Biden Out of Race

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nimbus said:
Forced disappearance. Trump is looking more and more like Augusto Pinochet and Bashar Al Assad. He may share their fate.

www.nytimes.com

Venezuelan Immigrant Deported by Trump Administration Has Disappeared

The Venezuelan man does not appear on a list of people sent to a prison in El Salvador, and his family and friends have no idea of his whereabouts.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Trump is weak and immoral. It’s sickening that this immigration policy is the one thing he has > 50% approval on. What does that say for America that > 50% approve of treating other human beings in this manner? There are better ways to treat humans than locking them up in detention facilities or shipping them off to prisons in a foreign country (all at American taxpayer cost). Trump and his cult followers claim he’s good at making deals - so the best we can do is this? Absolutely disgusting.
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Southpaw said:
Trump is weak and immoral. It’s sickening that this immigration policy is the one thing he has > 50% approval on. What does that say for America that > 50% approve of treating other human beings in this manner? There are better ways to treat humans than locking them up in detention facilities or shipping them off to prisons in a foreign country (all at American taxpayer cost). Trump and his cult followers claim he’s good at making deals - so the best we can do is this? Absolutely disgusting.
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He’s done so much damage to our country it’s mind boggling. In addition to the blanket lack of empathy demonstrated by this administration, our national security has rarely (if ever) been more tenuous than it is now. We’ve alienated many of our allies and Russia and China look at us and see chaos, not strength. The Pentagon is in disarray. Our secretary of defense is a complete and utter joke, as are most Trump appointees.

As you point out, the more depressing thing is how many people still support him blindly (at this point if you “support” the Trump administration, you are either actively sticking your head in the sand or you have problems with critical thinking).
 
Gern Blansten said:
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You can’t actually agree with this. They immediately jump to saying so and so is in the country illegally, so can summarily deport them, REGARDLESS of whether or not that’s the case. Like our criminal legal system, we cannot and should not allow for a high false positive rate on something like deporting lawful residents, even if that means letting some unlawful residents stay.
 
MirrorTodd said:
Conservatives will find a way to defend this…or find a way to bring it back to how well he is doing on “immigration”.

Remember: you voted for this. Like Jafar, you wanted to be a genie, well you got it…and everything that goes with it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/23/tru...esident-promises-dinner-with-top-holders.html
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That's funny, in the other thread ...

We'llBeDoneIn15Minutes said:
Trump just called Powell a major loser. Make no mistake, I voted for him to close the border which he did... but he is one major ah.
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Cath Up said:
You can’t actually agree with this. They immediately jump to saying so and so is in the country illegally, so can summarily deport them, REGARDLESS of whether or not that’s the case. Like our criminal legal system, we cannot and should not allow for a high false positive rate on something like deporting lawful residents, even if that means letting some unlawful residents stay.
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It's the Babylon Bee - an attempt to copy the Onion by *****s who've forgotten (or never understood) that the first rule of satire is that it has to be funny.

See also: any cartoon by Ben Garrison.
 
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Gern Blansten said:
Interesting that 18 of the richest institutions in the world are scrambling to not lose their access to free money from the government. They may have to ask their football and basketball coaches to donate 5% of their salaries to cover the potential losses.
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You think 5% of football and basketball coaches' salaries will cover >$2.2 billion in research grants?
 
NumTacos said:
Funny enough @We'llBeDoneIn15Minutes actually thinks Trump is just too much of a coward
“Trump is pouting because like all before him he doesn't want to let the recessive cycle run its course. He wants more stimulus from Powell in the form of rate cuts to keep the bubble afloat.”
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They are all cowards, past present and future.
They all want rate cuts and debt driven "stimulus" spending and/or tax cuts, the causes of the long term problems that got us here, to sugar coat the financial mess and hand the bomb off to the next guy hopefully before it explodes. The idea that this bubble can be kept afloat endlessly is financial illiteracy. The futile kick the can down the road efforts are only creating a bigger problem ahead.
 
You say "free money" like every dollar invested doesn't return $2.6. That's leaving aside the benefit of new inventions and treatments being discovered, or companies and universities around the world basing their headquarters and work in the US so they can collaborate with the world leaders. By scientists who could largely all make more money if they went into industry. Scientific research has always had at least moderate bipartisan support until now because it is an amazing deal for the US, and it's absurd to think that it's beneficial to dismantle it while simultaneously handing out trillions in corporate tax cuts.
 
Dragonite7 said:
You say "free money" like every dollar invested doesn't return $2.6. That's leaving aside the benefit of new inventions and treatments being discovered, or companies and universities around the world basing their headquarters and work in the US so they can collaborate with the world leaders. By scientists who could largely all make more money if they went into industry. Scientific research has always had at least moderate bipartisan support until now because it is an amazing deal for the US, and it's absurd to think that it's beneficial to dismantle it while simultaneously handing out trillions in corporate tax cuts.
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The problem is every dollar invested is a tiny tiny miniscule fraction of the debt at all levels. The overwhelming majority is spent on frivolous consumption. Like all situations previously that were thought to last forever and too good to be true, this one too will have its day off reckoning. We're seeing glimpses of the future here and there in the recent past.

Seriously, what bandaids are left? Historically interest rates are still on the low side. Interest on the deficit each year is too high to raise interest rates significantly in an inflationary crisis. The debt is exceeding what can be borrowed to keep it afloat at low rates. The Fed printing money is hardly an answer as that is direct dollar devaluation. And without term limits and a ban on stock trading, don't expect the politicians to change what is keeping them in power and making them wealthy.
 
Dragonite7 said:
You say "free money" like every dollar invested doesn't return $2.6. That's leaving aside the benefit of new inventions and treatments being discovered, or companies and universities around the world basing their headquarters and work in the US so they can collaborate with the world leaders. By scientists who could largely all make more money if they went into industry. Scientific research has always had at least moderate bipartisan support until now because it is an amazing deal for the US, and it's absurd to think that it's beneficial to dismantle it while simultaneously handing out trillions in corporate tax cuts.
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Oh you didn't know that the universities were just having large DEI bonfires with the suitcases of cash that the government was giving them?
 
rowsdower88 said:
You think 5% of football and basketball coaches' salaries will cover >$2.2 billion in research grants?
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Do you think that I think that? Or is it possible I was using hyperbole to point out that these very rich institutions place a ridiculously high value on football and basketball yet rely on free money from the government in order to do research? Ohio State's coach reportedly makes $12.5 million per year.
So, did you really think that I am under the impression that $625K would cover the research funding shortfall? Or was it a ridiculously small percentage of a bloated salary intended for hyperbolic effect? And you have the nerve to call me pedantic?
 
Gern Blansten said:
Do you think that I think that? Or is it possible I was using hyperbole to point out that these very rich institutions place a ridiculously high value on football and basketball yet rely on free money from the government in order to do research? Ohio State's coach reportedly makes $12.5 million per year.
So, did you really think that I am under the impression that $625K would cover the research funding shortfall? Or was it a ridiculously small percentage of a bloated salary intended for hyperbolic effect? And you have the nerve to call me pedantic?
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These schools don’t place a ridiculously high value on football…society does. These schools invest in football because it generates revenue…and drives applications and alumni donations as well.

What’s really happening is we are divesting in the future of this country so we can give the non-economically productive older generations more handouts. Universities are one of the biggest drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship that goes way beyond the research generated by the university. They are often one of the biggest employers in any state. The towns that surround universities thrive with many small businesses. Large businesses set up headquarters or outposts near universities to try and capture talented young people who attend these universities. Divesting in our universities at the same time we are searching for ways to allow rich baby boomers to consolidate more wealth will go down as one of the all time dumbest things that the leadership of any country in the history of the world could do. The economic turmoil from divesting in our universities could very well dwarf that caused by shipping small goods manufacturing to Asia.
 
Gern Blansten said:
Do you think that I think that? Or is it possible I was using hyperbole to point out that these very rich institutions place a ridiculously high value on football and basketball yet rely on free money from the government in order to do research? Ohio State's coach reportedly makes $12.5 million per year.
So, did you really think that I am under the impression that $625K would cover the research funding shortfall? Or was it a ridiculously small percentage of a bloated salary intended for hyperbolic effect? And you have the nerve to call me pedantic?
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I think you didn't know it is >$2.2 billion in research grants that Trump is trying to cut off.

The joke just doesn't land when you're off by 3 orders of magnitude.
 
Gern Blansten said:
Dictionary

hy·per·bo·le
/hīˈpərbəlē/
noun
  1. exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

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ff3beb9b6136c913_Alexander-Skarsgard-Zoolander.gif
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I was under the impression you were going for satire.

The initial joke was that these elite institutions are grossly wasteful as evidenced by paying their coaches inordinate salaries (a large number). If the joke is at the expense of the institutions, the joke should demonstrate how wasteful this expenditure is in relation to the proposed costs currently born by the government (to be "good satire", a similar large number).

But you're (IMO) changing the joke to just be hyperbole that is not at the expense of the Universities, but just at the idea their coaches' salaries could ever come close to covering the shortfall created by Trump. Which is not a jab at the Universities at all. Bad satire, clunky joke.

I appreciate the Zoolander gifs. There were some well crafted jokes in that movie.
 
rowsdower88 said:
You think 5% of football and basketball coaches' salaries will cover >$2.2 billion in research grants?
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The schools can afford to do without the research grants from the government. They can use the money they receive from espn/walt Disney alone.

The espn ncaa tv contracts are worth close to 8 freaking billion just for college football playoffs alone

This excludes the regular season regional sports network football all contracts the ncaa schools get paid for.

So I’m not evening touching the ncaa basketball contracts either.

College sports makes tons of money that they can divert proceeds to fund their own research.
 
aneftp said:
The schools can afford to do without the research grants from the government. They can use the money they receive from espn/walt Disney alone.

The espn ncaa tv contracts are worth close to 8 freaking billion just for college football playoffs alone

This excludes the regular season regional sports network football all contracts the ncaa schools get paid for.

So I’m not evening touching the ncaa basketball contracts either.

College sports makes tons of money that they can divert proceeds to fund their own research.
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I'm sure all of that money is uniformly spread amongst the Universities and could be easily diverted to research without any negative consequences. /s
 
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You can decide that you don't like how the incentives are aligned between sports, universities, research, or what-have-you, but taking research dollars won't actually fix that, it'll just make the US less competitive and increase the likelihood that some disease you contract won't have a good treatment. That's the sad part. Be mad all you want at Harvard for being woke or wasteful or whatever, but many of our universities are the envy of the world and produce ideas, findings, and innovations that, left undone, will make the world a worse place. Not hyperbole.
 
rowsdower88 said:
I'm sure all of that money is uniformly spread amongst the Universities and could be easily diverted to research without any negative consequences. /s
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Some (not all) of the increase in tuition these days is due to schools trying to out compete with each other. Building fancier training facilities.

The arms race to attract more students.

Yes. Some states have reduce their contribution to tuition. But there is a ton of unnecessary spending at schools

And the big 10 (in the link you shared) isn’t gonna to want to spread their own money to other schools. Because they feel like they are entitled to keep it themselves.
 
aneftp said:
Some (not all) of the increase in tuition these days is due to schools trying to out compete with each other. Building fancier training facilities.

The arms race to attract more students.

Yes. Some states have reduce their contribution to tuition. But there is a ton of unnecessary spending at schools

And the big 10 (in the link you shared) isn’t gonna to want to spread their own money to other schools. Because they feel like they are entitled to keep it themselves.
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The kernel of truth you have is that there is unnecessary spending at schools.

Agreeing with that premise and working towards addressing it shouldn't result in our largest Universities forming defense compacts with one another in opposition to your aim. Trump is creating a new conservative boogeyman. Even the school that ostensibly complied with the Trump demands (Columbia) is facing cuts in their research budget regardless. Trump is a bad deal maker if he is creating more and stronger enemies than when he started.
 
rowsdower88 said:
The kernel of truth you have is that there is unnecessary spending at schools.

Agreeing with that premise and working towards addressing it shouldn't result in our largest Universities forming defense compacts with one another in opposition to your aim. Trump is creating a new conservative boogeyman. Even the school that ostensibly complied with the Trump demands (Columbia) is facing cuts in their research budget regardless. Trump is a bad deal maker if he is creating more and stronger enemies than when he started.
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Point of order: trump probably doesn’t care about this stuff with the universities.

But Curtis Yarvin cares very much about liquidating the cathedral (aka academia).

They are even on a timeline. They want it fast.
 
maxxor said:
Point of order: trump probably doesn’t care about this stuff with the universities.

But Curtis Yarvin cares very much about liquidating the cathedral (aka academia).

They are even on a timeline. They want it fast.
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If you want to exchange Trump for whichever Project 2025 author is actually writing the executive orders, I'm not going to fight you on it. Trump is ultimately signing the EOs though.
 
rowsdower88 said:
The kernel of truth you have is that there is unnecessary spending at schools.

Agreeing with that premise and working towards addressing it shouldn't result in our largest Universities forming defense compacts with one another in opposition to your aim. Trump is creating a new conservative boogeyman. Even the school that ostensibly complied with the Trump demands (Columbia) is facing cuts in their research budget regardless. Trump is a bad deal maker if he is creating more and stronger enemies than when he started.
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The Big 10 (and SEC) systematically caused the collapse of the traditional way colleges worked.

Don’t get for once second they are not evil when it comes to money.

They are the boogeyman themselves.

Remember the big 10 cherry picked the more attractive pac-12 schools they wanted ultimately leading to the pac-12 collapse.

And you don’t think the big 10 and sec have made enemies with their encroachment of schools to join the conference to become bigger and bigger. While leaving smaller programs and schools in the dust who don’t align with their policies.
 
rowsdower88 said:
I was under the impression you were going for satire.
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Not to beat this dead horse to further death, but you literally stated in your first post that you thought I was serious when I stated that 5% of a coach’s salary would cover research funding losses. There is no indication in your initial post that you thought that was satire. That was the reason I posted the Zoolander gifs. Because it felt like you totally missed the joke. Now I’m even more convinced that you did and the Zoolander gifs are even more appropriate because you’re now defending it as if you knew it was a joke all along…which it was.
1745548401907.gif
 
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Gern Blansten said:
Not to beat this dead horse to further death, but you literally stated in your first post that you thought I was serious when I stated that 5% of a coach’s salary would cover research funding losses. There is no indication in your initial post that you thought that was satire. That was the reason I posted the Zoolander gifs. Because it felt like you totally missed the joke. Now I’m even more convinced that you did and the Zoolander gifs are even more appropriate because you’re now defending it as if you knew it was a joke all along…which it was.
View attachment 402580
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It's cool. Jokes are hard.
 
MirrorTodd said:
Conservatives: well it’s good that he was arrested, obviously he was gonna leave his pregnant wife. Besides…We can’t have these people leaving America before ICE arrests them and then forces them out of America!
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Context from the article:

"The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, admitted in a court filing that immigration agents typically need warrants before arresting individuals. But it argued that Khalil was arrested without a warrant due to "exigent circumstances," alleging that agents believed the Columbia activist would "escape before they could obtain a warrant."

What a dumb argument to make.
 
Gern Blansten said:
They’re really not. I hope you eventually get there though. It will really open up a whole new world for you.
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May your 'new world' be a treasured secret, known only to you and held close to your heart. No need to share its whereabouts; let it remain a personal sanctuary, a sacred place that brings you peace and joy. God bless.
 
aneftp said:
The Big 10 (and SEC) systematically caused the collapse of the traditional way colleges worked.

Don’t get for once second they are not evil when it comes to money.

They are the boogeyman themselves.

Remember the big 10 cherry picked the more attractive pac-12 schools they wanted ultimately leading to the pac-12 collapse.

And you don’t think the big 10 and sec have made enemies with their encroachment of schools to join the conference to become bigger and bigger. While leaving smaller programs and schools in the dust who don’t align with their policies.
Click to expand...

Conference realignment certainly hurts college sports (driven by football money), but the real harm now is caused by NIL and the transfer portal system. This will create an even more pronounced gap between big universities and smaller ones.
 
Harvard has a 53 billion dollar endowment

They can be like the Augusta national golf club in 2003/4 when outside pressures tried to get Augusta national to admit DEI members and Augusta national refused to give into demand of liberals. To Augusta national losf 250 million in revenues for each year so close to 500 million (1 billion in 2025 money?)

If Augusta national a private entity can do it. Harvard can go without govt funding and fund themselves at least for a year maybe two.
 
NumTacos said:
May your 'new world' be a treasured secret, known only to you and held close to your heart. No need to share its whereabouts; let it remain a personal sanctuary, a sacred place that brings you peace and joy. God bless.
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That is very sweet. You seem very tender hearted and sensitive.
 
Continuing right along our expedited timeline to full authoritarianism--we have a low level judge being arrested

www.jsonline.com

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan charged with 2 felonies in ICE case

Brady McCarron, spokesman for U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., confirmed Dugan was arrested at about 8 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is in federal custody.
www.jsonline.com

Gotta wait for the facts of course but on its face looks like she didn't want to facilitate ICE arresting someone in her courtroom that was there for a different issue.
 
chessknt said:
Continuing right along our expedited timeline to full authoritarianism--we have a low level judge being arrested

www.jsonline.com

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan charged with 2 felonies in ICE case

Brady McCarron, spokesman for U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., confirmed Dugan was arrested at about 8 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is in federal custody.
www.jsonline.com

Gotta wait for the facts of course but on its face looks like she didn't want to facilitate ICE arresting someone in her courtroom that was there for a different issue.
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Sounds like she wanted to play political activist instead of doing her job. Play stupid games…
 
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