Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
6 hours ago, bolverk said:

Noted conservative David Brooks calling for a revolution (basically):

What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.

In the beginning there was agony. Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.

But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short.

Trumpism is threatening all of that. It is primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice.

So far, we have treated the various assaults of President Trump and the acolytes in his administration as a series of different attacks. In one lane they are going after law firms. In another they savaged U.S.A.I.D. In another they’re attacking our universities. On yet another front they’re undermining NATO and on another they’re upending global trade.

But that’s the wrong way to think about it. These are not separate battles. This is a single effort to undo the parts of the civilizational order that might restrain Trump’s acquisition of power. And it will take a concerted response to beat it back.

So far, each sector Trump has assaulted has responded independently — the law firms seek to protect themselves, the universities, separately, try to do the same. Yes, a group of firms banded together in support of the firm Perkins Coie, but in other cases it’s individual law firms trying to secure their separate peace with Trump. Yes, Harvard eventually drew a line in the sand, but Columbia cut a deal. This is a disastrous strategy that ensures that Trump will trample on one victim after another. He divides and conquers.

Slowly, many of us are realizing that we need to band together. But even these efforts are insular and fragmented. Several members of the Big Ten conference are working on forming an alliance to defend academic freedom. Good. But that would be 18 schools out of roughly 4,000 degree-granting American colleges and universities.

So far, the only real hint of something larger — a mass countermovement — has been the rallies led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But this too is an ineffective way to respond to Trump; those partisan rallies make this fight seem like a normal contest between Democrats and Republicans.

What is happening now is not normal politics. We’re seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican.

It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

Peoples throughout history have done exactly this when confronted by an authoritarian assault. In their book, “Why Civil Resistance Works,” Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan looked at hundreds of nonviolent uprisings. These movements used many different tools at their disposal — lawsuits, mass rallies, strikes, work slowdowns, boycotts and other forms of noncooperation and resistance.

These movements began small and built up. They developed clear messages that appealed to a variety of groups. They shifted the narrative so the authoritarians were no longer on permanent offense. Sometimes they used nonviolent means to provoke the regime into taking violent action, which shocks the nation, undercuts the regime’s authority and further strengthens the movement. (Think of the civil rights movement at Selma.) Right now, Trumpism is dividing civil society; if done right, the civic uprising can begin to divide the forces of Trumpism.

Chenoweth and Stephan emphasize that this takes coordination. There doesn’t always have to be one charismatic leader, but there does have to be one backbone organization, one coordinating body that does the work of coalition building.

In his book “Upheaval,” Jared Diamond looked at countries that endured crises and recovered. He points out that the nations that recover don’t catastrophize — they don’t say everything is screwed up and we need to burn it all down. They take a careful inventory of what is working well and what is working poorly. Leaders assume responsibility for their own share of society’s problems.

This struck me as essential advice for Americans today. We live in a country with catastrophically low levels of institutional trust. University presidents, big law firms, media organizations and corporate executives face a wall of skepticism and cynicism. If they are going to participate in a mass civic uprising against Trump, they have to show the rest of the country that they understand the establishment sins that gave rise to Trump in the first place. They have to show that they are democratically seeking to reform their institutions. This is not just defending the establishment; it’s moving somewhere new. [NOTE: This is a point that Buttigieg has been making in the last couple of weeks. There's no rebuilding what will have been lost if/once this is all over. We're going to have to build something new to replace some of the shit that kinda didn't work anymore for everyone.]

Let’s take the universities. I’ve been privileged to teach at American universities off and on for nearly 30 years and I get to visit a dozen or two others every year. These are the crown jewels of American life. They are hubs of scientific and entrepreneurial innovation. In a million ways, the scholars at universities help us understand ourselves and our world.

I have seen it over and over: A kid comes on campus as a freshman, inquisitive but unformed. By senior year, there is something impressive about her. She is awakened, cultured, a critical thinker. The universities have performed their magic once again.

People flock from all over the world to admire our universities.

But like all institutions, they have their flaws. Many have allowed themselves to become shrouded in a stifling progressivism that tells half the country: Your voices don’t matter. Through admissions policies that favor rich kids, the elite universities have contributed to a diploma divide. If the same affluent families come out on top generation after generation, then no one should be surprised if the losers flip over the table.

In other words, a civic uprising has to have a short-term vision and a long-term vision. Short term: Stop Trump. Foil his efforts. Pile on the lawsuits. Turn some of his followers against him. The second is a long-term vision of a fairer society that is not just hard on Trump, but hard on the causes of Trumpism — one that offers a positive vision. Whether it’s the universities, the immigration system or the global economy, we can’t go back to the status quo that prevailed when Trump first rode down the escalator.

I’m really not a movement guy. I don’t naturally march in demonstrations or attend rallies that I’m not covering as a journalist. But this is what America needs right now. Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Deport that Canadian 

Posted
Fascism has had its place within the American conservative movement for damn near 100 years. It took them a few generations to fully take over the GOP, but Trump's rise put them over the top.
  1. 1930s: America First movement, Charles Lindbergh, Father Coughlin, paleo-conservatives.
  2. 1950s: Red Scare, McCarthyism.
  3. 1960s-1980s: Realignment of the parties with Southern segregationists leaving the Party, with anti-abortion Evangelicals tagging along (often one in the same); Nixon's corruption and the start of the War on Drugs; pissed off Vietnam Vets forming the backbone of the modern gun movement, NRA, Soldier of Fortune magazine; conservative think tanks established; Ronnie Raygun.
  4. 1990s-2000s: Pat Buchanan's xenophobia (anti-immigrant, Islamophobia) and economic nationalism, 9-11 Freedumb Fries bullshit got added to the mix; Libaugh and FOX News.
  5. 2010-present: Trumpism (a true authoritarian, strong "business man" finally discovered to pick up the mantle); aided by social media.
It's certainly been a progression. Planned or not. This is my interpretation and summary of how we got to this point.
 
Edit: I should've started with the 1920s with its anti-immigrant movement and the rise of the KKK as a national movement. And, of course, a lot of that shit just goes back to the Civil War/Reconstruction and Jewish, Italian, and Eastern European immigration during the Gilded Age.
There's a singular ideological tent pole holding the whole thing up.

You also forgot that George Wallace got 15% of the vote in 1968.
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
4 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Fun to look up burner phones before going to Europe this summer. 🦅🇺🇸🗽

        9r93sv.jpg

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted

the time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
On 4/16/2025 at 8:40 PM, Thatguy said:

 

 

Welcome to what it feels like to be black.

Being Latino doesn't feel much better either. Especially in Texas. 

People have always been either confused or upset that I've never been patriotic and since childhood have had a disdain for the US. I tell them try living a life where you're automatically looked at as a criminal or undesirable, an outsider, on the very land in which you were born. Then you'd understand what it's like to have no home. No place you truly belong. No place where the ruling establishment isn't against you from day 1. 

While they'll never know what that's like, many Americans are just now finding out what it's like to have the establishment against you at all. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 2
Posted

Holy shit, I'm going to Buenos Aires in two weeks.

I hope they do search my phone and find all of my online words.  I'll tell that fat chunk of shit to his face if he'll grant me an audience.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Posted
4 hours ago, C-Man said:

Absofuckinglutely. Once the "real" adults get back into power -- if they ever do -- they need to 100% go scorched earth on tying up all the little carve-outs and what-nots that Trump/MAGA have exploited to do the horrific things that it's done. We have to rid our system of all the loopholes that a bad actor can exploit because we've finally learned after nearly 250 years that it is possible to elect a bad actor to POTUS. (Oh, and Steven Miller will be made the caboose on a lengthy MAGA human centipede.)

It would take either a complete or partial scrapping of the Constitution, and definitely a scrapping of the "first past the post" system. The whole thing would need to be reworked to limit a political party having the ability to go rogue and tear down the system. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
This is happening in Frisco tomorrow.
IMG_3090.thumb.png.a0d6089751b75e369a2aef1717e99a6f.png

Literally nobody gets confined to PRISON while waiting for their trial. They sometimes remain in jail, but not prison. Not that I give a shit, but people yelling with such an attitude while getting basic shit wrong just gets me. That and the whole idea of this group of course.
  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

pretext to let the Orcs have their way with Ukraine…bc you damn well already know who he’s going to blame for  negotiating in bad faith. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Fun to look up burner phones before going to Europe this summer. 🦅🇺🇸🗽
 

 

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
Just now, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 


image.jpeg.8a8f3017fdbd5e7505eee2b7f6693584.jpeg

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
6 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 

I've always been prepared to do that.  I do not enable any biometrics.  I will not give my passcode, as doing so would allow access to my email and other portals through which I have client communications and materials.  If they say "if you don't allow us access, we'll just seize your phone," I'll say "cool, have it."  Because 1) I can go buy a new one for $1k, 2) unless they have REALLY good reason to access my phone (and they really won't), it's not worth the cost and time to try to break into it, and 3) I'll send a nice piece of correspondence to CBP and the DOJ before the day is out informing them that they seized a device that has attorney-client privileged material on it, and as the know, that requires them to take certain steps to insure that any access they obtain does not intrude on the privilege.

And then I'll go buy a new phone.

Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I never understood the animosity between black folks and latinos. If you are a brown latino you are dealing with the same struggle as black folks, yet there is so much hatred between the two communities. My lawn guy is from Guatemala. Hard working dude just trying to make it. His truck has broken down in our neighborhood twice and I let him keep it here. I took him to the Guatemala Consulate and even sat in the car with his two kids while he went in with his wife. He then took me out to eat and even gave me a keychain that I still have on my keys. I throw him any work I can give him. He even built my fence after the last hurricane last year.

I want to put a positive memory with a black face. That way when he is in his community and someone says something out of pocket about black people he will chime and talk about how he knows a guy that is nothing like those stereotypes. Our two communities need to band together, both immigrants black and brown, and people born here black and brown. It seems that latinos are constantly aspiring to be accepted by white people and need to understand what we already know. No matter how many oxford shirts and grey slacks you buy you will still be brown.

Unfortunately, in this accurate statement, "white" and "colored" are interchangeable with variations of brown, black and yellow, and probably some other immutable characteristics, and ethnic labels.

“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.”

Edited by TwiceHorn
  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Posted
21 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Unfortunately, in this accurate statement, "white" and "colored" are interchangeable with variations of brown, black and yellow, and probably some other immutable characteristics, and ethnic labels.

“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.”

LBJ was right about a lot of shit.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 

Small government at work.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Firemans4Horn said:


 

image.gif.380f5f5cb0ebd90f3217c6d4b07ba7cf.gif

I almost think every threat is just a veiled bribe--pay me and nothing will happen to you.  If you don't, then research funding, international student funding and other financial avenues will dry up.  I just see everything he does through the lens of a mobster.  It's either that or he's just trying to destroy the US.  Nothing he's doing makes business sense except if it's self serving.  

  • Hook 'Em 5
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

brainwashing and cults are real, that's how. there isn't much to understand here

But these people went looking for something that reflected and gave credence to their fucked up views. They were willfully manipulated, whereas the younger generation growing up exposed to an onslaught of marketing and manipulation on a near monopoly of news outlets, is a different beast.  With the dumbing down of institutions and society through censorship, the youth are going to have to scrap for independent, intelligent thought.  Usually, that's through research, but that's work and kids just wanna have a good time and be young.  Then again, the best way to get the youth to rebel is to tell them the adults want them to do it.  Anybody that actually reads the Bible and attends church, can see the disconnect between religion and the cult.    

Edited by Mdhorn
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
5 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 

 

shes still going to send me tit pics ?

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted
10 hours ago, C-Man said:

... and Steven Miller will be made the caboose on a lengthy MAGA human centipede.)

I don't think he'd be averse to that. In fact, there's a strong likelihood that's probably his thing.  Part of why we're here is because a bunch of self loathing closeted fuck sticks didn't have the courage to own up to their libidos.  The only rule should've been keep it between consenting adults.   

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Posted
39 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:

I almost think every threat is just a veiled bribe--pay me and nothing will happen to you.  If you don't, then research funding, international student funding and other financial avenues will dry up.  I just see everything he does through the lens of a mobster.  It's either that or he's just trying to destroy the US.  Nothing he's doing makes business sense except if it's self serving.  

image.gif.ab241bebbf005876e94e6fceddfc1ec1.gif

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Posted

I’m moving back to Austin from Singapore next month. I am getting more and more concerned about going through customs. I’m entering via San Francisco, so maybe that will be a good thing, but it’s weighing on my mind.

Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

image.gif.ab241bebbf005876e94e6fceddfc1ec1.gif

I thought the breaking point for some was messing with people's online porn, but then vpn's interfered with that equation.  It may still wake people up, however, when the Godtards go after pulling the plug on porn, so we'll see.  In the meantime, I'm just going to rewatch the Bellflower again and wonder wtf.  

EDIT: I'm surprised in all seriousness, that when they went after their unemployment, ss, and other perceived fraudulent entitlements, people'd wake up, but so far, no dice.

Edited by Mdhorn
Posted
21 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

I’m moving back to Austin from Singapore next month. I am getting more and more concerned about going through customs. I’m entering via San Francisco, so maybe that will be a good thing, but it’s weighing on my mind.

but Why Gif - Get the Best GIFs on GIFSEC

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 3
Posted
1 hour ago, TexPx said:


There is not a Wakefield High School in Frisco. Not sure about Friso.

Wakeland High School is in Frisco.

Wakefield must be in Friso. 

Posted
8 hours ago, mchookem said:

the time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.

Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted

I’m traveling back to America on Tuesday from Europe so I’ll see what happens with my phone.

I should probably delete the dick pics beforehand… you know, just in case 

  • Like 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Pancho said:

I’m traveling back to America on Tuesday from Europe so I’ll see what happens with my phone.

I should probably delete the dick pics beforehand… you know, just in case 

Make it your Lock Screen instead. 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 3
  • Drool 3
Posted
8 hours ago, TexPx said:


There is not a Wakefield High School in Frisco. Not sure about Friso.

It’s up in the holler across from Carter HS, they’d be a feudin’ for decades. 

Posted
17 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

Kid's spending tons of time trying to justify it, when all he had to say was that he made a mistake. But just like the rest of em, he has to double down. 

Tom Herman would like to have a word.

Posted
5 hours ago, Pancho said:

I’m traveling back to America on Tuesday from Europe so I’ll see what happens with my phone.

I should probably delete the dick pics beforehand… you know, just in case 

Wear your Blacks for Trump tshirt, super-unironically.

Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Tom Herman would like to have a word.

God, looking back with what we have now, what the fuck were we thinking hiring that no talent assclown?  At least with Strong I could see what the initial thought might have been. Herman was a fucking immature frat douche from the beginning. He has no business anywhere near a head coaching job for a blue blood program. 
 

Sorry for the derail. Go on with the chlorophyll. 

Edited by Biff Tannen
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
4 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

God, looking back with what we have now, what the fuck were we thinking hiring that no talent assclown?  At least with Strong I could see what the initial thought might have been. Herman was a fucking immature frat douche from the beginning. He has no business anywhere near a head coaching job for a blue blood program. 
 

Sorry for the derail. Go on with the chlorophyll. 

We talkin' plants now?

  • Haha 1
Posted
I almost think every threat is just a veiled bribe--pay me and nothing will happen to you.  If you don't, then research funding, international student funding and other financial avenues will dry up.  I just see everything he does through the lens of a mobster.  It's either that or he's just trying to destroy the US.  Nothing he's doing makes business sense except if it's self serving.  

This. When you realize he’s just a mobster trained in shakedowns by a mobster lawyer, it’s very clear that everything he does is a mob style shakedown in one form or another.
Posted
I’m moving back to Austin from Singapore next month. I am getting more and more concerned about going through customs. I’m entering via San Francisco, so maybe that will be a good thing, but it’s weighing on my mind.

Truly depends on if you are white or not.

My wife (not white) got pulled aside on the way back from a girls trip out of the country. She watched a couple behind (dude white, wife Asian) got stopped, but Whitey hubby yucked it up with the ICE officer and they got out more quickly. Not saying I blame hubby, I’d have done the same thing to work the system.

But just realize that this discrimination, while it always existed. is now being actively promoted by the government and lauded on top of it.
Posted
15 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

I did this just this morning for my wife.

She's going out of the country in early May on a girls trip.   I took an old iPhone to ATT, got a new number and the international plan for a month, created her a new Apple ID just for this single phone, installed no social media apps, only put on the esssential contacts and only the apps necessary for the trip.   She's paranoid about having to hand over her phone when she re-enters the country, so I set up a phone she can just hand over and never look back.

 

 

thanks for posting this.  i’ll now be doing exactly this for my stepson who’s headed to S. Korea for study abroad in late June.   

Posted
6 hours ago, Pancho said:

I’m traveling back to America on Tuesday from Europe so I’ll see what happens with my phone.

I should probably delete the dick pics beforehand… you know, just in case 

 

3 hours ago, B00M said:

Make it your Lock Screen instead. 

 

Make sure and take one completely vertical so they have to give it a good stroke when they swipe up to unlock it.

  • Haha 1
Posted
33 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:


Truly depends on if you are white or not.

My wife (not white) got pulled aside on the way back from a girls trip out of the country. She watched a couple behind (dude white, wife Asian) got stopped, but Whitey hubby yucked it up with the ICE officer and they got out more quickly. Not saying I blame hubby, I’d have done the same thing to work the system.

But just realize that this discrimination, while it always existed. is now being actively promoted by the government and lauded on top of it.

If there was a deep state, it was racism. 



×
×
  • Create New...