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Brisketexan

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Brisketexan last won the day on December 3

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  1. It's evergreen, bro.
  2. Slacks gets it. He may have the inside track on the CFO position in Brisketexan's Enterprise of Utterly Shameless Scams and Grifts and Fraud and Other Nefarious Shit, Inc.
  3. I gotta tell ya, it impresses me how normally he can walk, what with him carrying around those giant fucking balls between his legs. You know who we haven't seen in Kupiansk? Putin. Need an editorial cartoon with Zelensky toting around his balls in a wheelbarrow, next to Putin the eunuch.
  4. Not disagreeing at all -- just filling in the on-point stuff from the other verses.
  5. You posted this from the cargo area of a Bluebell ice cream truck headed to a secret prison underneath a Wal-Mart, didn't you?
  6. The book of James has a great answer to this: 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without [a]your works, and I will show you my faith by [b]my works. I'm not offering that scripture to proselytize -- it's just a solid rebuke of those who wear their faith loudly, but don't LIVE their faith. "Christianity" isn't a belief. It is a way. A way to BE. Which requires action. Show your faith BY your works. The most effective evangelism I have ever observed does not involve preaching a single word. It's people walking the Way, demonstrating their faith by example.
  7. There's actually some really good data out there on micro-loans, for example. Incredibly effective at helping people pull themselves out of the depths of poverty. There's also tons of great data on education. Scholarships and such - private or state-funded - are both incredibly effective charity and a really smart social investment ($1 invested in educating someone yields many more dollars in economic benefit and activity for society as a whole). Some other items get more complex, but even things like "free school lunches" have pretty good data. They are cheap, and there's lots of data on how much better a fed student performs compared to a hungry one. Charity of investing in infrastructure is another one. Helping a community develop a clean, local clean water source is a force-multiplier: it frees people up from being a "water procurer" to becoming someone who can engage in productive, paying economic activity. In short, there is lots of data out there that's pretty reliable and makes sense. It's a good idea to vet any project and any charity provider. But none of that takes away from some baseline humanity, too. If I see you shivering, I should help you get warm. If I see you hungry, I should offer you food. Does it make me feel good? Sure. But that's not why I'm doing it (or, it shouldn't be). I should do it because it that is what humanity - as we should all want it to be - behaves. And yeah, I can't deny that it matters to me, selfishly. That I measure myself against what I think I SHOULD do. And I guarantee you, I only find myself lacking. Every time I think about it. I am positive that in my last days, I'll absolutely ask the question Pvt. Ryan asked at the end: And I guarantee you, even if my loved ones tell me "yes, of course," I won't believe them. Because there is always something more we could have done. Humanity could have done better, and been better. But it fell short, because I fell short. Is that selfish of me? Almost certainly. Add it to the pile of "ways in which Brisketexan is shitty." We're a messy bunch, we humans. Even when we're trying to do good, it turns out that we're shitty.
  8. Dear god, please let that be real, and please let an army of giant cats come down to earth and
  9. Magnified and quoted for truth. That's the dirty fucking secret of "the rule of law." In the end, it ultimately depends on enough people involved acting in good faith. There will always be a complete and total criminal class that actively works against the rule of law. Say, 3-5% of the population. When that number increases, hitting a critical mass that's probably a LOT lower than any of us would like to imagine (think something like 7-8%), and even lower if that percentage includes those in actual power.....then it's fucking over. Every system we have -- every single one -- depends on some modicum of good faith among a large majority of people. Shit, see the "failsafe" of impeachment and the Senate voting to convict. It presumed that the Senate -- our "higher, august body" -- would put themselves above craven politics and act in the interest of the Republic. Whoops. The rule of law is precisely as strong as the willingness of a marginally sized group of perhaps 3-4% of the population to actually follow it. That's it. That's what stands between a Rule of Law Republic and a lawless autocracy. And we're well past the tipping point. Sweet dreams!
  10. A lot of this. Had this happened in a vacuum -- as in, had any of the previous 6 or so US presidents ordered such a seizure -- it would be a pretty ordinary story, pretty legitimate all things considered. In a vacuum, I actually think it's a fair exercise of our sanction power. But as it is part of the pretext to create a completely unnecessary war in Latin America solely to distract from a criminal president's criminal presidency and his habit of lusting for and fucking underage girls and lots of other shit, then it goes in the pile of "corrupt shit done for bad fucking reasons."
  11. But that's not what's happening. Motte and Bailey fallacy. I mean, textbook example. What is actually happening is that the administration (1) has created one of the largest militaries in the world, (2) that military is literally one of the best-funded militaries in the world, (3) it has deployed it entirely within our borders, (4) it acts indiscriminately against people regardless of their actual legal status, (5) instead acting against people based on their ethnicity, then - often after assaulting and/or significantly detaining them -- putting the burden of proof on THEM to prove that they are citizens, (6) all while they are also acting against people who are currently here with legal status (you don't get to skip past the revocation of legal status for Haitian refugees, Venezuelan refugees, etc.....and you don't get to skip past the fact that they are nabbing people who are FOLLOWING the law, have status, and are showing up to immigration appointments). Oh, and don't forget (7), they want to deny even fucking tourist visas to ordinary, law-abiding people, if their social media has anything on it that even hints at "gee, this Trump guy kinda sucks." So, add fucking "thought police" to the fucking resume. If what ICE was an ordinary law enforcement body, and all it was doing was (1) arresting known illegal immigrants while acting as law enforcement not a fucking occupying military force....and that's it...we wouldn't have nearly the issue that the other fucking numbers in my list above create. We've done this item (1) before, under both Dem and Repub presidents. It works. We are doing something WAY different than that, and you know exactly why. The fucking administration has openly declared that it is acting to create a white ethnostate, using terrorist tactics, and by the way is also ready and willing to deploy that military force against anyone who dissents against he regime.
  12. Man, our summer schedule sucks (I mean, not to complain about these things, they'll be a blast). Wedding in new england weekend of June 13, graduation in scotland the weekend of the 26th. So... We could see Norway on Tuesday June 16th in Boston (we could just stay over a couple of days in Boston after the wedding) v. Bolivia/Suriname/Iraq. We have Norwegian friends, could be cool to see them play. Or, we could hop down and do a weekend in Monterrey, and see Tunisia v. Japan on the 20th. No connection to either team, but Monterrey's stadium is beautiful, and my wife has never been to Monterrey (shit, I haven't been in 40 years). I mean, presuming we get any tickets to any of them.
  13. And don't forget to add "and impossible to seek any recourse for, civilly or criminally," thanks to Elon and his boys. They can crank out as much AI bullshit as they want, intended to engineer the results of elections, corporate governance, shareholder votes, etc. etc.....with absolute, total, 100% immunity. Zero laws. Zero regulations. Total license to use AI to do whatever they want. Because they are the lords of us, and don't you peasants forget it. This circumstance brought to you by a political class that will serve up the people on a silver platter to their billionaire masters at every opportunity.
  14. Yeah, how is the headline not "Moron who repeatedly falls for cons upset about being repeatedly conned?" YOU LITERALLY FUCKING VOTED FOR THIS EXACT OUTCOME. WHEN YOU VOTE FOR A CONMAN, YOU VOTED FOR CONS.
  15. On the bright side, if AI and its champions of it being completely unregulated and unfettered have their way, "the rest of our lives" really won't be very long. So, cheer up! It's almost over!
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