This should be alarming, right?

[kandrathe]

Check out how Mexico and Australia handle immigrants.

The self inflicted wounds, like the above ruling, make me mad. It's just stupid.

Which I was alluding to tangentially.




Henley & Partners Visa Restriction Index

If Afghanistan visa is only honored by 25/218 destinations, why would we think it a bad idea to consider why? Yet, Germany, who is first, is en-route to nationalize a million "potentially radicalized" refugees per year. The question here is if there has been enough evidence to justify fear of extremism from refugees. I think, in context, its security theater meant to advance a political agenda.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading...-death.htm


I'm all for humanitarian aid, and for helping refugees. It starts by not allowing (Insert potential failing state here) to descend into civil war, leaving vast populations at the mercy of radical opportunists, like Taliban, or ISIL.

OR, staying out of it and mercilessly leaving them to suffer their fate as an exercise in self determination. We cannot afford to keep treating intervention as a hobby we dabble into. We have been extremely heartless about the conflict in central Africa, leaving millions to die at the hands of despots.

Obama blustered and toyed around in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yeman, etc. without any clear leadership mandate. He will be the first war time President (with the Nobel Peace Prize) awarded before he then bloodied his hands more than any other in both drone strikes on civilians, and the bigger sin of omission. The unwilling war leader is a bad war leader.

[Lissa]

I am more concerned about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27dungeons.html

A prisoner was banned from playing D&D due to the same stupid hysteria that descended in the 80's.

Aside rights issue, it depends on if his conviction is at the federal level or not. If he's got a federal felony (I'm not sure on state level felonies, although most follow the federal lead on rights), he has no rights. The first thing that happens to anyone that commits a felony at the federal level is your rights are revoked. They are only returned to you if you petition the government after release to have them restored (I know of no one that has successfully petitioned and won) or 20 years have elapsed since you finished your term. So, without knowing for sure if he has a state felony or a federal felony (although most states also suspend rights upon a felony conviction, but petitioning a state to get your rights back happens fairly frequently), he has no rights thus the prison isn't infringing on his first and fourteenth rights (cause they're suspended while he's in prison).

[kandrathe]

I am more concerned about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27dungeons.html

A prisoner was banned from playing D&D due to the same stupid hysteria that descended in the 80's.

Aside rights issue, it depends on if his conviction is at the federal level or not. If he's got a federal felony (I'm not sure on state level felonies, although most follow the federal lead on rights), he has no rights. The first thing that happens to anyone that commits a felony at the federal level is your rights are revoked. They are only returned to you if you petition the government after release to have them restored (I know of no one that has successfully petitioned and won) or 20 years have elapsed since you finished your term. So, without knowing for sure if he has a state felony or a federal felony (although most states also suspend rights upon a felony conviction, but petitioning a state to get your rights back happens fairly frequently), he has no rights thus the prison isn't infringing on his first and fourteenth rights (cause they're suspended while he's in prison).

It was not Federal it seems. It appears he beat two people to death. But, a felony conviction does not result in a sweeping loss of all rights. In many ways the prison acts as the prisoners guardian, but a person still retains a citizen's constitutional rights as well as natural common law rights (human rights). That is, where they don't conflict with the States correctional mandate.

In reading, Singer v. Wisconsin Prison People

"Singer collected fifteen affidavits—from other inmates, his brother, and three role-playing game experts. He contends that the affidavits demonstrate that there is no connection between D&D and gang activity. Several of Singer’s affiants indeed asserted the opposite: that D&D helps rehabilitate inmates and prevents them from joining gangs and engaging in other undesirable activities."

It seems more that Mr. Singer, or his lawyers did not prove the case. The appeal courts deferred to the expertise of the prison officials claim that this activity would be detrimental to rehabilitation. The prison went on to ban all FRPG's, and thereby also maybe imagination itself. We know it is crazy, but how does an inmate challenge the "expertise" of penal reform? Not with the witnesses (affidavits) they called. He would need his own experts in rehabilitation to convince the courts that playing D&D would be either beneficial or at least benign.

But, I did get a big laugh from... "Mr. Muraski stated that he has security related concerns with inmates participating in Dungeons Dragons and other role-playing activities because the rules of the game, including providing one person (the "Dungeon Master") with a leadership role to master game rules, mimic the organization of a gang. In addition, he testified that one aspect of Dungeons Dragons is to evade and escape from made-up situations which can lead to an inmate's interest in escaping from the correctional environment. He also has found that this type of game promotes competitive hostility, violence and addictive escape behavior which interferes with the inmate's rehabilitation and the effects of positive programming."

The gang initiation is brutal, if you fail your saving throw.

/sarcasm

Of course, by prohibiting Mr Singer's diversions in prison they've certainly curbed his escape fantasies entirely.

OMG. They must really hate him.

[Jester]

For anyone able to get over the Financial Times paywall, here's Sebastian Edwards (of Edwards and Dornbusch fame - the guys who wrote the book on the economics of Latin American populism) and his thoughts about the Trump/Chavez comparison. Alas that the great Rudiger Dornbusch is no longer around to chip in his view.

-Jester

[kandrathe]

For anyone able to get over the Financial Times paywall, here's Sebastian Edwards (of Edwards and Dornbusch fame - the guys who wrote the book on the economics of Latin American populism) and his thoughts about the Trump/Chavez comparison. Alas that the great Rudiger Dornbusch is no longer around to chip in his view.

-Jester

Alt links "Is Trump a Peronist?" -->

http://latinamericagoesglobal.org/2016/1...-peronist/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worl...-president
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_p...ngman.html

I think one trouble is speculation with a jaded eye. Everyone imagines their worst nightmare and projects it into their speculation on what he will do. We know what he said he'd do, but will he do it, or be able to do it. It is hard to fathom, but the US has had ineffective presidents in the more distant past. It is the wisdom of our founders in crafting the separation of powers.

[Alram]

The perceptions people have of President Trump have led to positive changes.

Moody’s Analytics says there were 298,000 new private-sector jobs in February, far more than the 189,000 it expected. Construction jobs were up 58,000. Private educational services jobs were up 29,000. And manufacturing jobs were up 28,000. This suggests that lots of employers, small as well as large, are taking the plunge and creating new jobs...

Trump’s agenda of cutting corporate taxes, building infrastructure and rolling back regulations has unleashed the “animal spirits” — economist John Maynard Keynes’s phrase — of businesspeople. “Even if he gets (just) part of it done,” Dimon, a Democrat and Hillary Clinton contributor, told Bloomberg, “it’ll be good for growth...”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that apprehensions of people who crossed the southern border illegally in February were down 39 percent from January and down 36 percent from February 2016. They were also lower than the border crossings in December — traditionally by far the lowest month — in the years 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.

click

[kandrathe]

The perceptions people have of President Trump have led to positive changes.

Or, it may be momentum from Obama...

And, other changes too. Like... Mexican asylum seekers flock to Canada?

"During the first two months of 2017 Canada has received 156 asylum claims from Mexican nationals, compared to the 15 claims made in the first two months of 2016, an increase of over 1000%."

In a brief time this could double Canada's population. j/k

Seriously. My position is that the USA needs all the quality people of all skill sets to fill our labor force. Our current social security pyramid scheme depends on it.