Sigh, stupid gateway went down and lost my reply.

Anyhow, it went a bit like this - If illegal immigrants were evenly distributed across the nation, and not concentrated into various enclaves, you would have a point. But they aren't. They are concentrated into small communities. Those places they are living have no immunity, so something like the measles can burn through them before encountering vaccinated populations. They then act as a reservoir for the disease and thus break herd immunity in neighboring areas.

Then I had a great bit about The Godfather Part 2. Have you seen it? If not, why? Go see it now! Well, watch part 1 first. Anyhow, young Vito Corleone arrives at Ellis Island and gets quarantined. Why? Because he's carrying TB (I think, may have been Scarlet Fever), and would have spread it all over NYC had he not been quarantined. That's a good thing. People get to immigrate, but we make sure they aren't immediately getting anyone sick. That does not and cannot happen with illegal immigrants. No screening process. We have allowed tens of millions of illegal immigrants to come across the borders without being screened and without being vaccinated. Now, we have measles again.

That's the best you can do? Did you want to tell me you aren't serious without telling me you aren't serious?

Jesus and his apostles went to the sick. They did not import them from Greece. I'm entirely in favor of trying to eradicate measles, mumps and rubella globally.

I don't think it is okay to let people die on the streets. But that also means not bringing in more people to put on them than we can reasonably care for.

It sounds like a compelling case to prevent illegal immigration, to screen and vaccinate legal immigrants, and deport illegal immigrants as quickly as possible so they don't make everyone else sick.

Non sequitur. That was not the topic at hand.

Did you mean to reply to something else with that? That's a mistake I've made.

If they aren't vaccinated when they come in, then the immigrant population has 0% herd immunity, no? So, they move the needle simply by coming in. I'm going to just assume that we still vaccinate legal immigrants and quarantine them if they come in sick. That's certainly how it used to be done. Illegal aliens don't go through that process, they break in.

If the population that brought measles in remains unvaccinated, it will spread through that population. Are our vaccination rates low because Americans stopped vaccinating, or because tens of millions of illegal immigrants came in unvaccinated? Are we looking at the right numbers? Don't we need data on how many American parents are not vaccinating their kids in order to say whether or not OUR rates have significantly dropped vs. adding tons of unvaccinated immigrants to the pot? Do we have those numbers? I can't find them. I can find overall rates by county/state, but nobody seems to have a breakdown by citizenship/immigration status. Wouldn't that be useful data? I'd sure like to know if my theory holds up, don't you?

Oh, I'm an idiot! Why haven't I offered to sell you mine yet? Only $150!!!

"Nong min"?

Which is on its way to the President's desk, and he said he'll sign it. Passed with a veto-proof majority in the House.

Or, how many red lines would NATO allow Russia to cross before Russia realized it could just do what it wanted? I think it is unlikely that Putin actually believed any of the ridiculous talk about the Ukraine joining NATO. That was never actually on the table. It was not eligible before Russia invaded, and it certainly isn't now.

I wouldn't be surprised if Putin took that obviously empty talk from Biden (who was talking about it during Obama's administration) as an indication that NATO didn't have a realistic plan for responding to Russia, and thus he had no reason not to invade. That he had been presented with a casus belli, albeit it a completely empty one, was just icing on the permission cake.

That's been the plan since the early 2000's, and while I hope it works, I'm not as certain about it as I once was.

Though the big concern has got to be what the CCP may do as it desperately tries to cling to power. When Argentina began to fall apart, they invaded the Falklands. China already wants to invade Taiwan. Argentina didn't have nukes.

Oh. I guess $300 to keep your woman happy is entirely justified. Can't argue with that.

Well, I do, but she usually wins.

Where's the lowlife? Where's the anger? Cyberpunk, with which I am more than familiar thank you very damn much, is "high-tech, low-life". That's not this; not in tone, content, or concept. I have no idea what "hopepunk" might be, other than an oxymoron. A really, really stupid one. Like 14-year-old girl, "making up words is fun", stupid.

Cobbling things together from junk isn't what makes a thing punk. Not unless you're trying to get high off it, hurt something/someone with it, or just generally be obnoxious with it. If it's positive for the community, it is the opposite of punk. Punk doesn't like anything else. It is disaffection, dissatisfaction, and proud dysfunction.

So, anything functional is inherently un-punk. Working solar panels are not punk. Finance is never punk.

It's almost funny to see someone who still believes such a thoroughly debunked political lie.