I look forward to having a beer or two with you, Saint. I will call you a Libtard. You will call me a Magat. And then we can toast our mutual idiocy.
OT: Washington Post layoffs
- Thread starter WestCoastWildcat
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"Echoes the issues"? An example of WaPo bringing everything back to race when the rage of the moment has nothing to do with race except for the usual baiters using the verbiage "brown and POC" on every issue as a means to keep the black racial agenda alive and top of mind for financial and power gains. WaPo has eased back on the race agenda but as Al Pacino famously said "they keeping bringing me back in".
I guarantee Bezos isn't big on this rehash of an old story but he has a newsroom that refuses to evolve. It isn't that race issues don't have their importance - they obviously do - it is the unrelenting beating of the drum at every opportunity that drove subscribers away.
I guarantee Bezos isn't big on this rehash of an old story but he has a newsroom that refuses to evolve. It isn't that race issues don't have their importance - they obviously do - it is the unrelenting beating of the drum at every opportunity that drove subscribers away.
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You want something like NPR it should be privately funded. Go ahead and donate to it, But being as one sided as it has been, it should not be funded with taxpayer dollars.
As far as Bezoz, he funded WaPo for well over 10 years of its losing huge amounts of money before these cuts, He will still lose money with it. Just not as fast
Here’s a thought, you want to grow or the status quo, make a profit. Don’t cut your customer base by 50%. No company survives that over an extended period. In my industry, we had reductions in force during down times. Including my job. Despite what some may want, we still function under capitalism.
Over $100 million in annual loses per year did that. Bezos just chose to no longer fund that level of losses. That is what happens when you change the product you put out enough that people no longer want it
The First Amendment arguments here by the liberals are most amusing to me. (I actually got a very good grade in Constitutional Law in law school). Peaceful protests clearly are protected by the Constitution. Physical resistance to authorities making arrests is not protected, period. Those people are violating the law and should be arrested. They will have every opportunity to plead not guilty and defend themselves in a court of law. This is not really difficult to understand.
"Physical resistance to authorities making arrests is not protected, period."
Don't "authorities" need a crime and a reason to make an arrest, a warrant to enter a home or business and to follow established police protocol? Almost none of that is happening here, thus the massive resistance. We here in Minnesota are very well aware this siege is meant to sow fear, chaos and distrust ahead of the November elections. Do you know how many illegal immigrants there are in Texas, compared to Minnesota, so why Minnesota and not Texas (blue state, that's why). This is not about illegality and deportation, it is politically motivated intimidation, pure and simple. People hauled out of their homes and cars and business with no legal justification, simply and arbitrarily based upon their skin color. What's legal about that? Aren't perpetrators of murder typically arrested, charged, jailed and given a trial?
I was trying to excuse my self from this conversation, but couldn’t let this incorrect information go.
There are more ICE arrests in Texas at 23% of the total arrests this year than any other state! The second highest state is Florida at 11%. The reason you see Minnesota on TV and not Texas or Florida is because local officials in those states actually cooperate with ICE officials. You aren’t being targeted in Minneapolis any more than other areas, but your dopey Governor and grandstanding Mayor are allowed to spew this nonsense to the public and of course the media sticks a camera at every protest. Then the old standby race card is pulled out. Maybe a high percentage of the illegals in your town are Somalian. That could be a reason.
Oh, is illegally entering the country no longer a crime? I didn’t see the new legislation.
As a political independent (I never vote for Dems or Repubs), this is destructive politics and eroding America at its core.
While the criminals should be gone, America’s birth rate is shrinking and we need citizens.
A smart politician would make the immigration process more sensible and figure out a pathway for the majority of migrants who are here raising families, paying taxes, and staying out of trouble.
Instead, now we’re losing people across the board to Canada & Europe & eventually South America’s benefit.
Yes, the pathway to citizenship is far too cumbersome. I think most everyone agrees with that.
Most if Europe is a complete mess right now. Plenty of it is caused by mass immigration that is stressing out the infrastructure that supports those countries. It’s a free for all and sure doesn’t seem to be a model on how we sure assimilate people to this country.
Europe’s #1 concern is Russia and their continued invasion of Ukraine and posturing towards NATO.
What is #2? Nothing comes to mind.
Agree with all except that last statement. Yes, many people are leaving under current conditions, and it is showing up in some industries.
However, in the long run, our economy is a huge advantage that attracts young workers. Our economy for years has been much more dynamic than those in Europe and in Central America. I think this is very likely to continue, unless we go full-blown socialist, which is still somewhat possible.
we definitely need young workers to support our industries and grow our population. There is absolutely zero question about that, but what we had under Biden is absolutely ridiculous. I am still trying to make sense of it all, and I can’t. Now have yet to see one Democratic leader at any level come forward and explain to me why this was a good policy.
Are you sure this is correct information? Texas leads the country in ICE detentions because arrestees get shipped there to get them out of jurisdictions perceived as less ICE-friendly as quickly as possible, and because Texas is more friendly to the corporations that want to build large detention facilities, among other reasons. But that's not the same as being the top place where ICE arrests are happening. That's where people are being sent, not where they are from. (I can't on quick search find data on where arrestees are hailing from en mass, so maybe you can enlighten us. But I'm seeing lots of sources talking "detainees" and Texas...)
Edit: Ok, walking back my own post here, this appears to be a decent source on your point: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12/11/ice-jails-update/ . Texas at #1 in pure total persons, Florida at #2, California at #3, etc.
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Now we know why you are called "Pile Driver". What you and a few others are completely missing is not the number of arrests here (or anywhere), but how and on whom and what grounds they are being made. You don't rip innocent CITIZENS, often totally innocent women, out of their cars, homes and business based solely on the color of their skin, for no cause. That's what's happening here on a large scale. You don't illegally murder people who show up at a protest or happen to be stuck in their own street because of police vehicles. Here in Minnesota it is a particularly cruel and arbitrary campaign against people of color, mainly. That's why there are huge protests and huge media coverage, not because Walz or Frey put their faces on camera. The Mayor of your city or Governor of your State would be doing the same thing if it were unjustifiably under attack by an irresponsible, mendacious Federal Government, illegally for obvious political gain. Look, the Somalian fraud thing was bad and Walz for whatever reason did not intervene, but that is absolutely no justification for the siege that is now being carried out illegally by a federal government agency out of control. P.S. I am 100% in favor a strong southern policy to keep asylum seekers from entering illegally and for the deportation of illegals, but not when illegality is met with illegality committed by our federal government. I too thought I was done here, but cannot sit by while ignorance of our situation prevails. One of the reasons for the influx of immigrants early 2000's was the NEED for workers to keep the price of YOUR vegetables and other farm products from going through the roof. Have you been to the grocery store lately? This does not justify workers entering illegally, but rather it has been a free-market based response to a shortage of labor. No simple solutions here.
Dude, I responded to your incorrect information where you said Minnesota had more arrests by ICE than Texas. That is false. It’s not close! You are the one that brought up Red versus Blue states and implied there was bias due to the leanings of the population of the state. Not me. I would have left well enough alone if you weren’t blatantly sharing misinformation.
I never once said I believed ICE was free of ANY blame here. I never once justified the actions in Minneapolis, I do wholeheartedly believe your Governor and Mayor made a bad situation worse. You conveniently move the goal posts by introducing grocery prices as some sort of justification for wide open borders. Great, lower prices all for it. How about we now evaluate the tax payer money devoted to the various forms of public aid and border security for illegals in this country and trying to get into this county. It’s not like a game of tag you played 60 years ago that is Ollie Ollie Ocean Free because you managed to cross the border. Any way you want to slice it they committed a crime entering the country illegally. There’s a lot of layers to this, Bottom line is this country should have effective border security with a reasonable path to legal residence for qualified people. Hopefully, we find common ground to reduce the violence.
I really don't want to get into it, but my wife has CNN and NBC on 24 hours a day and pretty much all I saw was mostly white women and the occasional white guy wrestling with police. As far as arrests, the few that made the news were Hispanic featured who didn't look to have more color in their skin than I do on an average summer day after a round of golf. Of course, it is Minnesota so it isn't hard to stand out in terms of skin color.
I have a hard time understanding this people of color thing with Hispanics/Latinos. I spent a lot of time in Miami and the Caribbean plus living in the DC area where we are a second home for half of Central America and Haiti among other ethnicities. Miami is a gathering place for all of South America and the Caribbean. The color of the skin and features vary widely. European, Indian and African blend in a kaleidoscope of skin colors, features and body types but a whole lot of them aren't darker than this Irishman who tans easily. Brazilian and Columbian women can look like they stepped off the fashion runways in Milan. Venezuelans can vary from the blackest of black to looking like they were born in Madrid. My landscaper from Central America has Indian blood but he has the same skin color as I do. Frankly, I think the liberal set broadly describes Hispanics/Latinos as POC because it allows them to wrap that group into the same grievance machine as American blacks.
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I really don't enjoy the whole you're wrong - no, you're wrong back and forth that this thread has devolved into. I would much rather try to find some understanding, if not common ground. I guess I feel uncomfortable with the cognitive dissonance between feeling forced to dislike people that have different political opinions than me and the fact that I genuinely like many of you from other interactions on these boards. Thus, I believe it can't be as simple as one side good, the other side bad. I think we have been trained by decades of for-profit media and selfish politicians to oppose each other at all times. And now social media algorithms have turned that up to 11!! In reality, I bet there are lots of in between spaces where we could meet if we weren't so conditioned against that.
This conversation is a great example of two sides talking right past each other, where nothing gets done and we get worse as a nation. As one who has staked myself out on the left side of this equation, I will just say this to my right-leaning friends. I bet there are things about your policy stances that you could convince me of the logic such that, while it won't make me a Republican, will allow me to find spaces for compromise. That was my favorite part of the old Rant board. However, one thing you have to understand is that Donald Trump has redefined the whole discussion. For the first time that I can remember, we have a President who I truly believe actively dislikes me and wants to see me suffer because I don't agree with him and didn't want him to win. I don't remember ever sensing that kind of dynamic with Biden or Obama or George W. I saw policy differences, including some I thought were dumb or dangerous. But I never felt like George W. would take delight in trying to make my life worse on purpose. Trump is uniquely dangerous in that way and it damages us all, because it turns up the temperature on this insistence that we all see each other as enemies.
The fact that this thread has turned into the same ol' political back and forth actually makes me realize it is just the method that is wrong and not the people. I don't hate you guys, even though some of the statements on here are frustrating and even infuriating. So, if we stop letting the Trumps of the world tell us we need to hate each other, then maybe we start figuring some things out.
This conversation is a great example of two sides talking right past each other, where nothing gets done and we get worse as a nation. As one who has staked myself out on the left side of this equation, I will just say this to my right-leaning friends. I bet there are things about your policy stances that you could convince me of the logic such that, while it won't make me a Republican, will allow me to find spaces for compromise. That was my favorite part of the old Rant board. However, one thing you have to understand is that Donald Trump has redefined the whole discussion. For the first time that I can remember, we have a President who I truly believe actively dislikes me and wants to see me suffer because I don't agree with him and didn't want him to win. I don't remember ever sensing that kind of dynamic with Biden or Obama or George W. I saw policy differences, including some I thought were dumb or dangerous. But I never felt like George W. would take delight in trying to make my life worse on purpose. Trump is uniquely dangerous in that way and it damages us all, because it turns up the temperature on this insistence that we all see each other as enemies.
The fact that this thread has turned into the same ol' political back and forth actually makes me realize it is just the method that is wrong and not the people. I don't hate you guys, even though some of the statements on here are frustrating and even infuriating. So, if we stop letting the Trumps of the world tell us we need to hate each other, then maybe we start figuring some things out.
Well, we agree on this much: If we didn't spend on ICE what Canada spends on its entire military, we'd be better off.
If the argument really is that undocumented folk are leeching off of public aid, spending exponentially larger sums to try to claw that back seems like pretty short-sighted policy.
See, common ground!
One cardinal rule here should be to never bring Trump into the discussion. If his behavior is unacceptable to many, which I understand to a point, he comes by it honestly IMO after four years of what he faced post presidency. I know that observation will NEVER be acceptable to some so best to leave alone bringing him up. I never do.
In Germany, the green energy agenda pursued by Merkel et al has left German manufacturing, once the crown jewel of the EU economy, at a severe disadvantage. Energy costs 5-6x what it does in the US (ex CA). They are also dependent on Russian gas because Greens killed off fracking.
Germany also has a significant Muslim migrant problem. Muslims have not assimilated in Germany.
Just to set the record straight, I didn't say there are more arrests in Minnesota than in Texas, there aren't, I said there are disproportionately more immigrants (and more undocumented immigrants) in Texas than in Minnesota, so why the disproportionate response with ICE and Border Patrol in Minnesota, primarily Minneapolis, and why the apparent arbitrariness and cruelty of it? The perpetrators are not cat ladies. This fact was not brought on by Walz or Frey. And then there's the murders of two innocent white folk. That has pissed a lot of people off. I got into this part of the discussion based a definition of illegality. Killing someone is not legal unless it is clearly provoked in self-defense, and maybe some other things lawyers know about. Otherwise it is murder, and that's the case with these two victims. Lying about it doesn't change that fact. On the face of it, this is about terror, not deportation. BTW, it's olly, olly oxen free.
Totally in agreement with your sentiment here, but if an argument is not in alignment with facts, it is wrong. Sometimes we have to go with supposition based upon what appear to be the facts. If facts are being lied about, that produces all the more reason to continue what can be a very tedious and protracted argument. I'm not saying anyone here is lying, but much of what we are arguing about is rooted in lies by others.
You are triggered.
Mrs Jack and I watched “Nuremberg” last night. Pretty good film. Russell Crowe got really fat to play Goring.
No, you are being triggered. I'm just responding to what is now happening here.
You brought up camps. I like camps where you build a fire and cook s’mores. Is that what you are asking about?
That would depend on the problems, if any, they are creating. If they are in the country illegally, they should simply be deported. If they are committing crimes, they should be arrested and jailed. If they are interfering with law enforcement, they should get the hell out of the way to avoid arrest and imprisonment. Pretty simple I would say. Sound familiar?
I watch Fox News. I also watch CNN. I want to see the differing perspectives on issues that impact all of us in some fashion. It’s alarming how they contrast. The biases are real on both Networks. Facts are Facts. Opinions are opinions.
in Illinois, campaign ads are in full swing. 90% are for Dems. Pretty much everyone of them uses the term “fight” in them. It’s nauseating. Not one of them talks about a bi-partisan approach to make our life better. It’s all about winning. Trump could save a little boy from a shark attack and opponents will say he threw him in the water. Conversely, an Anti-Trump politician could get stabbed and Trump supporters would say they tried to the shoot the perpetrators first. Both sides are ridiculous. Trump lays the bait most of the time, and his opponents snap it right right up. Politics isn't about issues now, it’s about who supports it. This started changing long before Trump. It even raises questions in my mind if a two party system is still best for all of us.
Bi-partisan approach? Like when McConnell took away Obama's right to seat a Supreme Court Justice. Or when Trump ordered Congress to vote down the bi-partisan border bill in 2024 that conservatives supported and would have passed, so as to leave Biden with no achievement on the border and trump to do whatever he wanted, ultimately. Republicans will not do bi-partisan, as they have proven. As you say, it's all about winning.
The problem is that we ordinary Americans just follow along like sheep. Look... even in this thread it's all about winning. You know I agree with you that Trump is a clear and present danger, but posting that over and over is not going to change anything at this point. We have got to stop following their lead and find ways to come together to solve problems and agree to disagree when we can't.
I think it is less about winning than to want to be on the right side of history and a form of truth.
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All they do is react to Trump like puppets in a string. The city and state have real challenges, but all these dopes think about is Trump.
Biden was such a fool. In trying to bury Trump with lawfare and impeachment, he gave him oxygen. Resurrected him like freakin Jesus. Or maybe a zombie. Of course, his terrible policies paved the way for 2024. And then his Weekend at Bernies routine screwed his own party at the very end.
Jeebus, what a legacy of stupid that guy left.
Eh-hem, cough, cough. Puppets on a string? Who are the puppets, really, who defend the indefensible president, who keep the
E files from sunlight, who don't acknowledge clear mental illness? The Democrats are clearly complicit in not promoting a serious and forward looking vision and agenda for our country as a way out of this, that address conservative and liberal concerns/initiatives alike. Were they to do so would that facilitate bi-partisanship? You know, at least Biden didn't decapitate the EPA and eliminate environmental regulations lock,stock and barrel and drive food prices through roof by disappearing farm workers. There are long held, backward and uninformed beliefs that must be overcome, but now that TV News is entertainment, we can only hope for positive meaning and excitement from at least one party. That said, the current Federal Deficit is unsustainable and supposedly the Republicans' most serious concern. If so, why do they continue to vote to increase the deficit by giving massive tax breaks to those who least need them? Seriously, we are not still married to trickle down (supply side economics), are we? Dangerous policy to place the financial burden on the poor and lower middle class (well most of us actually) to lift all boats when the burden should rest with those who are now getting all the financial benefits imaginable. Full circle back to Bezos and the sports desk, Jesus, cannot he afford to at least keep the sports desk? The wealth divide is way out of hand in the US, and is responsible for most of the problems we have been discussing in this thread. It's all connected.
Yes, I do. The question though--winning for good or winning for bad? Who's right about where the responsibility for criminality and corruption lies?
Trump has been and continues to build concentration, yes concentration. camps, which now hold who knows who and how many people and for what reasons. In any case, this is real and happening. This is being done very much under the radar. Time to wake up to what our government is currently doing. Is this what you expect from our government?
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