Any strides in combating the opioid epidemic are incredibly important to me as an ex-addict, who started because of pharmaceuticals, but my problem is that his actions contradict each other. The public wants the opioid epidemic to be addressed, agreeing to fight it and making some noise is GREAT for raising voter opinions. The fact that there was actually some headway made was even better than him just blowing smoke, but then when he turns around and is doing everything he can to give more power to the people who started all this shit, how exactly am I supposed to feel? Should I be jumping up and down to show my appreciation? Anyone seeking to give those evil bastards more leeway is not a friend of people suffering from opioids, they're the reason it can't be stopped.

I didn't realize people picked up for jaywalking, or thrown in the drunk tank were often put in cages..... Yes, illegally crossing the border has always been considered a misdemeanor offense. It never made that big of a difference, hence the severity of the crimes. However, when you see some numbers that use massive generalizations and you hear about a handful of criminals, it's easy to point the finger and rally angry people's attention towards a minor problem, rather than having them be mad at the people who are actually robbing them blind. You completely ignored the fact that most immigrants don't enter via illegal border crossings, along with the fact that it does't hinder the drug trade at all. So again, what good is the border doing? It's stopping a small amount of illegals at a HEFTY cost to us both financially and in how we're seen around the world. Keeping kids in cages, ripping kids away from their parents, treating these people like fucking animals and again, doing everything we can to purposefully slow down the legal process, is not a good look for "the land of the free". Or do you honestly believe stopping a few illegals is worth the price?

It seems like you didn't read what I said about the Space Force, to be fair, it doesn't seem like you read anything I wrote before responding angrily, so I'll try to reiterate. Based on what Trump has said about it, it sounds moronic. If he was in charge of writing up anything, or telling people what to do, it would be an absolute catastrophe. If he has no say in it whatsoever and the majority of funding goes to research and development, and not arming people with space guns, or trying to go to the moon as a PR stunt, it could be a great thing. You can just ignore the funding thing for now and go back to yelling at me if you want. Maybe you missed earlier where I said it could be really good, but only time would tell....

Look man, if you're not going to even bother reading the shit I write, I'm not going to continue this conversation. It's painfully clear that you skimmed a few lines and responded hastily and irritably, and you didn't even fucking try responding to the bulk of what I said. It's up to you.

Your arguments are a bunch of diffuse rants in five different directions bro. No one has gained any wisdom from it.

Opioid deaths have gone down, big brain.

This post was edited by EndlessSky on Mar 21 2020 10:14pm

Good thing I said they hadn't...

Honestly, how can people think that further deregulating the fuckers who started the opioid epidemic because of lax regulations, is somehow going to end well in the long run? I never claimed that strides hadn't been made, I said that one of Trump's goals contradicts his claiming that he wants to stop the opioid epidemic, which it does. I'll never understand how shit like this goes unnoticed by people.

Acting like the death rate dropping a few thousand in 2018 after it climbed 20 thousand in 2016 is kind of a shallow victory.... Seeing as the numbers for 2018 are still higher than any year except for 2017, it doesn't bode all that well for the fight against opioids.



The feeling is mutual bud.

This post was edited by jadeoshbogosh on Mar 21 2020 10:25pm

Waste of breath

1. "how is he doing everything he can to give "those evil bastards" power? what did he do and what powers?

2. how can you say you are against open-borders, but then say that when we process people, it's treating people like a rapist? what do you do then if not I.D. and process them? do you tell them to wait outside while we get things ready?
crossing the border without papers or through legal channels is not the same as jay-walking. that's pretty dishonest. (but if it was more than a "ticket" crime, then yes)(also if you were stopped without i.d. during an offence, very probably would go to jail... for processing)

the whole thing you don't get is "papers". even if you let these people into the country, they need identification. "you" need identification and the multitude of reasons why i'd hope to not have to explain.
you are also confusing immigration to "illegal immigration". why would i complain about immigration that is legal "and" not exploiting law? they have papers, we know who they are and their health conditions.

space force: you based your statement on 1 thing Trump said, to try to shoot down a new branch of the military. and am now blaming it on me. where did i misread anything there? seriously, point it out for me.

addressing the last statement, you didn't even read the link or quotes i provided and still assume he doesn't "care" or have "any real involvement". *linked to first questions*

This post was edited by tagged4nothing on Mar 21 2020 10:32pm

Still not sure how you're missing the correlation between further deregulation of pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, something Trump has been trying to do forever, and the opioid epidemic. I've pointed it out multiple times, but if you're failing to understand how the epidemic started in the first place, I suggest you research the mass marketing and over prescribing that was done because of influence from pharmaceutical companies.

It's not legal if they're overstaying their visas.... Once your visa expires and you don't leave, you're now an illegal immigrant. This shit has been well documented for years, but Republicans just constantly ignore it and keep yelling about the border. Please don't tell me you think illegals are only those who sneak across the border on foot. If so, I have some troubling news for you regarding every statistic you've ever seen regarding illegals. I have no problem with processing people, I have a problem with inhumane lodging. If you can't treat them like people, send them on their way back and be done with it, like we always have previously. It is exactly the same thing in the eyes of the law, or at least it always has been, until people decided they wanted to blame random people for their problems. It seems like you're super confused about everything I've been saying, but I'll do my best to try and break it down one last time for you. The numbers you see for immigrants, how much everything cost etc... is based on the total number of estimated illegal immigrants, not just the fence jumper Mexicans, which again, make up the minority of illegals, and those are the only ones addressed by the expensive and inhumane border wall.

There's a plethora of reasons for why someone would want to come to America, some of which has been caused by our interference in certain areas (destabilization, rise of the cartels, etc..), the majority of it isn't, but my biggest problem with the current administration's border policy, is that it purposefully puts as much strain as possible on entering the country through legal channels. Right now in our fucked up system, it can take 20 years to immigrant legally, does that seem reasonable to anyone? If the administration actually cared about reducing the impact of illegals, it would work towards creating a system that processes the applications we have effectively, but that's not something any of them would even consider.

The DOD came up with a decent proposal based off Trump's lunatic ramblings and with proper management and funding allocation, it could be a successful and worthwhile endeavor (as I've already stated multiple times). The idea of expanding the air force, as opposed to creating an entirely new branch from scratch, is a much more feasible approach and anything that gets us spending more on REAL space exploration and research, is a plus imo. As I said earlier though, if they end up only focusing on the stupid shit Trump has been saying, it'd be nothing but another PR stunt and a waste of money. Only time will tell on that front, so it's extremely premature to call it a win or a loss for this administration.

This post was edited by jadeoshbogosh on Mar 21 2020 11:07pm

it has been a pleasure reading your perspective on some of those issues. just one word of warning: don't expect to change the minds of the two individuals you replied to in this thread. their intention is not to have an open-minded, objective, and fact based good faith discussion about what parts are good (there undeniably are some) about trump's policies, and what parts deserve criticism, but rather to defend literally everything he does as best they can.

for the purpose of refuting those talking points, and ridiculing the flimsy excuses, those posts are great - just don't be surprised or frustrated when the trumpapologists inevitably bail (or resort to pure ad homs), only to uncritically repeat their already debunked narratives a couple of days later, as if nothing ever happened...

I remember when the Republican party used to be fiscal conservatives instead of the Democratic Party.




Opioid deaths have gone down because of tasks forced developed to deal with it. It has nothing to do with a federal response.

What has happened to the price of epi pens says trump got into office?



Where is this at now?

This post was edited by Skinned on Mar 22 2020 05:41am

you are trying to say we shouldn't remove VISA overstays. but then assume this report i mentioned, wraps VISA over-stays into the numbers. it doesn't, but let's pretend it does for now. VISA overstays are costing us as a country.

the report i'm talking about only covers illegal border crossing immigrants. it's a report specifically on the ~cost of illegal immigration to the USA through the southern border. with differing factors giving different numbers. (i've always used the lowest)

a visa is "temporary" and people try abusing the visa system to live here indefinitely. again what would you do? just let them live here forever because they once had temporary status?
in what you mention, it only proves that not only is a border wall helpful, but so is fixing the loopholes with VISAs.
a VISA, is not automatic residence to the U.S.

on pharmaceuticals over-prescribing... i'm aware, president Trump has been talking about that since before he was president. how exactly did president Trump cause it to happen since it was an on-going issue for years before he took office?
this quote was also from that link


it's funny how somehow president Trump is soley responsible for how things play out at the border, but when it comes to something like a huge opiode bust... it was just the people around him as Trump only was talking about it.
depending what the subject it is, you pretend Trump is all powerful or without any power.

space force: you just keep trying to defend your position of not even trying to learn about it. and somehow think you have the ability to argue it. we can drop the space force thing now since you're refusing to even look into it. (you seriously should though, it's not about space exploration at its core)

i'm going to make extra note here:
it is completely fine to have differing opinions on these subjects. you started this conversation with:

i responded with this thread. "these" are some of the reasons. since you've only picked out a couple that you wish to talk about, you may not remember that there is a full list on the first page.
even if "you" don't like what's being done. a lot of us do. so in our eyes, he's fixing things and not "fucking up everything he touches"

This post was edited by tagged4nothing on Mar 22 2020 07:52am

I went through every single item on the front page, I didn't care to go further as my initial wall of text was sufficient to get the conversation underway. I see now that I was mistaken in believing we could have an open and civil exchange of information. Each of my points has been grossly misinterpreted or outright ignored since the start of our back and forth, and I don't believe it'll be to anyone's benefit to continue. Thanks for trying though.



I don't frequent PARD solely for this reason, in my experiences this is the norm here. Regardless of what is put in front of people, they'll find a way to deflect or ignore it entirely.

This post was edited by jadeoshbogosh on Mar 23 2020 03:13am