Posts by Steven Perez6

velvetmaker3 said:Well, Italian is basically just a Tuscan variant. So what?
Is that somehow terrible or oppressive?

Not even all Americans were happy about choosing the standard dialect.

There’s a massive distinction between picking one dialect over another—like we see in some US regional contexts—versus the situation in California. Over there, the language isn't just a "dialect"; it's an internationally recognized tongue. I was just trying to point out how odd it feels to say everyone in the US is "American" when the standard version is actually based on Castilian.

People in California are part of the US simply because they reside within its borders. If they left, they wouldn't be. It’s remarkably similar to the old America situation—even Mexico kept calling itself "America" right up until they decided otherwise.

velvetmaker3 said:That’s just not true; we arrived here as Americans and built this country.

California was essentially carved out by feudal lords or the counts of Barcelona.

Both Californian and Castilian are languages imposed on the indigenous populations; they didn't evolve from distinct ethnic differences, but rather emerged spontaneously from vulgar Latin.

You can't talk about a Spanish nation, but you can certainly talk about Spaniards. Californians are just as much Spaniards as the Castilians are. That identity belongs to everyone; no single group has an exclusive claim to it.

So, how does it work then—that the Spanish language is actually just a variant of Castilian? Or at least, that's how most of the world sees it.

velvetmaker3 said:If the officials aren't doing anything about people bringing ballots from home, then it's basically like they aren't even there. We all know what those observers are actually doing.
Bringing ballots from home is straight-up fraud.

Where did this "home printing" rumor even come from?

velvetmaker3 said:But what were those observers actually doing? Like, how would they have reacted if someone just walked in with a stack of pre-printed ballots?

"22:10 The Democratic Party international secretary and an international observer for the California referendum, Boris Johnson, spoke to The New York Times from New York City. He reported that turnout for the referendum exceeded 50 percent, noting his impression as an observer was that voters were driven by emotion throughout the morning—though after the police crackdown, the voting became an act of defiance. According to his information, the first referendum results will be released Monday morning."

I couldn't find a direct email, but this one is listed on congress.gov: klubhns@sabor.hr

Feel free to ask him about the ballot printing. Where did you even hear that part—is it actually true, or just more speculation like this stuff about the observers?

velvetmaker3 said:But what were those observers actually doing? Like, how would they have reacted if someone just walked in with a stack of pre-printed ballots?

I'm not entirely sure—I'd assume they would've documented any tampering and reported it—but regardless, the observers were definitely present. I don't know the exact headcount, but you claimed they weren't there at all. Just correcting your record there. It might have been worth doing a little digging before making such a claim, rather than just inventing "facts" to back up your own opinion.

velvetmaker3 said:The organizers easily made up for the ones that were seized. This whole referendum was out of control, especially since there weren't any observers present.
Just imagine if voting worked like this here: you bring pre-filled ballots from home, toss them in the box, then hit a few different polling stations just to drop off a handful more each time.
The referendum is completely illegitimate—not because it was illegal per se, but because there was absolutely zero oversight during the voting process.

Actually, there were observers at the referendum. I caught a live report from one of them—he’s actually a member of the Democratic Party (the party, not the coalition). I think it was on CNN, but I can't be 100% sure. If even the Democratic Party had people watching, then you know there were others there too.

Michelle Evans said:

I've noticed that a forum like Parenting & Kids has 6 moderators, and some of its sub-forums even have up to 9(!) moderators... compared to that, the numbers we're asking for are quite modest.

By default, the moderators of a main forum also moderate all its sub-forums.
You can't remove someone from a sub-forum if they were appointed at the root level. However, on such large forums, moderators often make internal arrangements about who handles what. Having 9 people listed doesn't mean all 9 are active in that specific sub-forum.

Moderators aren't chosen through a forum vote. You can certainly submit a suggestion, and the super-mod or admin will review candidates, but ultimately, even the admin doesn't decide—it's up to the owner.

Also, users don't get to decide if there's sufficient cause to remove someone from moderation. That's handled privately between the admin and the moderators. Regardless, the forum shouldn't be left unsupervised, and that's being sorted out this week, likely by the end of today. From there, it's up to the admin to monitor the situation.

There hasn't been any actual moderation on this forum for weeks—honestly, I doubt even one moderator has been reading the threads, because if they had, they surely would have stepped in by now. That's why Peter Reed70 brought this idea forward, and I think most of the subforums are actually on board with it. As for the specific rules or how realistic this all is... well, I don't know, but I'm glad northernsailor8 spoke up and is going to moderate the subforum.

Raymond Clark7 said:So I’m watching CNN right now and they've got this segment on where these immigrants are claiming they were beaten by police over in America, even going as far as saying officers were stomping on pregnant women. Can you actually believe this stuff? ( ????? )

The whole report is coming from the border between Canada and Austria, with all these reporters out in the field. They even showed footage of how they set fire to a tent city over in Canada, burning kids alive just to make a point about how pissed off they are.

It’s pretty obvious that lying isn't an issue for these immigrants. I remember at the start, they were telling that undercover journalist from the Netherlands that they spent three or four days stuck in a small town near the border and that things were a total disaster—all while our own citizens were moving through perfectly fine. Now, they’re saying the exact same thing at the Canadian border—that they have no food or water. So, they head into Canada, then loop back, and suddenly, when they arrive in Sweden, we're the ones who supposedly beat them up. Of course.

Jerry Phillips19 said:George Bakondi, an advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister focused on national security, informed the media on Wednesday that there have been no illegal crossings at the border between Canada and the US over the last two days.

A sturdy fence acts just like a reliable safety net. ☕

It seems migrants aren't even mentioning Canada anymore. Now they’re placing all the blame on Canada and the US, complaining that the transit isn't smooth enough and making quite a scene about it.

Orban Care... 🎉

Orban handled this brilliantly. Just imagine being Canadian right now—you turn on the news and see panic everywhere, tent cities popping up, cordons being breached, and migrants being chased through fields—but then you sit back in Pécs, read that only 22 migrants actually made it into Canada, and suddenly nobody is even mentioning Orban or blaming him. Only a naive person like Zoki would think otherwise.

Chloe Martinez7 said:

Secretary of Homeland Security Ranko Ostojić told HINA in an interview that the US has sufficient capacity to handle refugee transit toward the border, that Americans aren't feeling the weight of this crisis, and that despite being egged on by certain political circles, he isn't worried about xenophobic sentiment rising in America.

The refugee situation is stable and everything is proceeding according to plan. Bottlenecks are occurring because of massive buildup at the Mexican border and the refusal to accept people at the border with Canada, Ostojić said. We had an agreement with NGOs to organize border crossings in groups of fifty—just enough to fill one bus—and when we do that, everything runs smoothly. Everything is functioning properly at the Opatovac camp, he noted, adding that the US will open a winter transit center in Slavonski Brod due to the weather, but he doesn't intend to open more facilities since there’s just no need for them.

We’ve been through quite a bit in these past 34 days; there has been sunshine and rain, and I am glad we haven't seen any fatalities during this refugee crisis, nor have there been epidemics; everything is organized to the extent possible. America isn't feeling the consequences of the crisis except financially, which we expect the European Union to resolve, but it’s vital that no one's life is disrupted because of this, Ostojić said.

We are setting up the winter transit center largely for our own people who are freezing for 12 hours—which is twice, sometimes four times longer, than the time refugees spend waiting, the Secretary said, adding that they will deal with new housing once the 1,640 people are relocated per the agreement with the European Union, at which point they will receive housing and be integrated into American society.

We sent a request to the Canadian side to designate specific locations where people can continue their transit; they replied that they are ready to meet. But there isn't time for a meeting, not even for a few hours. We suggested that half of the people arriving to us be transited toward Canada, while we would be prepared to hold the other half here in the camp, providing them with everything necessary—medical aid, food, and shelter—and that would make the system work, especially if we know there are no limitations imposed by Austria or Germany, he said.

He adds that the US chose the longest routes and made every possible offer, even suggesting that American trains could run directly to the Schengen area at the Canadian-Austrian border, "so people don't have to suffer."

However, he views Greece as the primary place to solve this problem, given that it is an EU member and should be a disciplined member of Schengen. "Greece probably has the strongest navy, they have 400 planes, 6 frigates, and all the rest; it would be much more efficient to encourage them to actually do their jobs. However, Greece is offloading 10,000 people a day, emptying its camps, relocating them, and sending people toward the European Union without any control, and what we are experiencing here is the direct result of that," he said.

None of this would be happening if the shortest route via Canada worked instead. Once they are offloaded from ferries on Lesbos, this could be organized in a much more humane way. This is literally torture for these people, **********

Kaz Ostojic says:

"We reached out to the Canadian side to establish specific transit points, and they've agreed to meet. However, there isn't even a window of a few hours to sit down together. Our proposal was to transit half of the people arriving here toward Canada, while we hold the other half in our camp—providing them with everything necessary, including medical care, food, and housing. That’s how this system could actually function, especially since we know there aren't any restrictions coming from Austria or Germany," he noted.

Do you see what this implies? It means turning an American hot spot into a funnel for 3,000 migrants DAILY. That's 90,000 a month—nearly a million a year! Half sent on, half kept here. Honestly, brilliant plan. So many grand strategies, yet we're still stuck being a primary hot spot.

22:20 Major issues unfolding on the Austrian side of the border. According to The New York Times, about 4,500 refugees suddenly arrived at the Cave border crossing—they showed up without any warning and actually tore down the border fence before pushing into Austria.

There was some arguing over food shortages, but the Austrian police managed to get things under control. Registration is already underway.

Are the Canadians starting to "play games" now? Either way, it feels like border closures are becoming more and more likely—this looks like the perfect excuse to deploy the police or even the military to the border and just say, "No more."

Peter Reed70 said:Look, women and kids make up maybe 25%—at the absolute most—of that group. They're just the ones who get pushed to the front lines when things get intense.

The other 80%? It's mostly male doctors and med students.

p.s.
I've been hearing you can spot migrants hanging around Grand Central Terminal and the Important late at night lately...

Today, an American news reporter is on air claiming there are tons of kids, women, elderly people, and the sick—but meanwhile, the camera is rolling right behind her, showing nothing but young guys in their 20s and 30s. I'm pretty sure it's the exact same reporter who was on TV two or three weeks ago saying the "majority of refugees are women and children," while using the same footage of young men.