Many of you here would refer to it as a red state shit hole
#237 | Posted by eberly

Is that why the kids with promise (the girls) left?

Sounds like China is being provided a free proving grounds for their latest technology, courtesy of the American Taxpayer, just like the No Fly Zones over Iraq.

H is the 8th letter of the alphabet.

88 is common code among White Nationalists for Heil Hitler. Much in the way that 1312 means All Cops Are Bastards.

I don't think Eberly chose 88 for that reason. I don't think he could tell us why he picked that number.

40 years ago it wasn't an issue, now you have to be more mindful and selective when choosing schools and a path.
#223 | Posted by eberly

In other words:
They pulled the ladder up behind them.
Oh well.
Thoughts And Prayers.
Nothing Can Be Done.

I liken it to six-man poker, with the other five folks in one room showing each other their hands.
#8 | Posted by Danforth

It's also a cash game where you're you, and the other players are Vanguard, Geode, TRP, State Street.

They can put you all in, and if you somehow manage to call them off with a winning hand, their tiny losses won't even be a blip on the quarterly business report.

As I said a dozen times upthread ... ... the environment is much harder today.
#223 | Posted by eberly

^
Thoughts And Prayers
Nothing Can Be Done about the environment.

That's a capitulation, Eberly. An abrogation of responsibility.

Washing the blood from your hands is why being a conservative works for you.

#223 You're not wrong. But taking in risk is supposed to be a two way street, and it's not.

Notice how it's never:

"Perhaps Better thought needs to be put into lending choices before you agree to extend that much credit." And we both know lenders will be made whole by the government when up against the wall; borrowers will not.

I can understand how not extending credit to everyone who asks is the only way to combat racism.

But that's not an economically rational decision.

But somehow those saddled with the debt are supposed to be economically rational actors?

There was never a "meeting of the minds" when these deals were made.

I call them "deals" because legally and from principles of economics, the things we define as "loans" can be discharged in bankruptcy, while student loans cannot.

"almost"

You sure you're in the right thread little buddy?

#22 So this code change was just performative window dressing by Toyota?

#21 Sounds legit. But Tesla "data" has a credibility problem of their own making.

being told what to do
#48 | Posted by sitzkrieg

My Freedums!

Mass Media has spent two to four decades inculcating this rejection of social responsibility and the Social Contract into Republicans.

I bet if you polled Republicans in the years leading up to 2008, most would say that electing a Black President would help improve race relations in this country.

There isn't a Republican alive in 2026 who believes the 2008 election improved racial tensions.

Meanwhile, these same Republicans say if you just follow police orders everything will work out fine.

Opposite rules for Us vs. Them.

and the fear of being told what to do
#48 | Posted by sitzkrieg

Fear of Potty Training is probably when people start becoming Conservatives.

"Trump drove his entire motorcade over the newly finished pool"

I'm glad we finally caught the Vandals.

If you graduated high school and ten years later you have the same skill set as a current HS graduate, minimum wage is probably accurate for you.
#210 | Posted by Petrous

In this country, it makes you President.

people voting against their own interests and suffering the consequences
#213 | Posted by horstngraben

When you are committed to being a hater your whole life, at some point that's all you have left.

Basically there's two kinds of people:

I had to suffer, so you should too.
I had to suffer, but you shouldn't.

The former is the root of Conversatism. That nothing should change. The latter is the basis of Empathy.

But not everyone can experience empathy, and not to the same degree. So we pretend it's a political thesis, not an emotional shortcoming, and we call those people "Conservatives."

People were asked to wear masks, to save the lives of not only their family members but also complete strangers. You can guess which group made a virtue of doing it, and which group couldn't even understand the concept of helping complete strangers for nothing tangible to them in return.

"We all took the government attorneys' word on a great many things. I, at the time, was operating on a presumption of regular grand jury proceedings, which these clearly were not."

Serious question:
Why are judges so ------- gullible and stupid?
Does the law demand it?
Are they just lazy?
Do they hate America?

I see no path where any reasonable person could accept this government's assertions about anything in the absence of independent evidence.

Your Tax Dollars At Work.

"Hate the sin, love the sinner" is a perfect example of that.
You "love" them, but you don't love them enough to allow them to have love in their lives and be happy even though who they marry effects your life in ZERO ways.
#207 | Posted by Nixon

It's lip service to Jesus, while sustaining their hate and bigotry:

"God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore."
--Edward Abbey

"afaik, there is no self driving software anywhere, from any brand, that overrides your brake pedal inputs."

737 MAX?

"repel any threat, past or present"

Oh look.

It's the Jews, using Blood Libel on the Muslims, Christians, Druze, etc.

Israel tried invading Lebanon in the 80s, they couldn't do it. It was the first significant resistance they encountered. This time they will probably do better.

If people can't figure out Israel is going to annex Gaza, West Bank, and Southern Lebanon, it's, because they never read Theodor Herzl and they don't listen to Ben Gvir.

Well, that and they're raised as colonialists, through breeding and circumstances of their own existence. Culturally, they are implicitly okay with it.

Not to make your head explode... but that's how you're supposed to live. The independent nuclear famil is 50s post-war mythology.
#212 | Posted by sitzkrieg

So the Boomer and GenX and Millennial and Zoomer generations of parents, almost all of them failed their kids:

Kids need to learn to live within their means,
#32 | Posted by eberly