2024 US Presidential Election

[Thumpalumpacus]

First and foremost; I appreciate the respectful response and I intend to respond as honestly and truthfully as I can in response.

Off the top of my head and without a short search of specific instances, no; I don't have evidence that the government of California is directly linked to Hollywood and that it influences it decision making; nor do I have evidence that other powers, such as national political parties and even international interests such as corporations and foreign governments, use the massive money they donate to "the media/Hollywood" (for lack of a more specific way of wording it) to influence politics.

I can be polite when merited. I make change in the coin tendered. Courtesy begets courtesy; rudeness brings out my inner asshole.

Okay, so no evidence. It's true that money in politics is corrupting, but I don't read you complaining about the Koch brothers, and other right-wing megadonors who have financed the talking points you're regurgitating. As FDR once said, "He may be a sonofabitch, but he's our sonofabitch," right?

Note that I'm not defending Hollywood or California's government, so please don't posit another excluded-middle fallacy.

By the way, I'm a native Texan who's lived a long time in California -- Oxnard, Paso Robles, and Ventura -- so I know a little what I'm talking about. How long did you live there?

What I do know is that whenever this much power and this much money is gathered into one place only the worst of the worst are drawn to it; and that those within the media paid by those scum (both foreign and domestic) have been caught lying to me on multiple occasions about a variety of issues, both Trump related and in unrelated fields; I don't "blame" them as actors and commentators, it's their job and paycheck (and at the higher end of it, it's likewise their business at stake), but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes it hard to trust them.

You think Trump hasn't been corrupted by money? No, really? Of course Hollywood spins, as do many but not all mass-media outlets. But you here are acting like Trump has brought truth down from the mountaintop on tone tablets, and that is verifiably false. When you criticize Trump for his corruption and dishonesty this vigorously, I'll believe you're not biased.

I don't question Takais experiences with the camps in the least; I think it's a - bluntly - fucking disgusting part of our history and one I've been aware of for just about as long as I've been politically aware; several musicians I was big fans of growing up talked about them and brought my attention to them by probably the age of 12-15. I grew up on Star Trek and have nothing but respect for him as an actor and... probably, though I don't know him... as a person.

Rather I question that the detention facilities are comparable to the camps, and by all evidence presented I cannot see them as being so; no more so than any other checkpoint could be compared to a camp. I have worked at McAllen, Silver City and in El Paso - both in a religious and secular context - with immigrants over the last decade and yeah; there were cages and simple cot beds, but it's because of both a lack of funding and the reality that we were dealing with *large* influxes of people and needing to build stuff on the fly as it was needed.

Did they look like this?

June 2018:



Same month:



Here's one from the Inspector General of Homeland Security, later that year:



That from a Trump Administration official!

When did you work in those refugee camps?