So what’s new in DuhSantistan?

Frankly, it's a total slap in the face to Native Americans that some of y'all just want to erase the historical wrongs we've done to them. The United States can both be a great country and a country that did wrong. If we don't have the courage to be open and honest about the things we did wrong, how great of a country can we actually be?

 

Some people just love being told lies that make them feel good. Facts or historical accuracy be damned. Americans are exceptional, “even the losers” are better people than those unfortunates from shithole countries.

It actually brings their love of Trump into clearer focus.

 

Honestly, I think it was a big non-issue, a resume builder for Desantis. I love this country. I do not sugar coat its history. Before I went Virtual, I went out of our way to make sure people knew the ugly parts and the good parts. There was one class that was about 50-50 racial mixture, but I had the best relationship with that class. When I introduced Civil rights, I had a sign on the board that said "black students to the back of the class." It was beautiful. The black kids knew what was going on, and they smiled and quietly complied. The white kids were ready to fight me. That is how it should be. Build good relationships with students, so that they trust you. Then you dive into the problems of US history like Jim Crow/Segregation/Slavery with an eye toward: 1)Look how far we've come, and 2) Look at some opportunities to keep improving.

I don't need Desantis or Biden or any other person to tell me how to educate my students.

End of rant.

 

Fentanyl is typically coming in through ports of entry, usually smuggled in by American citizens.
https://www.cato.org/blog/fentanyl-smuggled-us-citizens-us-citizens-not-asylum-seekers

 

Absolutely. You can absolutely and with perfect consistency show great love of country while being honest about its past and its present. That can be the subject of a much longer post, but you're absolutely correct and sounds like you are a great great teacher. What a great way to get that point across

 

I'm not worried about fentanyl because there won't be any available for general distribution after next week. Despite going to all this trouble to get into the United states, drug dealers are giving it away for free in every Halloween bag. It's true. I read it on the internet

 

I will redact my previous statement, with the following addendum: 91% of convictions are US citizens. Not 91% of the product flowing. That being said, just wow. We are literally killing ourselves.

 

Respectfully, your previous statement doesn't make much sense. The cartels simply demand payment for safe passage. They don't want asylum seekers taking drugs into the U.S. because asylum seekers aren't trying to enter undetected.

There are plenty of people willing to traffic drugs for cash. And they're usually people with status (citizens, LPRs, people who have a valid visa, etc.). They do recruit people to enter illegally with drugs in backpacks, but they're people who are being paid to do it. And doing it that way is much less efficient than trying to sneak it through ports of entry. So they don't use that method to the same degree they do going through ports of entry.

Is it possible things have changed in the years since I've left the border? I guess, but I doubt it. And Cato's numbers back up that things don't seem to have changed much, outside of organized crime smuggling more fentanyl than they have in the past.

 

Yeah, I deleted it. I was wrong.

 

Running across the border with a backpack works much better on the northern border. Five minutes tops from one car to the other, and much less likely to get caught. Very little of the flow of illegal drugs across the southern border is happening outside of the ports of entry, just isn't cost effective, and those people are all about making money.

 

Not surprised, Brady is a scumbag just like DeSantis. That's why his team is getting their ass kicked every week.

 

actually I don't think it's why they're losing. They're losing due to the injury to Ryan Jensen and because they went all in signing veterans with some mileage on them that are losing a lot of games to injury. From what I can see Brady is still playing at a high level, even though I'm no fan of him personally

 

I know, I'd just rather blame Brady being a scumbag on their woes

 

Me too. And especially my wife. She thinks it's Giselle's revenge

 

Americans sure do love them some hard drugs. Not sure if Roman Empire or Charles Darwin. Maybe both.

 

I would say that there are some important differences. Notably, with the semi-exception of England, the formation of those other countries didn't involve moving the existing populace off the land entirely. For example, while the Prussian government became the government at the time of German unification, they didn't depose the people of Baden, for example, from their land. They just swore allegiance to the leadership of Prussia.

 

Not allowed on this board!

 

It’s interesting that the left and right seem to have their own opposing versions of PC, where the left seemingly wants to protect the feelings of individuals and the right the feelings of the nation.

 

The absurdity of it all to me is that you can still love America even when you know about its sins and flaws. I have a very good understanding of our history and present. I still love this country and am proud to be an American.

It's hard not to be grateful to be an American after spending time living on the border and seeing our system up close. The hell that desperate people put themselves through to get to this country simply because they were unfortunate enough to be born in the wrong place makes any American with empathy appreciate what they have.

I've also attended a number of the citizenship ceremonies. And the pride you see from immigrants becoming citizens and their families who attend the event really makes you love this country. If anything, it only makes me want to work that much harder to make this country a better place---a place more open to outsiders. We are blessed to be Americans. I don't understand people who want to keep that blessing all to themselves.

 

like to say I am surprised but that would be a lie. surely this is illegal. One lawyer, father of DeSantis deputy general counsel, was awarded over $3M in state work. this work wasn't going to a firm but to an individual closely connected to the governor

Ron DeSantis’ Old Law Firm Received Millions in State Funds (msn.com)

According to data with the Center for Responsive Politics, DeSantis’ old firm of Holland & Knight was the third-largest corporate source of campaign funds during his 2011-2018 congressional tenure. The company contributed a total $44,300 in employee and PAC donations—more than Koch Industries—and threw another $50,000 behind DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial bid. Until that year, Holland & Knight had pocketed only $2,750 in contracts with the state of Florida, per FACTS data. But in 2018, the firm developed what Law.com called “a new revenue stream”—“defending state agencies and DeSantis in lawsuits, sometimes involving controversial legislation.”

According to the report, the firm raked in nearly $3 million between 2018 and 2020 while defending the state in three legal matters: a lawsuit over inadequate foster home care (which the state settled), the voting rights for felons case, and a 2020 suit regarding mail-in voting restrictions.

All that work fell to one Holland & Knight lawyer, who served as outside counsel for the state government. But when he left the firm in Aug. 2020, the contracts dried up. State data shows Holland & Knight has signed no new contracts with state agencies since then.

That attorney, George Meros—whose son, Nick Meros, currently serves as deputy general counsel for DeSantis—was at the center of a 2020 controversy where the DeSantis administration allegedly muscled out a lawsuit that would have forced the state to turn over COVID data for senior care facilities.