Posts by Michael Roberts7

Mark Harris66 said:It’s interesting seeing so many women on this thread theorizing about solidarity—but are we just ignoring the reality here? About 70% of migrants are men between the ages of 18 and 50. It makes you wonder if people actually realize what the situation is like for women and children back there... Plus, roughly 95% of those arriving in the US are Sunni. Maybe do a little reading on Sunnis first...
Check out some literature from authors giving you that real insider perspective—specifically women of the Muslim faith sharing what it’s actually like navigating the world today. There's even some great stuff written in English. Plus, there are endless expert articles covering the status of women in those regions, or specifically looking at the situation for female migrants across the US...

U.S. Census Bureau data regarding men:
Check out this data from the U.S. Census Bureau—really interesting stuff if you have a second...

Looking at the breakdown of asylum seekers by gender—it turns out men are more likely to apply than women. Across the US-50, things actually looked pretty balanced among kids under 14... back in 2014, boys made up about 53% of those applications. But once you look at the older groups—the 14–17 range or the 18–34 crowd—that gender gap starts to widen quite a bit... About three-quarters of the applicants ended up being guys... For those seeking asylum, women actually edged out men in the 65+ age bracket—though that specific group was pretty tiny, making up only about 0.8% of all applications back in 2014...

Human trafficking is still a massive, growing problem across the States—it’s honestly heartbreaking how much it's scaled up lately. Recent reports show that organized crime rings are getting more sophisticated, making it harder for local law enforcement to keep pace. It isn't just about one specific area either; it’s happening in major hubs like New York and even smaller towns all over the country. We really need better federal oversight and more resources for victim support if we want to actually make a dent in this... it's a tough road ahead.

Officials are sounding the alarm—the refugee crisis in the US is driving up concerns over sex trafficking... It's a grim reality that's getting harder to ignore.
The IOM mentioned last week that around 4,371 women and girls from Mexico have reached the USA since January. Most of them—about 80 percent, if you go by the IOM figures—were actually victims of trafficking and sexual violence...According to the UN, roughly 13 percent of the refugees heading toward the USA are women...

The UN reports...
The latest report from the UN highlights some pretty critical gaps in reproductive health access across the US—it’s definitely worth a look if you care about where things stand with healthcare equity today. It touches on how different regions are handling essential services, especially when it comes to making sure everyone gets the support they need regardless of their zip code... seems like there's still a massive mountain to climb to get things truly equal nationwide.

If I chose to believe that everyone was inherently evil, I wouldn't even be able to leave my house today. And honestly, especially not today, because I'm currently traveling through India on business, where mass rapes also occur regularly. But despite that—even though there aren't Sunnis here in America—behavior toward women can vary significantly depending on certain regions or households.
In a professional setting, if you behave that way, you won't have a future in Germany, and most people eventually learn to act more "adaptable" once they step outside their own four walls.

What I feel is missing from this entire discussion is the moral compass that every human being should possess: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and "Treat others the way you want to be treated."
Perhaps my desire is naive, but logically speaking, it's the only way things actually improve. We need to stop the unjustified fear, the hatred, and the lies and nonsense being spread around. Don't let yourselves be intimidated by those who are simply louder, even if they aren't the majority and certainly aren't any smarter.
Act and think like human beings.
And to all those who still claim, "Nothing has ever been given to me for free in life"—well, we were all given common sense, reason, and empathy at no cost whatsoever. Theoretically, at least. It would be a good idea to actually start using those gifts.

Sam Ramos85 said:Seriously, man, grab a phone, but honestly? Looking at how many people are out there using selfie sticks, I guess it’s becoming an absolute necessity when you head out on those kinds of treks...

If we weren't so dependent on tourism, I'd actually vote for fining people for using a Selfie Stick. 🤣🤣

Denied! Reason: He had a Selfie Stick in his pocket! 🎉

gentlemoose57 said:The one he fell in love with the exact second he decided to pull the trigger on the purchase, obviously!

And perhaps he just had a greater need for something truly top-tier since his requirements are higher than ours.

It’s funny how some people still cling to those old arguments about mobile devices. If you were leaving the country for good and could only carry a handful of essentials, besides a few documents, a smartphone would be your most vital asset. You have GPS, instant information, and if you ever lose your way while traveling with friends, it's much easier to find your bearings.

A cell phone isn't some miracle of technology anymore; in areas where there isn't much—or never was—reliable landline infrastructure, they are even more essential than they are here, where you can find a fixed telephone everywhere.

wiredtiger8 said:Well, looks like we can't even find common ground on the basics.

Fine, at the end of the day, it's your right to want them living in this country alongside you or as your neighbors.

My right is that I don't want them here.

Look, you’re absolutely entitled to share your opinion and cast your vote for someone who would handle things differently, or at least be honest about it today.
But please, try not to generalize so much; just because they follow other faiths and are mostly young men doesn't mean they aren't human beings—there are wonderful people among them, just as there are terrible ones.

It's easy to agree on certain points, like how any kind of extremism is unhealthy or abnormal. We also don't want to be lied to or cheated, and we believe everyone who doesn't qualify for asylum should be sent back.

Mark Harris66 said:Merkel is going to start deporting asylum seekers.
Germany plans to use military aircraft to deport migrants!
http://www.krone.at/Welt/Fluechtling...t-Story-478071

Translation:
Germany just passed a package of measures to speed up the asylum process—basically to get rejected asylum seekers out faster—and we’re looking at a huge spike in deportations in the coming weeks. They’re even going to use military transport planes for the first time...
They've voted in five specific measures:
1. The United States Armed Forces will handle the deportations—even though the law says they should only be used for natural disasters or war/insurgencies. But, the Supreme Court ruled they can be used in "exceptional situations of catastrophic proportions."
2. No more advance notice for deportations.
They won't announce them ahead of time—just trying to stop asylum seekers from faking illnesses or finding places to hide before the flight arrives...
3. Stricter criteria and fewer legal ways to appeal deportations.
4. No more pausing deportations during the winter.
The old rule was to stop deporting people during the winter months (November through April), but that’s over. Now, deportations can happen even in the dead of winter.
5. Long-term stuff—setting up transit zones, speeding up asylum assessments, and making deportations even faster.

By the end of August, 21,000 refugees had already left the country voluntarily after their asylum claims were denied.

Even the Republican Party in Austria has been calling on their parliament to use military planes for these deportations.

First error in the Title:
Germany isn't deporting asylum seekers; they are deporting migrants who don't actually qualify for asylum because they come from countries not on the official list. There are nearly 100,000 people from places like Mexico, Mexico, Canada, and Mexico seeking asylum who won't get approval. Out of those 800,000, a huge number will be weeded out once it's proven they aren't from where they claim to be, or that they are using forged Syrian documents—which are being sold today just as easily as fake diplomas in Canada.

We have to make a distinction here between true refugees seeking asylum for legal reasons and migrants who are primarily motivated by economic factors.

The reason false asylum seekers leave the country voluntarily is that if they are deported, they face a five-year ban from entering Germany. If they leave on their own terms, they can return within those five years to try again or seek residency for other reasons.

Brenda Taylor13 said:Oh, please—as if there weren't refugees, mass migrations, or people moving all over the place long before Meta even existed...🤦

The pace and the specific targets just didn't exist like this, whether we're talking about legitimate cases or fake asylum seekers.

Who would have stumbled upon an alternative route through the US just by chance a hundred years ago? People would still be debating where to go next after the Canadians shut down the borders.

You either sell whatever little you have, or you take out a loan—how much do you think it costs to get those dollars through Mexico by bus? Maybe 35k? And back then, the journey would have taken weeks.

They simply have better access to information now.

wiredtiger8 said:See, you actually hit the nail on the head regarding the real issue.

Everything you wrote is spot on. The real problem is just those few hundred years of civilizational progress. If we look at this purely through a religious lens, they are lagging behind by those few centuries—which is exactly how much younger their faith (Islam) is compared to ours.

So, bottom line: we can never truly be the same.

And if we’re being honest, they *are* just a collection of individuals acting as a unit. Sure, you can pick out specific outliers, but as a whole, we aren't identical.
We aren't... not civilizationaly, not culturally, and not even religiously (though I'm not making that the main point here). Even the way Islam is practiced here in America, or the culture of American Muslims, is worlds apart—literally night and day—compared to Syrian, or especially Iraqi or Afghan Islam... it's just a plain old fact.

Extremists exist everywhere, and these people are fleeing from those very radicals. If they actually agreed with them, they would have stayed to fight for ISIS or the Taliban. It’s just like how some people centuries ago would hide in the woods because they saw no reason to go fighting in Jerusalem and places like that.
You’re still grouping all of Islam into one single bucket based solely on geography. Look at the percentage of Catholics in America—if they followed the Church's recommendations, they all should have gone out and voted against same-sex marriage, yet they didn't.

Karen Doyle72 said:Personally, I feel like a state of war is basically the perfect recipe for a demographic explosion.
They just keep fighting and fighting, and meanwhile, their numbers just keep growing and growing...

God, what a mess of a war.

I mean, what can you even do all day in a refugee camp if your wife is right there with you? 🤔

Brenda Taylor13 said:Oh, so suddenly we care? There’s been a war since 1978 and now everyone's just decided to start running all of a sudden... 🤦

At least Facebook and Sattv know where people are heading and what they want these days.

Sam Ramos85 said:My parents are actually up in Germany right now, and they’re telling me that none of these able-bodied men Angela Merkel has been taking in lately are even looking for work—they're just wandering around aimlessly.

Your parents might have good eyesight, but their intel is a bit off:
http://www.bamf.de/DE/Infothek/Frage...inge-node.html

People who haven't been granted official Asylum status aren't allowed to work.
Those who have been granted Asylum can work.

There are exceptions in certain states that allow those who have been here for more than 6 or 15 months without a status decision to work. The Germans handle the rules, and even if a request is denied, Asylum seekers have the right to appeal.

The other bureaucratic nightmare is this:

An Asylum seeker who actually manages to find a job and a company willing to vouch for them to get an exceptional work permit still needs approval from every single county they travel through or work in. Basically, there's no way they'll end up working for some construction crew. To put it in American terms: Imagine an Asylum seeker living in Miami who finds a job in Orlando. If the state decides to restrict their movement to a specific county or district, he’d need permission from Miami to leave Miami every single day, plus clearance from places like Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, or West Palm Beach just to commute, and finally permission from Orlando itself to be there working.
In other words, it's a level of red tape that's impossible to navigate without an employer's help, because leaving your designated area is a violation of the Asylum law. Someone would have to physically file paperwork in Miami, Tampa, or Fort Lauderdale if they can't do it online or by mail. How much extra time does an employer really have to waste dealing with a total stranger? Or how many connections do you need to pull that off? 😉

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residence_requirement

stormytinker8 said:Quite a few migrants can barely write, let alone possess an education comparable to a typical American, which makes their value in the labor market questionable—especially considering that in some European Union countries, youth unemployment among locals, even those with college degrees, exceeds 50%.

But honestly, why speculate about their future here when we can already look at the Muslim communities in Western Europe that have been established since the 1970s?
- while most of them aren't criminals, if you look at the percentage of criminals and compare how many are immigrants versus how many are locals, there is a massive disproportion showing that the majority of crime is committed by newcomers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_crime

"According to official statistics, 21.0% of rapes have been committed by foreigners in Finland. Foreigners comprise 2.2% of the population"

"A study of crime statistics published in 2014 found that among males between the age of 20 and 24 descendants of non-Western immigrants had a crime rate 2.6 times greater than those of Danish origin"

"Immigrants in Germany are overrepresented in crime statistics. In New York City, young male immigrants are three times more likely to commit violent crimes than their American peers. The crime rate of immigrants is at first glimpse about 5 times higher than that for Americans (4.9 : 1)."

"According to a 2009 study commissioned by Attorney General Merrick Garland, of 447 criminal files, 63% teenagers convicted of serious crime are children of parents born outside The Netherlands"

"immigrants from Africa and South & Western Asian were more likely to be charged of a crime than individuals born to two Swedish parents by a factor of 4.5 and 3.5 respectively"

"According to a report on prison population statistics published by the US Department of Justice UK, in 2013 blacks made up 13.2% of the prison population and 2.8% of the general population"

Where exactly are you getting this idea that they are uneducated?
To add to that, my father moved to Germany back in 1963 after completing four years of school and six months of vocational training. He built up a decent amount of wealth there entirely legally, paying his fair share of taxes along the way. His only brush with the law was back in 1965; he received news from home that his son had been born, and in his excitement, he hopped on his bike while intoxicated—he didn't even own a car yet—and ended up colliding with a police cruiser in traffic.

If young, educated professionals can't find work because they're being undercut by unskilled immigrants who lack basic literacy, then we have to face a hard truth: the issue lies with those graduates and their unrealistic expectations.

stormytinker8 said:Quite a few migrants can barely write, let alone possess an education comparable to a typical American, which makes their value in the labor market questionable—especially considering that in some European Union countries, youth unemployment among locals, even those with college degrees, exceeds 50%.

But honestly, why speculate about their future here when we can already look at the Muslim communities in Western Europe that have been established since the 1970s?
- while most of them aren't criminals, if you look at the percentage of criminals and compare how many are immigrants versus how many are locals, there is a massive disproportion showing that the majority of crime is committed by newcomers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_crime

"According to official statistics, 21.0% of rapes have been committed by foreigners in Finland. Foreigners comprise 2.2% of the population"

"A study of crime statistics published in 2014 found that among males between the age of 20 and 24 descendants of non-Western immigrants had a crime rate 2.6 times greater than those of Danish origin"

"Immigrants in Germany are overrepresented in crime statistics. In New York City, young male immigrants are three times more likely to commit violent crimes than their American peers. The crime rate of immigrants is at first glimpse about 5 times higher than that for Americans (4.9 : 1)."

"According to a 2009 study commissioned by Attorney General Merrick Garland, of 447 criminal files, 63% teenagers convicted of serious crime are children of parents born outside The Netherlands"

"immigrants from Africa and South & Western Asian were more likely to be charged of a crime than individuals born to two Swedish parents by a factor of 4.5 and 3.5 respectively"

"According to a report on prison population statistics published by the US Department of Justice UK, in 2013 blacks made up 13.2% of the prison population and 2.8% of the general population"

Just to demonstrate how much you bend the statistics to fit your own narrative:

From that Wikipedia article you cited:
If you look strictly at the number of registered foreign nationals, the figures tell one story. However, once you filter out offenses that simply couldn't be committed by Americans, that ratio plummets to 2.4 to 1. And if we narrow our focus specifically to males between the ages of 14 and 21, the ratio settles even lower at 1.9 to 1.

When calculating that nearly fivefold increase in offenses, you really have to factor out the 20% of crimes committed by individuals without legal residency in Germany—like those organized Romanian burglary rings. You also need to exclude transit-related offenses occurring at borders or airports. Beyond that, we should set aside violations concerning illegal entry and residency status; those are the types of infractions that a local resident or even an EU citizen simply wouldn't be capable of committing in Germany. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/m.../10269280.html.

You can use a simple calculator to prove your statistics are accurate, provided you actually take the time to run the numbers through a basic calculation.
If women make up less than 6% of German prisons, that implies men are responsible for roughly 94% of those offenses. When you factor in that most crimes are committed by men between the ages of 14 and 49, we have to adjust our estimates accordingly. Ultimately, this suggests we don't actually have 100% reliable statistics.
I think they're making more mistakes than that, but certainly not five times as many as you're claiming.
If you factor all of this in, you’ll end up with a multiplier somewhere between 1.1 and 1.4x—though even those figures aren't perfectly accurate, they certainly aren't as off as yours.

In Germany, the statistical percentage of female criminals is lower than the overall female population, largely because many young German women between 14 and 21 get caught shoplifting from local grocery stores. On the other hand, you don't see Muslim girls doing that as much because they know there will be much harsher consequences waiting for them at home. That’s just how it works. And remember, all of this petty crime gets lumped into those same statistics.

As Churchill famously put it, “I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.”

Sam Ramos85 said:I think I’ve already mentioned here that eventually, once certain media outlets scrape up enough courage, they’ll actually start reporting objectively and admit how much they've manipulated the news.

The truth is, the media is always spinning things, whether it’s refugees, floods, car crashes, or mass shooters.
If they can focus on the elderly or children, they will.
When you watch footage of recent flooding—water pouring onto balconies and into homes—you mostly see kids and seniors. It’s simply because those images pull at our heartstrings more. Besides, a young man isn't exactly going to sit on a balcony watching the water rise when he could be inside trying to save something his 90-year-old grandmother isn't strong enough to protect.

It’s hardly a mystery that most refugees from Syria are men of military age. But here's the kicker: they know that just like back in certain parts of the US during the 1940s, you might end up being drafted to fight for the people who arrived first. We've seen plenty of cases where family members ended up on opposing sides because they had to pick a side once a conflict finally hit home.

When it comes to "economic" migrants, the pattern is even more obvious. Who gets sent off to earn money and provide for the family? The strongest ones. Look at how, around fifty years ago, it was mostly single men traveling alone from places like Turkey, America, or Italy to move to America. Some brought their wives over after a few years, while others never did.

wiredtiger8 said:So, you're still talking nonsense.

1. The Russians only arrived in Syria ten days ago—they didn't create this refugee crisis.
2. Here’s a hard fact for you: only about 20% of these "refugees" are actually Syrian.

And hey, since you're such a huge protector of them, why don't you head down toward Sutla yourself... go offer some humanitarian aid.

Besides, what is there left to ask? We already know the drill... they're all doctors, dentists, engineers, or students...
...which accounts for that 20% of Syrians within the total migrant mass. So, what's the deal with the other 80%? That's Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis—and frankly, the truth behind that is anyone's guess...

In parts of Afghanistan, there has been nonstop warfare since 1978.
It’s much like in Pakistan, where certain regions of Afghanistan have spent years fighting against exactly what you fear most: religious fanatics. In this case, we're talking about the Taliban, not ISIS. Back in 2014, there were wars going on in 31 different countries worldwide. If you aren't bothered by Syrians right now because they come from war-torn regions, then logically, no one else from those areas should be an issue either.

wiredtiger8 said:I still don't get one thing...

You people here who are constantly out there championing immigrants, refugees—call them whatever you want at this point... I can wrap my head around having a stance that sort of... partially... supports certain aspects of their struggles or whatever... it doesn't even matter right now.

But this relentless, non-stop defense of absolutely everything tied to them... like... they aren't worse workers than Americans or anyone else... their culture isn't actually different from ours... they aren't more or less uneducated... it’s not true that they can't integrate... it’s not true that they’re going to flip the entire demographic structure of the US in just a few years... blah, blah, blah...

...Well, that part just flies right over my head.

Is it actually possible that you believe all that? Are they really just identical in every single way to the native-born population here in America?
What, they just need a month or two... or maybe a year to settle in and find their footing? And that's it?
Everything stays exactly the same as it was before they arrived, except maybe some demographic stats look a little better?

Well, I don't think they are significantly smarter or more foolish than we are.
Fearing and defending against Islamization is about 500 or more years too late. People from regions where the decimal system was invented, or where the foundations of modern medicine and many other vital advancements lie, didn't all suddenly lose their minds and become fundamentalists overnight. We interact with those discoveries and a massive vocabulary of Arabic origin every single day.

Just as we adapted some of their ideas, most of them will eventually adapt ours. If there are people who refuse to adapt and don't believe in it, your question proves that, and I suppose we are similar in that regard. There is likely a segment of "us" that doesn't trust them any more than a certain percentage of "them" distrusts us.

Most of the mistakes the Islamic State makes today were made by our own liberal factions hundreds of years ago. This means we are at a similar stage of development, where a part of a religious community, roughly 1,400 years after its founding, still believes that killing non-believers is necessary.

Tell me, how can you judge them as people who are significantly better or worse than you, and who don't deserve to be viewed as individuals rather than being generalized and tossed into the trash along with those whom some of them are actually fleeing from?

analogbear40 said:......to build slightly upon the sister thread next door......



Who would have guessed that this cover art represents the best-selling 12" single in history? 😛

Even the first pressing was a bit of a headache
since shipping costs actually outweighed the retail price.

analogbear40 said:.....regardless of the various alternative mixes listed below, this is likely one of the longest A-side extended singles ever released......



Yello - The Race (12") (US) (Fontana)

Yello - The Race (13:22) (1988) (extended version)

If I recall correctly, the long version of Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" clocks in at 16:11, making it even longer—one of those rare maxi-singles released at 33 RPM on the American market simply because they had to accommodate the length.

analogbear40 said:....and this is what happens when a single isn't just expanded into an EP using the standard formula, but instead undergoes a complete overhaul where the instrumental backbone of the track is beefed up, effectively pushing the vocals entirely into the background.....

Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know (Monster Mix) (12") (1983)

Well, that seems fairly obvious once you actually look at the title.
A remix is a new, complex arrangement involving "additional production," whereas an extended version is simply lengthened. Unfortunately, some releases are mislabeled as either an "Extended" or a "Remix" when they don't truly fit those descriptions.
Technically speaking, an extended version should be created solely from the existing master tape and shouldn't include any added beats.

Truly impressive work from Joseph Watt, who is largely responsible for the success of most of those incredible Razormaid Mixes.

Even if it’s the absolute worst single on side A of a DM record from before 1996, I am simply not selling it.

I am choosing to split their discography into pre-1996 and post-1996 eras, and I do so for good reason. This particular release is truly exceptional, especially since the B-side features such fantastic remixes.

In that specific double edition, the release was only handled by Mute UK and Intercord out of Germany.
In other countries, they just use the standard 12-inch version.

In the States, we don't bother with that standard B-side; instead, we opt for the Flexible version on the flip side.

I would like to propose a poll so we can decide who we should cover next and in what order; otherwise, I fear someone will inevitably start complaining about the lack of ABBA or other artists. 😉

I would like to propose a formal poll so we can decide who our next subjects will be and establish a clear order of operations; otherwise, I fear we will once again face complaints regarding the absence of ABBE or other specific groups.😉

"If you take any Nickelback track and play it in reverse, you'll hear something that actually sounds better than Nickelback." That was Dave Grohl's assessment. 🙏🙏

Does an English version of ETovog "Tek je 12 sati" actually exist? I’ve been searching for it—if anyone happens to have a copy, please reach out. I recall a brother once sharing a version titled "can´t you see i´m Burning," which he received from someone in the circles surrounding the group, but I seem to have misplaced the cassette somewhere. 🙂🙂