Bill to punish lawless officials in sanctuary cities with fines and jail time

[old_dog]

Thanks, I find this new format confusing too.

[johnwk]

Before

[Pappadave]

Not in the 18th or 19th century. No permission was required. People came and went as they pleased.

Uh, don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, AS, but this ISN’T the 18th or 19th Century with a world population of around 1 billion souls.

[Pappadave]

In Dubai, 94% of the people who live there are foreign-born. Both places are rich because of re-export. Of foreigners selling to other foreigners.

Nonsense. The country’s “native-born population” has become so wealthy from oil that they refuse to do ANY work themselves and import people to work FOR them. We don’t have a comparable situation here.

[Alaska_Slim]

Uh, don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, AS, but this ISN’T the 18th or 19th Century

Not in the 18th or 19th century. No permission was required. People came and went as they pleased.

Uh, don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, AS, but this ISN’T the 18th or 19th Century

True – back then, Singapore, and Dubai were poor pieces of undeveloped dirt.

Free trade, and free movement of people during the 20th and 21st changed that for both of them. Just as it did for us in the 18th and 19th.

You can’t argue with success Dave; we grew further & faster during those centuries than we do now.

In Dubai, 94% of the people who live there are foreign-born. Both places are rich because of re-export. Of foreigners selling to other foreigners.

Nonsense. The country’s “native-born population” has become so wealthy from oil

Only 25% of the UAE’s GDP is from oil, and only 1% for Dubai itself.

They’ve diversified; most of their economy is simply re-export, the same as Hong Kong. Free trade by any other name.

It’s a model Saudi Arabia is trying desperately to follow. Hence the new city they’re trying to build; Neom.

[Fantasy_Chaser]

Before that, you decided almost from the start to take a method of sniping at, rather than talking to me.

Bobjam was doing this? Hogwash.

This right here is evidence of that.

If you let your ability to engage with people you disagree with be that unharnessed, you’ll only be giving yourself obstacles to understanding the issue fully.

“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that."

– John Stuart Mill

Try arguing your cases strictly on the grounds of the facts instead of digging in your heels and getting petulant when your alleged facts are called out and moving the goalposts in defense of your ego, and you’d generally (albeit not perfectly) find life less irritating here and more of those who disagree with you would find it easier to do so respectfully.

[Alaska_Slim]

Before that, you decided almost from the start to take a method of sniping at, rather than talking to me.

Bobjam was doing this? Hogwash.

He did.

Cato Institute

You gotta’ get Eisenhower in here somewhere, or it won’t be an authentic AS post.

That isn’t engaging the argument., it’s ad hominem, through and through.

The same to what he just did.

Try arguing your cases strictly on the grounds of the facts

I do; the problem is, people react to what I say with the same responses they give to trolls on the Left.

Years of going back and forth with them, has ingrained some bad habits.

You see someone with an opposing opinion, you attack it, and them, and you don’t see much separation between the two.

I’m not perfect at this either, but I make an effort to be self-aware of it.

And I also always observe this dictum:

Show me respect, and I’ll show it in return.

Fail to show me respect, and I’ll respond in kind.

Tit for tat.

in defense of your ego,

I’m not going to go along with toxic behavior directed at me; that only encourages it to continue.

I’am going to point it out, and I’am going to defend myself. I can certainly improve at how I do these things, I’ll grant that, but there is nothing wrong with my doing it.

[RET423]

You do not “show respect” to your opponents, you ignore and deflect all of the facts that condemn your position and you misdirect constantly.

I gave you thousands of words years ago before I concluded that there was no longer grounds for “the benefit of the doubt”, you were not responding in kind then and your tactics today cannot be justified by claims that anyone else “started it” either.

[Alaska_Slim]

You do not “show respect” to your opponents,

I’ve shown you quite a deal of respect.

I didn’t return your insults at first, I’ve admitted when I’ve gotten things wrong with you, and I’ve even asked, outright, for your opinion on things.

Even now I respect you on principle, because of what you’ve done in your life, and your own clear desire to inform yourself on things outside of your own experience.

But I’m not going to put up with insults RET; you either need to prove your claims of me, or I will undercut them. And you.

I gave you thousands of words years ago

RET, you jumped straight into insulting me from the moment I got here. Maybe you weren’t aware that you were doing it, but that’s what you did.

I’m guessing you were going off your own inertia from arguments you’ve had with other people. That’s what you were used to doing, so you just repeated it with me.

[johnwk]

I’ve shown you quite a deal of respect.

What does your post have to do with the topic of the thread which is “a bill to punish lawless officials in sanctuary cities with fines and jail time?”

[Fantasy_Chaser]

He did.

He didn’t. He called a spade a spade.

[Alaska_Slim]

He did.

He didn’t. He called a spade a spade.

That doesn’t matter, he’s not contributing to the discussion, only taking a potshot at me.

Sniping, describes perfectly what he’s doing there; it doesn’t matter at all if you think his comment is “right” or not.

I’m not the topic.

[johnwk]

I’m not the topic.

You made yourself the topic by ignoring the topic.

[Alaska_Slim]

I’m not the topic.

You made yourself the topic by ignoring the topic.

You made me the topic here, by engaging in noxious behavior.

You know it’s wrong, and you know you don’t want this for your topic, so kindly stop.

[johnwk]

You made me the topic here, by engaging in noxious behavior.

You have the nerve to talk about “noxious behavior”?

[Fantasy_Chaser]

I’m not the topic.

Given your penchant for taking offense at all manner of slights (real or imagined) and engaged in a bit of ad hominem yourself ("…you dropped the ball again…"), I rather think you’ve made it such to a degree. You do much to reinforce my belief that you’re in this for your ego more than for the issues. And you rotate the topics (read: move the goalposts (which you accuse others of)) whenever you get pinned. I don’t doubt your intellect and ability to reason (although I frequently disagree with your reasoning); but your manner of debate I don’t respect.

[Alaska_Slim]

I’m not the topic.

Given your penchant for taking offense at all manner of slights

No… John is doing his emoticon things across 4 different threads. I waited after 6 posts of him doing before saying anything at all.

John is making this about me, so John is derailing his own thread. By being obnoxious.

Hurting his own goal really…