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TheCatt wrote:

Ted Cruz asserted in 2018 that O'Rourke wanted "open borders and wants to take our guns."[215] PolitiFact found that Cruz's claims were "false", noting that O'Rourke had "not called for opening the borders or for government agents to take guns from law-abiding residents".[215]

Ted Cruz bashes Beto O’Rourke for accepting funds raised by PAC, which bundled individual donations

Cruz released a statement Monday deriding O’Rourke for taking $167,408 in contributions this election cycle collected by the J Street PAC. The PAC did not contribute directly to O’Rourke — it bundled individual donations on O’Rourke’s behalf.

A spokeswoman for J Street said the PAC had gathered the individual donations for O'Rourke's Senate race from 371 unique donors as of last week.

Not asserting anything on the original accusation above, just that the PAC money claim is a little dubious. Also Beto pretty much nuked the "not for gun confiscation" talking point. To the point that democrats in rural purple states think he's hurt their party in those areas.

"We're all supposed to pretend we don't actually want it, stupid."

Is like a jillion texts he received that day.

The evidence of journalistic malfeasance displayed when comparing the media coverage of the Beto that ran against Cruz to the Beto that is now necessarily unfiltered as he runs for President is pretty damning against the press. There's no way you can watch more than 2 minutes of him on the campaign trail without coming away with evidence of his complete idiocy.

One of my FB friends the night after the debate:

A lot of talk about Beto this morning, who made an awesome statement about guns, but I am LOVING Pete Buttigieg! He is brilliant, sensible, and so poised. I would love to see more from him!

Beto just played into the ignorance of the anti-gun crowd. And yes, I truly believe there's no way his comments didn't cost them votes with gun owners and/or people who simply believe in the 2nd amendment/stopping an overreaching government.

I think I like Pete. But I don't really know his proposals. He seems more moderate than Bernie + Beth.

If I had a vote in a primary, it'd be for Yang just because of his stance on the SNL thing.

Leisher wrote: If I had a vote in a primary, it'd be for Yang just because of his stance on the SNL thing.

I can vote in the Democratic primary. I think last presidential election was the only time I've ever bothered voting in a primary.

VA police officer suspended for handing suspected illegal immigrant to ICE

The officer discovered one of the drivers didn't have a Virginia driver's license and ran a check with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, police said. The check revealed the driver had a violation for failing to appear for a deportation hearing.

The officer verified the warrant and alerted officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

An ICE agent was close by and arrived at the scene. The officer cited the driver for not having a driver's license and turned them over to the federal agent.

The Fairfax County Police Department enacted a 2007 policy that prohibits officers from confirming a person's immigration status and detaining them solely based on civil violations of immigration law.

“This is an unfortunate issue where the officer was confused,” Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said. “We have trained on this issue a lot. This is the first time we’ve had a lapse in judgment, and the officer is being punished.”

What. The. Fuck?

sigh

Why bother having laws?

Las Vegas police to stop ICE program due to California court ruling.

It still boggles my mind that so many governmental agencies blatantly refuse to enforce known laws, yet expect naturalized citizens to follow the law.

The California ruling specified that ICE was prohibited from issuing detainers in states with no explicit statute on immigration arrests, LVMPD said.

I'm not a lawyer, but how does that make any sense?

TheCatt wrote: I'm not a lawyer, but how does that make any sense?

The whole immigration thing with states and cities just doing their own thing has me completely perplexed. I don't get it. I don't know why some people don't see it as an issue unless they're profiting (financially or politically) or ignorant of how it affects them. I don't understand how law enforcement just looks the other way as someone breaks the law. I don't understand how lawyers haven't filed class action lawsuits against all governments for not enforcing the laws, which have resulted in the death, injury, rape, etc. of citizens. Etc. (I have a feeling that is going to come at some point. The Opioid trial might have set a tone for it too.)

Isn't it that states don't feel obligated to enforce federal laws, as it is the job of the local police forces to enforce their local laws?

GORDON wrote: Isn't it that states don't feel obligated to enforce federal laws, as it is the job of the local police forces to enforce their local laws?

If that were the case we'd be having a different conversation.

These efforts usually take place in left leaning states and cities where there are political motives behind trying to get illegals legalized. For example: They typically vote Democrat...

The interesting part is the corporations who support illegals don't want them legalized. They don't want to have to pay them actual wages or the benefits of hiring them goes away.

One place I've usually disagreed with Libertarians is Open Borders. Like completely fucking open. I wonder what that world would look like.

Yeah, open borders is stupid.

Remember the gumball video I posted here once where the guy was using gumballs to show why unchecked immigration won't work?

Found it. Immigration is stupid and hurts poor countries...

https://youtu.be/LPjzfGChGlE

I'll need to watch that when I have more time

It's pretty good, but admittedly very anti-immigration for the purpose of "improving the world". Some very solid points made.

There's another one out there, and posted somewhere here, where the speaker discusses the impact of resources, space, and the economy if "everyone" came here seeking the American Dream. (I think it was a TedTalk or something.) Long story short, it can't be done. The more people that come here the more impossible it becomes for each individual to ever achieve said dream or something along those lines.

Each really reinforces the idea that to truly help immigrants, you have to help them where they are, not import them here.

Leisher wrote: Some very solid points made.

For the immigrants who do come, they send more money back to those poorer countries than the US international aid budget combined. Ie. Helping "them there"

For the people who do come, their incomes grow 4 to 16x of what they were making in their own country.

For those who do come, our tax base increases, our ability to keep Social Security funded increases, and our own domestic wealth increases. Immigration helps keep our deficits from being even worse than they already are. Studies have shown any immigrant with at least a high school education is a net positive to the American economy, and the younger they are, the better.