Hurlshort

Just wanted to clarify for all the non-American folks.

I owe more than expected, so I hate you.

We went to war with the British over far fewer taxes and property rights violations than the US Government is hammering us with today. We do teach the Revolutionary War in 8th grade. It's a big unit.

That's the problem, nobody is telling these kids they should be ditch diggers. They can be anything they want if they go to community college. But with a bit less snark, college is fairly accessible to almost any student coming out of High School. This is great because it offers opportunity to a diverse range of students instead just of the ones that come from specific socio-economic backgrounds. But it also means you are going to have a much wider range of academic abilities. Couple that with the fact public education has been doubling down on math, science, and language arts for decades and devaluing trade skills, and you have some issues. Trying to convince my students that plumbers, electricians, and mechanics are not only important, but can make a lot of money is not an easy task. They get the exact opposite message from their parents and society as a whole.

I remember very similar numbers making the rounds about 20 years ago when I was entering college. It's not a new problem.

That sucks. Both HR and MK were good games. I wish they had worried less about amazing graphics and just tried to turn out a solid title on a decent budget, but I guess that isn't the Ubisoft way. "Hey, we invested a moderate budget in HR and it sold really well, let's spend way more on the sequel and hope it sells way more." Squeenix, not Ubisoft.

It is your prerogative to watch youtube videos of some guy in the dark, but you don't HAVE to share that with us.

I think you may be lowballing there. It's only been running for 4 and a half hours. I expect they will meet their goal by tomorrow. Maybe within 24 hours. Also, these things tend to be front and back heavy. So I expect big numbers toward the end of the campaign as well. Right now it is getting $100k an hour, roughly. The question is how long will that last? I expect it will be comparable to Wasteland 3, and may surpass it. I was way off!

I assume he's just kind of a figurehead for Mike Shanahan.

The immigration policies before 1965 restricting certain countries had more to do with racism than fearmongering. Although there is certainly a measure of fear in racism itself.

Yeah, I'm not defending extremism, I was just explaining how it happens.

New episode is up, lots of history in this one.

That's not quite how it works. If you have a family living and working in the US, in some of these examples for nearly a decade, and suddenly the father is deported back to some war torn country (which the US shares responsibility for it being war-torn to begin with.) That family may have just lost their breadwinner, the kids have lost their dad, their entire lives are flipped upside down. They probably aren't going to pack it up and go to a war-torn country, but you've now created a situation where those kids are incredibly vulnerable to extremist ideologies. The US is no longer the place they came for opportunity, it is the country that forced their father to leave and is filled with people who hate their way of life.

Because Islamic extremists are not a genuine threat to the US. It's not an enemy state trying to wage war on us. They attack civilian targets because they know they have no real chance of toppling our government. Instead they try to spread fear, which they hope will force the government to do stupid things, which will add to their power. It's an ideology, and the danger lies in the spreading of that ideology. Honestly the President seems to be playing right into their hands. Are internment camps next?

We were just incredibly racist back then. It got a bit better in 1965.

Jesus, this stuff is unconscionable. I'm usually pretty tepid on the President stuff, I mean these guys are usually trying to do the right thing even when I disagree with the method. But Trump seems to be going for a full on villain here. There were a lot of complaints about how Obama used Executive orders, but Trump seems to be doubling down on that practice.

It is tremendous fearmongering.

Well no, I don't think California seceding from the Union would go down all friendly. Well if that were the case, then water rights would be the least of California's worries, given the complete lack of a military.

Jesus. Land of the free?

Yes but: 1. The Colorado River runs through California. 2. South of the Tehachapi is a pretty small part of the state as a whole. Right now a bunch of states share water rights along the river. It is unlikely they would abandon that relationship for any reason. Unless you think California will suddenly become an enemy state or something.

I'm not really sure where that idea comes from either, we aren't shipping in water from other states. There are plenty of disputes about how we use the water we have, and how we manage droughts, but the majority of the state is self-sufficient. The biggest dispute would be the use of the Colorado River. Now Colorado could turn the spigot off, which would hurt SoCal, but then we go back to the fruits and veggies that the rest of the country loves so much. Cut off your nose to spite your face, I suppose.

You know, we haven't even covered the whole torture stuff that the President keeps talking about. Yikes.

I have never heard anybody in an actual position of influence in the state actually talk about seceding, so I don't think 'California' is quite as keen as you might think. The main people I hear talking about are jealous 'conservatives' from other states.

I'm pretty sure Google, Apple, all the movies studios, HP, Tesla, etc. are not owned by the US in any way. That would kind of violate the entire model of capitalism. And considering a lot of these tech companies make their stuff in China, an independent California would probably have no trouble negotiating trade deals. Plus the port of LA is the largest trade port in terms of dollars in the world. Basically it would be a major loss for the US, but it doesn't really matter because it isn't going to happen. Anyone who wants it is delusional and is too caught up in political rhetoric to recognize basic economics.

From my point of view, it's the source of all of US's political problems, or most of them anyway. It was fine when it was Republican, or even a swing state, but now it's an evil, lawless Democrat empire. Ah ok, that doesn't sound unreasonable at all.