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Have the deportations started?

I sense this is probably not gonna work out, but wanted to try to start a discussion thread about our overall politics, culture, issues, and the upcoming Trump term in good faith. If others are open to it, let's avoid the hysterics, name calling, and overly judgmental rhetoric to discuss issues and news as liberals/conservatives/none of the above, Trump or anti-Trump supporters. Maybe something good will come out of it, even if it's just in this community. I am not a Democrat. I tend to vote very heavy towards Democrats in this landscape. I hate the two party system. I have a set of personal values, and that dictates my positions, not party lines. I admit that the result of this election saddens me, but it's a relief that it was a clear and indisputable decision. The people have spoken. I think that opens the door to clear minds and introspection. I think we can all agree that we live in troubling times as a society and the future is very hazy. Can't depend on government and politicians to figure it out. It's on us. No trolling. If you have a strong position, present it. We can argue. Let's be patient with each other and not run off posters. I will genuinely listen and process and be thoughtful with replies. Join me.

What a shame.

There's really no clearer divide than some of us care less about our immediate short term gain than we do the health of society writ large, and some people can't grasp that concept whatsoever.

Best play by Cook

It’s fucked and I’m fighting every trumper at thanksgiving

So I'll pipe in here. I take a lot of issues with both sides of the table. When I get time I'm happy to elaborate, but in short I avoid submitting anything here as my politics don't fall in line with either sides platform entirely. As such, as a silent non-affliate I fear being shouted down for not being on one side or the other. That's a shitty feeling. That thinking independently about issues outside party lines, having critiques and issues with both is now hated on by both sides. It really does suck. I had opinions during and prior to election watching these threads and stood silent as I was pretty sure I'd just be shit on. I am of the opinion that largely, most US citizens are still good people. I'm of the opinion that the 2 party system truly sucks. I'm of the opinion that my ideas which falls to various sides on various topics is now the outcast. I hate that. For a little background my father immigrated from Italy where he grew up during WWII. Yeah.. seriously. I have a Jewish step father, a Mexican immigrant step mother and a mom who was pro-women and civil rights in the 60s. One married to an Italian immigrant. One who grew up dirt poor. Who's own father shit on her for not being racist. I don't think this country is broken, I think our political system is broken. I'd love to be able to engage in conversations, not team red or blue matching order shouting matches. But... even in typing this.. I'm sadly confident I'm going to be shit on here. Which really does suck, because I'm of the opinion that addressing the Corporate Oligarchy and other issues the US has faces requires all of us to come together, as one people, and stop shitting on folks from the other team. Don't let The Prince be the book we play in.. let IT be the book we mock but don't burn. I'm willing to try, because I'm willing to die trying.

I don’t read CR much because my career is to get democrats elected in PA and then into the nationwide elections. I will push forward. We will push forward. Trump is not the standard despite what uneducated white men and brainwashed by social media and Joe Rogan others believe. It’s my life calling and I feel like I let my state down. I’m out of fucks to give.

Can we all agree that it's absolutely ridiculous that Congresspeople can own/trade stocks while in office? WHAT THE FUCK??? I know Pelosi is a god to diehard Dems, and I can appreciate that she plays the political game very well. But how the fuck can people sit there and read articles about her buying NVIDIA stock and not find that shit 100% unacceptable. It's a huge issue within both parties. I've said for a while now that we should significantly increase the salaries of people in Congress with the caveat that they dump any stocks before taking office. Pay Senators 500k a year. Give'em a million, I don't give a shit. The increased $$$ is peanuts, and I think it's good to incentive thoughtful and ambitious people to enter government instead of just heading to the private sector. I'm good with them being very secure financially. Just eliminate their ability to be influenced or paid off by corporations and other entities. FUCK.

Coming in hot. Politically, I believe abortion should be legal with no restrictions. Simple as that. Personally, I think it would be ideal if abortion numbers decrease significantly. It has nothing to do with religion for me. It's because abortion, I assume, is a terrible thing for a person to go through, and I don't want other people to suffer physically or mentally. I do think Buttigeg was eloquent in his defense of late term abortions with a perspective that needs to be considered more often. A lot of people have already bought a crib or picked out a name. It can be devastating for a family to make that decision, but is THEIR decision. They have to live with it, not us. So how do we get abortion numbers down? I think sex education is important. Why are we pretending we can shield kids from this stuff when modern technology literally guides us to porn? It's just openly posted on Twitter at this point. If you were to type in "Mark Kelly" in the search button , there's a decent chance that if you scroll down you'll see a video of some dude name Mark fucking a girl named Kelly in the ass. It's ridiculous. I think contraception and pregnancy tests should be incredibly cheap, if not free. Happy to hear more detailed suggestions. We need to make it very easy and inexpensive for women to go to the doctor in a timely fashion. Streamline and speed up the adoption process. Properly incentivize people that will carry to term. I know there are many other things that can help, these are just some initial offerings and I'm no expert. For those that are anti-abortion due to religious beliefs, I just think that sex is literally a part of our existence and that religion is a social construct. I respect your personal beliefs and for you to live your lives in accordance, as long as you're not harming others. It's impossible to determine the circumstances and lived experience of others, let them safely make their own decision.

you bring no rational or valuable discourse to this board. Trolling is a bullshit move devoid of any worth. in the end I bet you want to be decent, I bet you want to be a good guy, yet you come here and act like a bully in highschool. Can you not control yourself? do you go home and tell your wife about how you owned the internet libs at dinner when she asked how was your day? seriously, your behavior as a grown ass man is petulant, childish, and demeaning to your self not to me.

These aren't two random African or Middle East countries having another scrap. This is an American enemy looking to expand its influence and power by invading a sovereign nation. No, we're probably not going to have a boots-on-the-ground war with Russia anytime soon, but they are our enemy, and they obviously have anti-American intentions. Severely weakening them by providing the country being invaded--and who want to resist--with old stock (while we stimulate jobs and the economy by funding new tech) is one of the better investments we've ever made.

I don't think the Cook departure impacts anything. Attrition has been baked into the plan at WR for this next cycle. Also, maybe don't drop perfect passes when you're wide fucking open and then you'll likely get more PT. A complete implosion in the final stretch of games for OU will lead to Bedenbaugh being shown the door and could be enough to persuade Fasusi to reconsider. Someone should also let him know, maybe, that there is a lot of pussy in Austin as well. I mean, don't ask Carl to do it, but you get what I'm saying. Georgia is going to try to oversign at DL because they can't handle the thought of standouts from their state going to their enemies. At the same time, there are guys who are damned good who can also look at a depth chart and others in their signing class and say "man, I like that school as much as Georgia, and I can get playing time and still go to the NFL as well". Anytime ATM gets hot, so does their access to NIL. Interest undulates with losses, though. They seem more volatile on that end than places who have focused on a foundation. The Elk clearly also sees the world as Jimbo did - you must sign all of the DTs and Edges, even if it is at the expense of everything else. Folks seem intent on believing that there are going to be a few late breaking surprises in Texas' favor for this 2025 class, mostly because it's happened in every class prior to this one. Maybe that's the case via Fasusi or something. I don't have the same POV as others for this cycle, however.

I love people like this that are beating their chest to the people next to them while all walk up the ramp to the gallows. Newsflash dumbass! We are all going to suffer his presidency EQUALLY. You didn't win shit. You lost just as much as we did the difference being you are too stupid to know it.

Good thoughts from Rolling Stone

It means taking care of your own family and close friends and fuck everyone else. Idiots wanted this, now they can reap the whirlwind.

Thanks, @InkaUtexas for tagging me. I know I’ve dipped from this thread. This might be my last post in here. In early March 2022 I was in deep southeastern Poland. So deep that it wasn’t always really Poland. I was there with the grandmas and the kids with cats in their arms and the moms trying to carry all their luggage. I caught my first case of COVID in a World Central Kitchen outpost. I really haven’t left there and every day since has brought Ukraine to me. This is true: Ukraine is heading towards a loss in this war, whether faster or slower. I did not say that Russia will win, but Ukraine is heading for a loss. That is where the road heads. Ukraine is smaller, Russia is bigger, and Putin wants Ukraine to lose more than we want it to win. It’s a math equation now. I have never been more proud of being an American than I was in March 2022 but since the about the summer of 2023, all that has been whittled away down to nothing. 2022 was the purest test of whether America wanted to be America since 1941. We failed. Many of us don’t want to be America anymore, and many of those who want to be America are not brave enough to actually do it. I don’t know who makes me angrier, except maybe myself. The Poles and the Balts and the Czechs are better Americans than we are but they just don’t have enough. Sometimes only America can be America. This has consumed my life for almost 1000 days, and it will continue to consumer it until it ends one way or another. I’ll keep at it, but I can’t look at my Ukrainian friends in the eyes anymore and I can’t write about it anymore.

From today's Atlantic. This is something I've been saying for years.

I’m gonna enjoy my tax cuts and laugh at all the stupid motherfuckers who are worse off and voted for Trump.

i think if somehow everyone could agree on what the truth is and what is fact and what is fiction, a lot of the vitriol would melt away. I dont have a solution, but i think that is a key ingredient in where we are today. We cant even agree on what is true.

I will say if Icono got denaturalized I would cackle for weeks uncontrollably

Yet we're doing nothing to prepare for ANY of that. Well, the oligarch class is. They are WAY out in front of the rest of us. They are going to make out like bandits. The rest of us? We're being played against each other, by those oligarchs. And I mean all of the oligarchs, globally. Musk, Thiel, Putin, the Adelsons, the Murdochs, all of them. A whole lot of this bullshit: Except it's not just foreigners. It's a game of pitting half of us against the other half, and yes, I damned well think that one side is MUCH more responsible for that than the other, although I freely admit to the tone-deafness from elements of the left and the ptifalls of identity politics there, among others. But I'll never get over watching half the country gleefully rush headlong into the arms of oligarchs to save them from.....the shit that oligarchs have wrought and have promised to do. So, my attitude is indeed much more neutral these days. This path is what we want. Cool. Fuck 'em all. You want sympathy from me, hard leftists who sat out because you didn't think Kamala was hard left enough on Gaza? Watch me give zero shits when Bibi carpet bombs your family into pink mist, with Trump's blessing. Lower middle class, freaking out about the same inflation that the whole world suffered? Don't come crying to me when foolish tariff policies and the devastation of the primary labor force in the food and construction industries causes inflation to spike again. Shut up and eat your $20 chicken. I'll be fine, most likely. Shit, the top percentages are probably going to do pretty well, riding the oligarch coattails and whatnot. So, we've asked for the path we're on. Let's walk it. I don't really give a fuck what happens to anyone else but me and mine. That's our new American ethos. I choose to embrace it instead of fighting it any longer. When my fellow Americans suffer because of the choices they made, I shouldn't spend an ounce of energy worrying about them, or thinking of ways to systemically make things better and working for those. I should do one thing, and one thing only: get mine. I think that's the thing we can all agree on now, right?

Fair enough, I would have figured that part is self explanatory though, if for no other reason I wouldn't ever consider paying taxes as a transaction. Not to mention I get very immediate benefits from it like roads to drive on and schools for my son to attend. But what we mean is helping out others as an act of kindness, as opposed to what's in it for us. Personally, 2016 shattered every idea I had about what this country was. I never considered America perfect, but the depths of our depravity and malice were never that exposed, and it seemed we were always working towards being better. But that went out the window in '16. Even so, I still clung to a small flicker of hope maybe it was an aberration, and Biden's win in 2020 restored probably 75% of my faith in the US. This, well, the flame is 100% out now. As I told my wife, I actually don't feel any anger or shock at all, I'm pretty serene. The truth is laid bare for all to see now, and I have completely accepted it. So if I know someone is a Trump voter, my interactions with them are going to be 100% transactional. If my Trump neighbor needs sugar, I'm not lending them any unless I get something from it. Which sounds heartless, and it is, because I'm not giving that part of myself anymore to people who don't deserve it. I feel zero guilt about this. These people have chosen to break our country. The onus is on them to put it back together again.

lol you believed that orange lump of shit

One of my big concerns about Trump America is that there are a lot of people like Johnny Sack and HellesBier who have been somewhat subdued for the past few years, but putting an asshole back in office will give them a license to resume being openly hateful. This post is a prime example. What kind of a person talks like that?

Not a novel take, but hard to get too pressed when we have Wingo/Moore, maybe an outside shot at Golden, coming back and 3 top 100 freshmen coming in. Add in the fact that we've pulled AD Mitchell, Bond and Golden in the portal in recent years. We've got plenty of players qualified to receive Quinn's 2 yard dump offs this year, he's not really needed.

It doesn't bother anyone. The mechanics of that operation are infeasible and the standard for good enough is not a single deportation that is not one of these illegals with no criminal history. The problem with people like you is you can't see the forest from the trees. No one thinks illegal immigration or immigrants are a net positive or shouldn't actively be policed better. Especially shitty people who pour in here and are committing crimes violent or not. The issue is to do it right it's a monumental task and one that is certainly going to take years to implement correctly, not because of bureaucracy, but because it is genuinely incredibly difficult to build a system and mechanism to allow for effective identification, confirmation, processing and eventual transport of these people. Doing any of it haphazardly because you want all the bad ones gone but some good ones get got is completely an unacceptable result not because I'm some soyboy liberal cuck, but because there are certain unalienable rights people have. What happens when you deport a legal immigrant who has committed no crimes? You erode the faith in the entire immigration system. America becomes a country that cannot be trusted at its word or policy. What happens when you deport a natural born citizen who has committed no crimes to a country they have no ties to except potentially their heritage? You erode the entire foundation of what it means to be an American. Citizenship becomes a circumstance of convenience and a privilege, not a fundamental birth right and an unalienable right as set forth in the Constitution of the United States.

That's what makes this so difficult.

No heart tazing necessary! A new medication they used overnight got the heart rhythm back to normal. The doctor will come by in a while to issue discharge orders so we can check out. In the meantime I just ordered breakfast. My regular cardio team will take over from here. I already had an appointment on the 18th for an echo scan & followup.

So, when asked, I describe myself as extremely liberal socially, fiscally conservative, but not a libertarian. There's plenty of money for government to provide a safe country, good roads and bridges, excellent schools, and safety nets for those who need them. And government should stay out of pretty much everything else. And literally *every single person* I talk to says something like, "Yeah, man, that's me, too." If only there were a way to have a moderate party. It would win every election. Which is why we're not allowed to have it. So, that's where we have to start, in my opinion. I have no idea how, or if it's even possible, but if there is a path to fixing this place, to any sort of unity, the first brick to lay is to get rid of the EC and the Super PAC's. I firmly believe that this country agrees on almost everything already, except for two glaring issues. And they're big ones, don't get me wrong, but if we already agree on the other 90%, there has to be a way to forge a compromise on those two so that we can come together and be represented by a Middle party that actually gets things done.

I can put forth a ton of policies, but what's the point the politicians on either side will never for for it? -Federal Voting Guidelines: States can run elections but there are certian rules on when/how absentee ballots are voted, so there is NO CONFUSION or gray area on "election theft" -Ranked Choice Voting -Districts are drawn with guidelines by computers to prevent partisan gerrymandering -Supreme Courts not being a lifetime appointment -Return Manufacturing to the US, even at a fucking loss, because of National Security Issues. We subsidize ariline failure, lets subsidize manufacturing -Teachers and Police officers should be paid extremely high salaries, becuase educating and protecting is important, and right now intelligent and ethical people do other things becuase it's barely a living wage or a thankless profession that has become populated by bullies. Have to attract talent, EVEN AT AN ECONOMIC LOSS -We need a new, fairer tax code. A fucking relatively simple one that isn't so easy for the wealthy to sidestep. That's my start. Ranked choice voting will eliminate the fucking fringe lunatics from each side who typically, currently, win their fucking primaries. FUCK PRIMARIES. You want to fix America, start fucking there.

Maybe he should go somewhere where he will catch it.

Giving money to private charity is great. Giving money to private charity and working against government involvement in societal wellbeing is moral whitewashing. Same as schools - there’s nothing wrong with private schools but they absolutely cannot accomplish what the public schools do and giving money to private schools while rooting for the dismantling of public education does not make you pro education.

I'll never understand people voting for a guy who's clearly committed crimes against the united states and plays footsy with or is in bed with one of our enemies while saying vile shit constantly. Not sure how much is stupidity vs evil, and honestly don't really care. I resent the shit out of them either way.

Hyperbole, I guess, but: A criminal is in charge of the government and he intends to dismantle the republic. Oh, and likely rob the republic, too. Truce feels too much like surrender. I'm not happy about that, but there it is.

Matching energies here. Republicans never fail to surprise me with how comfortable they are being the most annoying ones in the room. It’s interesting that you view Americans with opposing views as enemies. I have a feeling that this sense of pride might fade as soon as he starts the work, because he’ll likely go back to embarrassing both this country and Republicans on a daily basis. I’d guess your posting rate will drop by the second or third scandal.

And the irony of ironies....it's the Christians who don't care about others. Christianity is a wart on the ass of humanity. The Christian posters in this forum are proof positive. Scum.

Well ztejas sure shot his way to the top of the Stupidest Surly Posters rankings in a hurry.

Sorry. Putin is absolutely our enemy and actively wants to destabilize us (and Europe), and is making ongoing efforts to do so. Better?

DEI hire

The research shows that an increase in sex education in schools plus access to things like birth control and condoms (through things like planned parenthood and other outlets) lead to a direct decrease in abortions in America. Republicans took sex education out of schools and are going after planned parenthood because of *checks notes* abortion. So the very thing they want—less abortions—they are fighting all of the tools to lead to that because….

This. Let's write the truthful headline: "One of world's leading beneficiaries of a government's subsidies is going to be put in charge of reducing that government's spending." It's literally one of the most insane sentences ever written, yet it is the actual plan for Elon Musk. And there are tens of millions of people who think that's awesome.

Sad to see as he was supposed to be the heir apparent to Worthy. Reports this summer were he had a bad case of the drops. Two of them in games showed that to be true. One was a wide open down field pass for a TD perfectly placed right in his hands. I heard Sark mention in a presser that he needed to try to get Johntay more involved this week but I guess that wasn't good enough for Cook. Those new NIL receivers and the busting on the scene of #0 Moore gives Sark the ability to leave a 5 star with the dropsies on the sideline to work it out. One thing i like about Sark is he plays the best receivers and doesn't switch out to appease folks like Herman did. .... if you are the best available you get to play ...

Provided Trump doesn’t nationalize social issues we will watch Paxton and continue our plans to relocate based on the Texas DOT ID dispute, see what happens with the courts on that, but other than move out of state so my existence isn’t threatened further we will do like the rest and enjoy our tax cuts and build more houses and lawyer more clients. I’ve got some leads on a few opportunities that could be very lucrative, they were there anyway Trump has nothing to do with them, but distract myself by making more. thats M-F type stuff. climate change is the big one, I’m distraught over what it means for my sons, one was terribly upset yesterday. It’s hard not to be he has no ability to participate and he sees really dumb dude bros high fiving in the hallways over trumps win. This should be the single issue we all vote for but it somehow never is. other than that as I’ve said on other threads, we will do what humans should do, raise my sons to understand how powerful the algorithm is, practice putting phones down, avoid big tech social media, cook together, eat together, enjoy the outdoors more, enjoy our hobbies, find opportunities to give back and help others, we will build stronger relationships and practice gratitude until we have a shot and fighting this nonsense again.