ktchong

Libertarianism - the cult of Ayn Rand - is the real problem of this country.

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I do not think they do; certainly not in any significant number. Illegals want to avoid exposing themselves and getting caught. Voting illegally would put themselves at high risks of being exposed and getting caught. Just common sense. On the other hand, children of illegal immigrants who are born here are eligible for public assistance and benefits as birthright citizens, (i.e., food stamps, National School Lunch, Women Infant Children or WIC - children still qualify for them as long as they are US citzen.) So, illegals themselves may not be eligible for public welfare, the loophole is that their US-born children are eligible. And I have a problem with that. I also have serious problem with DACA kids competing with American kids for entrances into colleges and universities and for and public aids and scholarship. This girl is cute and smart, but seriously I do not feel it was right for an illegal immigrant to take away an Ivy League spot and scholarship from a US citizen (or even a legal resident.) I am not a conservative or libertarian. I actually support a Canada-style or European-style socialist or welfare state - with good benefits for US citizens, but NOT for illegals. In fact, having too many illegals would make it harder for us to effectively fund and implement single-payer, free higher education, and other public benefits.

Frankly, Democrats need to stop spending so much energy and time on illegal immigrants if they want to win back control of the Congress in the midterm and White House in 2020. Illegal immigrants can't vote, and they are pissing off Americans when they prioritize illegal immigrants over Americans. They should focus on economic issues that can win over Americans: single-payer universal healthcare, free public colleges and universities for American citizens, more funding and better infrastructure for public schools, etc. I consider myself a liberal, and I can tell you that I do not care about illegal immigrants. They are illegal. They should not be here in the first place. They suppress wages for Americans. They may benefit the overall economy, but the benefits disproportionately go to the rich instead of the middle class and poor Americans. They are a drain on our resources. They undermine public welfare and social safety net for Americans, i.e., open borders and welfare state are two mutually exclusive goals of liberalism. Democrats need to stop encouraging and incentivizing them to come here. Democrats need to stop prioritizing illegal immigrants (including DACA recipients who are still not Americans) over US citizens and legal residents.

Everyone here knows I really hate Trump because he is a despicable egomaniac sociopath. He, his family and his pals are looting this country. On the other hand, I am not opposed to his immigration policy of separating parents and children as a deterrence. Those people from Central and South America just keep coming and flooding into the country. They ain't gonna stop. (A wall on the southern borders would actually work. I know a wall would not stop the more sophisticated drug runners, but it would certainly stop the migrant trains and unaccompanied children who come on foot.) Once those kids come in and stay here for a few years, down the road we're gonna say, "oh, this kids were brought into the country, and now we can't send them back." Then we will have to give them exemption and let them stay. It will just become an endless cycle of more and more DACA. This has gotta stop. Right now, I am not opposed to giving amnesty aka paths to citizenship to the current crop of "Dreamers" who are already in the country. However, if those kids from Central and South America do not stop coming, then I will reconsider my stance: no amnesty or path to citizenship for DACA kids because I don't want more kids to come with the expectation that they will get the same special treatment.

Upgrade is very good. The movie starts out as the seemingly typical "man and his family were slaughtered, but then he came back from the dead and got superpowers" revenge tale. However, the story swirls into some interesting turns and unexpected twists. It is an action sci-fi. The setting is near future. The bad guys have cybernetic enhancements and implants, (which are somewhat common in the movie,) so they can still put up a tough fight with the hero who has an A.I. implant. The action and pacing are very good. I enjoyed how its camera and perspective moves, flows and rolls with the hero's actions, which makes the scenes dynamic and fluid. The movie also has comedy. The hero and his A.I. implant are squabbling buddies throughout most of the movie. The hero is impulsive and just want to avenge his dead wife, while the A.I. is the cold, logical "I don't think this is a good idea, you are gonna get us both killed... let's think this through with a plan" better half. Their interactions are funny.

Whenever some white person says something-something about Blacks of Black culture, this is what I show him/her:

Republicans are throwing a fit after finding out that Google returns "nazism" in the search results for "Republican Party" as a definition of the party. And they are blaming the "liberal bias" of people who work in Google. The problem with that rationale is... no actual human/person in Google added the word "nazism" to the search results of the Republican Party as a definition. It was the Google's artificial intelligence - i.e., machine learning - that made the decision to auto-generate nazism as a result for any search for on Republican after the A.I. has self-learned the search habits and patterns of millions or even billions of people over time. So, if the A.I. determined that if the definition fits, then the A.I. just added made the decision based on the facts it has "learned". P.S. Since then, Google has manually removed nazism as a definition for the Republican Party. Manually as in some human/person in Google overrode the A.I. decision and took out nazism from all relevant search results.

I have removed your post on the grounds that it may be considered offensive. ~ Gorgon.

Another song from The Greatest Showman:

You guys can't handle the truth!

The Greatest Showman was a so-so film - with fantastic music and songs. IMO it has the best songs of all the movie musicals I've seen.

Ironically: In the 2013 video game, if Lara was captured alive, it would be GAME OVER. In the game, she was almost captured once, by a Russian mercenary, who immediately tried to rape her - and she killed him and escaped, i.e., he was her very first kill in the game and her life. If she was not able to kill him and escaped, she would be raped - and it would be GAME OVER. So the game had a more consideration for realism than the dumb movie.

If Lara had been raped in the movie, I would have also walked out. My point was: she should NOT have been captured AT ALL. Once the screenwriters wrote her into that situation, then they basically wrote themselves into an unwinnable lose-lose situation: if she got raped, then audiences would be disgusted and repulsed; if she did not, then the outcome would be unrealistic and unbelievable. So, why don't you guys tell me: if a woman was actually in that situation, what do you think would happen to her? Realistically? Honest question. The movie should have NEVER written her into that situation, (i.e., getting captured by a gang of violent criminals.)

Tomb Raider is the first movie I walked out of this year. In the video game, Lara Croft had never been captured for too long. She was waging a one-woman guerilla survival warfare on an army of ruthless men. No man was able to catch or corner her for more than a few minutes. She was very slippery. She was lightning fast, and even her enemies mentioned that she was "too quick". If she had been captured for too long, there was no doubt in my mind that she would have been raped by the gang of shipwrecked mercenaries, murderers, outlaws, pirates and slavers who had not seen or touched a woman in many years. Yet, in the movie, she was captured and held as a prisoner for more than a day; and the men did not gang-raped her at the first chance they got. That was just ridiculous. I am not saying that I wanted to see Alicia Vikander get brutally and violently gang-raped on screen, but the stupid screenwriters should have never written Lara into that corner - because once Lara got captured, the inevitable outcome would be a gang rape. Instead, those men just moved her from one location to another without touching her. Seriously? Those mercenaries, murderers, outlaws, pirates and slavers, who were shipwrecked and trapped on an island for years, had not seen or touched a woman in years, and they did not rape the first woman they came across - and beautiful one at that - at the first chance they got!?? That was when I walked out. At that point, it just became impossible for me to suspend my disbelief. (I went to the 7:30PM show; and I walked out at around 8:40PM.)

Article link: PC Gamer: Hawaii proposes new legislation to regulate use of loot boxes, 2018-02-13

The announcement trailer for Horizon: Zero Dawn at E3 2015: It introduced the interesting premise and world, and provided glimpses into the gameplay and graphics - which turned out to be accurate of the actual game released two years later.

Here is what most remarkable about Mass Effect 2 trailer: every clip was from in-game, and almost every scene was from the actual gameplay.

EA has finally offered the complete DLC bundles for Mass Effect 2 and 3 for sale on Origin. So now you can grab the Trilogy Pack and the ME2 + ME3 DLC bundles to complete the entire trilogy. In the past, you used to have to buy "BioWare Points" to pay for the ME2 and ME3 DLC individually. EA or BioWare had never released a "Game of the Year" or Complete edition for ME2 or ME3 that included all their DLC. Even the "Trilogy Pack" was incomplete and missing many ME2 DLC and all ME3 DLC. Those stupid BioWare Points never got a discount or went on sale, so in the past you would have to spend over $100 to buy BioWare Points to pay for all the DLC for ME2 and ME3 in order to experience the ME trilogy to the fullest. About two or three weeks ago, EA finally bundled all the DLC into two packages less than a month ago, but only sells them on Origin. Right now, the DLC bundles are $25 each. Origin's best discount is 75% off. Direct Links: https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/mass-effect/mass-effect-2/addon/mass-effect-2-dlc-bundle https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/mass-effect/mass-effect-3/addon/mass-effect-3-dlc-bundle BTW, Dragon Age 2 DLC also got the same treatment.

Again, based on the spoilers: During the Army of the Dead's attack on Winterfell, the Night King's dragon is burning and devastating the forces of the Alliance. Dany won't ride a dragon because she will be "sick". Bran will warg into a dragon to battle the Night King's dragon. Meera will protect Bran in the Godswood while Bran is warging. Either one or a group of White Walkers will somehow find their way into Godswood. (Everyone else will either be fighting outside Winterfell or stay protected inside the Winterfell.) A White Walker will kill Meera, but she will buy enough time for Bran's dragon to take down the Night King's dragon. When a White Walker finally stabs Bran, Bran will die when his mind is inside the dragon, and his dragon will fall out of the sky. When the dragon hits the ground, the wights will swarm and stab the dragon to death, killing both the dragon and Bran in it. The last surviving dragon (being riden by Jon) will burn the dead dragon's corpse to prevent the Night King from raising another dragon from dead. The Army of the Dead will retreat when the Night King's dragon is defeated and severely injured, (but not dead because it will reappear in the Battle of Eyrie.) So the allied forces will decide to abandon Winterfell and split up: Dany will retreat to the Dragonstone (because they will have gotten the news that Cersei's Golden Company plan to invade and take Dragonstone, where Cersei thinks she will be safe from the Army of the Dead, but Jon know they will need Dragonstone for more dragon glass.) Sansa, Arya, Jamie, Brienna, and the rest will retreat to Eyrie where it is defensible. This will be in the second episode. So the second dragon will be gone in the second episode. Tormund, Greyworm and Podrick will also die in this episode. There may be more casualties I have missed and do not remember at the moment. Arya will secretly split off from the group to Eyrie because she wants to kill Cersei (especially after Cersei betrays the alliance.) The Hound will follow and accompany Arya to King's Landing. The Hound will kill the Mountain and - being also the "little brother" in the Clegane family - Cersei. For the second time, the dying Hound will beg Arya to give him a mercy death. This time, Arya will grant him the gift and burn his body (because King's Landing is about to be overrun by undeads.) This will happen later in the season.