Problematic Stuff

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laklak
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by laklak » Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:01 pm

I like "rationalist", myself, but that's just me.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Animavore » Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:11 pm

I think "snowflake" better suits the people who go around calling people snowflakes. So white and delicate.

The left used to be annoying, but the right have surpassed them. I don't even see SJWs on comment sections any more. Instead all I see is angry alt-right bozos railing against the leftist/feminist/SJW/librul agenda. The latest one was a report yesterday that Idris Elba might be the next Bond. The comment section was swarmed ny threatened cry babies talking about how 'PC' is ruining everything and how Hollywood is retroactively violating their childhood like the unearthing of suppressed memories.

It's just fucking James Bond. And he's been played by Scots, Irish, and even an Aussie. At least Idris is English.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by laklak » Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:43 pm

Yah but he's....he's.....he's....BLACK! OMG it's the end of civilization as we know it! RUUUUUUUUUN!

Idris is one of Mrs. Lak's passes. I traded her Idris for Britany Spears. Yeah, I know, but there's just something about the idea of a roadside motel, couple of bottles of cheap tequila, and a long weekend with Britany that tickles my fancy.

Fanatics are all nasty assholes, be they leftists, righties, fundies, or Otherkin. It's not necessary to call out the rightwing jerkoffs here given the membership's prevailing political allegiances, but the left doesn't usually get the same scrutiny. I like to bring a bit of balance to the proceedings.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Seabass » Sat Aug 11, 2018 6:01 pm

I went through a phase in my 30s in which I kind of started to think left was as bad as the right. I was wrong. SO wrong.

The racism, the anti-intellectualism, the hostility toward science and education, the religious extremism, the utter disregard for anyone outside their racial/religious identity group. I mean, the Trump administration is ripping families apart, deporting the parents, and sticking the kids in the foster system. And Republicans are like, "Meh, whatever, the economy's good. Shrug."

I hated Republicans when I was young, but as I got older I became more tolerant and tried my damndest to empathize with them, but now I think I hate them more than ever.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by laklak » Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:19 pm

I don't hate either of them, I just dismiss what 90% of what both think as mindless regurgitation of irrational bullshit fed to them by their Party Masters. The average voter hasn't had an original thought or held a rationally evaluated position in, well, probably ever. People are, on the whole, stupid as cattle.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Animavore » Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:01 am

The alt-right is debating whether to try to look less like Nazis.

Tensions are flaring between two warring camps inside the alt-right movement ahead of their planned march on the White House Sunday: those who think they should try to look a little less like anti-Semites and racists, and those who think that would make them a bunch of “optics-cucks.”

We need to remain in the realm of the hip, cool, sexy, fun,” wrote Andrew Anglin, a neo-Nazi who runs the white supremacist website the Daily Stormer, urging his readers not to attend the rally. “We need to speak to the culture. We do not want the image of being a bunch of weird losers who march around like assholes while completely outnumbered and get mocked by the entire planet.”

But others, like white supremacist Christopher Cantwell (who was recently barred from entering the state of Virginia for five years), disagree. In a blog post earlier this year, he wrote that those within the white supremacist movement should “become Republicans, not revolutionaries,” but added, “This is not to say we should descend into optics cucking. Far from it. Anyone who dares punch right” — as in, anyone who criticizes those who wear neo-Nazi regalia to rallies or uses white supremacist slogans in public — “should be descended upon with all of the venom we can muster.”

“Unite the Right 2,” the sequel to last year’s alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was organized largely by “white civil rights activist” Jason Kessler. It is intended, per the application, to protest what participants feel were civil rights abuses at their gathering last year, where young white men carried tiki torches and marched to Nazi-inspired chants and where a counterprotester was killed.

According to Kessler, it was those “civil rights abuses” by Charlottesville officials “that led to the violence at last year’s rally” — though it was a member of the alt-right who murdered a woman by purposely driving into a crowd of counterprotesters. White people aren’t “able to peacefully assemble. We’re not able to speak,” Kessler said in an interview, though he, as Slate pointed out in June, had permission to do both.

Before Charlottesville, the alt-right and white nationalists believed that their movement was ready for primetime and, more importantly, real political power amid the rise of Donald Trump. But as Unite the Right descended into violence and murder in Charlottesville, the subsequent legal fallout and the massive backlash by the public suggested to many in the movement that, in fact, it wasn’t prepared to emerge from the confines of the dark corners of the internet. Under public pressure, the alt-right has largely disintegrated.

Other die-hard members balk at the idea of toning down their public protest (like leaving guns and swastika flags at home, as one post suggests to attendees). On alt-right message boards, they’re howling that this makes them cowards, questioning the motives of the optics camp. They call it “optics-cucking,” an insult that questions the target’s masculinity.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Seabass » Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:18 am

More American greatness from Trumpistan.
Aurora parents fighting to stop legally adopted 4-year-old daughter from being deported
https://kdvr.com/2018/08/09/colorado-pa ... -deported/

AURORA, Colo. -- An Aurora family is scrambling to figure out how to keep their 4-year-old daughter in the United States.

Angela Becerra starts pre-kindergarten on Monday. Three weeks into her new school year, though, she will be legally at risk of being deported.

Her parents, Amy and Marco Becerra, are U.S. citizens. Marco Becerra also has citizenship in Peru, where he is originally from.

Amy Becerra works for the State of Colorado and Marco Becerra works for the federal government.

The couple also own a home in Peru and decided to move there for a few years before selling it.

While they were in Peru, their daughter Angela was born on May 23, 2014.

“She was 11 days old when she was brought to the orphanage,” Amy Becerra said.

Angela was abandoned at birth. Her mother was developmentally disabled and unable to care for her.

“[Her mother] was treated like a dog. She was chained to the table and sex-trafficked. That’s the reality. No running water. No electricity. Very little food,” Amy Becerra said.

A woman from the orphanage suggested the Becerras foster the newborn.

“She literally placed this little 5-pound baby in our hands and said do you think you guys can take care of her?” Amy Becerra said.

Of course, they said yes.

“The unique thing about Angela’s adoption is it’s not an international adoption. It’s a domestic adoption in Peru,” Amy Becerra said.

Angela’s adoption was finalized in Peruvian court in April 2017. At that point, the Becerras decided it was time for their family to move back to Colorado.

“We wanted her to have the opportunities that are available here, the education that’s available here. The American dream,” Amy Becerra said.

That is when she says their dream turned into a nightmare.

In March 2017, Amy accepted a job in Colorado and moved back with the understanding that her husband and daughter would be a few weeks behind her.

However, Angela’s immigration application kept hitting roadblocks that delayed her case.

She was unable to travel to the United States because the U.S. does not grant travel visas to anyone with a current immigration application.

The Becerras had to stay in Peru for 13 months before a visa was granted. Angela came to the United States for the first time in March.

“So she has a visa. She’s here on a tourist visa that expires Aug. 31,” Amy Becerra said.

Less than a month before it expires, Angela’s immigration case has been denied.

“We’re both citizens. My husband and I have a full legal binding adoption completed and we have a birth certificate that lists no other parent,” Amy Becerra said.

“I don’t know what it takes to reopen a case. Once it’s closed, it’s closed.”

There is an appeals process, but it likely cannot be completed in the next three weeks before Angela’s tourist visa expires.

“If she expires her visa, she is officially here as an undocumented alien. And legally is at risk for deportation even though both her parents are citizens,” Amy Becerra said.

She says either they all have to permanently move back to Peru together or else risk raising Angela in the U.S. without papers.

“It’s inconceivable that a child of two citizen parents would have to live out their life as an undocumented alien in this country,” Amy Becerra said.

In the meantime, Angela has no access to health insurance or other benefits of American citizenship.

The family said it has reached out to immigration attorneys but has been unsuccessful in figuring out why Angela’s case has been denied.

A letter explaining the decision should be available within the next few weeks.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." —Voltaire
"They want to take away your hamburgers. This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved." —Sebastian Gorka

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Sean Hayden » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:12 am

--a letter explaining the decision!? Are we going to deport families via automated phone calls now?

They're definitely owed a home visit by someone familiar with the law.

--//--

It's probably not meanspirited though you know? It's just what we'd call bureaucracy. It's why many people don't like the government regardless of who's running it.

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by laklak » Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:03 pm

That's ridiculous and unless they're not telling us something, completely against both the letter and spirit of immigration law. Can't reopen a closed case? Bullshit, they're dealing with some pocket Hitler down at USCIS. They certainly exist, bullying little shits with a badge. We were lucky in that regard, everyone we dealt with while Mrs. Lak was going through the citizenship process was professional, well-informed, polite, and friendly, but as in any government bureaucracy that is not always the case. And yes, this is exactly why I do not like government regardless of who is in charge, and why I don't want the constipated fuckwads involved in any more of my life than absolutely necessary.
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Forty Two » Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:47 pm

Seabass wrote:
Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:18 am
More American greatness from Trumpistan.
Aurora parents fighting to stop legally adopted 4-year-old daughter from being deported
https://kdvr.com/2018/08/09/colorado-pa ... -deported/

AURORA, Colo. -- An Aurora family is scrambling to figure out how to keep their 4-year-old daughter in the United States.

Angela Becerra starts pre-kindergarten on Monday. Three weeks into her new school year, though, she will be legally at risk of being deported.

Her parents, Amy and Marco Becerra, are U.S. citizens. Marco Becerra also has citizenship in Peru, where he is originally from.

Amy Becerra works for the State of Colorado and Marco Becerra works for the federal government.

The couple also own a home in Peru and decided to move there for a few years before selling it.

While they were in Peru, their daughter Angela was born on May 23, 2014.

“She was 11 days old when she was brought to the orphanage,” Amy Becerra said.

Angela was abandoned at birth. Her mother was developmentally disabled and unable to care for her.

“[Her mother] was treated like a dog. She was chained to the table and sex-trafficked. That’s the reality. No running water. No electricity. Very little food,” Amy Becerra said.

A woman from the orphanage suggested the Becerras foster the newborn.

“She literally placed this little 5-pound baby in our hands and said do you think you guys can take care of her?” Amy Becerra said.

Of course, they said yes.

“The unique thing about Angela’s adoption is it’s not an international adoption. It’s a domestic adoption in Peru,” Amy Becerra said.

Angela’s adoption was finalized in Peruvian court in April 2017. At that point, the Becerras decided it was time for their family to move back to Colorado.

“We wanted her to have the opportunities that are available here, the education that’s available here. The American dream,” Amy Becerra said.

That is when she says their dream turned into a nightmare.

In March 2017, Amy accepted a job in Colorado and moved back with the understanding that her husband and daughter would be a few weeks behind her.

However, Angela’s immigration application kept hitting roadblocks that delayed her case.

She was unable to travel to the United States because the U.S. does not grant travel visas to anyone with a current immigration application.

The Becerras had to stay in Peru for 13 months before a visa was granted. Angela came to the United States for the first time in March.

“So she has a visa. She’s here on a tourist visa that expires Aug. 31,” Amy Becerra said.

Less than a month before it expires, Angela’s immigration case has been denied.

“We’re both citizens. My husband and I have a full legal binding adoption completed and we have a birth certificate that lists no other parent,” Amy Becerra said.

“I don’t know what it takes to reopen a case. Once it’s closed, it’s closed.”

There is an appeals process, but it likely cannot be completed in the next three weeks before Angela’s tourist visa expires.

“If she expires her visa, she is officially here as an undocumented alien. And legally is at risk for deportation even though both her parents are citizens,” Amy Becerra said.

She says either they all have to permanently move back to Peru together or else risk raising Angela in the U.S. without papers.

“It’s inconceivable that a child of two citizen parents would have to live out their life as an undocumented alien in this country,” Amy Becerra said.

In the meantime, Angela has no access to health insurance or other benefits of American citizenship.

The family said it has reached out to immigration attorneys but has been unsuccessful in figuring out why Angela’s case has been denied.

A letter explaining the decision should be available within the next few weeks.
That certainly pulls at most anyone's heartstrings, of course. It seems under those facts to make zero sense to not simply afford the child permanent residence based on having two parents who are American citizens.

However, I would add as a factor to consider the law regarding international adoptions, and transportation of children internationally. The law cannot allow US citizens to go abroad to third world countries and do domestic adoptions, bring the child to the US on a "visitor's visa" (aka a tourist visa), and then expect that a green card will be issued because the child is an infant and both parents are Americans.

There is a process -- including international law under the Hague Convention -- which applies to international adoptions. https://www.dhs.gov/how-do-i/adopt-chil ... nationally and https://www.uscis.gov/adoption/immigrat ... h-adoption I suspect most first world countries have rules similar to this, given that there is the Hague Convention rules governing the process.

I quick scan of the links seem to indicate that the parents did not follow the Hague Convention routes. The next route is for citizen parents to petition on behalf of their adoptive child based on family immigration rules. Those rules allow American citizen parents to petition for permanent residence on behalf of an adopted child so long as they had legal and physical custody of the child for at least 2 years (which can be waived for certain abused children). https://www.uscis.gov/adoption/immigrat ... mmigration

It really looks like they short cut the process by getting the child a visitor's visa. A visitor's visa is based on non-immigrant intent. How can citizen parents intending to live in the US permanently say that their child is a non-immigrant? That was probably an issue.

One question I have is why they did not apply for permanent US residence while they were in Peru, and come when the petition was approved? Maybe the process would take longer than they could deal with - that's one possibility. Sometimes, there are means to get advance parole entry into the US.

Anyway, the process of international adoption is complicated anywhere, because government policies have evolved to try to protect children from being transported around internationally willy nilly. They have to evaluate if the adoption was proper, background checks, the works.

Now that they are here in the US, it would be nice if there was a process that could take care of all this investigation now. But, another point to consider is that the law wants to encourage adoptive parents to go the right way from the get-go, so that you don't run into a situation where ineligible parents simply got an adopted child and took the child to the US, and now the child is two years old and ineligible.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Forty Two » Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:10 pm

Animavore wrote:
Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:11 pm
I think "snowflake" better suits the people who go around calling people snowflakes. So white and delicate.

The left used to be annoying, but the right have surpassed them. I don't even see SJWs on comment sections any more. Instead all I see is angry alt-right bozos railing against the leftist/feminist/SJW/librul agenda. The latest one was a report yesterday that Idris Elba might be the next Bond. The comment section was swarmed ny threatened cry babies talking about how 'PC' is ruining everything and how Hollywood is retroactively violating their childhood like the unearthing of suppressed memories.

It's just fucking James Bond. And he's been played by Scots, Irish, and even an Aussie. At least Idris is English.
I have no problem with Idris Elba as Bond. I also would have no problem with Patrick Stewart or some other white actor playing Othello.

I thought Oceans 8 was a pretty good movie. I didn't see the all female ghostbusters, but I have no principled objection to it.

What irks me is the progressive/SJW plank which says that a black Bond would be just fine, but a white Othello is cultural appropriation. Emma Stone was "taught a lesson" about "whitewashing" when she played a character who was supposed to be 1/4 Chinese.

The progressive explanation is, of course, that Chinese are supposedly marginalized, so white people can't play them in films. But, white English men are not marginalized, so a black English man can quite properly play Bond.

Could Natalie Wood play Maria in West Side Story in today's world? Was it o.k. for Jake Gyllenhaal to play the Prince of Persia? To me, it's fine. But, to many-a-progressive-mind it's racism.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Jason » Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:01 pm

I don't know if I agree with anyone that 'white washing' is racist, but I do think that casting a Persian actor in Prince of Persia would have made the film more authentic.

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Forty Two » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:40 pm

I'd like to see how Japanese and Chinese films depict occidental people.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar

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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by JimC » Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:47 pm

Forty Two wrote:
Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:40 pm
I'd like to see how Japanese and Chinese films depict occidental people.
I like movies about accidental people... :tea:
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Re: Problematic Stuff

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu Aug 16, 2018 1:19 am

We're all acidental people when you think about it.
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