Danny Bateman

Gore/pomegranates, eh?

Let's not forget that all civil rights movements of any minority group that we now view as equal started off in the fledgling stages, as you see with transgendered people going through today. Just because it's always been that way previously isn't justification to cling to that same ignorant, uncompromising standpoint. What we're seeing now with the advent of the term "PC" is a dangerous faction of people who feel they're protected and can continue being hateful to others because "free speech." You're just telling it "like it is." No, you're clinging to antiquated notions of the way human beings behave and being an ass. In other news, I felt this was relevant. This derp is REAL, and is REALLY from our HS valedictorian. Zoogs, feel free to remove if this is somehow impermissible. I've redacted any identifiers: Sorry about the size.

He is such a transparent phony. He has shown he is absolutely going to pander to whoever will give him votes. I'd like to see someone (preferably a WASP) stand up and (lie) ask about what Trump is going to do for Muslims already in the country. Or African Americans-- regarding the police. Or legal Hispanics. He'd crumble. I watched him foxtrot around questions about legitimate foreign policy questions about the Middle East from Wolf Blitzer in an interview not two hours ago. It was under the guise of "being unpredictable," and he spent most all of his time deflecting or putting blame on past Presidents (Obama, Bush) for being weak or stupid. He doesn't have a clue. Not a damn clue.

Who?

And his followers applauding him when he said that just shows how dumb they really are. Trump followers are, for the most part, lemmings. I seriously doubt most of them research his claims, and if they did, they'd find he's full of it. Politifact gave him a 77% BS rating on his claims. It blows my mind people celebrate him for "saying what people are afraid to." Is THAT really the part of our personality we want to champion? ...while simultaneously keeping risk to our troops at a minimum. It amazes me that the same people that think our vets are so mistreated by and large support sending them over into various hellholes to be maimed or die. Also, today it hit the fan what a racist Trump's dad was. All over CNN. This ought to be interesting.

This will be my contribution to the celebraish. #highschoolsoundtrack

I'd definitely pursue another TE as we're essentially hosed after 2016 in terms of TE depth. Chase is a good recruit.

We'd dreamed about finishing the class with OT earlier this year, given the need. This is about the best thing that could happen for the OL.

That thing is BADASS!

I was literally just about to create a topic on this. Here's an interesting, short read from Vox summing up articles from the Review: http://www.vox.com/2016/1/22/10815092/trump-national-review The basic arguments: That's a great story, btw, BRB. Personifies what a ruthless douche he is. Goes without saying, but I've lost all faith in the process if he wins. I've never gotten the impression that Donald cares about anyone but himself. But of course, he'll tell you he loves America, and God, and the working class, and the 9/11 first responders. Then goes out and butchers an easy pronunciation of one of the books of the Bible. He's never done anything for the working class man, and has in fact, crapped on them as BRB illustrated. And he's given $1000 total in relief funds for 9/11. He's a phony and a poor excuse for a human being.

Hillary finally altered her tactics today. She stopped trying to disparage Bernie, which was clearly blowing up in her face and benefiting him, and opted to simply point out that a lot of what he is saying we can do has very little chance of actually coming to fruition. He just doesn't seem to have a plan for much of anything right now, so much as grand ideas. That seems like common sense to me, though a lot of people don't seem to care. This is how she should've been campaigning all along. Not attacking and trying to overtly poke holes in Bernie's campaign, just pointing out the ones that are already there. For someone as smart as she is, she can sure be terrible at campaigning.

Harbaugh has become the creep du jour of college football right now.

Just said as much in the Dem Election thread. It is a bit unsettling. I didn't think that America would take the bait this badly from Trump after some of the absolutely abhorrent postions he's championed. But he's clearly the best candidate to face for the Dems, regardless of whether it makes us uneasy having him get that close to the Oval Office. I used to think Cruz would be an easy target as well since he's a hardcore climate change conspiracy guy (as they all are), but Trump actually outdid him: Edit: Wow, it took me about a thousand tries to figure out how to embed a tweet correctly. For anyone that doesn't know, just copy and paste the direct URL to the status, absent any bracket tags.

Hmmm... So Rubio basicallly tries to lie about his intentions while still planning to roll out Republican policies? Color me not surprised at all-- though he had fooled me, as he seemed like one of the reasonable ones. Plus, I mean.......... The boots. I guess there's not a truly good one in the bunch. Rand seemed good too, but I didn't know he'd be so gung-ho about attacking women's rights. I guess this is just an exercise in polishing turds.

There's a reason that we are currently taking the approach that we are taking with ISIS. Sending troops over there for ground combat is exactly what they want, and we're not giving it to them. If we were to send over troops, I'd argue it'd not only be a boon to morale, but it would risk many service members lives, which again Obama would get hammered for. It's basically a no-win situation, so I applaud them for taking the safer, more strategic route. Keeps our troops as safe as possible and doesn't start a bloody groundwar that would possibly further inflame extremist Islam. We're suffering some collateral damage while they attempt to carry out cowardly attacks and executions to try and legitimize themselves, but I truly believe we're making headway in combating them. I read the other day their so financially strapped they've been forced to HALVE fighters pay. That's a huge blow to their motivation-- I'd imagine recruiting would suffer a good deal. I think we should continue to tighten the stranglehold on their finances, while stepping up the ability to limit their ability to network online. In a sense it's the approach the government took with the lunatics in Oregon-- cut off their supplies and wait for them to crack. Zoogs, insofar as the authoritarian article, I'm patiently waiting for a Dem to win the nod and skewer Trump on the debate stage. He speaks in generalities and is generally inaccurate with a lot of his statements. Furthermore, Trump has laid a lot of bombs along the way that the Dems can lob back in his face in the general election, because it appears that is the tactic that is shaping up to be effective in putting him down. I feel like Hillary would be particularly adept, as smart as she is, at retaliating when other candidates have for the most part declined. I do not think his authoritarian methods would go over well on a national stage. The discontent in the UK parliament the other day was an embarrassment-- that's our chief ally, and he hasn't even won the nomination. It may have worked in business, but if he goes about trying to bully the rest of the world into compliance, it will be a black mark on our nation and will likely result in further embarrassment. I just hope other voters wake up and have the foresight to realize this.

Meh. Let the S&C staff at 'em once he gets here. Screw the stars. This kid can play.

Gotta love a guy with a chip on his shoulder. Especially with the other top two teams in the conference. Welcome to the family, Tony! GBR!

Even if Bernie got into the White House and wasn't able to live out his promises, so what? It's not like white middle class people have it bad in our country, at all, especially in the midwest. I'd rather keep the status quo with a .01% chance of fixing the system or at least making progress to check the greed of wall street than i would keep the status quo knowing that nothing is ever gonna change over the next 4/8 years. I just disagree with the premise that "nothing is gonna change" if a candidate besides Bernie winds up in the White House. I think that HRC is a very viable candidate and can affect very positive change if she winds up winning. I found what she did in the last debate to be very telling. Clinging tightly to Obama's legacy worked for people who agree that the last 7 years haven't been a waste, and I do. I could see why someone who was discontent with the current state of things could yearn for change. I'm assessing potential downside, as well. I guess it boils down to opinion on outcomes. I'm OK with incremental change because I think we're making real improvements. I wouldn't be OK with nothing.

My interpretation of this thread:

Gif Bomb?

We'd do best not to squander a talented LB falling into our lap late. Really hope we beat out IU.

Given the way this class has unfolded, especially on the DL given attrition, we should all be happy with a late bloomer who's a hard worker. Period.

That's a good point, Moiraine. There is a line in the sand between doing what is best for the economy on the whole and protecting one's own interests. What's interesting is we haven't had a billionaire non-politician ever this close to the presidency (in my lifetime), and it would directly benefit Trump to ensure the tax loopholes for the wealthiest stay open and we leave Wall Street operations alone. You're right when we say Trump has done very little to help the disadvantaged or even middle-class: http://newsexaminer.net/politics/donald-trump-the-least-charitable-billionaire/ For as much as he loves to bring up 9/11, he's reportedly only given $1000 to any kind of relief. Total. Also, I'll just leave this here: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ Politifact does a very thorough, objective job researching claims from candidates, including extending back way past the election cycle. By their metric, 77% of what Trump says is "mostly false," "false," or "pants on fire."

Delete

That's a very interesting idea, 84, and a great point, TG. I'd imagine that could work but like you said, serious medical events or long-term care for chronic conditions could easily exhaust the allotment. What you propose would actually be very similar to the system the use in other single-payer nations. The gov't provides single-payer insurance for everyone, and then you have the option to turn to the private market for optional supplemental. It helps cover costs above and beyond the basics, which essentially makes available a higher level of care. Medicare operates the same way. I actually had a PT I was shadowing a few years back tell me Medicare was her favorite insurance to deal with for billing. She said if you have the proper supplemental stuff, it will cover most everything and is super simple to work with. So there's definitely merit to single-payer. Bernie has mentioned completely dismantling the private insurance market, which makes me question the availability of the supplemental. Furthermore, Medicare doesn't significantly cut spending or help cost control. In order to do that, you have to reduce the salaries of all healthcare professionals, in addition to heightened bargaining power with big pharma and reducing administrative costs. And THAT is going to be a VERY tough sell. I feel like single-payer is a great idea but perhaps a flawed one for the US. Currently, it may be more realistic to try to tweak the ACA to get costs down as much as possible and possibly transition to single-payer down the road.