Politics

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Some more info on the Presidio Trust.

[TheEncogitationer]

PopeBeanie,

Well that’s one way to not relevantly address anything he presented in his video. You’re off on an anti-left character assassination mission or something, and I’m not interested in following that tangent.

I’m not character assasinating the Left. The Left is already nihilisticly suicidal. I’m just providing them the cigarettes, Jagermeister, and fat back to do it to themselves.

Do you have any opinions on oligarchy as threat to us, or Trump’s support of Putin while blaming Ukraine?

What do you think Administrative Agencies and NGOs are but oligarchies? (Actually, NGOs is a misnomer. If your entire existence depends on taxdollars, you are not a Non-Government Organization.) If Congress had gelded them long ago, Trump wouldn’t be doing it.

As for Trump’s cozying to Putin against Ukraine, yes it is wrong for Trump to make real estate deals with real estate that’s not his. My point about Bernie is that he supported the Soviet system that created Putin.

Furthermore, Putin was emboldened by the foreign policy fecklessness and weakness of Obama in Syria and Biden in Afghanistan. There is blame to go around for Putin wanting to revive the former empire he served.

[TheEncogitationer]

Reg,

From the story:

Instead, the Presidio Trust was formed, creating a public-private partnership that lessened the financial burden on the Department of the Interior and garnered bipartisan support. The agency would get federal money to help it transition from an Army base and work closely with the National Park Service, but it had to become financially independent by 2013.

A spokesperson for the trust said it “has not received regular annual appropriations from Congress since 2013,” and now relies on funds earned by leasing historic buildings it has renovated, including the Walt Disney Museum, the Bay School and many restaurants.

A “public-private partnership.” You do know that this is what the economic policy of real Fascism is, right?

And what are Walt Disney and presumably profitable reastaurants doing getting Federal subsidies? Let Scrooge McDuck and Tony Stark pay their own freight and let Nancy Pelosi give up her fridges full of Dove bars if she want a dog park bad enough!

With all the legitimate things to be said against Trump, this is just lame.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Ukraine was not “part of Russia” in the sense of always being a subordinate region—it had distinct periods of autonomy and foreign rule. Russia gradually annexed much of Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries, fully integrating it into the Russian Empire by the late 18th century. While it was a republic of the USSR, it had its own identity, culture, and history separate from Russia. It was only through violence that Russia had control of it with the man-made famine of the early 1930’s (The Holodomor) and Soviet repressions further entrenched Soviet dominance. The independence of Ukraine in 1991 was not just a procedural event but the culmination of a long struggle for national sovereignty. It declared its independence following a referendum where over 90% of voters supported sovereignty, including a majority in Crimea and the Donbas region.

[Unseen]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

My concern is not with being “balanced” but being right.

If by “right” you mean “to the right”  then yeah, I get it.

The questions you pose are very hypothetical and are thus unanswerable. They are also polluted by unstated and/or unsupported assumptions and presumptions.

A lot of the criticism of Russia, yours included, blames Russia’s failures entirely on a bad system of government. While I’m not going to argue it’s better than ours or even good, you brush aside the fact that only the U.S. came out of WW2 in pretty good shape. Russia, the UK, Japan and Germany took years to become functional again.

Yet, they jumped ahead of America early on in The Space Race with Sputnik 1 (first satellite) and Vostok (first human in space) as well as Luna (first spacecraft to the Moon), Soyuz (reliable rocket) and Mir (the space station). They have many developments and inventions to their credit, making significant contributions in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and medicine.

Considering the relatively small size of their economy (Canada has a higher GDP/GNP), they’ve made a pretty good account of themselves despite their political faults.

Credit where credit is due.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Unseen.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Unseen.

[_Robert_]

Do Americans even have the credibility to condemn authoritarian dictatorships these days? Our new allies are North Korea and Russia. Our enemies are Europe, Canada and Mexico.

[Unseen]

_Robert_ wrote:

Do Americans even have the credibility to condemn authoritarian dictatorships these days? Our new allies are North Korea and Russia. Our enemies are Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Exactly. Trump is ignoring the “coequal branches” thing and is using his chief executive role to ruin America. Whatever America’s faults, he’s taking us down a dark path and he’s doing it with a fake “department” he says is not headed by Elon Musk. Yet, Musk is the only person anyone can name associated with it.

[Belle Rose]

@Robert

America is dumber than a box of hammers

Yes. I can’t wait to get the hell out of this country.

For years me and my ex-husband have been arguing about getting my son his dual citizenship to Mexico (I am for it, his dad is not). Now that things are going in this direction, I’m questioning whether it would be a good thing or not because I’m afraid that if we get his dual citizenship, they might take away his American citizenship, or scrutinize the fact that his dad originally was illegal and then became a permanent resident. I really want my son to have Mexican citizenship, especially because it will give him an option to get the hell out of here… But we’re also afraid now, even afraid for how our son will be treated just for looking Mexican. his dad has already suffered through a lot of discrimination, but I’m even fearful now that he might face deportation, even though he’s legal in this country.

[Belle Rose]

As for me, I can’t wait to get the hell out of here…

[TheEncogitationer]

Robert,

Do Americans even have the credibility to condemn authoritarian dictatorships these days? Our new allies are North Korea and Russia. Our enemies are Europe, Canada and Mexico.

The U.S. Government has no credibility here, but U.S. Citizens have the credibility to condemn the human rights records of any regime at home or abroad. And as long as we don’t have speech laws like Germany, England, and the rest of Europe, we will still be legally free to do so.

[TheEncogitationer]

Unseen,

The questions you pose are very hypothetical and are thus unanswerable. They are also polluted by unstated and/or unsupported assumptions and presumptions.

Not hypothetical questions but all too real. And like the unstated assumptions and presumptions that AI requires capital to build, energy to run, and free minds to create it.

A lot of the criticism of Russia, yours included, blames Russia’s failures entirely on a bad system of government. While I’m not going to argue it’s better than ours or even good, you brush aside the fact that only the U.S. came out of WW2 in pretty good shape. Russia, the UK, Japan and Germany took years to become functional again.

And as I’ve stated before, the misery and death that Russian suffered from World War II came from Stalin aiding and appeasing Hitler via The Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact, as well as Stalin’s Terror Famine in Ukraine starving the nation and The Great Purge imprisoning and executing 80 percent of Stalin’s best officers.

Yet, they jumped ahead of America early on in The Space Race with Sputnik 1 (first satellite) and Vostok (first human in space) as well as Luna (first spacecraft to the Moon), Soyuz (reliable rocket) and Mir (the space station). They have many developments and inventions to their credit, making significant contributions in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and medicine.

Considering the relatively small size of their economy (Canada has a higher GDP/GNP), they’ve made a pretty good account of themselves despite their political faults.

Credit where credit is due.

And the capital and most of the underlying ideas for all of it came from the West. Credit where credit is due indeed

[TheEncogitationer]

Belle Rose,

There’s no relief to be found south of the border. Not merely is there a drug war between the Mexican government and the Cartels, but Trump early on talked of sending U.S. troops into that mess. You and your son and anyone else would be worse off down there.

Pay attention to the iteneraries between the U.S. And Mexico. The traffic predominantly goes in one direction.

Fret not about staying here for the time being. The U.S. would have to change the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to abolish birthright citizenship and that requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate of Congress or by a convention called for by two-thirds of state legislatures. Then, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 out of 50) to become part of the Constitution.

It is very hard to change the Constitution by deliberate design of the Founders and that’s a good thing.

As for discrimination against your son and his father, U.S. law is still overwhelmingly on their side, not only through the 14th Amendment, but all enabling civil rights legislation. Stay and fight the good fight.

Also, when going anywhere, you have to make sure in advance that you’re welcome and know the local ways, as other expats have found out the hard way:

Ellen DeGeneres Has Already ‘Clashed’ With Her British Neighbors Over Extension on $18 Million Home Just Weeks After Quitting U.S.
By Kelsi Karruli

February 5, 2025
https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/ellen-degeneres-portia-de-rossi-clash-british-neighbors-home/

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by TheEncogitationer. Reason: Crucial detail addendum
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[TheEncogitationer]

Belle Rose,

Here’s what you and your family are up against. Your miles may vary, depending on your status and the papers to prove it.

One thing is for sure from the history of Mexican immigration law: The powers that be in Mexico owe Donald Trump and the rest of the world a serious apology.

Mexican Nationality Law–Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_nationality_law

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[Unseen]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

And the capital and most of the underlying ideas for all of it came from the West. Credit where credit is due indeed

Science grows based on what discoveries and developments came before.

The claim that Russia’s postwar successes were all (every single one, apparently) based on ideas that came from “the West” (as if Russian science was not part of the body of Western knowledge) requires documentation. As Carl Sagan said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Besides, when it comes to using knowledge, it’s not where you got it but what you do with it that counts. I listed a series of Russian accomplishments not matched by the U.S. until later.

And like I pointed out, they have been accomplishing a lot on an economy that’s a fraction of America’s and is in fact smaller than that of Canada.

I don’t like Russia and I wouldn’t want to live there, but the way Trump is changing the country into Russia’s 22nd Republic (what they call their equivalent of our states), there soon may be little difference between the two countries. He even uses death threats indirectly, the way a mob boss might opine that it would be regrettable if so-and -so had an accident, or more directly by stripping deserving people of their Secret Service protection. Is he that far from sending a black ops team out to neutralize someone who’s becoming inconvenient to him? Not when you consider how admiringly he’s spoken of Putin and Jimmy Hoffa.

[PopeBeanie]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

I’m not character assasinating the Left. The Left is already nihilisticly suicidal. I’m just providing them the cigarettes, Jagermeister, and fat back to do it to themselves.

Character assassination is trending, alongside digression from the original or most productive topic. It’s a Bannon/Trump political (and authoritarian) tactic, tossing in flurries of accusation, invective, and dubious or irrelevant information, requiring heroic focus to maintain or return to positive, on-topic interaction… toward actually workable solutions or experiments.

They throw out smoke bombs, stink bombs, and monkey wrenches to deflect from respectful, potentially enlightening dialogs and group competence. The angst is infectious, unless one regularly self-immunizes with wisdom and lifetimes/eons of human experience.

Some people fall into it just as a way to have the last word, while others in high places have strategic, long con intentions.

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