VaporTrail

Clearly the work of Zeus.

lmao. they're blue collar workers and can't afford the shit i signed up for. Yeah the China problem would be the issue that concerns me most. If SHTF, I could always run to Australia/NZ. Kidnapping less of a concern. I have family that I entrust with my protection and safety. Because moneyprinter go BRRRRRRR. While I don't care to ask my parents to foot my bill, idgaf about the rest of the American taxpayer. Uncle Sam is gonna be taking 40% from me real soon and god knows what it's gonna be spent on.

The purchasing power of the US dollar was at an all time high for our parents and grandparents. When you have two whole generations telling you to make a better life for yourself by going to college - and not really having any concept of the realities of wealth - it turns out that has consequences. Anyways, my fed loans are going to be forgiven when I finish up with PSLF (thank you, taxpayer) and if they decide to pull the rug out from under me, I'll just move to my family in the Philippines and live like a king there. The banks can suck my dick.

I think this quote from Matt Taibbi also sums up what's going on, both in this thread and beyond, quite accurately.

Bukele is gonna get himself Gaddafi'd

If McWharton was teaching the country on the topic of American history and race relations, I think that we'd be in a better place. Unfortunately, people who are able to see that folks on both sides of this issue have valid points are few and far between. And I certainly don't trust the education majors I graduated with to lead an open, nuanced, and rational discussion on this complex issue. You're right in that the system needs an un-fucking. What would also be helpful to an open discourse and discussion would be acknowledging that the other side has valid points instead of summarily dismissing their complaints as imaginary. I've seen you call people out for gaslighting, and that's exactly what you're doing in this thread.

You're still focused on the academic definition of CRT and ignoring the the deluge of woke mobshit that's become intertwined with it. Here are some posts from John McWharton on the topic. He's a black, ivy league professor of linguistics. Probably about as opposite of a person as you can think of from some of the posters here that you are bashing. What Is Third-Wave Anti-racism? - The Atlantic YOU ARE NOT A RACIST TO CRITICIZE CRITICAL RACE THEORY. - by John McWhorter - It Bears Mentioning (substack.com) "Dismiss those pretending that if you don't like what's happening in our schools, you're a jingoistic moron who doesn't want kids to learn about racism." I ask you to read them, especially the second one, because the subheader of the article is describing what you are doing in this thread. He is making the counter argument to basically everything you're saying much more eloquently than I could.

Would love to hear you share it

Are they rallying their base around it? Absolutely. Are they inventing the problem out of thin air? I don't think so. You have polls such as the above suggesting that millenials are approaching a 50/50 split of whether or not the government should censor things because minorities find them offensive. Higher education is getting rid of standardized exams because black and hispanic students not performing as well as the white and asian students. These same people also discriminate against asians and basically require higher test scores to get into medical school than their black and hispanic counterparts. The AAMC stopped publishing the above data in 2016 with no explanation as to why. This has me, a classical liberal, wondering how the fuck almost half of liberals have wholeheartedly gotten onboard with wanting the government to curb free speech and using systemic racism in the fight to end systemic racism. 6-7 years ago, I never would have believed I'd be closer to Steve and Cal on this issue than you. There's plenty of insidious racism, such as the example I've pointed out above that is an issue worth discussing (though hardly anyone is). Your argument against the conservatives here is a semantic one, and you're right in that the academic definition of CRT is not what they're rallying against. What they're rallying against is the more cartoonish racism and idiocy that has been pumped out by multiple mainstream media outlets and social media since the death of George Floyd and the ensuing riots (e.g. - "in defense of looting," "white fragility"). To say it's something they're completely making up is pretty disingenuous.

Press S to spit on his grave. S

That pretty much demonstrates the point I made. Cedar Fair is worth $2.5B. Every mom and pop shop within 10 miles of Cedar Point and Kings Island isn't going to be able to compete with that. The future of small business looks bleak.

Increasing the minimum wage when small businesses are already feeling the squeeze from the pandemic is a terrible idea. The best move would have been to increase min wage with inflation on a yearly basis. Now, we obviously haven't done that. If we made the minimum wage $20 right now, then you're looking at a future where everyone is working for Walmart, Amazon, or McDonalds because megacorps would be the only ones who can afford it (and of course this is what they're advocating for). Should the minimum wage be increased? Yes. Should it be increased right now? Absolutely not.

Maybe the Democrats are intelligent enough to realize that inviting more Hispanics across the border makes the country much more socially conservative.

When the alternative is hanging on to the dollar and hoping the purchasing power will come back...

Seems like a good hedge against inflation thanks to all the money printing we've been doing. Purchasing power of the dollar is the lowest it has ever been. These short-sighted politicians are probably going to kneecap Americans investors and Americans who are thinking about diversifying with crypto. If our wise government decides to go that route, the rest of the world will move on without the dollar.

American politicians react predictably.

I remember meeting him a few times at tailgates around 07, 08. Told me about some of the national parks he'd been to. Sad to hear this news.

I won't fault anyone for not wanting to get the vaccine. There are documented cases of otherwise healthy people who have neurological sequelae following vaccination. The long term risks are not and will not be known for decades. All of us who have gotten it are the guinea pigs, like it or not. That said, if you are at risk because you are old, fat, pregnant, immunosuppressed, have an autoimmune disease or any combination of the above, you should probably get the vaccine.

As someone who's been in academia for almost two decades, I can say unequivocally that it is mostly a racket. There's a handful of people that the college system will benefit, myself included, but we are a very tiny slice of the pie. I'm looking forward to watching the higher education bubble burst before I die. If you want to talk about actually fixing it, then step one is to eliminate federal student loans. As it stands now, the caps on what you're allowed to borrow from Uncle Sam may as well be infinite. Knowing that the American taxpayer is going to pay out these loans, these unscrupulous fuckers running American colleges have increased tuition far beyond the cost of inflation over the past half century. Take a look at this example, back in 2013, the University of Wisconsin system was getting bashed by politicians for pleading poverty and raising tuition while sitting on a $393 million endowment. The president of the UW system defended himself by pointing out that Illinois and Minnesota had more money in their reserves. The people running this shit got theirs and don't give a fuck what happens to the people they've fucked over.

He needs to put his ego aside and drop out of contention if he wants a non-Democrat in office in 2024. He's too polarizing a figure to win over the soccer mom vote he needs.

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We'd have the vax regardless of who was president because our country is the greatest in the world when it comes to massive mobilizations. We are just slow to get started, and just like in World War II, once we got rolling, nothing could stop us. Now we have the largest surplus of vaccinations in the world and are using them for diplomatic capital. It hurt Trump to bicker with the guy appointed to manage the pandemic on a daily basis - it made the administration appear aimless. If it wasn't for Trump's infighting and the idiot Republicans in Congress deciding that a once in a hundred years pandemic is the time to prioritize fiscal responsibility, then Trump is still president today. Literally, all they had to do was print one more stimulus check prior to the election with Trump's name on it. The 2020 election was supposed to be a referendum on populism, yet the populists are still here and will continue to be here after Trump is long gone. Don't get me wrong, the Democrats would have mismanaged this whole thing, too. When Trump was closing the borders to China, the Democrats were hosting hug a chinaman day to prove how not racist they were. Trump's xenophobia probably got the ball rolling at least 1 week earlier than a Clinton administration would have. Let's not act like Trump was the perfect president during 2020. He picked the wrong battles to fight and now the Democrats hold both houses of Congress and the White House.

Saving The Crew Is What Columbus Fans Do (msn.com) Haslams have walked back the rebranding. The Crew remains The Crew. I guess they learned something from their idiotic uniform changes they did here.

lol cal did you even read my post

yes. in 2016 and 2020. I will probably vote populist for the rest of my life.