Kirk was standing under a banner reading “Prove Me Wrong”.
The principle of “Ultima Ratio Populi” seems to apply here.
His schtick was doing rapid smug debates against teenagers. He was sort of a Duane Gish crossed with Seth MacFarlane.
As a gun owning atheist, I have to ask “when did ‘God’ give us rights?”
This guy supported Trump, so he is clearly a moron. Full Stop. I will not even give thoughts and prayers.
Well. It’s not like God is listening anyway, so, to your point, why waste your breath?
It’s times like this I’m sorry I don’t believe in Hell.
I neither believe in nor hope for the existence of Hell, but occasionally I find the idea attractive.
You can date that idea back to the Declaration of Independence, and probably before:
The alternative at the time was rights are granted by the monarch, and thus revokable by the monarch. The Enlightenment ideal was that rights are inherent to the person and cannot be revoked.
The whole concept that our rights come from (instead of are protected by) the Constitution is illiberal and a reason why some founders were against the Bill of Rights. And they were correct in that many people continue to think that rights are given to us rather than are limitations on the government imposed on it by the people.
How about an alternative?
This is from Fortune, which is paywalled:
In August, foot traffic fell 3.3% year over year for Target, with the week beginning August 25 (which included the long Labor Day weekend) dropping 4.6%, marking its worst weekly decline in seven weeks, according to data from Placer.ai.
At Target rival Costco, foot traffic was up 5.2% YoY for August, while Walmart was slightly down 0.6%.
Oh, dear! [go Costco]
If this sticks, the crypto-fascists in the tech industry will be stinging:
Trump to impose $100,000 fee per year for H-1B visas, in likely blow to tech
I’m confused - is that a one-time $100k fee for the three-year duration of an H-1B, or is it per year, or is it whenever ICE breaks down knocks on your door?
I’m proud to say that’s what I’ve been proposing for years, regarding H1B.
If you really need to import a worker because you can’t get one here, then it will be worth the surcharge.
At a glance this idea seems, strangely from Trump, to benefit American employees. But coupling the idea with the dismantling of American public education done by Republicans, I can’t put the pieces together.
You know, as in: good luck finding the most qualified candidate in an American candidate.
You’re missing the point entirely.
The point is it’s a fee that is waivable at the pure discretion of the dictator or his henchmen. And it starts out waived. So at any time your corporate behavior angers the dictator, some goons show up and say “You now owe us $100K per employee. Or we’ll deport them all this afternoon. Pay your protection like the Russians do and nobody gets hurt.”
It has nothing whatever to do with a coherent policy to increase the supply of “good” jobs available to available American workers, much less any effort to train the mass of unqualified workers to become qualified to do the sorts of work H-1Bs usually do. Nor to set up any sort of pipeline going back to e.g. high school to ensure a steady supply of such workers starting in 10-15 years.
Another point that was missed:
Most jobs will go then to MAGA followers, cronies and DUI ** hires. It will have little to do with good education. Any company that says: “Wait, we will have to train them for years to be useful with the new tecnologies!”. To that Trump will say [like a gangster]: “Do you have a problem with that?”
.
.
** Yes, Drivers Under the Influence hires.
If it’s something that Trump can pick and choose where to apply, then it is an unprecedented assault on the free market.
I wonder why they didn’t just say so.
Because of his unprecedented attacks on the free press.
Even Republicans are starting to notice that the Trump administration is a shit show.
Essentially the regime is in a race to consolidate their ability to control all news and all election outcomes versus the rank and file public’s ability to learn of what’s really happening then vote and protest in ways that remove the bastards from power.
Pretty much every authoritarian takeover follows this script.
Right now the regime is winning bigly.