Why not? I was talking with a Syrian refugee the other day (he arrived here in mid December) helping him furnish his new place with donations. He was a very nice guy, I'd have no problem with him living in our house.

The refugees are, by and large, good people who have been through some awful shit.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I don't think you're any more or less likely to get a shitty house guest from a shit hole country than from, say Norway.

I actually think it's strange to think if you took in someone from say Haiti or whatever constitutes a shit hole of a country, that you'd expect that person to be less than desirable for some reason.

ummm, no one on this thread is talking about it being racist to refer to the shithole country as a shithole.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I don't think it's necessarily racist. I don't know if President Trump is racist or not, but favoring immigrants from a wealthy industrialized Western country over those from a poorly educated poverty stricken country mired in tribal war isn't necessarily racist. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with race.

Whatever you think of Pres Trump's immigration ideas, he's been fairly consistent in saying that he wants to allow immigrants who don't pose a security threat and who contribute to our economy. It's not a stretch to believe that he thinks poor uneducated immigrants from countries that are hotbeds of terrorist training and tribal and ethnic wars might not fit those requirements.

Doesn't mean he thinks blacks are inferior to whites, which, since we all seem to have forgotten, is closer to what "racism" actually is.

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

When all my liberal elite, bleeding heart, currently screaming racism, liberal friends start Instagramming vacation pictures of their trips to Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, etc. we can begin to discuss Trump's statement as racist. There is a reason people don't vacation there, they are shitholes. It is a fact. So by visiting nearby countries (i.e., the DR, St. Lucia, countries in Africa that have good safaris) but not others, they are either as racist as they say the President is, or they once again can't handle a true statement.

He is doing something about it. He is proudly wearing his BLM button.

And that's problem #1.
People from shithole countries coming here is the whole point of America.

Sure, some of my ancestors were rich Brits who came here 400 years ago, but most of them came here when their home countries could be described as shitholes. Ireland in the 1840s? 15% of the people starved to death. Hesse and Westphalia in the 1840s and 50s? All the wars of German unification weren't pretty either.

I think one of the points people are making is just because they are shitholes the President of the United States doesn't need to actually say that. It would be like the popular kid at the playground standing up and saying "Hey Everyone!!! See that kid over there? They are really ugly". They may be ugly but do you NEED to say that? It isn't going to help anyone.

And there will always be people who are overly offended and jump to calling people racists just becasue they don't like what some said.

What is racist about classifying a country as a shithole?

Is it what I want my President to be saying, whether behind closed doors or not? No, he's an embarrassment and this seems to happen daily. But this idea that it's RACIST to call a country a shithole? Give me a break, people are trying to turn everything done by a Republican - and especially by this President - as a racist act and it's ridiculous.

I went to India for work two years ago, and almost everyone I told reacted with some version of 'gross I'd never want to go there'. And guess what? Most of it WAS gross, there were beautiful parts and some real nice, modern hotels and business centers but outside the very newest buildings the rest I saw was a shithole...in fact I saw a few people literally shitting in fields during my daily commute. I couldn't drink the water or eat any food outside of modern restaurants or my hotel, there were thousands and thousands of people living in slums all around the city I stayed in, I saw hundreds of scared, emaciated dogs roaming the streets uncared for, and during the time I was there I visited a few homes of people I worked with--IT professionals who make very good money in India--and I couldn't believe how they lived: no refrigerators, walls and floors crumbling, windows cracked or missing, almost no furniture...and I saw a 'good', modern part of the country. I loved it, loved the people, and in talking about the country with people I'd never have called it a shithole because there's a better way to present it, BUT it is a shithole. So is Haiti. How is that RACIST?

EDIT: and now I'm seeing it's more about not wanting the PEOPLE from those shithole countries. I can understand why that's different. I do think there should be a merit based system and we should be looking at needs in this country when accepting immigrants, people with real talent and drive, coming here for opportunity to do better and not just to escape poverty.

Yeah, I'm not convinced he meant it in a racist way; I'm just saying I don't think that it takes "making a pretzel out of logic" to reach the conclusion that he may have, especially given some of his past comments.

---

___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Yeah, that doesn't smell good. The seeds of a shithole lie in the culture. We actually want people who do not want to participate in that culture and make their lives better. Why would we want people who want to leave an awesome place like Norway?

LOL! My bad. It must be that living in Cary (Containment for Relocated Yankees), otherwise known as Whitelandia, for the last 15+ years has skewed my view.

BTW, technically, I'm not from "the North", I moved here from New Mexico.

-
I think of Trump as the Estelle Getty character on Golden Girls; largely without the thought filter that most of us (and pretty much every politician) has. Whether it's nature or nurture that got him here makes little difference, but it's destined to keep his time in office controversial.
Another interesting aspect of this is that he did say it behind closed doors, but it was leaked to the press. That's one of the costs of being such a dislikable douche. Kind of like everyone around Lance doing drugs like Lance, but him being the one who gets taken off at the knees, booted from sanctioned racing, results stripped, etc. One reason he got the bigger hammer was because he was such an incredible ass to so many. So it is with Trump.

Maybe Trump is saying the United States should exclude immigrants from shithole countries in Africa by using a point system like Canada
http://canadaimmigrants.com/...source-country-2015/

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Why do you guess that?

I must have missed the "and you will never ever change" part.

My liberal elite, bleeding heart physician cousin is currently in Haiti for her annual two week volunteer medical clinic work. She's been posting photos on Facebook all week. Today's her birthday, too.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

Maybe. But I wonder who's going to look at the link to confirm that Canada is, actually excluding immigrants from shithole countries?

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I really should get better at this.

---

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

One thing I take notice of while traveling internationally to 'sh*thole' countries is that I see a lot more kids from Europe and Australia in these places. When I say kids, I mean college age without their parents.

So if I agree that I would prefer more people from Norway does that make me a racist? I think it makes sense that getting people from countries with stronger education and more likely to integrate into our culture does make sense. Now whether a bunch of folks from Norway are looking to immigrate to the US is another story entirely.

I'm not planning to move to Norway either. And yes, Trumphole is a racist.

You must be pretty disappointed then to see that the spineless orange blobfish is now denying that he ever made that "true statement".

You realize things have changed since the 1840's. We are now a country of 300 million. In the past, we had a wide open country with little population. And, those new immigrants were not entitled to any public assistance.

So, what is your preferred immigration policy -- just let anyone in? STUPID. I want an immigration policy like Switzerland, New Zealand, and most other prosperous democracies. Not everyone gets to be an American --- we should be at least somewhat selective.

But, once again, Trump is his own worst enemy [yes, he has a defective personality]. Saying ***hole when talking about other countries is not very Presidential. He should not speak in public without a teleprompter. Also, his tweets should be censored by a political decorum proctor.