Dental Dams for Palestine

Plus: San Francisco can't fix homelessness, future lawyers can't handle cops, and more...

It's still happening! I regret to inform that the college students are still somehow at it. But their protests are getting progressively further from the plot. Take, for example, this University of Chicago supplies list, which seems to think dental dams and plan B are needed in order to *checks notes* help the Gazans?

UChicago encampment requests Plan B, HIV tests and dental dams, per a post on the organizers' Instagram pic.twitter.com/EEbzLqraMX

— Gabby Deutch (@GSDeutch) May 2, 2024

Or the very strange pro-North Korea takes at Princeton. Or take the odd nativist signs spotted at George Washington's campus, which read "students will leave when Israelis leave" (somehow I doubt it!) and "students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes)."

Or the seemingly right-wing effort to fund a massive kegger ($500,000 raised) for the flag-defending frat bros at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the wave of frat-bros-defending-the-flag coverage from across the country.

But it's not all dental dams and Zyn pouches (bless the Gen Zs). Student journalists have played an important role in the coverage, restoring some faith that the kids do in fact know what they're doing: "A student-run radio station broadcast live as police cleared a building taken by protesters on the Columbia University campus, while other student journalists were confined to dorms and threatened with arrests," reports The Associated Press. On Dartmouth's campus, several student journalists were arrested during the course of their coverage.

And on other campuses, some police departments have shown not a hungriness to enter, but rather restraint: "Penn asked the Philadelphia Police Department [PPD] to immediately help disband the College Green encampment—and the PPD declined to do so until Penn proves that the situation is more dangerous," reports Daily Penn's news editor, Ben Binday.

Meanwhile in actual Gaza: A ceasefire agreement is still elusive, as neither Gaza nor Israel have had sufficient demands satisfied. But news broke that another hostage held by Hamas was found dead, 49-year-old Dror Or, making him the 38th hostage killed.

Turkey has stopped trading with Israel in an attempt to exert pressure on Israel to stop its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Colombia is now severing diplomatic relations, too. A United Nations report was just released saying it would take 80 years to rebuild the homes destroyed over the course of Israel's offensive. With some 370,000 homes damaged and 79,000 destroyed, and a building pace of around 1,000 per year (based on previous rates of building in the area), the amount of time needed to get the area back to a reasonable condition is quite stunning.

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Scenes from New York: Why have three-bedroom apartments all but disappeared in NYC?

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QUICK HITS

• "Thousands of immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could obtain federal health coverage later this year under a new Biden administration rule," reports The New York Times.
• A second Boeing whistleblower was just found dead. He was formerly a "quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier who raised concerns about improperly drilled holes in the fuselage of 737 Max jets," per NPR.
• Time for a finance-bro makeover? (PLEASE.)
• Competition among obesity drugs!
• "A study of a San Francisco nonprofit's $100 million effort to reduce chronic homelessness by half in five years shows the effort fell significantly short of its goal. … The Tipping Point effort guided 595 chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing. It also moved an additional 373 people, already living in supportive housing but ready for more independence, into market-rate housing through a voucher program," reports Philanthropy. 
• Read Nate Silver on "politics as self-interest" and "politics as personal identity" and how, actually, "politics as a battle of ideas" is a stunningly small category comparatively.
• Precisely:

One quality I wouldn't personally want in a lawyer is *shaken and unable to focus after witnessing the state deploy force* https://t.co/wm14RzWteu

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) May 2, 2024

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

I regret to inform that the college students are still somehow at it.

Heavy hearts all around.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Delta House!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Toga! Toga! Toga!

[Longtobefree]

We can do anything we want. We're college students!
Relive the best 7 years of your college education.

[Rob Misek]

Creating an international body for justice is easy. You just need to win a world war.

Maintaining and growing it is much more difficult. For that you have to walk the talk.

Israel is a lost cause. It has always defied UN resolutions since their creation to create their occupied apartheid terrorist state. They’ve ONLY gotten away with their atrocities by playing the perpetual victim of a holocaust card.

Now Israel is clearly the perpetrators of a holocaust and they’re being helped by other nations signatory to the UN genocide convention.

The world is watching and protesting.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Why don't you try eating a dental dam with you Wienerschnitzel and...

Fuck Off, Nazi!

[JesseAz]

Refuted.

[Sevo]

Many times, but Misek is too fucking stupid to understand.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Refuted.

[Mother's Lament]

Refuted

[B G]

Your premise now is that their original borders, as established by the UN constituted a violation of some UN resolution?

Or are you just disappointment that the FIVE Arab nations which declared war on the Jewish territory established by the UN within minutes of the announcement of its existence failed to complete the extermination that started in Europe 6 years earlier? and also failed to deliver on their promise to the "Palestinian" Muslim Arabs who left before the war with the expectation to be able to move back and reclaim not only their abandoned homes but those of their slaughtered Jewish neighbors as well?

[Rob Misek]

“Since the UNHRC's creation in 2006, it has resolved almost as many resolutions condemning Israel alone than on issues for the rest of the world combined. “

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_resolutions_concerning_Israel

[Mother's Lament]

And surprisingly, with Azerbaijan just ethnically cleansing Armenians, Boko Haram slaughtering Yoruba, China imprisoning Uighurs in concentration camps, Syria butchering Assyrians, Saudi Arabia killing all the Houthi, The DPRK enslaving North Koreans, ad nauseam, and none of them have being condemned by the UN.

And Herr Misek thinks it's totes legit.

[Rob Misek]

You’re completely full of shit.

Four UN Security Council Resolutions have been passed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan

On 22 May 2014, the Security Council’s Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee approved the addition of Boko Haram to its list of individuals and entities subject to the targeted financial sanctions and the arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2083 (2012), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

A long-awaited report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

The UN has issued over 21 resolutions against Syria

General Assembly Resolution on the situation of human rights in the DPRK adopted on 19 December 2023 (A/RES/78/218

Israel is worse than all of them.

You’re a lying waste of skin Kol Nidre boy.

[Rob Misek]

The US House passed the bullshit antisemitism bill criminalizing telling the truth about Jewish atrocities.

The bible is also illegal for saying that Jews killed Jesus.

This is the result of 76 years of funding a terrorist apartheid regime in Palestine called Israel with money, weapons and the lives of our troops.

Now the US government clearly demonstrates that its the dog being wagged by the tail of Jewish fascists.

[Truthfulness]

@Rob Misek

Refuted

[B G]

I'm not super-familiar with the New Testament, but I'm pretty sure it was the Romans who killed Jesus, and that it happened in Judea, since the it happened more than 100 years before the Romans re-named the area for the Greek Philistines as retribution for an uprising by the local (indigenous) Jewish population against the foreign occupation.

I'm still very unclear as to how the Arabs who came to the area half a millenium later, and brought Islam (and cultural erasure by building the Al Aqsa Mosque deliberately on top of the ruins of the sacked Jewish Temple in Jerusalem) with them are now the "indigenous" people of the area.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Refuted!

[Medulla Oblongata]

Forget it, he's rolling.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

We did

[TheReEncogitationer]

"Nothing is over until we decide it is!"
https://youtu.be/q7vtWB4owdE?si=Ig97O-EBCD3tNf3c
🙂
😉

[Vernon Depner]

It's the fate of progs to be eaten by their children.

[Nachtwaechter Staater]

The only question is how best to expedite this …

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

But most don't actually procreate. They steal kids from the rest of us.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I can agree with the kids at UChicago though. We should definitely ship the Gazans lots of abortifacients.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Albert Camus once said: ‘The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.’

Alas, between Bidenomics, North Carolina’s onorous auto inspection requirements, and my town’s participation in ElectriCities (where cities have a monopoly on distibuting power generated by the Duke Power monopoly,) for now, existence is the only option I have for rebellion.

I’ll have to catch ya’ll agsin in between gig-work, which I hope won’t be too long. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and break down and be able to send donations fo Reason’s better writers.

Everybody
Suavez qui peut!
Root, Hog, or Die!
Watch Your Six!
And Keep Your Powder Dry!
🙂
😉

[Fist of Etiquette]

Or the very strange pro-North Korea takes at Princeton.

Has anyone checked on how our elites are doing lately?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who else loved the Rocket Man?

[Don't look at me!]

Bernie Taupin?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

George Jetson?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Reginald Dwight?

[Ajsloss]

Shatner?

[Minadin]

Jennifer Connelly?

[TheReEncogitationer]

Cyril Connelly?
🙂
😉

[Stuck in California]

Jennifer Connelly

[Smack Daddy]

Elton john?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Werner von Braun?

[Vernon Depner]

Claire Bloom? (yeah, I know it's a reach)

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Grimes?

[TheReEncogitationer]

William Shatner? Oops! Dua Lipa?

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

[damikesc]

I must, again, wonder what exactly we are getting for the money shoveled into higher education.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Trillions in debt

[Vernon Depner]

The destruction of Western civilization.

[Sevo]

Not a lot of education.

[Jerry B.]

“students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes).”

So, apparently not a lot of education in history or geography.

[Sevo]

Like I said, not a lot of education.

[soldiermedic76]

This comes, ironically, from early 20th century anti-semites who contended the European Jews were not actually descendants of Jews from the Levant but instead Europeans who converted to Judaism. It was further bolstered by a paper that the press largely misrepresented about a decade ago that showed 80% of the mDNA of European Jews was European but yDNA was largely Middle Eastern.

[soldiermedic76]

Of course the Media misinterpreted this to mean European Jews were not actually Jewish. But what it really meant is European Jews had intermarried with Europeans and since mDNA changes slowly, compared to yDNA, it demonstrates European Jews had intermarried soon after arriving in Europe and often in the early settlement.

[B G]

Hypothetically, a lot more adults with skills and knowledge which can be put to use for the benefit of society as a whole.

In reality, it would appear that we're getting a bit of the above mixed with a lot of self-entitled ethinc/gender studies (and some slightly less useless "Liberal Arts") degrees,.

Also, a number of intermediate-level football leagues in which potential NFL players can further develop their skills and bodies to a level which wouldn't be attainable by 18 year-old HS graduates.

Finally, we're getting lawyers. A fuckton of new lawyers get unleashed on us all every single year.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Penn asked the Philadelphia Police Department [PPD] to immediately help disband the College Green encampment—and the PPD declined to do so until Penn proves that the situation is more dangerous...

Filthadepthsia po-po doesn't firebomb just any ol' neighborhood.

[Longtobefree]

No dogs to shoot, no cops.

[JesseAz]

Don't worry. If you were worried the students and agitators who have been assaulting, kidnapping, vandalizing, etc were going to be held responsible, no worries! Given a citation, a free breakfast, and never even ended up in a police station!

Laura Powell
@LauraPowellEsq
According to this report, protesters arrested at UCLA were immediately released without even setting foot inside the jail and were simply handed citations along with takeout breakfasts to enjoy with their friends.
VIDEO

https://twitter.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1786128061240598715

[HorseConch]

Good to know they learned their lessons and won't do it again.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Frank Rizzo is rolling over in his grave.

[Vernon Depner]

If there's no return fire it's just not any fun.

[soldiermedic76]

I served with a guy who had fought in the Battle of 73 Easting on a Bradley. He said at first it was kind of fun, hitting them with TOW missiles without them being aware of where the fire was coming from. But then it slowly began to dawn on you that it was more of a massacre than a fight and the fun quickly waned.

[Fist of Etiquette]

But news broke that another hostage held by Hamas was found dead, 49-year-old Dror Or, making him the 38th hostage killed.

You say hostage, our college students say colonizer.

[Quicktown Brix]

Be nice. It must have been horror for Dror Or.

[Don't look at me!]

Perhaps we should honor Dror Or.

[Vernon Depner]

But what color was he?

[Vernon Depner]

And do the protesters even know that there are dark-skinned Jews? That would have to confuse them.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

They'll need to go back Ethiopia, where they belong!

- Joint Statement by Students For Palestine and KKK

[JesseAz]

Either white or white adjacent.

[Minadin]

Sounds like my interior designer picking out ceiling paint colors.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Racist ceilings!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why have three-bedroom apartments all but disappeared in NYC?

New York couples better not be saddling the world with more than at most one new New Yorker.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

What, and give up his and her home offices?

[Vernon Depner]

The dog needs a room, too.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

IDGAF about the poor quality of life for those who choose to live in Manhattan.

The problem is they and their Democrat pols want to impose that awful way of life on the rest of us. No home ownership except for the elite, tiny cramped quarters, no privacy, no place to raise a multi child family. But everything is “walkable”! So we don’t need cars either.

GFYs

[Fist of Etiquette]

A second Boeing whistleblower was just found dead.

The Clintons are that heavily investing in Boeing? Who knew.

[Longtobefree]

https://babylonbee.com/news/boeing-sadly-announces-whistleblower-shot-self-in-back-while-falling-off-skyscraper-directly-into-wood-chipper-while-wearing-cement-shoes

[Fist of Etiquette]

Time for a finance-bro makeover?

I care not as long as they wear what they're going to wear behind a paywall.

[Don't look at me!]

They take on some freelance work from time to time.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Bitch doesn't have to take the exam, he can fail out

[Fist of Etiquette]

HOW DARE YOU BREAK UP MY ROLL.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Competition among obesity drugs!

May the best stomach lining destroyer win.

[SRG2]

The pharma equivalent of a sumo contest?

[Vernon Depner]

But seriously, we need effective treatments for obesity. Right now there's nothing medicine can do for the morbidly obese. Maybe there's nothing that can be done, but if they came up with something that works, it would sure be a money-maker.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That ever elusive quick fix.

[Vernon Depner]

Right now there's NO fix.

[Ajsloss]

Don't consume more calories than you burn off. Cheap and easy.

[Vernon Depner]

We have many decades of data showing that virtually no one who is morbidly obese succeeds with that approach.

[Sevo]

Perhaps some 'conditions' can't be fixed; life ain't fair.

[mad.casual]

False. We have many decades of data showing that people who are morbidly obese frequently choose to fail than go through it. We have eons of data showing that consuming fewer calories than you expend results in a lack of obesity.

Just because you choose to play the "What is a woman?" retard card doesn't mean everyone else is obligated to support your idiocy.

[Vernon Depner]

I’m fond of facing reality rather than clinging to fantasies that make me feel good about myself and superior to others. The FACT is that virtually no one who is morbidly obese succeeds at reaching and maintaining a healthy weight by choosing to consume fewer calories. That it is theoretically possible is irrelevant to their plight and and what to do about it.

[Ajsloss]

Calories in, calories out is science. Actual science, not the science.

[Vernon Depner]

And it's irrelevant, because virtually no one succeeds with with that approach.

[Ajsloss]

You can't NOT succeed with that approach. It is not possible to gain or maintain weight at a caloric deficit.

[Vernon Depner]

It is not possible for most morbidly obese people to voluntarily maintain a sufficient caloric deficit. We know that, so your theory is irrelevant.

[Ajsloss]

Calories are not a theory. People lacking the agency to make consumption choices would be a theory.

[JesseAz]

I will add one adjoinder… not all calories are true calories due to digestibility. They try to estimate average caloric absorption, but it doesn’t apply equally to everyone. Things like almonds are notoriously different in effective calories based on how much someone digests.

The Japanese as an example break down items like seaweed with more efficiency in their guts due to genetic biomes.

But in general the caloric rule works.

[BYODB]

One notes you make no mention of why it was determined it may not work. The answer is the same as how the individual became morbidly obese in the first place: their own agency.

Big shock that people who have a long history of bad food choices continue to make bad food choices. By choice.

Unless the individual has an underlying condition such as thyroid issues, it's a lifestyle issue in that they are choosing to overeat knowing the consequences.

No pill is going to fix that, and any pill that pretends to is going to be incredibly dangerous.

[Vernon Depner]

People lacking the agency to make consumption choices would be a theory.

No, that's been proven by experience in the real world. Yes, if you put a morbidly obese person in a cage in a lab, measured the calories required to maintain their metabolism, and provided them with a diet significantly below that in calories, they would lose weight. That has nothing to do with what actual people in the real world experience.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

"not possible"

This doesn't mean what you think it means.

[mad.casual]

No, that’s been proven by experience in the real world.

It's also been disproven. People involuntarily lose weight all the time. People voluntarily lose weight all the time. Just not at the rate you want and/or for as long as you want.

That has nothing to do with what actual people in the real world experience.

Are you saying we don't really lock people in cages or that the people we really do lock in cages aren't actually people? How compassionate of you.

[soldiermedic76]

I'll put my two cents in. It's a lot more complicated than that. There's mechanism in the body that have developed over eons to deal with periods of low caloric intake. When caloric intake drops they kick in. These mechanism are meant to store energy to sustain the body through these periods. And once calorie intake increases, even marginally, the body then tried to rebuild the stores for subsequent periods of low intake, meaning diet and exercise are less beneficial than most people understand. It's also the reason why once you begin to gain extra weight it tends to snowball. Our bodies (and all mammals) evolved to deal with periodic shortages of food, but now that we have fairly assured levels of intake, these mechanism actually make controlling your body weight much more difficult. Additionally, as with anything, some people's storage mechanism are better than others. Plus, some people's ability to mobilize storage is less functional than others.

[soldiermedic76]

And this is actually my area of expertise. Granted it is in cattle, but the underlying science is actually fairly conserved for all mammals. And animal nutrition is actually decades ahead of human nutrition.

[mad.casual]

None of which negates the laws of physics. It's Vernon Derpner being as stupid about domain issues as any "Sex is an abstract spectrum. The fact that there are male interior decorators and people with Klinefelter's syndrome means that there are more than two sexes." retard.

If you stop eating and drinking and continue to expend calories, regardless of the preservative mechanisms in place, you will die lighter and thinner than when you started.

There are people who lie to each other and themselves and say "I didn't eat anything for like a week and I didn't lose any weight." but they're lying. They may've lost muscle or fat and gained water weight but if they went a week eating less food and drinking the same or less water than the weeks prior and came back weighing the same or more, they're lying about how much they ate and drank.

This is a big part of the reason why human nutrition is so far behind animal nutrition. Because when the cattle show up underfed and bloated with water, the cow doesn't say "I'm just big boned." and you all just look at each other and nod to avoid hurting the cow's feelings. You butcher the animal, see that it was underfed and full of water and call people like Vernon out for peddling their bullshit. If a cow goes down in the pasture without any visible sign of crippling infirmity you don't just say "Go ahead and rest there for a couple of days until you feel like moving again." with Vernon saying "See, some people *can't* increase their calorie expenditure." you treat it and/or force it back to its feet as expediently as possible to keep it from dying from it's own lethargy.

I'm absolutely with you on the underlying biochemistry not being simple and that a deficit of one calorie a day for 10 yrs. does not correspond to one pound of fat. I sat through the same or similar classes on oxidative phosphorylation, the Krebs cycle, anaerobic respiration, insulin and hormone responses, etc. but that has fuck all to do with Vernon's retarded, "People who shovel food into their mouth and then stop lose weight, but when they go back to shoveling food in they gain the weight back. Ergo calories in calories out is false." bullshit.

[Incunabulum]

Because they don't want to not be morbidly obese more than they want to lay on the couch, watch Netflix, and scarf down Ding Dongs.

But the solution exists - that they don't want to use it doesn't change that.

[B G]

It's not entirely as simple as "want to". There's a strong current in the culture of the USA, which far too many people seem to buy into, pushing the idea that they shouldn't have to endure any significant level of hardship along the way. Also, with a lot of heavily processed foods and refined sugars, there's aspect of something like chemical "dependence" that develops at a certain point.

There's a significant portion who do want to change their circumstance, but have been led to accept that there is (or should be) some kind of "easy" fix, or at least one that won't require significant mental perseverance and possibly also significant social/emotional support (emotional isn't exactly the correct word, but since there can be factors of altering brain chemistry involved, it's close), especially in the initial phases of making a major change to something like diet. It takes something like 6-10 weeks of sustained and drastic change to break an ingrained habit (and also to bring about a change in the digestive microbiome), but not many people setting out to try to lose large amounts of weight get prepared to endure that duration, after which it gets significantly easier to maintain a healthier intake.

There's a small percentage who do also have legitimate glandular deficiencies or other medical factors contributing, but if the majority of morbidly obese people were forced to make a major change, they'd survive it with a moderate to high degree of mental discomfort for at least the first several months, too many who try to change voluntarily have never been forced to develop a degree of will sufficient to overcome all of the hormonal and brain chemistry reactions that are happening in order to get through the initial "wall", especially if they're continuing to live in a world where there's so little difficulty involved falling into a "relapse".

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

How so? It actually takes a large amount of calories to sustain an obese body type. When your body is that big, it requires huge caloric intakes or it begins eating its fat stores. One of the reasons people get that big is because eating becomes something of a doom loop--you get fatter, so you end up feeling hungry more often, which means you eat more food, which means you get fatter, etc.

Those people on "My 600 Pound Life" didn't get that way from eating three regular sized meals a day. They got that way from shoveling high-calorie food, especially empty carbs, down their gullet all day long while rarely moving anywhere. Simply taking in fewer calories than what their body needs to sustain that weight would help contribute to the drop off by itself, but you also have to maintain a lifestyle that involves at least some exercise every day. Walking from the couch to the fridge isn't going to cut it, you actually have to keep your heart rate at an elevated level for a sustained amount of time--around 30-60 minutes is ideal, but even 15 minutes is better than nothing.

Shit, you don't even need to go to the gym or run--I do yoga every day, and it's low impact so it doesn't fuck with my knees or ankles, but I still get a good sweat on if I do 45-60 minutes. Usually it's about 20-30.

[tracerv]

Exactly. I walk and ride the exercise bike daily. Watch what I eat. It's not easy sometimes but you have to be disciplined.

[tracerv]

Bullshit.

[mad.casual]

Just what history is lacking, another attempted fix for voluntary human behavior.

[Vernon Depner]

Just what history is tragically full of—a pathological lack of compassion for others.

[Sevo]

Lemme guess: You sell violins.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I find their virtue signalling pretty hilarious.

[Sevo]

Ya know, I resent this sort of bullshit.
Your claim, absent anything like evidence, is that a certain group of people should be absolved of the requirement to take responsibility for their actions because they're fat. Which is fine by me so long as there is no requirement to so much as sympathize with those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions; that's the exact path leading to hell
By any chance are we dealing with some 400# whiny POS who keeps stuffing their face?

[mad.casual]

Just what history is tragically full of—a pathological lack of compassion for others.

I'm pretty sure you don't know what "pathological" or "compassion" means.

[Minadin]

My very obese neighbor went from 375 to 170 in about a year after being placed on an Ozempic regimen.

Of course, he's been in the hospital for the past few weeks recovering after the doctors had to take in that skin bag suit he was carrying around.

[Vernon Depner]

He will almost certainly gain the weight back.

[Sevo]

Lost >75# over the past 6 years or so, since it was obvious I was headed toward total immobility if not. Have not gained any weight since.
What do you weigh, VD? How many other aspects of your life are 'not your fault'?

[mad.casual]

How? From your oh-so-compassionate wish for him to gain it back or from your totally-not-pathological need to obfuscate that if he goes back to shoveling in calories and not working them off like he was, he'll wind up right back where he started?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A study of a San Francisco nonprofit's $100 million effort to reduce chronic homelessness by half in five years shows the effort fell significantly short of its goal.

Its stated goal.

[Zeb]

Obviously it just needs more money thrown at it. That always works.

In reality, it seems like the more money you spend on homeless programs, the more homeless you get.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Did you just finish Econ 101?

[Sevo]

"...In reality, it seems like the more money you spend on homeless programs, the more homeless you get."

Most SF city officials find this very confusing.

[sarcasmic]

The fix to homelessness is for them to create their own wealth and get a home of their own, not to take wealth from others.
Yet I don’t see anyone asking what legal barriers to the creation of wealth are keeping people homeless, nor do I see any serious efforts to address the legal barriers to inexpensive housing. Instead I see efforts to create even more legal barriers in the name of helping the very people those barriers harm.

[Don't look at me!]

Describe some of these barriers.

[sarcasmic]

Unmuted you to see if it was possible for you to make a comment without being an ass, and holy cow you did! I’m shocked! Seriously!

What are some of these barriers? Wage floors which don’t allow people without skills to work for a low wage, occupational licensing laws which don’t allow people with skills to work without government permission, housing codes that don’t allow people to build inexpensive homes, and zoning rules which don’t allow people to choose what to build on their own land.

That’s just off the top of my head.

The other dipshit is staying on mute.

[JesseAz]

Why not throw in disallow businesses to check criminal backgrounds or making it a hostile workplace to not allow them to shoot up in the bathrooms while working?

But especially ignore how giving them government subsidies and welfare makes it fairly comfortable to not work.

[Vernon Depner]

Especially in places where the weather is nice. There will never be a major homelessness problem in Minneapolis.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Regardless, there’s still a fairly decent sized one in Chicago. They tend to camp under overpasses, in rail viaducts, and forested areas for extra shelter.

[MT-Man]

Not sure if that's true. Here in this part of MT the weather is crap but the population of homeless keeps rocketing up. We've had "emergency" taxation to fund more shelters - The actual tax vote was voted down but they seemed to find a way to tax no matter what. Anyways in this rambling message it keeps growing around here and yes just like SF it coincides with more money being spent, but more likely making a bunch of Non Profit employees rich so it can't stop...

[Incunabulum]

I don't think its weather so much as 'does your city tear down encampments and drive the homeless on when they gather in too large a group'?

Because you get large groups of homeless in some pretty nasty places, weatherwise. Especially if they're not just left alone but actively supported.

[ducksalad]

It pains me to disagree sharply with a libertarian proposing free market solutions to an important problem. But you, and Ilya Somin, are just not getting it.

Maybe in a few specific cities – ones I’ve never been to – there are some special snowflake exceptions, in which a homeless person holds down a stable job and just needs a modest reduction in housing costs to get her life in order.

But in the regular real world, if you spend some time actually talking with homeless people, you instantly realize that it’s mental illness, either natural or induced through severe addiction.

It’s utterly delusional to think even for a second that if you, say, dropped rents by 50% or doubled available housing units, they all of a sudden would post escrow, sign contracts, and start paying a mortgage. Or even make rent. Some fraction of them would be incapable of signing the paperwork to be given a house for free, and if dragged to the house and dumped in it, would have trouble making their way back to it if they left.

Also, note that if the government offers decent free housing, the very first thing the government does is make rules. And even a committed libertarian realizes the housing will only remain decent if there are some rules. If you know people with severe schizophrenia, you figure out quickly they can’t follow rules or jump through the tiniest bureaucratic hoop*. Not because they’re evil, but because they literally can’t understand the rule and its consequences. And so they end up being asked to leave.

There are some legal issues, some of them genuinely difficult to answer questions:

1. The right to refuse medical treatment. This is a core liberty, how bad does a mental illness have to get before you override it?

2. Those willing to accept treatment are asked to do (for them) hard stuff like make appointments, keep the appointment, and deal with prescriptions. So they don’t take it. If you eliminated the requirement for appointments and prescriptions some of them would take their meds. But then many would overdose or take the wrong stuff.

There are also social changes that led to this: Read a novel from the early 1900s. Your spouse or adult child becomes mentally ill. It’s your cross to bear, you house them, you feed them, you care for them, you cover for them. You sacrifice. Now read an advice columnist from the 2000’s. You have a right to self-actualization! Divorce that spouse! Kick that adult kid out of the house! Not your problem!

Is this a good change? Maybe but there are consequences.

————-
*There are plenty of people who are capable of accepting free public housing and following the rules, which require jumping through some minor hoops. They generally aren’t homeless.

[JesseAz]

Agree with you. Examples abound.

https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/san-franciscos-failed-experiment-of-homeless-hotels-is-a-cautionary-tale/

Covid provided an entire experiment on granting the homeless not only housing but good and maid service and they responded by trashing rooms and assaulting employees.

[sarcasmic]

It’s utterly delusional to think even for a second that if you, say, dropped rents by 50% or doubled available housing units, they all of a sudden would post escrow, sign contracts, and start paying a mortgage. Or even make rent.

That's not quite what I'm talking about. I mean the building standards themselves raise the cost of housing. What about boarding houses where someone can just rent a room? Those have been legislated out of existence.
Basically it's illegal to live like you are poor. So if you are poor and you can't afford to live like a wealthy first worlder, then you're fucked. It's not a choice between standard and substandard housing. It's a choice between housing that's up to code or nothing at all.

[ducksalad]

OK, that’s a point I can agree with. The old $1 flophouse served a useful purpose. Guess it would be more like a $15 flophouse today. The legislators/councilmen who regulated them out of existence weren’t thinking about where the residents would go, or did some wishful thinking that they’d get better jobs and move up to at least one man – one room level of accommodations.

And back in college it was fairly common to see the 11 Indian students (and 1 nervous Pakistani on sufferance) sharing a two bedroom apartment and one car in Austin. Probably couldn’t get away with that now, some Karen would call it in.

Recently read Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London where he described being able to live on 15 pence/day without sleeping on the sidewalks.

However, note that Orwell got himself out of it, and some part of it was deliberate. I still feel that the chronic homeless, most of them, have not much in common with Orwell.

And also still have to say that Ilya Somin stuff like allowing duplexes in a single family neighborhood, or changing minimum lot sizes, isn't going to do much. It would need to be things like allowing rental by the bed in barracks style rooms, or 10 people in a 1000 sq ft apartment. And even that would only cover the homeless who don't have serious mental illnesses.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Youth hostels still exist and do the communal rooming thing. I don't see why more places couldn't do something similar. Though it doesn't seem like it would be very remunerative.

[BYODB]

Part of the issue is the conflation of people who are simply priced out of a market with people who will never be in any market, period.

The recommendations you mention are fine and dandy for bringing down housing costs for people who are inclined to participate in markets. It will do absolutely nothing for the people who are not, and will not, participate in any market due to mental illness or addiction.

It's ironic to me that the very groups who pushed to abolish state or federal mental institutions because of their well documented abuses now want to reinstitute those things now that the homeless are infringing on their spaces. It's a very NIMBY position, and goes to show that their altruism is largely performative.

[Incunabulum]

This is pretty much the real-world scenario - for the majority of homeless its a temporary thing, they'll get their shit in order and move on.

For the long-term homeless its people who have mental illnesses and/or have gotten into heavy drug use.

The former are a revolving door of people who are temporarily in bad straits, the latter are not ever going to be able to live in a home on their own - its either the streets or institutionalization.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'1. The right to refuse medical treatment. This is a core liberty, how bad does a mental illness have to get before you override it?'

Ultimately, this will often come to "submit or die". To rephrase your question, do you hold libertarian values that would make you have to tolerate dead bodies in the street, if multiple offers of help have been rejected.

[Don't look at me!]

“Unmuted”
Too funny

[sarcasmic]

You still think that when I don't reply to you or your girlfriends it's because I'm reading every comment and don't find them worth a response? Cute. No, fact is I'm just not interested because you have never had anything intelligent to say. Ever.

[Don't look at me!]

Poor sarc.

[JesseAz]

We know.

sarcasmic 3 months ago
Flag Comment
Mute User
I don’t consider links from you guys to be information. I’ve clicked a couple and never found them useful. It has to be from, or confirmed by, someone other than a raving right-wing lunatic for me to give it consideration.
*shrug*

You are intentionally ignorant.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Pour Sarc.

[JesseAz]

Wonder if importing illegal foreign labor that is exempted from extra business costs like ACA has anything to do with jt...

[InsaneTrollLogic]

In other words, food trucks.

[Vernon Depner]

Most chronic homelessness is caused by mental illness and drug addiction, not economics. When mentally and behaviorally healthy people experience homelessness, it's usually temporary and they get their shit back together.

[sarcasmic]

Yet it would be criminal for someone with such issues to work for five bucks an hour and live in conditions that would have been normal as little as fifty years ago but are now illegal.

[JesseAz]

Ever offered a homeless person money to do some yard work?

[Vernon Depner]

These people will not show up for work at any rate of pay, and they will quickly trash or destroy any "normal" habitation provided. You really don't know what you're talking about on this. Get out and meet some actual chronically homeless people.

[sarcasmic]

They are all the same. Every single one.

[Vernon Depner]

Please try to follow the conversation.

[sarcasmic]

You just said I’m wrong because I don’t know anything about the homeless. If I did I’d know that they are all exactly the same so none of what I say is true. So I’m agreeing with you. All homeless are the same and any efforts to help them lift themselves up by their bootstraps won’t work because they’re all the same.

[JesseAz]

Ironically it was you claiming breaking down a few simple barriers would solve the problem lol.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Just mute him sarc.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

After Sarc mutes him, Sarc needs to….

POST THE LIST!

[Jefferson Paul]

Is this you putting words in Vernon's mouth, or lying about what he said? No, it couldn't be, as you are against that.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Following a conversation is not exactly a Sarcasmic superpower.

[ducksalad]

Sarc, back in my young reckless unmarried do-gooder days, I had to drive twice a month or so from Austin to San Antonio. I had a “game” – at the edge of Austin, I’d pick up a hitchhiker. The rules: it couldn’t be the guy with a gas can, or the laughing college kids with a Schlitterbahn sign, etc. It had to be a visibly dirty person carrying belongings. Did this dozens of times, we’d talk for an hour and a half while I drove them to SA in my truck (this was back before the new 75mph limit).

First thing – my take is a slightly different from Jesse and Vernon. I don’t feel like most of them were lazy or intentionally destructive. Some, I feel, would have accepted a cash “job” if I’d offered, and some even asked, but there would be no point: they were, on the whole, manifestly unsuited to do anything unless you put more effort into supervising them than you would doing it yourself. Engage them in a discussion about where they’re from, what they’d done, where they’d been, or where they were going: the result was usually either incoherent or delusional, or both. The few that were coherent had obvious issues like outstanding warrants for their arrest, that made them unemployable.

Nevertheless, some of them were kind of likeable….if you weren’t depending on or expecting anything from them. The ones who asked if there was some work they could do for $5 or $10, I gave $5 or $10 at the end of the ride and told them to get something to decent to eat (back in 1990 that was enough).

Had to stop when I got married. My wife started the “if you can do it why can’t I” thing and no way I wanted her doing it.

[sarcasmic]

In my experience there are three kinds of homeless. There are those for whom it was a temporary thing. They were going to be fine. There were those for whom it was a lifestyle. They liked having no strings and no responsibilities.
Then there were the mentally ill and people with dependency issues. Those are the hard nuts to crack. But I think many of them can function well enough, but not at first world prices. Let them legally live in squalor. Better than being forced onto the street because it's illegal to pay them what they are worth and illegal for them to live in substandard housing..

[Vernon Depner]

I don’t feel like most of them were lazy or intentionally destructive.

Neither do I.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Shellenberger, in his book, “San Fransicko”, talks about this at length. Many of these folks are addicted to something, and basically lose their house, job, etc., and wind up on the streets. He talked with a few of them who did clean up their lives, and found that once off whatever drug they were on, they seem to be able to rebuild themselves. The biggest problem is that progressives who run cities enable the behaviors of addiction and homelessness.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Yeah, and this is a big reason why the "monitored injection" sites are so stupid, and they've been shown in the real world to be a complete failure. The city workers aren't trying to get these people off of the drugs, they're just standing by to inject the person with a shot of Narcan in case they start convulsing.

Bringing back the mental health facilities would ultimately be the best solution, dumb Hollywood propaganda like "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" to the contrary.

[Vernon Depner]

Bringing back the mental health facilities

Or reach further back in history for solutions that worked for many—bring back the Poor Farms.

[DesigNate]

I don’t think we need to farm the poors, it seems like there’s enough already.

Ba dum cha.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Hell, I'm not even that mentally healthy, and I've still never been homeless for more than three months at a time.

[DesigNate]

Reducing barriers (occupational licensing for every job under the sun comes to mind) would help people that just fell on hard times but aren’t willing to stay there.

There is no fix to chronic homelessness.

[Minadin]

Hobo McBum would be a professional engineer, instead of living on the streets, if not for those silly licensing requirements!

[JesseAz]

The true number in California is 20B with no results other than half million dollar salaries to dem activists.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-09/state-audit-california-fails-to-track-homeless-spending-billions-dollars

[Sevo]

I'm proud to report not a single CA elected official got my vote.

[Longtobefree]

100 million.
Less than 1000 helped.
Even the government couldn't do better.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Hey. There were administrative expenses involved here.

[American Mongrel]

How many women were employed/kept middle class? That’s the real goal of most non profits.

[mad.casual]

They're starting to put the funny-money L.A. real estate brokers to shame.

[Dan S.]

They don't seem to know what the word most means. Nine different things can't all be needed most.

[Randy Sax]

Are the dental dams banana flavored?

[VinniUSMC]

Better not be. That would be genocide.

[Anomalous]

Plan B is needed the most. We don't want these miscreants to breed.

[Ajsloss]

Why not? They'd just abort/genocide the results anyway.

[HorseConch]

Is 19-40 too old to abort?

[Incunabulum]

No to them - its just a clump of cells, after all.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Really hoping natalism doesn't catch on here.

[Vernon Depner]

Do college students still have sex?

[Eeyore]

If they are using dental dams - it can't be sex worth having.

[MatthewSlyfield]

I want to know why "peaceful protesters" urgently need wound care supplies.

[Vernon Depner]

To care for their manginas?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Especially things like tourniquets and wound packing kits?

[Jerry B.]

To send to Hamas for their fighters?

[mad.casual]

Or urgent.

Or at least, I've never been faced with or come across a situation where someone is going to bleed out (tourniquets, wound-packing gauze) for lack of a table.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

A United Nations report was just released saying it would take 80 years to rebuild the homes

Fucking union workers

[InsaneTrollLogic]

80 years, my ass. Get a bunch of the tract housing developers from my area involved, and it’ll be done in less than five years. Granted, the new urbanists would hate it.

[Vernon Depner]

The homes will have to built to Green standards in 15 Minute Neighborhoods. That takes time.

[markm23]

IF Liz Wolf were a competent reporter, she'd have noticed that this is nonsense. Most of those homes were built since 1948. That is, they were built in under 75 years to begin with.

[Fist of Etiquette]

One quality I wouldn't personally want in a lawyer is *shaken and unable to focus after witnessing the state deploy force*

There's always estate planning.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Do the Mostly Peaceful Protestors need trauma medical supplies because they fear oppression, or because they might be worried about bears?

[Don't look at me!]

It’s the bears thing.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Would these bears be trunk-bound?

[Ajsloss]

Dude in the crop top from the other day was certainly not a bear.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

No, but the 1980s called and they want that crop top back.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Student journalists have played an important role in the coverage, restoring some faith that the kids do in fact know what they're doing'

The majority of college-ages kids probably do have some sense about what to do (and what not to do), even kids actually enrolled in colleges. But I bet the radical retards are over-represented in the student rolls.

[Don't look at me!]

But I bet the radical retards are over-represented in the student rolls media.

[American Mongrel]

But I bet the radical retards are over-represented in the
Teachers of tomorrow
Media of tomorrow
Politicians of tomorrow

[Idaho-Bob]

Kent State anniversary tomorrow. Maybe the NG should say hello to a few campuses.

[Don't look at me!]

So famous they wrote a song about us!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I’d rather not. Last time, they managed to kill one of those they were sent to help as well as a passerby who had nothing to do with any protesting. Let the protesting dum dums keep at it and make Biden and company look bad all summer long.

[Vernon Depner]

It worked, though. After an initial reaction, the anti-Vietnam protest movement pretty much died out after Kent State and Jackson State.

[rbike]

Students were smarter back then. The current bunch would just whine louder.

[Vernon Depner]

Back then, you didn't get in to college unless you were smart.

[markm23]

NO, the protests intensified for a little while after these shootings (and Nixon's expansion of the war to Cambodia and Laos). Two or three years later, Nixon got his all-volunteer army going, and many young men and their girlfriends lost interest in protesting once they were no longer in any danger of fighting in Vietnam. Then there was a peace accord, and we were out of Vietnam, making it difficult to find anything to protest.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'A ceasefire agreement is still elusive, as neither Gaza nor Israel have had sufficient demands satisfied.'

Have the Hamas militants tried barricading themselves inside college buildings and setting up tent cities festooned with little flags?

[Don't look at me!]

Insufficient supply of dental dams to make it worthwhile.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

There aren't any buildings left tall enough to deal with their LGBT fanboys.

[Vernon Depner]

Send wood chippers. Unless Ukraine got them all.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'A second Boeing whistleblower was just found dead. He was formerly a "quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier who raised concerns about improperly drilled holes in the fuselage of 737 Max jets," per NPR.'

Was that supplier owned by the Clinton Foundation?

[Mickey Rat]

Arkansas Gov. Huckabee signs executive order declaring Arkansas will not comply with Biden Administation's unscientific Title IX revision to erase women.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/arkansas-gov-sarah-sanders-signs-executive-order-response-bidens-title-ix-changes

"Sanders said Thursday she was "appalled" by the "attack on common sense."

"According to the rule, sex is no longer based on the commonly understood biological differences between men and women," Sanders said. "It's based on how a person feels or their gender identity. To put it another way, Biden thinks anybody can be a woman just because they say so. As a woman, the mother of a daughter and our state's first chief executive to give birth … I can't think of anything more offensive or dismissive of the very real, very scientific traits that all women share and that no man does."

"This issue goes far beyond a single locker room or a missed scholarship. The truth is important. Biology is important. The differences between men and women are important," she continued.

Sanders added that she won't let Biden "erase our existence as women."

The executive order states: "Educational institutions of Arkansas will continue to enforce state law guaranteeing the right of students to maintain their privacy. Students must not be forced to shower or undress with members of the opposite sex.

"Female students must not be denied equal athletic opportunities or forced to risk their safety by having biological males placed into female-designated sports leagues.""

Press conference video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_db2YIKzOLo

[InsaneTrollLogic]

It’s odd, isn’t it? The Democrats who claim to be pro-female are pushing the tranny shit and want women to just shut up and live with psychotic men in their locker rooms and washrooms. And it’s the supposedly Handmaid’s Tale Republicans who are defending the rights of women to have their own spaces free of these psychotic men. Five years ago, I would never have wagered on this.

[Mickey Rat]

It is quite strange that the trans issue is a hill a supposedly mainstream Democrat adminstration is insisting on defending at all costs. It appears now to be the uncompromising dogma of the progressive pseudo-religion that sex differences can have no legal ramifications as an objective category.

[mad.casual]

Five years ago, I would never have wagered on this.

I wouldn't have bet on the former. I would've parlayed the house three mortgages deep on the latter.

Liam Neeson owes half his career to Conservative Dads' wish fulfillment.

[DesigNate]

They want to protect women by enslaving their wombs!!!1!1!1!1!1!1!

[Vernon Depner]

This issue goes far beyond a single locker room or a missed scholarship. The truth is important.

That fact often gets lost in this debate.

[Vernon Depner]

“Once your faith persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life…. Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”—Voltaire

[n00bdragon]

You know what? I actually cheer the tranny garbage shitting up Title IX. Title IX has fucked up higher education in this country in so many ways, not just sports. The idea that you can paper over disparities between groups by throwing money at it has been nothing but destructive. So if men checking the box next to an F is what it takes to crash that plane with no survivors, so be it.

You don't need to destroy the problems in society. You just need to allow them the freedom to destroy themselves.

[JesseAz]

The oddity is that women now go to college at higher numbers but still get all the benefits from title IX.

[Sevo]

"...The growing gender gap in higher education – both in enrollment and graduation rates – has been a topic of conversation and debate in recent months. Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college today than young men, and among those ages 25 and older, women are more likely than men to have a four-year college degree. The gap in college completion is even wider among younger adults ages 25 to 34..."
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/

[Quicktown Brix]

"I can’t think of anything more offensive or dismissive of the very real, very scientific traits that all women share and that no man does.”

Oh come on now. I'm sure there's a man somewhere that can make a sandwich.

[mad.casual]

I think "Women and children have always been the primary victims of war." fits the bill to a "T" but then I'm not a part of the gender that at least fractionally insists on the human right to murder children so WTF do I know?

[MT-Man]

On another line of thought, if you were an athletic dept in financial straits or just wanted a better bottom line couldn't you just use the biden rule to your advantage? Consider all teams are now women's teams so then they could cut the high cost and lowest revenue ones?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Diva cups were on the list too. Along with Chapstik.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

That Nate Silver article mentioned above really is a good one.

In brief, he lays out the case that politics nowadays is determined by two phenomena:
* Politics as self-interest: if you run a small business, you want to be taxed less; if you own a gun, you want fewer gun regulations; etc.
* Politics as personal identity: aka which tribe do you best "fit in" with. Not "identity politics", but "politics as a form of personal identity and self-expression".

And both teams IMO have (disappointingly) done a good job at messaging themselves in the context of this latter category. For Team Blue, the message seems to be, "if you are a good person who cares about the environment and your fellow human beings, then you should belong to our team". For Team Red, the message seems to be, "if you are a true patriotic American, you should belong to our team."

And it really is frustrating, because there are plenty of people (myself included) who consider ourselves to be both loyal patriots and decent people, but we don't fit in to either tribe. Where do people go if they are patriotic Americans who don't want to treat other people like garbage?

[Don't look at me!]

. Where do people go …
Well for staters, you can go fuck yourself.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Exactly

His lefty boos are the garbage treaters, just listen to them talk about average heartland Americans

[Mother's Lament]

What excellent advice. I hope Jeff takes it.

[Zeb]

How about hang out with people you like and don't make politics central to your social identity?

[sarcasmic]

Where do people go if they are patriotic Americans who don’t want to treat other people like garbage?

The Political Orphanage?

[JesseAz]

I love how you and Jeff have resorted yo cries of morality and being nice. Finally realized there are no facts or intelligence behind your views so you openly adopt the morality/behavioral arguments to justify forcing others to do what you want.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Where do people go if they are patriotic Americans who don’t want to treat other people like garbage?

Weren't you the one spazzing out with a strawman about school curriculums not being acceptable to the right unless they're mindlessly celebrating the US?

[JesseAz]

You need to parse Jeff's words for what he really wants, being nice meaning giving people he likes money taken from those he doesn't like. And no charity doesn't count, it has to be government.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

And then act the next day as if he never said what he said, and you're starting from a clean slate.

[sarcasmic]

Have you ever changed your mind? Has your stance on something ever evolved? Has your opinion on something ever been influenced by new information?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then why do you routinely applaud someone who attacks everyone (on the other team) who does any of those things?

[JesseAz]

Tell us again how everybody who was right on covid and censorship are still conspiracy theorists. Have you ever admitted to being wrong?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Sarc has never been wrong, though on occasion, facts changed after he said something, and gave the appearance that he was. But that's on those filthy, tricky facts, not him.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Have you ever changed your mind? Has your stance on something ever evolved? Has your opinion on something ever been influenced by new information?

That's not how chemtard argues. He pretends that information provided to him was never provided to him, and goes back to the same arguments.

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then why do you routinely applaud someone who attacks everyone (on the other team) who does any of those things?

Probably because he's a disingenuous sophist blowhard who notably gets really pissed when you criticize his hobby horses.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Let's correct the record here. What happens in reality, is that I say something, you then later dishonestly "summarize" it in a slanted way, I complain that this is not what I said and/or ask for proof of your claim, and then you take my complaint as "proof" that I am lying about what I previously said.

It really is just another form of the Jesse tactic: stuff words in my mouth and then have the gall to claim that I am being dishonest when I don't agree with the stuffed words.

[sarcasmic]

It really is just another form of the Jesse tactic: stuff words in my mouth and then have the gall to claim that I am being dishonest when I don’t agree with the stuffed words.

You mean you expect people to argue against what you actually say instead of accusing you of defending certain talking points so they can practice rehearsed insults and rebuttals?

How dare you!

[JesseAz]

You two morons know people can read what you guys post right? Lol.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Thankfully I can't, actually. 😀

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It really is just another form of the Jesse tactic: stuff words in my mouth and then have the gall to claim that I am being dishonest when I don’t agree with the stuffed words.

Stop it. You bitch every time your direct statements are posted, and as much as you like to complain about people "stalking" you by bookmarking your posts, I don't have the incentive to bookmark every dumb thing you state every time you demand a direct quotation from five years back.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

What are you even talking about here?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

To repeat:

as much as you like to complain about people “stalking” you by bookmarking your posts, I don’t have the incentive to bookmark every dumb thing you state every time you demand a direct quotation from five years back.

This goes back to this whole thing about you playing dumb when your own past claims are brought up. You do the same type of deflection when people provide you with direct quotes from sources that make left-wingers and globalists look bad.

[Nobartium]

Nowhere.

Politics isn't a noble pursuit, and if you take Nate seriously, most people agree.

[Vernon Depner]

(myself included) who consider ourselves to be both loyal patriots and decent people

You're neither. Not by miles.

[JesseAz]

Examples of Jeff’s patriotism.

Shooting unarmed women.
Cheering on 2B in damages during the summer of love.
Criminalizing opposition.
Censorship.
Forced vaccinations for not doing what government says.
Taking from one to give to another.
Lockdowns.
Bankrupting opposition through frivolous lawsuits.
Defending government telling people what to buy with cars, energy, appliances.
Removing the right to defend yourself.

[Sevo]

Proving himself, daily, to be abysmally STUPID.

[Vernon Depner]

Don't forget his support for the invasion of our southern border by hostile foreign powers.

[JesseAz]

True patriotism is caring more for foreigners than Americans.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Let’s also not forget he thinks men can become women and vice versa.

[Vernon Depner]

And he thinks it's OK for parents to turn their boys into girls and vice versa.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"several student journalists were arrested during the course of their coverage."

Without digging into the facts one way or another, I want to say that being a "journalist" is not a get-out-of-jail-free card if you are actively participating in the activities that others are being arrested for. You can't, for example, throw a molotov cocktail at the cops during a riot, then say "It's OK, I'm a journalist".

I'd like to know the details of what they student "journalists" were up to when they were arrested, but fully expect that they were not being passive documenters of the scene.

[Idaho-Bob]

You can’t, for example, throw a molotov cocktail at the cops during a riot, then say “It’s OK, I’m a journalist”.

Goddammit. I just purchased a fedora with the little card that says "PRESS".

[Don't look at me!]

Three stooges did it best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNVgoCTpFMY

[Quicktown Brix]

The 3 stooges would have bigger problems than getting arrested at these protests.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Like being both white and male?

[Idaho-Bob]

Jews.

[Sevo]

Uh oh...

[Truthfulness]

Don't give them ideas for a DEI-inspired reboot!

[Gaear Grimsrud]

When everybody has a cellphone everybody is a journalist.

[mad.casual]

Excuse me. These were student journalists. One does not simply enjoy free speech, free association, free religion, or a right to petition by picking up a cellphone or owning a keyboard. You have to study first.

[Jerry B.]

I wonder how much 1st Amendment consideration someone wearing a yarmulke, an Israeli flag tee shirt, and a yellow “Press” vest would get at any of these pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

[Medulla Oblongata]

""Thousands of immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could obtain federal health coverage later this year under a new Biden administration rule," reports The New York Times."

We just keep importing poverty and expecting taxpayers to foot the bill.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Let's remember, when DACA was first established in 2012, the youngest an applicant could be at that time was 5 years old. They must have lived in the country since 2007. The youngest of this cohort is now 17 years old. No, they are not legal citizens. But they have been in this country as if they were legal citizens for most of their lives.

If you don't like this current state of affairs, then propose something different. And if you are going to propose "they should go back to their country of birth", then just a reminder, this country is their home. You would be asking them to go to someplace that they have not seen or visited since they were 5 years old, to a place that is for all intents and purposes a foreign land to them, and pretend that they consider it "home".

[damikesc]

So, it is vital that we keep shoveling money to illegals to make you feel better?

Is this more of the massive benefits we receive from illegal immigration?

"Sure, we are paying even MORE money we don't have...but they lived here a long time and used up resources going to school and all ---- so it's a wash, amirite?"

[Don't look at me!]

And if you are going to propose “they should go back to their country of birth”, then just a reminder, this country is their home.

But now it’s cool to want to kick Jews out of Israel ?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

No, they are not legal citizens. But they have been in this country as if they were legal citizens for most of their lives.

Uh, that’s the same argument made about 17-year-olds in 2012.

If you don’t like this current state of affairs, then propose something different.

There have been. Your side doesn't find them acceptable, and then pretends that no alternatives have been proposed. HR2 is still there to be passed, after all.

[JesseAz]

It isnt even true. There is no x years on country. 7.5M is the low estimate under Biden.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

We were talking specifically about DACA. DACA was started in 2012.

There have been. Your side doesn’t find them acceptable, and then pretends that no alternatives have been proposed. HR2 is still there to be passed, after all.

Oh there it is. The completely unworkable "alternative" that has zero chance of occurring. HR2 is a messaging bill. They did not even attempt this when Trump was in office and they had Republican majorities. HR2 is a "deport them all" bill. Again I keep asking, how do you expect to generate public support for deporting everyone when there was public outrage over the much less innocuous "family separation" policy under Trump?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

We were talking specifically about DACA. DACA was started in 2012.

And the argument "they've been here for most of their life as Americans!" was used in 2012 when DACA was created. You're using the same boilerplate argument now as was used back in 2012, and before DACA was created--"They've lived here most of their life, you can't do this!"

Oh there it is. The completely unworkable “alternative” that has zero chance of occurring.

Your claim:
If you don’t like this current state of affairs, then propose something different.

Something different is proposed:
"Harumph harumph, well that's just completely unrealistic and will never take place."

I'm not interested in finding "compromise" with you. Just because YOU don't like the proposed alternative, doesn't mean one was never made, you mendacious hippo.

[DesigNate]

I love that he ignores the fact that unlike regular illegal immigrants, we actually could round them (and their parents) up pretty easily, since we know where they are.

It’s part of why the cry of “it will be hard to do” is such a shitty argument.

[sarcasmic]

You don't understand jeff, they are illegal. They are illegal people. Their very existence is illegal. Every breath they take is theft. Every step they take is trespassing. Everything they do is illegal. And it doesn't matter that it's not their fault. Illegal is illegal. Their parents are illegal which makes them illegal. And illegal is illegal. Do not question the law because the law is the law. And did I mention that they are illegal? They are illegal.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

And? If a nation isn't allowed to secure its border or determine who is allowed to actually stay there, "just because," then it's not a nation. It's ironically the same kind of complaint that Third World countries have about Euro-American "colonization," where a foreign population is allowed to impose itself on the country's citizens.

[sarcasmic]

If a nation’s laws are not worthy of respect, then people are not going to respect them. Laws don’t promote justice simply because they exist. There are plenty of laws that are unjust and wrong. Do you obey every law? Do you speed on the road? What if a national 25mph speed limit was imposed? We’d all be Sammy Hagar. Would we be illegal drivers. Would it be because we’re all criminals, or because the law isn’t worthy of respect?

Now tell me that this convoluted system is worthy of respect.

https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf

By the way, and this is the first time many people who have read this before have read this, but I think Biden fucked up when he allowed asylum seekers to wait here for their court date. Trump was right to have them wait in the last sanctuary state. When ML reads this it will be the first time he’s ever seen it. Just when he read it yesterday for the first time. And when I say it again it will be the fourth or fifth time he's seen it for the first time.

[JesseAz]

Tell us how robbing citizens of 10s of billions a year to give to other people is worthy of respect. But youre not a leftist.

In fact I'm 100% certain you give zero dollars a year to charity as you demand forced charities from others.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

If a nation’s laws are not worthy of respect, then people are not going to respect them.

This is literal circular reasoning, based on subjective value judgements.

Laws don’t promote justice simply because they exist.

“Justice” is irrelevant in most laws. You think such a glittering generality is why traffic laws are passed, or why people aren’t allowed to dump their trash on the side of the road? Laws are as much about maintaining a stable civic order as they are about ensuring people receive recompense for what the law has deemed unfair treatment.

Do you obey every law?

To the greatest extent I can, yes. You guys LOVE to bring up the speeding argument, but that’s a false equivalency, as people who ARE caught going what is deemed outside a reasonable standard are frequently cited for breaking that law, and the people who do speed, understand that they can be pulled over at anytime for going outside that boundary. They typically don’t whine that it’s “oppressive” for getting ticketed when they do get pulled over. Shit, I’ve been pulled over and given a warning about a crack in my windshield.

Now tell me that this convoluted system is worthy of respect.

That “convoluted system” came about specifically because the country tried to have its cake and eat it with Hart-Cellar.

[sarcasmic]

This is literal circular reasoning, based on subjective value judgements.

‘Illegals are illegal’ is circular reasoning at its finest, based upon appeal to authority. What’s your point?

Laws are as much about maintaining a stable civic order as they are about ensuring people receive recompense for what the law has deemed unfair treatment.

I’m sure proponents of Jim Crow laws totally agreed.

They typically don’t whine that it’s “oppressive” for getting ticketed when they do get pulled over.

Hey, why don’t you ignore the hypothetical national 25mph speed limit would no doubt be ignored? Oh, you just did.

That “convoluted system” came about specifically because the country tried to have its cake and eat it with Hart-Cellar.

Why do you defend it?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

‘Illegals are illegal’ is circular reasoning at its finest, based upon appeal to authority.

By this logic, "murder is illegal" and "dumping sewage is illegal" is also circular reasoning based on appeal to authority, too.

I’m sure proponents of Jim Crow laws totally agreed.

False equivalency.

Hey, why don’t you ignore the hypothetical national 25mph speed limit would no doubt be ignored? Oh, you just did.

Strawman.

Why do you defend it?

Another strawman. I'm not defending it, I want it ended by getting rid of Hart-Cellar and passing HR2.

[JesseAz]

You can always tell when sarc runs out of anything even mildly intelligent to say. He knows he can't justify the costs so now he resorts to morality arguments while ignoring it is immoral to take from one to give to another.

He also keeps using this retarded speed limit argument despite the fact that breaking that law doesn't take speed from another person unlike illegals taking tax dollars from tax paying citizens.

I would call it sophistry but it doesn't even rise to that level. It is just idiocy.

[Sevo]

"You can always tell when sarc runs out of anything even mildly intelligent to say..."

Pretty sure that was right after he learned to say Mommy.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

You can always tell when sarc runs out of anything even mildly intelligent to say.

Because he picks up a keyboard to share it with everyone?

[JesseAz]

Good points both.

[sarcasmic]

By this logic, “murder is illegal” and “dumping sewage is illegal” is also circular reasoning based on appeal to authority, too.

Not at all. Those acts have identifiable victims. Can’t say the same about violators of arbitrary immigration laws.

False equivalency.

How so? You’ve got an unpopular group being held to a different standard than everyone else, hated and living in constant in fear of violating arbitrary laws that don’t protect the life, liberty or property of others.

Another strawman. I’m not defending it, I want it ended by getting rid of Hart-Cellar and passing HR2.

Apologies then, because it looked like you were.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Not at all. Those acts have identifiable victims. Can’t say the same about violators of arbitrary immigration laws.

There are plenty of laws that don't have "identifiable victims" when they're violated, but you still find them acceptable enough to follow. Why should immigration law be any different?

How so? You’ve got an unpopular group being held to a different standard than everyone else, hated and living in constant in fear of violating arbitrary laws that don’t protect the life, liberty or property of others.

So they're allowed to remain in the country for decades, without any kind of consequences for not following those laws despite millions of other immigrants following the rules put in place, and are even given government benefits as part of that, but they're still being oppressed? Are you saying that the ones who have actually followed the rules are just suckers, and they should have ignored them anyway because those rules are "unfair" somehow? The Democrats clearly would have stuck up for them anyway, so what's the incentive to even have a system that "works" (whatever the fuck that means) if there's no incentive to actually follow it due to Democratic subversion?

[JesseAz]

Not at all. Those acts have identifiable victims. Can’t say the same about violators of arbitrary immigration laws

Just ignore the influx of gangs, murders, 1000 Venezuelans arrested this year in Chicago, the money the take from taxpayers….

How so? You’ve got an unpopular group being held to a different standard than everyone else, hated and living in constant in fear of violating arbitrary laws that don’t protect the life, liberty or property of others.

And this is just a lie. Not only do they get free legal representation, many DAs excuse their crimes for fear of deportation and hold citizens to those crimes.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2324598/los-angeles-doesnt-want-to-prosecute-criminals-if-they-are-illegal-immigrants/

And please let us know which citizens get 300 a night room and board, free meals, and cash cards.

[sarcasmic]

There are plenty of laws that don’t have “identifiable victims” when they’re violated, but you still find them acceptable enough to follow.

Speak for yourself. I obey laws if they are moral and/or if I think the risk of getting caught it high. Otherwise I ignore unjust laws.

Why should immigration law be any different?

Two wrongs make a right?

So they’re allowed to remain in the country for decades, without any kind of consequences for not following those laws despite millions of other immigrants following the rules put in place, and are even given government benefits as part of that, but they’re still being oppressed?

Leftist hate people who avoid taxes and other unjust laws because it’s not fair that they blindly obey unjust rules while others do not. They just hate them.

Are you saying that the ones who have actually followed the rules are just suckers, and they should have ignored them anyway because those rules are “unfair” somehow?

I’m saying that current immigration law is like a national 25mph speed limit. Some people will obey it. But many will not. Why? Because such a law would be stupid. And a law that didn’t distinguish between someone driving 26 or 126 would be really stupid. But that’s how immigration law works. Thing is, there are more jobs than there are legal immigrants to fill them. There are more people who want to work than will be legally allowed into the country. They’re not going to drive 25. Are are they really criminals? Or are they victims of an unjust law?

The Democrats clearly would have stuck up for them anyway, so what’s the incentive to even have a system that “works” (whatever the fuck that means) if there’s no incentive to actually follow it due to Democratic subversion?

Not sure what that has to do with anything other than scoring points.

Want immigration laws to be followed? Then raise the speed limit on the highway from 25 to 70. Go after the people driving 126, not the people driving 26 who aren’t a danger to anyone.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I obey laws if they are moral and/or if I think the risk of getting caught it high. Otherwise I ignore unjust laws.

How is a speed limit on travel unjust? How is not throwing trash out on the side of the road a question of morality or being "just"?

Two wrongs make a right?

There's nothing wrong with having immigration laws. They've been practiced for millennia without any of this liberal "let anyone in who wants to come here" pathological altruism.

But that’s how immigration law works. Thing is, there are more jobs than there are legal immigrants to fill them. There are more people who want to work than will be legally allowed into the country.

Why does this always boil down to all the peon labor service jobs that immigrants need to supposedly fill to keep our overscaled society from collapsing in on itself? The country wasn't any more dysfunctional before Hart-Cellar than it's become afterwards, and that's not even bringing up the west's absolutely stupid "refugee" policy that basically lets anyone in for an indefinite period of time, just by claiming that someone's going to kill them if they aren't allowed to remain in the country right NEXT DOOR that's already hundreds or thousands of miles, or even an ocean away from where they came from.

Want immigration laws to be followed? Then raise the speed limit on the highway from 25 to 70. Go after the people driving 126, not the people driving 26 who aren’t a danger to anyone.

Going back to a flawed analogy doesn't bolster your case. Someone driving a certain speed on the highway is a world of difference from millions of people who need housing, money, schools, infrastructure, medical care, and services. This is what the limits of scale are all about.

[sarcasmic]

How is a speed limit on travel unjust?

When it is 25 on the highway. I didn't read the rest of your post. Have a good weekend.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

When it is 25 on the highway.

I still have no fucking idea how this is supposed to be analogous to immigration laws. We've basically had a wide-open border since the passage of Hart-Cellar, and the Supreme Court ruled that the President can't end an executive order by his predecessor that provides de facto amnesty to illegal immigrants.

What we have is a whole shitload of people going 125 on a 75 mph highway and blaming the cops when they get stopped for "oppression" because "we've always driven this fast!"

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

"Illegals are illegal’ is circular reasoning at its finest, based upon appeal to authority."

Sarc, which logic text did you study to get this?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Again with this shit?

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

"this is the first time many people who have read this before have read this"

Nope, the first time you said this was earlier this week. Now you're pretending to have said it all along. This is why people call you disingenuous.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

If a nation isn’t allowed to secure its border or determine who is allowed to actually stay there, “just because,” then it’s not a nation.

Which is more important: the rights of the individual, or the identity of a nation?

[Nobartium]

Governments are chartered towards specific people in specific places.

Otherwise, the governments reach is everywhere.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

False dilemma, but then again, that's your rhetorical specialty.

[JesseAz]

Look at sarc agree with Jeff that these people deserve other people's money after pretending he wasn't pro welfare for illegal immigrants. All profit no downside.

[Idaho-Bob]

Theft is not only illegal, it violates the NAP.

[sarcasmic]

Your sarcometer needs recalibrating.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

You’re mismonikered.

[JesseAz]

Where is your sarcasm?

[Mickey Rat]

And this the type of emotional, irrationally sentimental argumentation that leads to us having a nonsensical immigration policy.

[sarcasmic]

Emotion and sentimentality only apply if you consider the illegal vermin that are poisoning the blood of the nation to be human beings.

[Mickey Rat]

And right to the hysterically proposed strawman.

[sarcasmic]

Paraphrasing quotes that are routinely defended is not engaging in a strawman argument.

[JesseAz]

Claiming fact based economic arguments as racist and xenophobic is.

Again. Your appeal to emotion here is a marxist and leftist argument.

[JesseAz]

Awesome. Back to appeal to Hitler while ignoring any costs.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Neither one of you seems to understand that a nation state should be able to control its own borders and be able to document who comes in. You just don’t seem to get it that these folks being undocumented cuts more than one way. The lack of documentation is bad for not just government controlling its borders, but also for the illegal aliens themselves. It leaves them open to abuse by the unscrupulous with no proper legal recourse.

[Zeb]

Maybe we should require documentation for fewer things. I don't see any good reason, for example, why anonymous employment shouldn't be possible if it's agreeable to both parties.

[Medulla Oblongata]

In this case, you'll note, I'm complaining about the tax dollars being used to fund them. If the *only* thing they did wrong was cross the border illegally, then I'd be largely disinclined to care. But at every turn they are, by and large, sucking taxpayer dollars like every other welfare leech. Why import poverty that taxpayers will be forced to fund when we already have to borrow $1T to pay for the ones we already have on hand.

End--and end utterly and completely--the welfare state in this country and the whole world can move here for all I care.

[JesseAz]

I would add make sponsors actually liable for crimes and any government spending on them and I agree.

[sarcasmic]

What do you think would be better, allowing more or unlimited H1B visas for people who want to come here legally by themselves, work, and then go home; or limit the number and create an incentive for those who don't get picked to bring their whole family and stay?

[JesseAz]

When do they go home again?

Need the articles again about citizens training their cheaper foreign H1B counterparts despite part of the application process being not to displace current workers and to pay market rates?

[Nobartium]

Homes can be made anywhere, so the argument that I should feel bad that they had to return to their origin holds zero merit.

[JesseAz]

Even american welfare is now global. So really no reason to come here.

[Medulla Oblongata]

They can stay, they were innocent children when brought here.

Just deport their parents, who broke the law, as part of the DACA agreement.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So if you think it is okay for DACA enrollees to stay, then why shouldn't they be treated like everyone else who is staying?

[Zeb]

Well, they were already treated differently under DACA.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Both Brandon and CJ Typical Collectivist are verrrrry generous with Other People's Money.

[Zeb]

Yeah, we should stop making tax payers pay other people's bills. Whether they are immigrants or citizens.

[Sevo]

…”students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes).”…

No antisemites here! Why didn’t they just call them “cosmopolitans”?
BTW, according to the writer in the Chron, Wednesday's SF parade mixed 'worker's rights' with anti-Jewish bullshit, and someone hopes observers will confuse them with serious people.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

You know who else wanted Jews to go back to their “real homes”?

[Ajsloss]

The kids from School Ties? You beat me by less than a minute!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Give it up for The Waco Kid. 🙂

[Sevo]

trueman.

[Don't look at me!]

Suddenly, deportation is cool.

[Sevo]

But it's really all about "apartheid" and "genocide", right? Do I have those fig leaves arranged properly?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

All Jewish students born before 1948 should be deported to Auschwitz.

[Longtobefree]

Just for the record:
"journalists" are not a special breed that can ignore the law.

[Idaho-Bob]

See fedora comment above.

[Ajsloss]

"students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes)."

Think any of them would be interested in fighting Brendan Fraser?... COWAAAARDS!

[damikesc]

Remember, these are not as bad as Charlottesville.

Why?

Because FYTW.

Now, will we ever see Biden condemn the protests without immediately worrying about how unfair mistreatment of Muslim-Americans are (without noting the utter lack of evidence of it)?

[Medulla Oblongata]

"A study of a San Francisco nonprofit's $100 million effort to reduce chronic homelessness by half in five years shows the effort fell significantly short of its goal. … The Tipping Point effort guided 595 chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing. It also moved an additional 373 people,

Only $103k per person ($100M / 968). Seems cheap by some government standards.

[Don't look at me!]

You can’t put a price on life! Also, abortion should be free!

[TrickyVic (old school)]

The money is trickle down economics. Each agency involved will get their cut.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

"These are critical investments that ensure our most vulnerable populations are treated with compassion and empathy!"--some NGO marxist vermin, probably.

[Vernon Depner]

For $103K per person, I would be happy to rent a Porta Potty and fill up my backyard with shacks.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

And then you could move somewhere that wasn't full of homeless people in shacks. 😀

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Pffft. They could put ‘em in tents for half that.

[Jerry B.]

“A United Nations report was just released saying it would take 80 years to rebuild the homes destroyed over the course of Israel's offensive. With some 370,000 homes damaged and 79,000 destroyed, and a building pace of around 1,000 per year (based on previous rates of building in the area), the amount of time needed to get the area back to a reasonable condition is quite stunning.”

But if you factor the amount of time, labor, and resources spent on building tunnels and rockets at say, one building per 100 yards of tunnel and a bunker, or 200 rockets, you should be able to finish in a couple of years.

[Ron]

it didn't take Japan or Germany 80 years to rebuild but then they didn't have NGO's and other government entities scraping off their piece of the pie like the Clinton foundation is doing to Haiti

[JesseAz]

Biden awards the nation's highest honors to the real heroes: politicians like Pelosi.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/2989566/biden-honor-democrats-presidential-medal-of-freedom/

[TrickyVic (old school)]

What was that for? Highest number of wins in the stock market by a congress critter?

[Jerry B.]

Want a three bedroom? Use the Jerry Tull method.

https://genius.com/Jethro-tull-down-at-the-end-of-your-road-lyrics

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Oh look. A Republican lies about his military record.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/troy-nehls-bronze-star-combat-infantryman-badge/

[Don't look at me!]

Following the example of our president.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Sounds like he could be a Democratic Senator of Connecticut!

[Idaho-Bob]

There is no question that Nehls served overseas, engaged in combat, and was awarded a Bronze Star for his duties there. But military documents obtained by CBS News after a months-long investigation and a review of his service record by the U.S. Army at the Pentagon show Nehls received one – not two – Bronze Star medals.

Months long investigation to show he had one bronze star, not two. I wish CBS would spend those resources on disputing if cannibals consumed a certain Biden family member.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

In reality, most of those GWOT-era Bronze Stars weren't even for heroic acts, it was an admin action for FGOs who happened to complete a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. I'm pretty sure DeSantis and David French have them, even though they were just JA officers who weren't in any real danger whatsoever. It isn't like the WW2 or Vietnam era where you had to do some real shit to get it awarded to you.

Unless that dec has a "V" device, these guys typically didn't do shit.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Sad to see even our armed forces passing out participation trophies.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Or, you know, the 20something LLCs owned by the Biden family and the cash flow in and out

[DesigNate]

That might be a great gotcha, if anyone here was a die hard Republican.

[Sevo]

"...A United Nations report was just released saying it would take 80 years to rebuild the homes destroyed over the course of Israel's offensive. With some 370,000 homes damaged and 79,000 destroyed, and a building pace of around 1,000 per year (based on previous rates of building in the area), the amount of time needed to get the area back to a reasonable condition is quite stunning..."

Note to HAMAS: FAFO.

[Ra's al Gore]

Food trucks

https://www.euronews.com/2024/04/30/swedish-police-to-investigate-reports-of-information-leaks-to-violent-gangs

An investigation in Sweden has revealed that police employees have been leaking confidential information to gang members with whom they have had sexual relations.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday admitted he was concerned about the “very serious” revelations by newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

In a report published over the weekend, the paper claimed that the leaks included information about enemies of gang members involved in the relationships. The report alleged that in four cases, the leaks were followed by revenge attacks, including murders.

At least 30 police employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported.

Dagens Nyheter said that in several cases, criminals had begun “sexual relations with strategically selected police officers”.

[Ra's al Gore]

sluuuuuuurrrrrrrppppppp

Government Surveillance Keeps Us Safe
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/opinion/fisa-section-702-fbi-privacy.html

[Ra's al Gore]

We Need More Secrecy
Why government transparency can be the enemy of liberty

By David Frum
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/we-need-more-secrecy/359820/

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Gee, what a shock, David Frum wants more secrecy like he wants more censorship. Basically, Blob stooge is gonna put up propaganda for the Blob.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The center-right absolutely LOVES government censorship and surveillance of its citizens. They're the ones constantly making the argument, "Well, if you don't have anything to hide, why should you be concerned about this?" These are the same assholes who say that they support "limited government," but apparently that only applies at the local level to gaslight the right into believing that being involved in any kind of government function, including city council and school boards, means you're corrupt.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

You forgot to give Frum the benefit of the doubt, per jeff's bullshit rules:

"Oh come now, you know the rules.
Republicans are given the benefit of the doubt.
Democrats are condemned for the smallest of infractions."

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It's rather telling how its the neocon faction that's most consistent about keeping government activity hidden from the public, regardless of who's running the country. The Democrats will support it when they think it's going to benefit their self-interest, otherwise they screech about how oppressive it is when they aren't in charge.

Besides tax cuts and foreign wars, government opacity seems to be one of the few core principles these people really have, and it's why their appeals to "limited government" have always been such a self-own after 9/11.

[JesseAz]

My guess is they are under the most control and adverse information of the IC.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It’s really more about power–these guys are gossipy little bitches who get off on the idea that they can monitor everything people say, while never being exposed in any way themselves. Look at Bill Kristol and his involvement in that Journolist 2.0 group, or their support of Nikki Haley’s proposal to end internet anonymity. They know something like that would never be applied to their own activities.

[mad.casual]

Or the seemingly right-wing effort to fund a massive kegger ($500,000 raised) for the flag-defending frat bros at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the wave of frat-bros-defending-the-flag coverage from across the country.

Once again, what exactly makes defending the flag and drinking beer from a keg right-wing?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

They’re right-wing operatives, one of them ex-Bush, trying to stick their dicks in even though they had nothing to do with defending the flag.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Like these guys trying to co-opt the Tea Party after it kicked off as a protest against the bank bailouts?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

That could well be so.

[mad.casual]

OK, so does that make raising the Palestinian flag on American soil left-wing? Obama holding a “Beer Summit” for James Crowley and Henry Louis Gates was right-wing?

Seems like buying someone a beer for defending flag and country isn’t exactly left/right thing except to the people trying and/or allowing to make it one.

Are you going to vote, or not, for one of these kids because someone bought them a/some beer? Is a kegger suddenly an illegal campaign contribution to someone who isn't running for office?

[mad.casual]

If John Boehner personally delivered a bale of weed to each of them is that a "right-wing effort"?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I was objecting to how these operatives stuck their dicks in as if it were a Republican-versus-Democrat controversy.

And as noted, one of them is an ex-Bushie, and I think one of them (the same person?) was a Romneyite.

A sign that their intervention can have only positive results! /sarc

[Rick James]

The exact same thing that saying, "I don't think it's a good idea to sterilize autistic gay kids" makes one "right wing".

[mad.casual]

Republicans - Plotting to take over the Libertarian Party and buy people beer.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Trump doesn't drink beer which is why I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully trust him.

[Zeb]

Because the left hates the flag and drinks wine?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Turns out there may be an answer to this whole anti-Israel campus kerfuffle thing. Remove the self immolation stigma!
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1778805049033969983.html
The remarks centered on the suicide of Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. serviceman who set himself on fire in February to protest U.S. support for Israel—or, as Izar put it, “indigenous Palestine.”
Bushnell was widely seen as a casualty of mental illness. The presentation argued he could also be considered a “martyr,” a man in full control of his mental faculties who had responded rationally to a “genocide” unfolding thousands of miles away.
“Yes, he carried a lot of distress,” Izar said. “But does that mean the actions he engaged in are any less valid?”
Isn’t it normal, she continued, “to be distressed when you’re seeing this level of carnage” in Gaza?
By “perpetuating the stigma of self-immolation,” Izar and Moustafa said, psychiatrists “discredit” resistance to “power structures” like “colonization,” “homophobia,” and “white supremacy,” framing legitimate acts of protest as signs of psychiatric dysfunction.
"Psychiatry pathologizes non-pathological … reactions to a pathological environment or pathological society," Moustafa said. "It’s considered illness to choose to die in protest of the violence of war but perfectly sane to choose to die in service of the violence of war."

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I agree that the crowds of Jew hating college students should set themselves on fire.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Hell, I'll bring them gas and matches.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

And bring along mtruman.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I would also bring mtrueman gasoline and matches to set himself on fire with, especially if I got to watch him do it. But I'd want a week's notice so I could eat a lot of asparagus first, and then time to drink a case of beer before he lit up.

Because I would piss on mtrueman if he was on fire, but only on his head in the hopes that he'd survive to be on fire for slightly longer. And I'd want to prepare properly. After all, it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'm going to want to get that sort of thing right.

[mad.casual]

I thought the whole idea of self-immolation was the stigma. The demarcation or staining of something as wrong. But, you know, if we aren’t supposed to stigmatize it, might as well pull up a deck chair, break out the hot dogs, and crack open a cold one like it’s just another beautiful day in paradise.

Hey, did you hear the one about the student protesters self-immolating? It was in tents. [sips beer]

[Don't look at me!]

It’s considered illness to choose to die in protest of the violence of war but perfectly sane to choose to die in service of the violence of war.

There are valid reasons for this.

[Rick James]

Whoa... that woman's voice was fucking painful. "Doctor".

"Like, oh my god, like, pathologizing like, anti decolonization resistance and um, like, yeah, like, we have to like, um, like stop doing that and stuff."

[Zeb]

No, it's not fucking normal to be that distressed because horrible things are happening somewhere in the world. Horrible things are always happening somewhere in the world. Normal is not spending all your time being upset by things you have no control over and don't really understand.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Powerful defense of government spending from the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the main agency advising Biden on economic policy.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1786272981058220187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1786272981058220187%7Ctwgr%5E2de9e6f25177de4de8d0237161fb322e23d556ef%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frevolver.news%2Fnewsfeed%2F

[Rick James]

Ok, Dude, this is the best link I've clicked all year. Seriously, thank you.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Adults in the room.

[Don't look at me!]

What the actual flying fuck ?
It’s worse than I ever imagined. Way worse. Holy crap.

[mad.casual]

Even to the level of the "cinematography".

Katie Couric had to film for hours and edit it together to get that much self-contradiction and nonsense babbling woven together as tightly as she did. This guy practically does it in one take.

[Ajsloss]

If ever there was a time for Billy Madison's principal to award no points and pray for mercy on one's soul...

[Jerry B.]

He must use the same speech coach as Biden.

[Vernon Depner]

We can only hope that he was caught off guard and was bad at being evasive, rather than that he really is as retarded as he seems.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

It doesn't help that it's a stupid question. The "printing the money" is the "borrowing".

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I'm not an economist and certainly no expert but there's a commenter in the thread that describes how this is supposed to work in theory using a faucet and sink analogy. So when government runs a deficit the FED buys the debt and turns on the faucet dumping bonds into the economy. The bonds are of course bought by investors, if the return is sufficient, creating "money". When the government returns to fiscal restraint (ha ha) the FED buys back the bonds and flushes the "money" down the sink shrinking the supply and restoring their vision of financial order. The logic is that if the government wasn't forced to borrow it's own currency, the system would be all faucet and no sink. None of this actually benefits the middle class taxpayer who is stuck on an inflationary roller coaster while the fed manipulates the cost of money via interest rates. It does however benefit the political class who can freely create as many dollars as it takes to buy the votes they need to protect their phony baloney jobs.

[mad.casual]

It doesn't help that randos on the internet can sum up the issue in a single sentence easier than an advisor to the president can stumble around and not answer the question for two minutes.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Biden isn't hiring our best.

[Stuck in California]

That Basenji Jackson whatserface on the Supreme Court is a perfect example.

It's all political favors and diversity hires.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

OMGWTFBBQ.

[Tyval Dayall]

I wanted to laugh. I also wanted to throw my shoe in anger at his head.

[mtrueman]

"It's still happening! I regret to inform that the college students are still somehow at it."

Universities still have investments in companies that benefit from the war in Gaza. Somehow. In the meantime let us know if any of the student protestors take any medicine, have a meal, or visit the bathroom. The personal is political.

[Sevo]

trueman still shovels bullshit.

[Mickey Rat]

Universities have investments in companies which do business with Israel and asking the school to divest from all such companies is an absurd ask as a practical matter.

The way to end the war in Gaza to end is for Hamas to surrender themselves. They will not do that because Hamas does not really care about the lives of the people they purport to fight for.

[Sevo]

trueman is an antisemitic POS; facts and logic are not within his ken.

[mtrueman]

"to divest from all such companies is an absurd ask"

Not impossible, though. I'm pretty sure they can do it if they put their minds to it.

"The way to end the war in Gaza to end is for Hamas to surrender themselves."

Hamas is not asking for an end to the war. They are asking for an end to occupation, return of political prisoners and withdrawal of Israeli troops. Surrendering themselves would accomplish none of this.

"Hamas does not really care about the lives of the people they purport to fight for"

I suspect you don't care either.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

You could divest yourself from all such companies by self-immolating.

[mtrueman]

The protestors are asking for their universities to divest from companies profiting by the war in Gaza.

[Sevo]

trueman is an antisemitic POS; facts and logic are not within his ken.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

And I’m asking you to do the same, while suggesting an easy means of doing so.

[mtrueman]

If you have any questions I'd be happy to respond. This puerile banter of yours is boring.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

It is a serious suggestion, and hardly puerile. You purport to believe in this cause. Bushnell and others have taken extreme measures like what I’m suggesting for you.

Martyrdom would suit you well.

[mtrueman]

That's not a question.

[Truthfulness]

You have no answer.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

For just five dollars worth of gasoline, he could make the world a better place.

[BadLib]

One wonders how many people are currently swirling around the outer edge of the vortex of homelessness and will soon be sucked down into it because they recently lost their job at a California “chain” fast food restaurant when their employer decided that they contributed just enough to justify $16/hour but not $20/hour.

Or perhaps their employer realized that when they raised their prices to reflect the additional labor expense of $20/hour that their business would drop off and they would need fewer workers.

[ducksalad]

Agreed that it’s going to move people into unemployment.

But unemployment isn’t equivalent to being homeless in the sense of literally being on the sidewalk. Someone who was able to successfully perform a $16/hr job at a fast food restaurant has demonstrated some valuable (and unfortunately not universal) skills:

1. Knowing how to show up at an office, ask what the procedure is, and follow the procedure,
2. Knowing how to look stuff up on the Internet,
3. Willingness to do something mildly unpleasant now to avoid something more unpleasant later, and most importantly
4. Able to deal with people and make some friends, which also increases the probability they aren’t cut off from family.

Skills #1 and #2 mean they can find and engage with the various government agencies supposedly in charge of helping people to not starve or live on the sidewalks.
Skill #3 means they can follow the instructions given by those offices to apply for stuff.
Skill #4 means they probably have, at least for a while, someone willing to let them sleep on the couch, or worst case, the ability to find and stay in a shelter without getting themselves kicked out.

That doesn’t mean they won’t end up as dependents of the state, which is bad for them and for all of us. But that’s not the same as homeless.
–

[mtrueman]

"Someone who was able to successfully perform a $16/hr job at a fast food restaurant has demonstrated some valuable (and unfortunately not universal) skills:"

You can master all those skills, but if your pay is only $16/hour, you'll never afford to buy a home. You won't even be able to afford the rent on a one bedroom apartment.

[Sevo]

trueman thinks this post is relevant, but then trueman is a fucking ignoramus.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

“You won’t even be able to afford the rent on a one bedroom apartment.”

Simple arithmetic would indicate otherwise.

And why would you even need an apartment anyway? Live in a tent on the University quad, trueman will support you.

[mtrueman]

"Live in a tent on the University quad, trueman will support you."

I support the students protesting their university's investments in Israel's military.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Surely you wouldn't discriminate against non-students doing the same thing?

[mtrueman]

I surely wouldn't. Next question...

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Is it hard for you to breathe with your head up your ass?

[mtrueman]

Too boring.

[ducksalad]

Not if you insist on living in San Francisco or Manhattan.

Down here (McAllen area) the median *household* income is $44K. A median household has three and a fraction people living in it, and we don’t have any significant number of long-term homeless encampments.

Rough math, $44K is $22/hr, but keep in mind that is supporting an average of 3.4 people. One person living alone can do fine on $16/hr. And by the way, we hold the record for most obese city in the US so it's not like the median person is going hungry.

Not at all uncommon to see seasonal migrant farm workers buying a modest home here.

[mtrueman]

"Not if you insist on living in San Francisco or Manhattan."

These are the places where homelessness is a problem. There are thousands of homeless who insist on continuing to live there. Paying them $16 or even $20/hour isn't going to allow them to afford accommodation.

I think we've all come to view homelessness in the cities as an acceptable condition of modern life. As long as they can feed themselves and are not starving, they pose no danger for the most part.

[AT]

Or the seemingly right-wing effort to fund a massive kegger ($500,000 raised) for the flag-defending frat bros at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the wave of frat-bros-defending-the-flag coverage from across the country.

That should really be the one leading the news.

The way the coverage spins, it makes you want to believe that there’s a groundswell of people really eager to… um… sympathize with terrorists and promote genocide.

But, as is often the case, far far far more people across the nation are opposed to these neonazi leftist scumbags, as evidenced by how many have contributed to a kegger in honor and thanks to a handful of people who stood up to the America/Jew-haters and did something as simple as defend the American flag.

Which is awesome. That silly half-mil kegger is proof that America is NOT a nation of these whiny marxist agitator malcontents. It’s a nation of patriots who know, in overwhelming numbers, that these babies in ovens-supporting college punks are undeniably the bad guys here, and the bad guys (just like the LGBT) are a GROSSLY over-represented minority that, frankly, needs to shut up and go away. Forever.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

That's right.
Everyone who attends the campus protests against Israel's war policies is an anti-Semitic terrorist sympathizer.
Just like, everyone who attended the BLM protests was an American-hating Marxist.
Just like, everyone who attended the Jan. 6 protests was an insurrectionist and a seditionist.

Oh wait...

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Why is it that after 10/7 the leftwing posters here, particularly jeff/sarc/trueman seem to have gone completely off the deep end, and abandoned their masks completely? You guys don’t even try to hide your hatred anymore; moving to full-on misek.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Everyone who attends the campus protests against Israel’s war policies is an anti-Semitic terrorist sympathizer.

Which ones, the students, or the professional agitators who don't even attend the university, but love winding these up because they think it will advance us further towards the communist utopia?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Everyone who attends the campus protests against Israel’s war policies is an anti-Semitic terrorist sympathizer.

Yes. When you protest against a country defending its citizens from murder, rape, murder by rape, post-murder mutilation, and intra-rape mutilation and beheading, you are, in fact, sympathizing with the terrorists who committed those atrocities. And when the only reason you think those things are acceptable is because the people it happened to were Jewish, then that does, in fact, make you an antisemite.

It's good that Cartman finally got something correct.

[mtrueman]

"then that does, in fact, make you an antisemite."

Or self hating Jew.

[Sevo]

trueman really is an antisemitic POS; facts and logic are not within his ken.

[Truthfulness]

Absolutely. George Soros is one of such people.

[AT]

I'm 100% fine with everything you said.

[XM]

"Everyone who attends the campus protests against Israel’s war policies is an anti-Semitic terrorist sympathizer. "

This is the problem with Chem. He likes to accuse people of being cultists, but he has no issues regurgitating talking point from above if it confirms his positions.

Insurrection requires an actual plot to overthrow the government. No one who walked inside the capitol building on J6 was involved in any such scheme. One fringe group was convicted of sedition. At the top of my head, no one else was convicted of insurrection. Of course the lapdog media would parrot the "insurrectionist" narrative ad nauseum, to the delight of the TDS crowd.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the Hamas Youth are almost certainly antisemites who hate Jews. They TELL US that, and video footages confirm it. It's not in any shape of form an "antiwar protest." You're not anti war if you chant for warfare against Jews and your OWN country. There's a reason why Iran is offering them scholarships. And they're almost certainly funded and organized by an outside source.

No rational thinker unblemished by bias and partisanship (which Chem claims to be) could ever think J6 is even remotely comparable to the Hamas Youth. The facts speak for themselves. I can't figure what kind of moral compass the TDS crowd abides by. They consider Trump an existential threat, but want to give benefit of the doubt to a bunch of terrorist sympathizers. I am a person of color and I would say someone like Chemjeff is more of a liability to us than a friend. What happens to Jews can happen to me.

[mtrueman]

"Insurrection requires an actual plot to overthrow the government."

It requires more than that but true enough. "Failed Insurrection" is a better, more accurate phrasing. Not a terribly flattering one, but accurate.

"Meanwhile, the vast majority of the Hamas Youth are almost certainly antisemites who hate Jews. "

A large part of the protestors, the organizers, the spokespeople etc are Jewish. They don't hate Jews. They hate what Israel is doing in their name.

"And they’re almost certainly funded and organized by an outside source."

I saw some photos, apparently taken in Gaza, with signs on cardboard saying 'Thanks Columbia' and the like. They are supporting but not funding or organizing. Russia is the likely outside source. Read your history. One of the root causes of the Crimean war was Russia's commitment to Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem. They are still there and are to be counted among the Palestinians, though, as Christians may or may not support Hamas. Christians have voted for Hamas, just as Christians have voted for the Islamist Party of God in Lebanon. Russia's already in Syria, on much the same mission, protecting the Middle East's largest population of Orthodox Christians.

"No rational thinker unblemished by bias and partisanship (which Chem claims to be) could ever think J6 is even remotely comparable to the Hamas Youth. "

The Hamas youth are younger, darker, more female and motivated by anger and hope. The J6 crew are older, lighter, more male and motivated by anger and fear. Basically a classic left/right dichotomy. That's why it's strange that you label it the Hamas youth. Other than its anti colonial, anti-imperial stance, it's closer in many ways to America's right wing religious fundamentalism than anything leftist. Hamas is the right wing religious fundamentalist party in Palestinian politics. Fatah was always much more socialist.

[DesigNate]

Holy shit take, Batman.

[KARtikeya]

“ and the bad guys (just like the LGBT)”

Bloodthirsty, social conservative bigots like you need to shut up and go away forever. YOU’RE the bad guys!

Fuck off you goddamn redneck.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Said by someone with "kill" in his screen name.

[KARtikeya]

I feel bad about some of my comments I have made previously. I don’t want to kill any rednecks.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

I can hear the violins playing for your sorrow.

[Sevo]

Fuck off and die, steaming pile of lefty shit.

[AT]

Language.

And it's funny to me that you cut off the other side that followed the LGBT in parentheses.

A) The gay/pedo/trans community - LGBT - is now an extremist group and no longer hiding the fact that they're an intentionally destructive force that is openly preying on children.

https://twitter.com/LibertyCappy/status/1780278144294854830

B) They (and their compulsion to spread "awareness" and "pride") is, in fact, grossly over-represented, despite being an extreme minority defined exclusively by a wanton alternative lifestyle choice.

Any you may not realize it, possibly because you live in echo chambers - but America is done with you and your ilk. Americans are red-pilling against the rainbow cult faster and faster. Y'all pushed it too far, and one day very soon the term "FAFO" is going to become VERY real for your "community." Honestly, the smartest thing you could do at this point is just get back in the closet.

You got everything you wanted from a legal standpoint, that's not likely to go away. So take the win and quit while you're ahead. But if you continue down your "FA" path, rather than going back to the "what we do in the privacy of our own homes is our business" mindset that the rest of us were willing to tolerate, I promise you that you will "FO" much sooner than you might realize.

[KARtikeya]

I told you I’d watch my language if you stopped your gay bashing you goddamn fucking white trash vermin.

“ Any you may not realize it, possibly because you live in echo chambers – but America is done with you and your ilk. Americans are red-pilling against the rainbow cult faster and faster. Y’all pushed it too far, and one day very soon the term “FAFO” is going to become VERY real for your “community.” Honestly, the smartest thing you could do at this point is just get back in the closet.”

You fucking bigots don’t give two fucks about protecting kids! Otherwise you would be up in arms over sex abuse scandals in churches, Boy Scouts, religious schools, etc… it’s so obvious to real Americans like me how disingenuous or stupid you are. All you care about is hating people different than you!

You ever watch TV or read a newspaper outside your far right bubble? YOU ARE IN THE MINORITY! Real Americans like me a fucking sick and tired of the problems you social conservative bigots have been causing for decades.

You sided with the redcoats during the revolutionary war. You were the southern Confederate traitors during the Civil War. You were the massive resistance to the Civil Rights movement.

It is YOU and your ilk that need to get in the closet! Us real Americans have you severely outnumbered and out-gunned. Your time is running out to accept this.

Shut the fuck up and keep your hands to yourselves OR prepare to be annihilated!

[AT]

Language.

I've done no "gay bashing" whatsoever. I am simply telling you facts. Uncomfortable facts, perhaps, but facts all the same. The more the LGBT preys on children, the faster they're hated. And the faster they're hated, the sooner normal people will come for them.

As you point out - the same is true for churches, scouts, and schools. There is an unwritten rule in society: DO NOT EVER prey on the children. And the gay/pedo/trans community is openly breaking it. With impunity. They actually outright defend their doing so.

Which means you're done. Normal Americans will come for you. And they will kill you. Because you and your rainbow cult broke rule: do not EVER prey on children. Your only hope is to get back in the closet and pray to the very God you openly despise that nobody finds you out. Because if you're LGBT+ - then YOU ARE either a pedophile or a pedophile enabler. Either way, it's inexcusable, intolerable, and America will NOT put up with it any longer. Your rainbow flag of pedophile predators will be the noose they hang you from.

And I - folks like me who would otherwise defend your rights to the death - will not get in their way. No more than I would a bear whose cubs you tortured. Because you deserve this future. You brought it on yourself. Why you want this future for yourself so badly, I cannot understand. Maybe you're just self-loathing. That would track - LGBT folks usually are.

I'd say there's still time to stop it - but you clearly don't want to. So, enjoy it. Enjoy the end result of your pride.

[KARtikeya]

I’ll talk however I god damn want to a white trash bigot like you. I told you I’d watch my language if you stopped gay bashing you stupid fucking hick.

Fuck your make believe god.

Nothing but homophobic lies coming from a Bible humping, backwoods, inbred bigot.

Fuck your make believe god!

You probably don’t know any gay people in the rural shithole you call home, but they aren’t out to get kids like you bigots say they are. They are simply trying to live their lives and they are tired of being targeted by uneducated hillbillies like you.

Fuck your make believe god!

This is anecdotal, but when I lived in Utah it was the Mormon, social conservatives that were overly obsessed with kids. Their church was founded by a child fucker. It was white trash like you harming kids!!!

Fuck your make believe god.

You started the war you stupid, shit kicking rube! Real Americans like me will show you backwards cretins no fucking mercy. We’ve had enough of you superstitious hicks holding us back.

Fuck your make believe god!

Your chance to surrender peacefully is coming to an end shortly.

Fuck your make believe god!

Stay in your rural shitholes, shut your fucking mouths, and keep your hands to yourselves or prepare to die.

Fuck your make believe god!

If you got out of your Bible humping, rural shithole you would realize we have you vastly outnumbered. Maybe you would realize your views are very far outside mainstream American society.

Fuck your make believe god!

If you keep it up you will find out soon your god doesn’t exist.

[AT]

Language.

We’ve had enough of you superstitious hicks holding us back.

From what? Molesting, mutilating, and brainwashing children?

That – THAT PRECISELY – is why your days are numbered. This is why normal people will come for your head. And the only reason you react the way you do is because deep down, somewhere in the pit of whatever you call your soul, you know this is true. And you are terrified of it. As well you should be.

Because you know you have it coming. YOU know you asked for it.

But your pride gets in the way, doesn’t it. Doesn’t it.

You broke the most basic rule of human society. And you know that there will be a comeuppance for that, you sicko pervert degenerate freak. But you blame everyone else but yourself – me, conservatives, republicans, America, Christianity, God Himself. How do you NOT see how far you’ve fallen?

Here’s the good news – or, if you prefer the Good News – you can still be saved. There is still time. So long as you draw a breath, you can turn it all around.

If you want to.

And IF you want to, then there will be people like me – tens, hundreds of millions of them – ready to help you.

I am but a mere earth-bound harbinger of your future, Kar. I don’t want this future you’ve chosen. But YOU have to be the one to reject it. I can’t do it for you, and I won’t even if I could.

Free will. It’s a heck of a thing, ain’t it.

[Truthfulness]

"That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still."

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

You fucking bigots don’t give two fucks about protecting kids! Otherwise you would be up in arms over sex abuse scandals in churches, Boy Scouts, religious schools,

LOL, plenty of kiddie-diddling going on the public schools. Seems like Daily Fail's publishing at least one story a week on it now, and that's just the ones they decide to highlight.

[KARtikeya]

They’ve also been publishing a lot of stories on Mormon abuse lately.

[Truthfulness]

Those publishers left out the part where it has also been happening in public schools, daycare centers, government programs and other organizations.

In the United States, "roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee from 1991 to 2000—a single decade, compared with the roughly five-decade period examined in the study of Catholic priests." - Wikipedia

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/sexual-abuse-by-educators-is-scrutinized/2004/03
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fntbsh3c99r081.png

Sorry mister, but your anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon narrative just ain't cutting it. You are being disingenuous with your words.

[AT]

To say nothing of how virtually every LGBT+ person who gains attention soon after gains further attention for, surprise surprise, having kiddie porn on their computer.

Don't make me tap the sign.

[KARtikeya]

That’s a fucking lie. There are plenty of heterosexuals and Christians caught with child porn too you know.

People as ignorant and bigoted as you are unredeemable. You’re leaving us real Americans no other option but extermination.

[AT]

Language.

And, much to your chagrin, the simple provable reality is that such things are FAR more prevalent in the gay/pedo/trans community than they are anywhere else.

Your defense of "yea, but sometimes normal people do it too" is laughable. I can't tell if you're trying to excuse it or justify it.

Probably the latter, right Peter Pan? You sicko.

And here's the problem with your position in general: you will never exterminate normalcy. No matter how hard you try. Like the body pushes out a splinter, the splinter will never replace the body. You, Peter Pan, are the splinter. And the body is well past the point of enduring your unwanted presence.

You have a choice.

Choice A: Keep doing what you're doing. FAFO.
Choice B: Do it in secret. Hope no one finds out.
Choice C: Pick a better path.

I don't really care if you choose A or B. That's on you, as are its consequences. But if you choose C, know that I - and everyone like me - am here for you. The hand is outstretched. You have but to clasp it.

[mad.casual]

which seems to think dental dams and plan B are needed in order to *checks notes* help the Gazans

What we really need are tent encampments to get the UChicago to update the Chicago Manual of Style to adopt the '*checks notes*' notation as satirical quotation marks.

[KARtikeya]

[Medulla Oblongata]

"The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in April according to the latest employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday morning, the smallest job gain in some six months and significantly below Wall Street estimates for the month.

"It was expected that April would bring 240,000 to 250,000 new jobs, and the unemployment rate would remain at 3.8 percent. Instead, April was a big miss, and unemployment ticked up to 3.9 percent.

"As has become the norm, April's jobs print revised down the previous two months' reported job gains by 22,000.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1786373545154449572

[DesigNate]

So April was even worse than that, based off the last two years of numbers being revised down.

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-says-hamas-seized-first-aid-shipment-that-entered-gaza-via-reopened-erez-crossing/

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller admitted on Thursday that Hamas was able to seize aid that was coming from Jordan to Gaza.

[Miller's] comments follow Israel’s long-standing contention that Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from increasingly desperate civilians. Footage from Gaza has shown gunmen, who were reportedly linked to the terror group, stealing trucks delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt.

In February, the US diplomat who was then involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas stole aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official had presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that Hamas had used other aid delivery channels to “shape where and to whom assistance goes.”

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/activist-groups-trained-students-for-months-before-campus-protests/ar-AA1o76g0

The recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses came on suddenly and shocked people across the nation. But the political tactics underlying some of the demonstrations were the result of months of training, planning and encouragement by longtime activists and left-wing groups.

Though there isn’t a centralized command overseeing the student movement opposing Israel’s invasion of Gaza, there are connections between longstanding far-left groups and the protesters.

The National Students for Justice in Palestine, or NSJP, has been around some two decades and has more than 300 chapters across the U.S., many of which have helped organize the college encampments and building occupations.

‘No divestment, no commencement’

That same day on X, the group posted drawings with “friendly advice” to protesting students. One suggested they wear comfortable clothes and running shoes and bring water, an energy bar and a bandanna in case of surveillance. Another referred to police as “pigs” and offered this advice: “If someone is arrested, don’t linger too long or pigs will kettle the march,” referring to a crowd-control tactic. “Free the comrade, or else get their name and birthdate for jail support and keep it moving.”

On April 29, the group announced a new chant on social media: “No divestment, no commencement.” University administrators have been concerned that coming graduations could be interrupted by protesters.

In March, there was a “Resistance 101” training scheduled at Columbia with guest speakers including longtime activists with Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based group that celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The administration twice barred the event, citing some of the organizers’ known support of terrorism and promotion of violence. Columbia students hosted the event virtually nonetheless, which prompted Columbia President Minouche Shafik to suspend several of them.

“There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” Kates said. “These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine.”

Polat said student organizers at Columbia learned the discipline and planning needed to pull off an effective protest movement not only from their work with veteran demonstrators and outside groups, but from participating in Black Lives Matter marches or student labor organizing.

Some tools they learned were practical, such as how to raise money via student fundraisers and donations from friends and supporters to buy tents for encampments.

[mtrueman]

XM and I were discussing this yesterday. We concluded that it was simply impossible for the students to buy all those tents without outside support. XM wasn't sure, but I suspect it is the Russians who've had an interest in the region due to their support for the Orthodox Christians. Russians are in Syria today on their behalf. The Crimean war was fought in large part due to European concern over Russian meddling in Jerusalem, again because of the Orthodox Christians there. And today we have Israelis murdering Orthodox Christians in Gaza, supported and armed by the US. Russians have experience encouraging demonstrations in the US thanks to Vietnam and plenty of motive to get revenge for America's role in killing Russians in Ukraine today.

[Vernon Depner]

Russia Russia Russia

[mtrueman]

Once you accept that outside influences are behind the campus occupations, and that American students are incapable of organizing or financing them, it is without doubt the Russians. Hamas leadership representatives have made repeated pilgrimages to Moscow where they've met with Russians and Iranians (another Russian cat's paw) to discuss tactics and strategy.

It's strange that left wing American students are supported by conservative regimes in Russia, Iran and Palestine, but they both share a distaste for colonialism and imperialism. That's their legacy of a history as victims of imperialism, something that Americans don't share, and American conservatives if anything support imperialism, especially in the middle east.

[Vernon Depner]

Or, you could be full of shit.

[mtrueman]

Who are these outside influences in your opinion? It’s either Russia, devoted followers of the most anti-semitic church on the planet, or self hating Jews. Most Jews hate non Jews (including Palestinians), so the number of Jews who hate themselves is too small to account for the large number of tents in evidence on campuses across the country. If the American protestors are too retarded to organize and finance the protests, it has to be others. Perhaps you believe Russia doesn’t mind it when Israelis kill Orthodox Christians in the holy land, or Americans kill Russians in Ukraine. I think they do mind. If they can exact their revenge, undermine America’s economy, military industry and paralyze the education system, by supplying a bunch of leftist American students with pup tents, it’s an irresistible bargain.

[Truthfulness]

The Russia connections have long been discredited. You’re living in your world of self-deception at this point. Let go of your antisemitism.

[mtrueman]

"The Russia connections have long been discredited. "

Hamas has visited Russian leaders in Moscow several times recently. If you weren't so antisemitic, you'd understand the importance.

[Truthfulness]

I'm not the one that's supporting Hamas, doofus. That's you. And you have the nerve to call me "antisemitic"? Bogus.

[mtrueman]

"I’m not the one that’s supporting Hamas, doofus"

It's not Hamas who is supplying the students with tents. It's Russia. Which you support. Which hates Jews. Hence you are an antisemite.