Definition of Opinion:  A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.

Please be respectful to others with differing opinions. 

Michael Kelly

The Democrats etc. respnse to my Question is just so much Blathers. The question remains  Has Trump's Border Immigration Policy worked more efficiently than Joe Biden's Lack of any Policy i.e. Open Borders---- except a demonstration of He, and you Democcrats just don't give a Damn. Why? My opinion is that you Democrats and whatever else you label yourselves, just want  more Voters, and that is why you insist that Voters never have to produce any ID to Vote. Us "trumpies" read you like a dogeared Book, nothing new, just Cheat your way to another "Win" like you did with the lame excuse we have for  a President right now. Katie, your discussion is just Gobbledygook because you dare not answer the question above HONESTLY! 

Patterns of behavior over time show Character. Evasiive behavior in never being able to concede when your wrong, makes meaningful conversation a real waste of time. I don't think Einstein said this, or Musk, or Aristotle, or Obama or anyone else and its not relevant except when Governing for the best of the People you govern, it really is a disservice to them, and can be disastrous.  AS COATS SAYS, TERM LIMITS IT KEEPS THE LIARS FROM GROWING DEEPER ROOTS THAN THEY HAVE ALREADY. 

Frank Wiley

If anyone really wants to know about the Border Crisis, Google Art del Cueto.  He is the Union Representative for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol and has been for five years.  He, along with Roney Scott, Brandon Judd, and Chad Wolf and anyone else involved with Border Protection all say the Border was way more secure under Trump.  The problem with numerous people on this site and Joe Biden is that they can't admit that many things were better in our Country and the World under Trump, and since they have TDS they can't admit that Trump did some good things.  Chad Wolf was on the call when Trump told Obrador (president of Mexico) that we were going to tarrif all their goods coming across our border if he didn't get control of all the illegals coming across THEIR southern border and at the same time activated, "Remain in Mexico" for asylum seekers.  Obrador put troops on his southern border and the flow became a trickle.  Border Patrol agents were "patrolling the border" and stopping illegal crossings instead of only doing paperwork.  Congress can't pass Border/Immigration Law without 60 votes in the Senate and that's why neither Party can get something passed.  It seems like both parties are dug in and unwilling to compromise.  

Mike Lorts

Frank,

I agree with most of your last post regarding immigration as along as whatever policies are instituted are enforced humanly. Something needs to be done! 

Frank Wiley

Mike L.--Good for you!  You, at least recognize that there is a big problem.  That's a start to solve any problem!!

Bill Randall

   Starting the 2024 string; Wednesday, 31Jan24, Beer Summit, the VIG, 40th St. just South of Indain School. 5:00p If no parking is found at the VIG, the lot across 40th is open. "Got It"!!

   GNRS (Grand National Roadster Show) 3Jan24 at the Fairplex, Pomona, CA. See gas prices double.

Bill Randall

3th of Feb not Jan.

Bill Kaehler

Lorts, as Coats so correctly said it in his #12156 , I did not say I always know the truth.  But you know that.  There must be a reason why you would choose to misquote and/or twist my words into deformed pretzels.  Can you explain that?  And be truthful about it, please.

Mike Lorts

Bill K,

In your post you said "true lefties don't value the truth". That would mean "true conservatives " know and value the truth. I believe you are a conservative which would mean you know the truth. 

Mike Lorts

Frank,

I believe that if we take politics off the table the two of us could find a solution to this problem.

DeWitt Bacon

Dennis. It's good to see that you still have your sense of humor even after posting that scary photo. I like your hair cut but it seems that your barber might have gotten a little too close this time. I see more people are posting more recent photos of themselves. If you can get away with yours maybe I should try it. Maybe I'll wait untill Halloween. Your beans and rice are right in front of you. Put on your glasses. I prefer Mr. Ed over Donny and wayne anytime. The only time I liked Wayne Newton was when he and his brother, Jerry, performed on the Lew King Rangers show.

Jim Coats

Two down....one go.  UPenn President resigned first because of the firestorm created by she, Claudine Gay/Harvard and the MIT Pres, whoever she is.

I'm glad to see Gay go, but it totally pisses me off that she "resigned"....NOT because of her sickening "It depends on the context" answer....She "resigned" because of a technicality....Plagiarism!  Harvard needed a scalp and the best way to do it was the 50+ plagiarized articles/papers she created....NOT her despicable "It depends on the Context" answer regarding rampant anti-semitism at Harvard.  Now, of course, everything is all RACISM, but she keeps her $900K/yr salary and will be a professor of something.  Wonder IF she'll call any student out on plagiarism? 

MIT Pres is next.  She's white like the UPenn Pres.  Let's see how this rolls out.

Mary Powers (Evans)

Frank Wiley

Biden wants Billions more for the Border.  We don't need more money for the Border!  Simply go back to what was working when Trump left office.  I know you've heard the expression, "If it works-----don't fix it!"  Biden has said what the money would be for but I don't trust him.  Once, or if that money was approved in the House Biden could move it around.  I bet Biden would divert a bunch of that money to New York City and Chicago.  New York and Chicago were real cute about bragging about being Sanctuary Cities.  They created their own problems •••••••••••let them fix them!!  Their getting a taste of what Border States are suffering. If you've seen the Cartels cutting holes in the Arizona border fence and letting thousands of illegals through you've seen the illegals on our side of the fence walking down a dirt road.  The fence is on one side of the road and you'll see poles along the other side.  The purpose of those poles are to hold movement detectors and cameras.  Those are shut off.  That dirt road was patrolled by Border Patrol Trucks.  That road isn't patrolled like it was.  Mary, good observations!  A big concern with the Media is "Tik Tok".  A lot of our youth get their news from that site.  The problem is it's controlled by the Chinese and they are not our friends!!

Dennis Moran

DeWitt,

You are very observant... I do my own haircuts and the last grew out a bit. I usually say I am bald headed.  My family sometimes point out I missed a spot and tho I try for perfection im just a creature of bumps and awkward angles. I believe you said your live in Alabama or Arkansas ..I bet its so very green... so much for my reading skills.  Mr. Ed has been my favorite for many decades... yep a horse of course.

Best wishes to all and may the good lord help us through so many trials and tributations.

Dennis.

Frank Wiley

First of all, I thought Alfred Hitchcock was great.  Your picture reminds me of him.  The Movie I enjoyed most was, "The Birds".  In today's world he probably would have titled it, "The Birdbrains"!!

Frank Wiley

Hi Katie, Maybe that's when they started taking "polls"?  How's your Daughter doing? I hope good!!  Another thing my Oncologist told me was that, in her opinion, sugar feeds cancer.

Richard Deshong

Here is my first suggestion for addressing the border issue. I call it an issue because it is a complex problem that has existed for decades and has had numerous attempts to address it, most of which failed. As with all complex issues there is no silver bullet that will solve it and at the same time please everyone. What we do know with 100% certain that simply building a wall isn’t the answer. Every wall ever built to stop migration, invasion, or to keep people separated has failed. Yes, that includes the Great Wall of China. Getting congress to agree to build a wall would require Trump to be reelected, the House of Representatives to remain red, and the Senate to have a 60% majority of Republicans. If you think that’s going to happen in 2024 your delusional.

Last year I presented a potential solution of creating a free trade zone along the southern border and incentivizing American companies to build factories, warehouses and other labor-intensive businesses that could utilize the readily available labor force represented by the emigrants fleeing desperate situations. I suggested Mexico could create a similar zone on their side of the border to be developed into housing and shopping districts so workers could live in Mexico, work in America, and shop on either side of the border, just as tens of thousands of people already legally do every day. I also suggested congress might consider passing legislation that would allow for a lower minimum wage rate in such a zone. American companies could relocate factories from China, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, and other low wage counties and brand their products as “Made in America.” Mexico’s economy would benefit from an inflow of money to, hopefully, help create a better and safer environment for all their citizens along the border. Just imagine an economy like that which already exists in Mexicao south of San Diego where many businesses are American owned and lower cost housing is available.

I also mentioned that while visiting friends in the D.C. area I had taken the opportunity to speak to aides to Senator Mark Kelly about the free trade zone idea. I’m not certain it is happening, but it has been suggested to me that the subject may be part of the current ongoing discussions with the Mexican government.

But that’s not my idea for this week. Even if the free trade zone worked, I doubt if it would come close to satisfying the concerns of the Texas legislature. Maybe New Mexico, Arizona, and California could make it work, but Texas? I doubt they would even want to try. So, for this week I want to dust off an idea that was considered in the past, but never followed through to completion. Get ready to post all your concerns and reasons why we shouldn’t, or can’t, make something like this work, but as you do remember, I have been accused of not providing potential solutions to address the issue, other than create bumper stickers, what have you contributed?

When Janet Napolitano was governor of Arizona, she was in the process of negotiating a deal with Mexico where Arizona businesses who had shown a good faith effort to hire Americans, but either could not find enough takers or were experiencing very high turnover rates due to the type of work required, could list their requirements with the Arizona Department of Labor and Mexico would create a pool of potential worker who had already been vetted that could fill these positions. Arizona would issue its own temporary work permits for a given period allowing people to come into Arizona to fill open jobs and demonstrate they could potentially be considered for permanent immigration status. Napolitano was in the middle of setting this up when Obama tapped her to become Secretary of Homeland Security. All work on this idea was stopped when Jan Brewer replaced Napolitano. But this is exactly what Utah had done in 2002 when Mitt Romney was head of the US Olympic Committee and Utah realized there were not enough available people to manage the workload at all the hotels, restaurants, and other businesses during the massive influx of tourist coming to watch the Winter Olympics.

Turns out many of the states where Texas and Florida are busing and flying asylum seekers are now saying they can welcome them, but need better coordination to make sure the necessary arrangement are made in advance to match the people to the needs of other cities and towns who can absorb the human influx and provide a welcoming and safe place to live. This would be a nationwide expansion of what Arizona was considering and Utah did.

To make something like this work would require a lot of coordination, like the coordination our Grandparents witnessed in the early nineteen hundreds when over 3,000 immigrants a day were processed through Ellis Island, and that was all done using paper-based systems. Plus, America has one of the least dense populations of any country in the world. We are 185^th out of over 250 counties with only ninety-one people per square mile. By comparison, China, which is almost the same size in square miles, has a density of 383 people per square mile. It’s not that we don’t have the room for more people, we just don’t have the will to accept them.

Let the comments commence.

Richard Deshong

Conservative jokes!

Why are male conservatives against mandates?

That would be so gay.

American conservatives are pretty homophobic -

for people so proud of their four fathers

I heard the Republican Party is considering renaming itself as the National Conservative party.

Or Nat-C for short

How many American conservatives do you need to screw in a lightbulb?

Ten. One holds the bulb, the other nine wait for Fox News to spin it.

Why does Florida have so many Conservatives and California have so many earthquakes?

California had first choice!

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me."

I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
 

What did the conservatives say to the abortion rights supporters?

You'll never de-fetus.

I was born into a very conservative family.

So, I am very much opposed to the idea of sex before marriage. This is why I always wait for women to get married before I sleep with them.

Conservatives can't tell jokes.

But they sure can elect them.

What are the two things’ conservatives hate?

The way things are, and change.

Why can't conservatives ever make good chili and barbeque?

Because they must be liberal with their spices.

Why are conservatives known as rednecks?

They don’t use sunscreen because the bottle says to apply liberally.

Greg Abbott and Joe Biden are having a meeting when suddenly a genie appears.

"OK, look, here's how it's going to go. I can only grant three wishes, so one of you will get two and the other will only get one. And since you're already men of power and means, you must choose wishes that will serve your constituents."

Abbott immediately screams that he wants the two wishes. Biden silently nods in agreement. "Very well, what is your first wish?"

"I want to build a wall around Texas. A giant, 20-foot-tall wall all the way around Texas so that nothing can get in and nothing can get out."

Biden starts to snicker under his breath. "It is as you wish," the genie says. "What is your second wish?"

"I want to move every single God-fearing conservative patriot into Texas, and I want every single leftist, liberal, commie pinko out of Texas. And I mean it, anyone who has ever voted Democrat, I want them out!"

Biden starts laughing. "It is as you wish," the genie says. "Now, Mr. Biden, what is your wish?"

Biden can hardly contain himself. "I want you to dump 20 feet of water on Texas."

On the first day God created the heavens, the earth, and the Conservative.

Conservative looked around and said "eh, I liked it better yesterday!"

Twitter has just created a keyboard shortcut that mutes all Neo-Conservative posts.

Ctrl + Alt + Right

What's a conservative's least favorite instruction?

Apply liberally.

Why do so many conservatives own game consoles?

Because they hate PC culture.

Why aren’t more conservatives protesting the sales of pre-shredded cheese?

I thought we were trying to make America grate again.

Fiscal conservatives hate spending on infrastructure maintenance and repair.

Bunch of crack addicts!

What do conservatives call medical marijuana?

Medi-sin

How do you scare a child? Tell them that a monster is in the closet.

How do you scare a conservative? Tell them that *their* child is in the closet!

How many conservatives does it take to change a lightbulb?

None. They're afraid of change - even if it is to make the world a brighter place.

Bill RIHS

Richard, good ideas. However, we first need to stop or greatly slow the flow of immigrants first . Like I  mentioned before to Katie; if you have a leak in your roof you can't wait until you can afford a totally new roof. What you suggest is a great idea but will take a lot of time, while many millions enter our country illegally. Most are not seeking asylum but jobs. Totally disagree with you justifying millions of more illegals by comparing population densities between us and other countries. Good post though.

Mary Powers (Evans)

btw, here is a site if you want to see presidential candidate income tax returns  Presidential Tax Returns | Presidential Candidates Taxes - Tax Notes  It is not current except for Biden and Harris, but does have some from Trump, and older ones from previous presidential candidates.   This also may provide some information for Jim's follow the money.  Despite the huge amount of information available on opensecrets.org and other open sources, "dark money" is more difficult to ascertain, but both parties receive it.  A question might be, why is so much money needed for campaigns?  It seems that everyone is always fundraising, when time could be more fruitfully spent on legislating, and reducing chance for undue influence, greed, graft etc.  Longer terms for Representatives? Term limits? Ranked choice elections? Public funding? Maximum allowable campaign  spending?  To avoid corruption or plutocracy, I'd be open to any of those ways that have been proposed over the years.  

Mary Powers (Evans)

To change the subject away from politics, I'm looking for suggestions for mystery novels or legal or medical thrillers besides ever popular Grisham, Patterson, Cook, Connelly etc.  I've enjoyed a couple of The Thursday Murder Club novels by Richard Osman, relatable because the main characters are older.  What other authors do you like in those genres?  I usually read other genres, but am always open to a new series.  Thanks.  

Dennis Moran

Richard, I loved the conservative jokes...

I read every word....

Dennis.

Frank Wiley

Good jokes about Conservatives Richard and I think your Border idea is good but I agree with Bill that we have to stop the flow.  The illegals coming from Africa, China and the reported over 100 other countries won't agree to stay in Mexico.  Like him or not, the Trump/Border Patrol plan was working!!  Mary, you've probably read them but Dan Browns books are good.

Mary Powers (Evans)

Frank, thanks for mentioning the Dan Brown books.  I've forgotten the details from the time I read it a few years ago, but his book Origin was about AI, which is a hot topic currently.  

If any of you use AI chatbots, which do you think is the best in terms of ease of use, accuracy etc?

Jim Coats

Mary.  For an easy read, try Robert Parker's novels with main character Jesse Stone, a conflicted LA police officer who moves to a small New England town and becomes, I think, the police chief.  There were a series of Jesse Stone movies starring one of my favorites, Tom Selleck.  Coffee or hot chocolate, an afghan and a comfy couch are key ingredients for enjoying those books.

Many more authors in a similar genre.  Clancy was/is one of my favorites.