounds good).

Maybe it was because of my new quote below, „Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer.“ That’s from Erich Honecker, „always forward, never backward“, you know the former DDR leader guy. Well, he kind of went down the drain himself, the poor guy and died in Chile. But, at least he had that „move forward“ spirit.

But, anyway, never mind Honecker. This is my new theme of optimism! I move forward to the paradise of Germany and leave the ruin of the US behind!!“

You stopped reading it because it told the truth and you didnt want to hear it.

Yes, you're right that was it.  The case in point I remarked on above is totally irrelevant.  You caught me.

In reality Steve the lies were so obvious I really didn't feel like bothering to document more than a few.  When you're batting 1000 by playing against third graders, it gets boring after a while.

I find our new discussion about future policy towards South America far more interesting because you have a point.   How do we bring wealth and opportunity to the masses in countries where the very means of production (land, capital, education) are inordinately expensive or completely unavailable to them.

You didnt read my article because it was fantastic.

This discussion is already a little bit "old" and it had even strained from the original topic, but I just happened to find this notebook entry about it. The title caught my attention and I am happy it did.
It's about vernacular languages and I really like what this guy has to say about the subject.

https://www.italki.com/notebook/2917455/entry/948410

I had a little trouble understanding what he meant by “venacular languages”. Is is talking about “dead” languages like Latin or little used languages like Icelandic? I`m confused what a “venacular language” is. I also disagree with his comments about the reason people select certain languages to learn. The list he gave is only half-true. There is no such thing as an “easy” language to learn, for example. What makes a language easy to one, might make it extremely difficult to another. It`s multi-factorial. For English or German native speakers, Dutch is supposed to be an easy language to learn. But, that is not true for a native Japanese speaker. To call any language “easy” to learn is ridiculous. All foreign languages are hard to learn. They requires endless hours of exposure to the language, formal grammar instruction lasting often years, overall exposure to the language for years, and a LOT of motivation. A lot less than most academic subjects.