Slashdot Mirror
Tech Conferences Moving North as Trump Policies Turn Off Attendees (financialpost.com)
The Collision Conference, one of North America's most influential technology gatherings, tweeted on Tuesday: "We've got some news. It's about Toronto. But we'll let Justin Trudeau tell you about it." What followed was a video in which the prime minister announced that Collision, which typically boasts 25,000 attendees, will be coming to Canada in 2019. From a report: "I'm happy you chose Toronto to host North America's fastest growing tech conference for the next three years, but I have to say, I'm not completely surprised," Trudeau said. "Toronto is a key global tech hub and an example of the diversity that is our strength." And Collision is not alone in coming north. At least two other major technology conferences have recently made the decision to relocate to Canada, lured in part by Toronto's burgeoning tech sector, but also driven by travel restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, policies that have left organizers scrambling to accommodate those who can't visit the United States.
In mid-April, Creative Commons, an international non-profit dedicated to the legal sharing of digital content, held their global summit in Toronto for the second year in a row. "The political climate in the U.S., specifically the open hostility from the current administration towards many international communities, and the anxiety from those we work with about how they might be treated was definitely a deciding factor," said Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons. "What's most unfortunate is that this approach is so inconsistent with the views of the many collaborative communities we work with every day in the U.S."
At Access Now, a non-profit that organizes the RightsCon digital rights conference, Trump's travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries hit close to home. "One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event," RightsCon director Nick Dagostino said. For years, RightsCon has alternated between San Francisco and a series of global venues, and after last year's event in Brussels, heading back to California would have been the natural choice. But then, people started telling Access Now that if the event happened in the U.S., they wouldn't show up.
In mid-April, Creative Commons, an international non-profit dedicated to the legal sharing of digital content, held their global summit in Toronto for the second year in a row. "The political climate in the U.S., specifically the open hostility from the current administration towards many international communities, and the anxiety from those we work with about how they might be treated was definitely a deciding factor," said Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons. "What's most unfortunate is that this approach is so inconsistent with the views of the many collaborative communities we work with every day in the U.S."
At Access Now, a non-profit that organizes the RightsCon digital rights conference, Trump's travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries hit close to home. "One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event," RightsCon director Nick Dagostino said. For years, RightsCon has alternated between San Francisco and a series of global venues, and after last year's event in Brussels, heading back to California would have been the natural choice. But then, people started telling Access Now that if the event happened in the U.S., they wouldn't show up.
It's not even Trump. Companies have been trying to convince people to move conventions out of the US since the Obama administration.
The bottom line is that the TSA and ICE makes attempting to attend anything in the US far too annoying to deal with. Not to mention that the weather in the majority of the US is, at best, inconvenient. More conventions should move to Canada.
But don't blame Trump. This is something that's been in the works for a long time, and it's not Trump's fault. It's the US's fault in general.
I guess California lost out on this prosperous event.
Kind of funny punishing one of the states most vocal against President Trump
Are we going to get polar bear replant in grab bags? Also should we be concerned with crazy speed limits (e.g. 60 on a side streets)? Also, I don't speak French, so would I be able to book a hotel? Also, I heard they put mayo on everything and Canadian Bacon isn't real bacon.
Didn't we just have a story the other day about the Chinese stealing some technology?
And these retards think doing something to prevent that is "open hostility".
Facepalm!
And don't even fucking try to suggest that the Muslim countries are bringing anything to these tech conferences except perhaps how to build a better suicide vest.
I lived in the US (studied, then worked); I have good friends there; I have a Swiss passport, so no problem for me at all entering the US. But I have chosen not to go there anymore, for the past two years (that includes at least one technical conference per year).
Two reasons for me: #1) I don't feel safe anymore in a country that has such an unpredictable and authoritarian police force, and #2) I don't think it is ethical of me to condone the current US policies towards foreigners (of which I am one), even though I would personally (probably) would have not problems while visiting.
I would love to go back, but will not do it while these conditions last.
"One of our interns at the time was an Iranian citizen with a U.S. green card, and she wasn't able to leave the country to go to Brussels to help us organize the (2017) event,"
RightsCon was at the end of March 2017; Feb 1, 2017 (less than a week after it was issued) the administration made it clear that the temporary restrictions did not apply to green card holders. (Furthermore, two days after the order was issued, the court ruled that it couldn't apply to green card holders.)
Well, people are voting with their feet -- or at least their dollars.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The single most important reason the conference is going to Toronto is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That's not just counting your chickens before they're hatched; it's more like counting your chickens before they've evolved.
This is like peace in the Middle East. Every generation or so there's an outbreak of hope that inevitably founders on the fact that parties that need to participate depend on conflict for their political legitimacy. That's North Korea in a nutshell.
Now I wish Trump well in this; he may not be the person I'd want across the negotiating table from Xi Jinping, but Kim Jong Un... that's just crazy enough it might work... a little bit, for a while.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
These are not tech conferences. Two of those are activism conferences, and Collision is near-tech.
Being that the loonie is about $0.78 to the greenback.
I understood everything you said until, "...Not to mention that the weather in the majority of the US is, at best, inconvenient. More conventions should move to Canada..." Seriously, you're going to argue that Canada has better weather???
*canadian* dollars, eh?
Except Trumps rhetoric has accelerated it. The companies may had tried to move it out of the US. But for the most part people around the world wanted to Visit the Mighty United States, not the Luigi Second Player country Canada. So these companies stayed in the US. Trump with his anti-forger rhetoric has made the United States seem unwelcoming to these foreign visitors. Even if there isn't any additional policy, the rhetoric and tweeting from the guy in charge, make the United States unwelcoming.
Now Trump was technically elected by the populous so this means there are a lot of citizens with this belief, which will not help people make the decision to go to and invest in the US or not.
Is it 100% Trumps fault... No, but he is a reflection of America and its values on the whole. A lot of this stuff happened during Obama and Bush. Partially due to 9/11 fear, Middle eastern Wars, followed up by the Great Recession. So with 9/11 we have an enemy and we "know" how they look like. Then when the recession hit everyone is fighting for work, so having additional competition isn't welcomed.
The Recovery of the Recession (which I will blame on Obama) wasn't very spread out, they were clear winners and looser, So while the economy was gowing there was a population who couldn't be lifted off their butts, mainly due to policies that do not understand that demographic. Who has been suffering for much longer are more apt to stay angry and lash out with additional stupid.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Yeah, and more of them.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
>> Collision Conference, one of North America's most influential technology gatherings
(gaffaws)
If you have to tell people you're "influential", you aren't influential. Wake me up when RSA heads to Vancouver.
Well, she will not be able to go to Toronto for the same reason.
"Influential" my behind...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Canada has the best 21-days summer of every country in the world.
#DeleteFacebook
I live "up north" and I can tell you these people are idiots.
We have just as much political bullshit up here as they do anywhere else in the world, including the US. The difference is that we don't have CSPAN on 24/7 so people just talk about it less.
The grass is not greener on the other side. Fix your shit where you live because that's the only place the world will become a better place.
Creative Commons summit and RightsCon sound like idealogy conferences. Collision Conference sounds like a business conference (for people who want to someday be involved in a genuine business).
Where are they holding conferences for people who know how to do stuff?
Great ideas and people come from all over the world. You'd know that it you weren't a crypto-racist with associated blinders.
I mean seriously. how many people coming to these conferences are in the handful of countries on the travel ban? I cant imagine its that many. This is just virtue signaling at its finest.
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
and yet, the ban doesn't cover any of the 4 countries where the 9-11 attackers came from (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Lebanon and Egypt). Nor does it cover the countries producing more recent terrorists (Afghanistan & Pakistan). It only seems to cover what the president would call "shithole" countries. But no, you must be right, it's all about terrorism.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Maybe they thought he was talking about them.
Then when the recession hit everyone is fighting for work, so having additional competition isn't welcomed.
Sorry dude, its not about economic anxiety. That's just one of those fairytales we tell ourselves to avoid confronting ugly truths about our fellow citizens. The majority of people earning under $50K/yr voted for Clinton.
Spoken like someone who has never lived in Canada...so let me enlighten you. When you enter Canada:
(1) You are not greeted with somber armed guards giving you stern looks and barking monosyllable words.
(2) You are not fingerprinted, photographed, or otherwise put through a "mild" police arrest process
(3) People actually don't care what color your skin is or which country you came from. All they care about is who you are and what you do. For proof, check out the Canadian Defense Minister and try to imagine how much uproar you'd get in US if the Secretary of Defense looked like him.
(4) Above all, observe how much more civilized the society is over there.
So why is it a surprise that modern conferences would feel more at home there than in the US?
PS For visceral contrast between the two countries, watch the video of the police take down of the suspect who had just rammed down two dozen people on the sidewalk: [Youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOW05IVejNE
Did you see any paramilitary police force in the video? Did you hear Canada raising the terror alert or people calling for banning whatever ethnicity that moron was from? Did you even hear his name or ethnicity while the crap was going down during the day?
Now imagine the same incident happening in the US. Heck imagine holding a cell phone in your grandparents backyard while your back is to the cops...oh wait, you don't have to imagine that last one; it actually happened.
The fact is that people almost all muslim countries on earth can travel to the USA. The ban is on a handful of countries that are rife with radical terrorists. If we were banning muslim countries we'd have banned the other 43 countries. idiots
The real idiocy here is that the much lauded Trump Muslim-ban is not on Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia whose citizens actually conducted and financed the 911 attacks. Iran? It is actually fun to watch Trump supporters try and explain that one away, it's like watching a severely constipated person holding their breath and pushing really hard while seriously contemplating digging it out with a stick.
You don know the Art of the Deal was ghostwritten.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
You don know the Art of the Deal was ghostwritten.
That just goes to show how clever Trump is!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Perhaps that is true. However, there is also the issue that visas in general are harder to get even if you're not on the travel ban. I am an American, living in France and I know that some of my colleagues do not want to travel to the US (for business or pleasure) due to the hassle. This has to be reducing the number of people who want to visit for any reason. This type of feedback probably gets back to the people who run conferences and may have an effect on where they choose to hold them.
I know from personal my own travels that entering the US (even as an American) is a worse experience than entering France. The American border control just seems hostile - the way they question people, etc. I always feel unwelcome when returning despite their big signs saying "Welcome to the US". When entering France they just glance at the passport, stamp it and let you through (I'm sure they already pre-screened me somehow). Note that the hostility also exists when entering the UK- perhaps it is a general Anglo-Saxon problem.
Sorry dude, its not about economic anxiety. That's just one of those fairytales we tell ourselves to avoid confronting ugly truths about our fellow citizens. The majority of people earning under $50K/yr voted for Clinton.
The anxiety of the stereotypical "Trump voter" is not coming from those in poverty / near-poverty for the most part. Those people get by and re-enter the workforce in large part because of safety nets championed by Democrats. Trump voters on the other hand are more likely to to have decent working class and middle class jobs they are afraid of losing. And these jobs tend to provide household incomes above $50k/yr. When you combine Trump voters with the rest of Republican voters you find that less than a third of those who voted for Trump were in the working class or lower.
Only a small fraction of people who voted for Trump are included in the what politicians consider "Trump voters". The rest were simply traditional Republicans. But these additional Trump voters are the ones that got him elected since they included so many independent voters. When people discuss the trends which helped Trump win they aren't talking about everyone who voted for Trump, just the ones who swung the election. So your statistics about the demographics of all voters who voted for Trump and Clinton show us nothing about the factors which led to his victory.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
This day in Slashdot history : US Losing its Scientific Dominance Posted by CowboyNeal on Monday May 03, 2004.
So as much as I hate Trump, this is not something new. He is just the one that sees that the bucket is filled faster and wil be the one that causes it to overflow.
But do not kid yourself. This is not a Trump problem, this is an American problem that is caused by both the right and right of right bi-party system.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You realize you're feeding a troll, right?
The Electoral College BTFO'd that sentiment. Just as they did about 5 more times in American history when the popular vote didn't favour the same candidate for President.
This is a rare decision for the Electoral College, but it's still normal for the United States government so far as I can tell. That's why all this kicking and screaming about Trump is annoying. Like no President has been caught doing potentially criminally bad things before, like no President was a divisive character before, that no President made stupid mistakes either in the past or during the presidency itself?
Work with the asshole instead of against them if you can't find solid evidence for impeaching, because otherwise you're only stalling the progress of *your own country* by fighting them every step of the way instead. It's a waste of time and taxpayer money if you're fighting about anything but how the country should move forward and progress.
Are these politicians so privileged that they've never had to work for a boss they hated?
Since Bush. This all started with 9/11.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You don know the Art of the Deal was ghostwritten.
That just goes to show how clever Trump is!
Indeed. I'd put him on a level with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
My most recent time entering Canada (from Swanton, VT), I was greeted by a heavily armed man - AR (or Canuckistan equivalent), body armor, tear gas, the works. He asks for ID, asks the customary questions, looks at my ID - noting that I'm from Minnesota. Then: "One last important question before I let you into my country." Dramatic pause. Shit - am I being mistaken for someone else? Is he going to turn me away? What's going on? "How about that new Vikings stadium? That looks pretty sweet!"
If you understood what the actual ban was based on instead of hyperbolic lying media talking heads then you would know it's about the governments not properly identifying extremists or adequate vetting so that we can determine who would be a risk entering the country.
Have a background record that details the criminal activity of an individual? Not part of the ban. Ignore requests for criminal activity and obfuscate the process that ensures extremists enter the country? Ban.
Not to mention that the weather in the majority of the US is, at best, inconvenient.
You were doing okay
until you slipped and blurted-out the above made-up shit.
Geez; is it so fucking hard for you dumbasses to "play a tight hand?" Ever heard the expression "don't let your underwear show??"
Pathetic.
So Trump negotiated for his ghost writer to get little or no credit while his name is plastered on the book and made made his reputation for hard negotiating. I'd call that making a good deal.
They have been hostile long before Trump was in office. And anyway getting a visa to the US is no different than getting a visa to any country that requires it. Sorry it is a hassle to them, but we don't live in a world any longer where easy travel is exactly required. Unfortunately some religious extremists saw to that. Blame them.
You can't discuss anything political these days without feeding a few trolls.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
No one has mentioned that they've previously held Collision in New Orleans for the past few years. Not exactly a global tech hub with many direct flights.
"Muslim" isn't a race any more than "Catholic" or "American", you numpty fucking cunt.
There is no such thing as race within the homo-sapien species. Racism has never been exclusively biological and has often if not primarily had cultural origins. The more we assume that race is limited to skin color, the less we understand about contemporary racism faced by Muslims at home and abroad.
Perhaps you also believe antisemitism is not racism either, or are you simply inconsistent in your beliefs on racism and race in general?
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Or, perhaps the parameters are just more complex. Say, people with economic anxiety who WEREN'T minorities, and thus demonized by the GOP.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
"Now I wish Trump well in this; he may not be the person I'd want across the negotiating table from Xi Jinping, but Kim Jong Un"
For as crazy as Trump seems he is 100% American and a self-serving negotiator...he is the only person I would really want sitting across the table from xi.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
TAKE OFF! To the great green north!
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I mean seriously. how many people coming to these conferences are in the handful of countries on the travel ban? I cant imagine its that many.
Maybe so but moving the conference to Toronto lets them come too and the only one that is hurt is the country that's being a dick.
"But don't blame Trump. This is something that's been in the works for a long time, and it's not Trump's fault. It's the US's fault in general."
This would be true if I didn't have coworkers from Iran who were forbidden to travel by Trump's policies.
So, NO, you are not correct. There's been mumbling about moving conferences for years, but now it's mainstream action based on ever-changing racist policies personally signed by DONALD J TRUMP which affect the same members of a team travelling to a conference differently depending on their background.
*I* don't want to attend conferences when my peers are excluded.
What about landed immigrants in Canada who have passports from these countries?
I mean seriously. how many people coming to these conferences are in the handful of countries on the travel ban? I cant imagine its that many.
The problem is that even in conferences where the attendees from those banned may be a mere handful of people, it creates a dillema for the organizers in that holding it in the United States would be limiting the participation and viewpoints from people from those country. For scientific conferences in particular, which try to stay above politics and promote dialogue in their field, limiting dialogue by denying entry even to a single person would be a betrayal of their principles to promote scientific understanding.
And I think we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Conferences take years ahead of time to organize so the effect hasn't been fully felt yet.
No causality is proven by any of that. How big a surprise is it that black people vote Democrat (to pick the easiest example)? None of the rest is any better thought-through, but I don't feel like responding to all that BS.
It's kinda funny that Trudeau cites "diversity" as their strength. Canada has a higher percentage of white folks per capita than the US, or at least has historically.
http://worthwhile.typepad.com/...
Their largest non-white demographic, unlike the US, is Asian. To some groups like BLM, that doesn't really even count.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
If you have to call it an "education system" something is wrong. There is no attack on education...people are just leaving the system.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
It looks like it's hard to visit Iran from several countries (US, UK, Isreal) unless in a group or approved business as well.
And "Admission is refused to women not wearing Islamic head cover, scarf, long sleeves and stockings."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It's funny how so many countries that have so many restrictions in their own countries still feel able to judge the US for having a fraction of the restrictions.
True. I have never seen left-leaning engineers. I hear they exist.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Yeah. I feel bad for Canada too
Don't underestimate how tough and smart someone like Xi or Putin has to be to get where he was, just because his values are alien. These men are not the scion of the hereditary ruling dynasty, they're the end result of merciless political natural selection. You can beat them, but not through intimidation or bullshitting them into submission.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Right. Because voting D has worked out SO well for them (cf. Baltimore, Detroit, Seattle, San Fran, LA, etc).
Not enough for you? This guy summarized even more studies: Donald Trump won the GOP primary and the presidency because campaigning on whiteness-first messaging still has potency in the 21st century.
How does anything in your long post detract from the evidence that economic anxiety of white Americans as they lose their cultural dominance was a major factor in Trump's election victory? You seem to only bolster this theory. One of the articles you linked to makes an odd argument that economic anxiety and cultural anxiety are inherently different. One primary source of white American economic anxiety is the loss of their cultural dominance which fuels white privilege.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Oh well, then. I guess the easiest solution is to hold conferences in Canada. Thanks for the insight.
One of the articles you linked to makes an odd argument that economic anxiety and cultural anxiety are inherently different.
Here, let LBJ explain it for you:
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
As opposed to Iran? Yeah. As opposed to US "shrug"
" Never heard of it, doesn't matter to my life. Like just about all conferences."
Doesn't the still not need constant supervision, Bubba?
"I'm a techie and I voted for Trump. Fuck you whiny cucks."
Dewey Crowe, is that you?
It's like having to tell people when you're a genius.
The article is full of lies. Here is an example:
Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders) have never been banned from entering the U.S., regardless of their country of birth..
Bzzzt! I'm sorry, but that's incorrect. Perhaps it's your post that's the lie? LPRs were banned as part of Trump's first travel ban. The second one (February 1, 2018) added the exemption for LPRs. See this, or basically any article that covered the travel ban. "White House Counsel Don McGahn issued 'authoritative guidance' on Wednesday clarifying that key parts of Trump's controversial executive order, which is aimed at citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, will no longer cover green card holders ..." and "'They no longer need a waiver because if they are a legal permanent resident they won't need it anymore,' Spicer told reporters during a daily briefing."
Summer, what summer?
Canada has 4 seasons: winter, before-winter, after-winter, and between-winters.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
The second one (February 1, 2018)
Typo: 2017*
"The ban is on countries that are currently exporting terrorism."
So Saudi Arabia, where most of the 9/11 terrorists came from is no longer exporting terrorism?
http://www.washingtoninstitute...
Here's an article from a couple years ago, but over a decade after 9/11 recommending that Washington work with Saudi to (and i quote) "diminish support for terrorism". Al queda is viewed as favorable / somewhat favorable by as much as 20% of the population there.
Does the Saudi Government work with the US to vet would-be travelers?
Having citizen that participated in 9/11 attack was not criteria for list made during the Obama administration. Maybe you should read what the criteria was. It certainly was *not* being muslim, or maybe Kim Jung-un (N. Korea the 8th country I didn't mention) converted to Islam when I wasn't looking.
Seriously. Before they told us they were influential, they would have been better off to tell us who the fuck they are. I've never even heard of this conference.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Especially security conferences attract people who might be viewed as suspicious by some US 3 letter organizations, so they try to avoid that country.
On a more personal note: I have not been to the US since 9/11 and if the "security" paranoia stays the way it currently is, I will probably not visit the US again. It's a shame really, because I have family over there and overall I liked the country. But I am not going to let me be treated like a criminal.
The majority of people earning under $50K/yr voted for Clinton.
The same clown shoes polling that guaranteed HRC would win in a landslide.
How'd that turn out?
you know, unless there is another terrorist attack in Toronto that week.....
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
video chat is a thing. do people really need to fly all over for a conference these days?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
It is not about hating him it is contempt for the fact that some beat down Americans stumbled to their feet,
You perfectly exemplify the permanent grievance of the worst kind of trump voter. He campaigned on "you are all losers, but I will win for you, there will be so much winning, you'll get tired of all the winning." And just like with any other conman, he wins and his marks end up losing the most. Just like the suckers who signed up for trump university.
...most of the gnashing of teeth is performed bu the useful idiots.
Said the guy who has ground the enamel completely off his molars.
I didn't vote for Trump. How did the people who voted for Trump lose?
They got a huge tax break instead of an all-but-guaranteed tax hike.
Unemployment is way down.
The stock market is way up. I don't think this is a good measure of anything, and I'm sure it will tank again (hopefully soon), but people love to point to the pretend money in the stock market as a sign of economic health.
Denuclearization, peace, and potential reunification in Korea,
Tons of sex cults and human trafficking rings have been broken up.
Corrupt leaders and former leaders of many countries are actually being brought to justice.
He's getting support for enforcing our immigration laws, even from cities within California. The wall is being built.
Next year there will be no unconstitutional personal mandate for health insurance.
He shut down all the anti-second-amendment bullshit from the CIA plant David Hogg and his cadre of useful idiots with a single tweet.
He's firing and investigating corrupt people in Washington left and right, all while under incessant attacks and illegal, phony investigations himself.
Who is losing, exactly?
The man is a blowhard and an asshole, but he's proving to be damn good at his job.
Except that Iran has never really held itself out there as a "bastion of Freedom." The US, on the other hand, has a statue in an important harbor that says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” However, at some point - and I won't say it's entirely Trump's fault - we've changed that to a big "Not so much."
the attack on the education system means that the nation as a whole is being dumbified on an unprecedented scale
I concur, the takeover by radicals intent on shouting down anybody that challenges their views with things like evidence is an attack that's seriously damaging the education system.
I'm not sure what the relevance of Trump is to this though?
That sign was from a culture long ago. How much of that time period do you want to bring back?
That is not how it looks from the outside, dude.
I am from an allied country i Europe, and would definitely get a visa, but all else being equal I would actively choose conferences not in the US. And I know my hesitance is widespread, and lately increasing.
It comes down to a lot of compounding factors, many of them predating Trump, but his words and actions sure haven't helped.
The major peeve is the sheer hassle of the TSA and of getting a visa. Both have been ludicrous since 9/11, but the visa process has gotten even worse lately.
Then there is the fear of running into undeserved trouble when crossing. There are lots of stories circulating about crazy delays, returns, confiscations, computer/phone searches, and even holding cells.
All this generates a general distaste to the whole hostile image that the US border projects in later years. The travel bans and the way Trump talks about other countries have sharply heightened that impression, even to us who are not directly affected, to the point where, if you have a free choice, the natural reaction for many is simply:
"These guys are nuts. Fine, if they don' want me there, fuck them, I'll go somewhere nice in stead".
sudo ergo sum
I like how a poem on a statue gifted by "the French people" in the late 19th century has somehow come to define the core of the American ethos in the current year. I'll bet you also think the US entered WW2 to save the Jews and fight totalitarianism by ... teaming up with, and providing extensive material aid to, totalitarianism! Such amazing insight, your Marxist history professors would be proud.
They got a huge tax break instead of an all-but-guaranteed tax hike.
Yeah, actually not. Clinton's plan contained significant cost reductions for people making under $50K/yr. Under trump, we got tax cuts for millionaires and tax bills for the middle class.
Unemployment is way down.
Not for rural whites. In fact, its still so bad for them that Michigan republicans are trying to exempt them from their draconian medicaid work requirements.
Also, those people at that Carrier plant that he "saved?" Yeah, they got fucked.
The stock market is way up.
(A) Doesn't mean squat for majority of people because they don't own stocks.
(B) Rate of growth in the stock market is slower than it was under Obama.
(C) China has stopped buying soybeans. Not just tariffs, full stop, buying em from somewhere else. China is the #2 largest market for US soy and soy is the #2 US crop export.
Denuclearization, peace, and potential reunification in Korea,
Not anything to do with trump. The sanctions only resulted in a ~20% increase in black market currency exchange, showing that it wasn't a big deal for a country that survived the great faminine of the 90s on nothing but Juche. Moon Jae-in is leading trump around by the nose. Though I guess you could say the fact that trump is so easily played by Moon is a point in trump's favor. So sure, promise that gloryhound a nobel prize if that's what it takes to keep him from screwing up everybody else's work.
Tons of sex cults and human trafficking rings have been broken up.
Ah, so now you reveal yourself as one of those RWNJ dumbasses. In fact, its the nothing of the kind. If anything, they've been cracking down on easy targets - adult sex-workers, not trafficking victims. Meanwhile Trump knowingly endorsed an actual pedophile.
Corrupt leaders and former leaders of many countries are actually being brought to justice.
Yeah. Putin. Duterte. Netanyahu MBS They've all been locked up!!! Yay!
The wall is being built.
Lol. He couldn't even get his own republican party to pay for it. Much less mexico.
Next year there will be no unconstitutional personal mandate for health insurance.
Yay! That's already working out so great for republicans.
Never mind how he totally fucked rural whites with empty promises about the opioid epidemic.
Yes; conferences are just as much about networking opportunities as they are about consuming presentations, if not moreso. If they weren't, then the format would have been replaced with YouTube channels by now.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Since Bush. This all started with 9/11.
People in general are willing to put up with a lot to gain something. It doesn't really matter where it started, what matters is where it reaches the tipping point.
The TSA has been hassling people since fairly early in the Bush administration. I was hoping Obama would rein it in, but he made it worse. This is a shining example of bipartisan stupidity.
Or maybe the agent problem? We'd all be better off with less intrusive screenings, but the official who makes that policy is politically dead with the first disaster, even if the tighter screenings wouldn't have caught it.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Strange...I remember plenty of kicking and screaming about certain past Presidents. Moreover, Trump surpasses every previous President in some negative ways.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
We already got denuclearization and peace from when Jimmy Carter went over there. You may have noticed that it didn't actually stick, but there's no reason to think Trump's initiative is going to stick either. Right-wingers were happy predicting that Carter's deal wasn't going to hold, and now right-wingers seem happy predicting that North Korea really actually means it this time. I find this a lot more amusing than all the other lies in your post.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
The US people adopted the Statue of Liberty and the poem as its own for a long, long time. The gift was truly internalized.
The US entered WWII to stop totalitarianism. Unfortunately, after the fall of France, Eastern Europe was going to be under foreign totalitarian rule, and the only question was who would rule. Most of Western Europe was freed of totalitarianism, and Eastern Europe at least got gentler rule from the Soviet Union than from Hitler.
I'm not saying anything good about Stalin and Soviet Communism, but Hitler and the Nazis were even worse. The German Army accomplished the extremely impressive feat of making Stalin look relatively good to the Soviet people.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Give it a break kiddies. Trump won. Fair and square. Get the fuck over it.
FWIW I've visited the U.S.A. twice during the Trump administration. In both cases U.S. officials confirmed my identity and citizenship through my passport, confirmed that I was legit in their computer, asked me a couple of questions about my planned activities in the U.S., "Have a good trip!", off I went.
The Customs dude at Blaine, Washington asked "Idaho? I thought everybody was going to Oregon for that?" when I went to see the eclipse last August. Is this the sort of customs/border/immigration nightmare people are talking about?
...laura
That quote seems to be popping up a lot lately. I wonder why...
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Bzzzt! I'm sorry, but that's incorrect.
Imagine a universe where we're both correct. They way I read it, the first travel ban was never meant to include LPRs, but they were detained by overzealous CBP agents. The administration subsequently clarified the order, as per my original link.
And we both made typos, this was in 2017, not 2018.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Neither have I, but a google search shows a number of statements like this one from the YC: "I went to Collision (Las Vegas) last year, and it was a waste of time and money. Same startups, same VCs, same bloggers, etc, repeating the same stuff they said in a similar conference the week before i.e. loads of words are spoken, but no real content. Add to that the junk food they served, no seating ..."
Some say it's a scam: http://anothersb.blogspot.com/...
So, good riddance.
What does it have to do with anything? It points out the triviality of the non-diverse neighborhood argument, you twit. If blacks vote Democrat then obviously less diverse neighborhoods are going to vote Republican and therefore vote for Trump. This isn't exactly complicated. I'm sorry if you thought it was such a big important point that you couldn't understand an obvious refutation.
Churchill said about the Soviet Union being invaded:
"If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
So yeah, lesser evil.
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
He's not evil he's just fucking stupid and makes america a joke, but yeah, keep on keeping on.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
we arent talking medical treatment, lets try NOT moving the goal posts??
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
no new research?? any other countries landing rockets after flying them???
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Yes, please remove your thugs and stop using European bases for your stupid wars in the Middle East.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Reading comprehension fail?
You don't really understand what virtue SIGNALING is, do you?
Virtue: fine. Good, in fact.
Virtue signaling: the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue. It's shallow and reprehensible, particularly when it's used passive-aggressively.
-Styopa
Canada has the best 21-days summer of every country in the world.
Summer, LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLugggury (with 3 g's).Come to Scotland where summer is our favourite day of the year.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
It looks like it's hard to visit Iran from several countries (US, UK, Isreal) unless in a group or approved business as well.
Isreal? Are you sure you're not confusing them with their neighbour, Isfake.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Go to Canada. Don't come back. We don't need you.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Most of those are software engineers.
Actual physical sciences engineers are a completely different breed.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Perhaps that is true. However, there is also the issue that visas in general are harder to get even if you're not on the travel ban. I am an American, living in France and I know that some of my colleagues do not want to travel to the US (for business or pleasure) due to the hassle. This has to be reducing the number of people who want to visit for any reason. This type of feedback probably gets back to the people who run conferences and may have an effect on where they choose to hold them.
I know from personal my own travels that entering the US (even as an American) is a worse experience than entering France. The American border control just seems hostile - the way they question people, etc. I always feel unwelcome when returning despite their big signs saying "Welcome to the US". When entering France they just glance at the passport, stamp it and let you through (I'm sure they already pre-screened me somehow). Note that the hostility also exists when entering the UK- perhaps it is a general Anglo-Saxon problem.
Aside from valid VISA / Passport, the Canada customs would randomly check your luggage if they felt you were a smuggler. And that depends on your departure country.
We Canadians are welcoming. We are not so stressed out with politically generated fear, politically encouraged racism, or politically discriminating against certain religions. I sincerely believe that if the USA elected a different president and vice president, that the country I knew would again be the kind, welcoming, tolerant and trusting. So, Americans, do something about it.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
"we will be saying "fuck Europe" and be withdrawing our free troops"
Because we attend your conferences less frequently?
Wow. That's pretty sore.
sudo ergo sum
It's only not a refutation if there's no such thing as math. Otherwise, it is. Take your pick. (Although it would have been better if I had said "lean Republican in proportion to their non-diversity") If you have a set of Ds and a set of Rs mixed together, and from that and you select a set with more Rs, shockingly you get more Rs. If you can find a way to dispute that, let me know.
No, it doesn't presume white people don't vote democrat. (Here's a hint for you -- assuming the other person is making silly assumptions doesn't lead to good argumentation on your part.) It says that when you remove 12% of a population that vote 95% D from a population that is split pretty much 50/50 D/R, you are going to be left with a significantly R-leaning group. Get it now?
"Don't blame Trump, instead you should blame Obama for something that started during the Bush administration."
That's some pretty twisted logic, but Obama has to be held accountable somehow. Right? He's not going to pillory himself.
Even rational non-Trump supporters know the reason. The list was made of countries having poor traveler vetting process. The list was made during the Obama administration. participation in 9/11 not the critera
It's more the unremitting, unceasing hostility at the country that brought you 75 uninterrupted years of peace, victory in WWII, victory in the Cold War, and a cool $150 billion in profit each year from trade with America.
Most of the Americans who have chips on their shoulders are just tired. They're tired of their country being the butt of every dumb joke for the last half century. They're tired of every comment about their country being that it's a vile racist shithole. They're tired of the entire world looking down on their country, regardless of whether they've ever actually seen it. They're tired of every positive aspect of America being downplayed or overlooked for the past fifty years. If we have to pay to have allies, then fuck them.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Look:
* We used to like visiting America
* The reasons for wanting to go are still there
* You changed some things that made the process of actually getting there a lot less appealing
* This has consequences for businesses that want to attract foreign visitors
* Someone had the gall to point this out to you
Deal with it.
sudo ergo sum
I missed summer last year. I was in the shower.
(Stolen from Flanders & Swann.)
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
"better" is a value judgement - there is no possibility of a "right" or "wrong" answer.
I've worked from the sands of the Arabian desert at +50degC to winter Canada (only -20degC), and played in Siberia at -30degC. I've seen partial solar eclipses (while at work) within 2degrees of the Equator, and I've worked 36 hour shifts under the Siberian midnight sun (63.7 degN). Weather is something I can choose. I prefer cooler weather to hotter weather. You need to pay me to go anywhere that is likely to be above 30degC.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
The Canadians are employing Swedes (or Norwegians or Danes) as border guards? Good move!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"