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Posts posted by Brisketexan
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1 hour ago, Pig Bellmont said:
There is no off ramp and there will be no off ramp. They can throw parties for themselves and manipulate markets by press releases but refusing to remove tariffs is the whole game.
Oh and data shows we have a trade surplus with the UK so if they can’t get tariff relief… well we’re headed for a worldwide recession. At some point the stock market will stop trading on vibes but that’s probably not until stores are empty and mass layoffs start.
When a a voice who REALLY tries to be neutral and just call balls and strikes like Kai is using terms like "they're jerking our chain," that should give you some indication of what an utter shitshow this is.
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
1 minute ago, Hank Kingsley said:Agreed, and this should be the thought process for literally everything. In the end, our society might crumble anyways, but better to live this path than any other.
Dead-on. But, contrast that with the dominant political ethos of the moment:
Elon Musk: "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy."
Two two competing approaches aren't "different paths to the same destination," they are polar opposites. Metaphorically, we are arguing between "should we douse ourselves in gasoline and light ourselves on fire, bathing in the cleansing flames? Or should we NOT light ourselves on fire?" There's not really a middle ground. And right now (see yesterday's post string), we are in full-on self-immolation, because when I light myself or others on fire, it makes stupid libs scream "NO!", and that means I'm winning.
The right approach doesn't mean that hard choices can't be made. It doesn't mean that people won't end up being hurt, one way or the other; in imperfect systems (as all systems are), that's inevitable.
My bigger-picture fear -- and current conclusion -- is that we have to put empathy aside for the moment. First, we have to fight back and defeat the monster that is hate and cruelty. And that....requires dirtying our hands. I sure as shit never wanted it to be this way, but here we are.
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4 minutes ago, Orange&White said:
If you can't trust Kash Patel in these matters, exactly WHO can you trust?
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
Look at MC and Troph (and others) having a real, honest, thoughtful conversation about a genuinely tough issue. Which can happen, in the absence of politicized trolling. Truly, if you wanted a study in contrasts to perfectly illustrate how broken our society is, vs. how it SHOULD be, the contrast between today's post string and yesterday's (but for MC's initial post) captures it perfectly.
There's a rational, decent, medically and psychologically sound way to approach this particular issue. No, it will never be perfect (in complex matters, you hardly ever hit the bullseye of "we got it exactly right"), but it will be a lot more so - and create a lot less collateral damage - if it is not politicized, but instead is based on a decent mix of humanity and reason.
MC and Troph are impressive, good, and kind people. And it pains me to see them experiencing or even remembering the challenges and pain their experiences involve. I can't want anything but the best for both of them and their families. And . . . shouldn't that be the goal for ALL of us, for EVERYONE? I don't want to be "right" - I don't give a shit, what I personally take from the "debate" doesn't make a shit, as I'm not personally affected by it. I just want the folks who ARE in it to have a fair chance to get it "right" for them and theirs, and to be supported and not harassed/berated by society in doing so. Seriously, what's so fucking wrong with us that we can't simply settle on that approach?
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16 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:
Lithuania’s former foreign minister has similar thoughts. There will be a lot of lurching and spasmodic outbursts because that’s just the way this administration is. But there’s also a growing acceptance that the rest of the world can’t be cowed and browbeaten into submission when a primary isn’t at stake.
The bad news, of course, is that cracking down at home to offset concessions you have to make abroad is the well-trodden autocrat path.



There are some really good and key observations in there, though. Not praise for the situation, or Vance, just observations of the current reality.
- We thought we could shove the Silicon Valley ethos of "move fast and break lots of things" down literally everyone else's throat. And that is "simply not acceptable to them."
- We have utterly fucked ourselves on defense sales. We are not a reliable partner, in any respect. Would you entrust an unreliable, even backstabbing, partner with things essential to your security and survival? You'd be an idiot if you did any more than you absolutely had to. We can't really unfuck ourselves here.
- you can broligarch (perfect word for our current government) your way to the highest echelons of power in the US, but apparently that doesn't help you change things in Europe. Not that the system in Europe is perfect - far from it - but it IS at least still somewhat designed to reflect some will of the people and an interest in a common good. That is utterly incompatible with the US approach.
- but really, most of the above comes down to this: "the first victim of Trump's disruption was trust. It was a very expensive commodity that was built up through decades of hard work and it will be very tough to regain." That's really it.
Every choice is "what do I lose, and what will I gain." Strategic entities make trade-offs. Truly, I don't see much of anything of value that we will gain by Trump's approach. But let's imagine that we marginally improve our trade deficit in the immediate term, and we call that a gain. What will we have lost? We will have lost the currency that allowed us to make favorable deals - trade, military, strategic, intelligence, everything - for 80 years: TRUST. We are erratic, untrustworthy, and frankly, openly hostile (walking back the tone by JD doesn't change what everyone already knows because of the many words they've already said: this admin is openly hostile to and dripping with contempt for Europe). We are not trusted. We will not be trusted again in my lifetime. And that's the absolutely correct decision by Europe. We have lost so much.....for fucking what?
To keep with the chess metaphor, we aggressively brought out capital pieces to knock over a couple of pawns, and now we're strutting around the room bragging about the brutality we wrought, we captured two pieces, they captured none! When long-term, we just set up the board in a way that our capital pieces are now fucked in future moves. They are going to spend the next decades either neutered because they will be on the defensive, or they're going to get outright taken out because we stupidly put them in a vulnerable, indefensible position. We just traded our get of two pawns today for our loss of our bishops, knights, and queen in the next 15 moves. Stupid.
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Fucking Nazis.
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3 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:
Which is it young feller?
Oh, Sweden has the pieces to tell Trump to fuck off. So they should.
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
1 minute ago, Anastasis said:Maybe read it this time.
I know yall will hate this one. I could post the euro reviews, and we'll hear about TERF island or other dumb shit, but here you go. Economist piece posted as well as AAP for full balance (still waiting on their systematic review, lol).
https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/gender-dysphoria-report.pdf
The economist treatment: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/05/05/where-the-trump-administration-has-science-on-its-side
And for good measure to get in front of it, the AAP response, which is lol: https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/32145/AAP-speaks-out-against-HHS-report-on-gender
Seems otherwise.
Naah. We're just not biting on your logically fallacious distraction.
It's functionally a non-issue, and to the extent it's an issue, it's being played out in all the wrong places, in all the wrong ways. And the fact that it aligns, as a "crisis issue," almost perfectly with the exact same people who want to erase trans people and gay people from society, is a pretty big fucking tell.
Leave them the fuck alone. Quit picking on the weak and marginalized. And yes, that includes picking on them by the proxy of "it's their evil libtard parents who are turning them queer."
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
24 minutes ago, Anastasis said:None of you had a problem with the principles of evidence based medicine when it was directed at ivermectin and HCQ and clowns like triple horn. Sorry if you find yourself on the other end of that equation now and find it uncomfortable.
Many of us think evidence-based examination of gender dysphoria and treatments should be a thing, and don't have a problem with an honest discussion of it.
What we see right through is making something that affects 0.0005% of the population a crisis issue that merits major attention.
In the US, 2,000 kids receive such treatment. Again, all with the consent of their parents and under a doctor's care. They're not being killed, they're just receiving treatment that is subject to medical debate.
190 kids died in car wrecks because they were unrestrained.
Nearly 4,000 people a year drown.
Nearly 7,000 people accidentally suffocate.
Globally, around 3 million children starve to death each year.
The degree of "concern" for an issue that is, statistically speaking, a non-issue, to the point that those who are so "concerned" about it will toss in their lot with the most openly cruel political movement since the 1940s....well, see, that's where the true colors come through.
It ain't about protecting kids at all. If it WAS, the "concerned" people would be in favor of things that actually kept kids safe, and fed them, and shit like that. They aren't. They are willing to SACRIFICE all of those things, to make a stand on their pet issue.
Me? I mostly think we should leave people the fuck alone, including families who are wrestling with a goddamned difficult thing involving their child, who they love and are trying to make the best decision for. I agree that there are psychological and medical issues and concerns in play; I think those should be hashed out in, among, and by the medical community (which seems to be happening - it is a process, which is to be expected for a situation that has only in recent years even been accepted as something to be considered by medical practitioners). Let it get sorted out, and know that inevitably, someone may end up hurt by the fact that the process takes time; if medical treatment of gender dysphoria turns out to be a bad thing, then some kids got a treatment that they shouldn't have. Likewise, if medical treatment of gender dysphoria turns out to be a solid treatment...but we've banned it on the political level....then some kids who should have received a treatment that will help them were denied that treatment. But of course, none of that matters. That's not what this is about. At all. It's about item 7,547 in dividing society into "normal" people who get to shit all over "the other" -- we can't shit on those poor kids, of course....so we place our hatred on the evil parents of those dirty trans. THEY are the ones turning people trans! There wouldn't BE any trans people if those stupid evil parents didn't do their evil!
Add it to the pile. It's not about caring for the ultimate outcome or kindness. It's about carving out a group, aiming your ire at them, and feeling superior for doing so. That's how we roll these days.
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
22 minutes ago, Anastasis said:Kindness is not found in standing by silently while we inappropriately medicate children with no sound medical evidence basis.
Correct.
See, kindness is found in deciding that addressing that issue....in which around 2,000 kids in the entire United States, with the consent of both their parents and treating physician, are receiving such medication for gender dysphoria....is SO important that you must, you simply MUST, support and elect a regime that will shut off food aid to the starving, cancel food trucks on their way to food banks and schools, stop AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis treatment programs, deport US citizen children, etc. etc. etc.
Won't someone think of the children????
No, not THOSE children. Not the hungry children. Not the children with or at risk of deadly illnesses. Fuck THOSE kids. And fucking THOSE kids is all worth it, if we can only tackle this, the most important issue that humanity has ever faced, which affects 0.0005% of the entire population.
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1 hour ago, wildcat09 said:
Fuck, at the very least he could explain what's actually different about what he believes today. The grand sum of all he's done to express contrition is basically to say "I'm not that extreme anymore."
He should have someone say "I don't believe you. The kind of person who holds beliefs that inhuman, that loathsome, is EXACLTY the kind of person who would lie about it today. Give us one good reason that we should think that yesterday's loathsome nazi is today's contrite good guy....instead of what nazis always have been and always are: fucking liars and deceivers."
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1 hour ago, MissingInAction said:
Blood work came back good and typical for this treatment. No need for transfusion, but shouldn't be indoors with the filthy public.
You ARE the filthy public. So, that may be a problem.
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2 minutes ago, LCHorn said:
See, I disagree with this, too. Those are the old tools and they don't work anymore. Shame only works on the socially/economically aspirant and, as you've forcefully written many times, the cruelty for the right is an end unto itself.
You don't go into the right's podcast and media ecosystem looking to convert the hardliners, you go because they are popular with the groups that have abandoned the left and center and you have to meet them where they are. Most listeners of Rogan and Theo Vonn* aren't there for the wackadoo politics, they are there to laugh or because they like the guest or the sense of community listening conveys. Otherwise, you're just feeding more into the delusion that lefties are alternatively snobs or pussies.
*I'm not putting Hanania in this category. I have no idea who listens to him since the most popular media on the right appear proudly anti-intellectual.
Oh, you missed my other tool: fear. See how the Trump admin is going after all of its enemies?
Yeah....the opposition needs to do that. It needs to do it tenfold. It needs to go after these people everywhere, where they live, in their pocketbook, go after their families. Not a moment's peace, not a moment's rest, basking in any victory. Only fear of "what's next? And how will it hurt my livelihood and peace of mind?"
Trumpism is about relentless assaults on your enemy to cause fear. It works. So do it more, and do it better. Those are the tools of the era. Use them.
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5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:
Musk is the kind of guy, that if he finds out that brown-eyed people see in color, or he realizes that the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, had three shifts, and that Data was the night shift because he needs no sleep, that Rike ran the morning shift, and that Picard ran the afternoon shift, he'd immediately go out on twitter and start telling everybody like that was some kind of new information, even though most of us of his generation knew these things back in the 90s or even late 80s.
What a fucking LOSER you are. As I understood it, the only relevant TNG question was "Counselor Troi or Dr. Crusher?"
And of course, the correct answer was always "both."
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The last line is nonsense. He’s a goofy weirdo, and compares Donald Trump with Robert Mugabe. The left needs to learn how to cultivate attention and not being so goddamn precious about things. Certainly there’s a wrong way to do it, but it’s pure fantasy to think that Hanania and co are influential because the left legitimized them. He doesn’t need your help, and if you avoid him you’re just conceding the argument.
Did James Baldwin “platform” William Buckley?
They are legitimized because we haven’t made a concerted effort to destroy them, shame them, and ruin every element of their lives, professional and personal.
Which is what you should do with Nazi pieces of shit.-
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
2 minutes ago, Anastasis said:But meh USAID funding is not a particularly compelling counterargument in this setting.
Sure it is. We HAD to appoint MAGA to save all those poor kids whose parents and doctors are poisoning them.
All fallout from that is fair game. You made your choice. Thousands of dead, totally worth it.
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6 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:
Agree to disagree. Trump and co are punitive if you talk shit to their face. They fold like bitches if you stand up to them in a diplomacy sense.Yep. You win by playing your opponent, not by strutting around the chess board. Sacrifice a pawn, rope him into giving you the checkmate you're aiming for as he's gloating over the pawn he "totally destroyed, the likes of which no one has ever seen before!" -- that's a win.
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:Fantasy numbers are fantastical.
They're materially greater than zero. Shutting down PEPFAR, malaria, and tuberculosis programs....that kills people. And food aid...well, none of that was feeding anyone at risk of death from starvation, clearly.
Jesus, your beclowning is a limitless font.
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LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
3 minutes ago, Anastasis said:Leave the kids alone brisket.
Clearly, it's a crisis that merits the extreme action of elevating MAGA to all levels of government:
QuoteOnly 926 adolescents with a gender-related diagnosis received puberty blockers from 2018 through 2022. During that time, 1,927 received hormones. The findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics, suggest that fewer than 0.1 percent of all youth in the database received these medications.
Contrast that with the estimated excess deaths caused thus far by the cessation of USAID activities for just the past couple of months (which was apparently a top priority for the admin who is going to save us from the epidemic of trans kids):
89,000 dead kids, because we must do EVERYTHING to make sure that 2,000 teens, under the care of a physician (who may be making a good call or a bad call), don't receive hormone blockers? TOTALLY WORTH IT.

LBGTQ
in Cloak Room
Posted
Are you growing? Are you trying? Are you failing anyway, but then trying again? Seems like all of those get a "yes," and honestly, that's all any of us can hope for - in ourselves or others. If we're being honest with ourselves, when we look into the mirror, we see both a good and a terrible person. I do, at least.
Your current situation is one of those challenging curveballs that life, other people, and society tend to throw our way. I've shared some of those with this group, some of them I've kept to myself (maybe I'll share them someday, maybe not, maybe some of them, I'm still in the midst of sorting out). But know that everyone has to deal with one or more of those over the course of their lives. I do think that so much of it comes back to empathy. That doesn't need to be a namby-pamby word, or a command to enable bad/harmful/self-harmful behavior, and figuring out where that line is can be a challenge. But making the effort to look at things through someone else's eyes pays huge dividends. That's true whether you are trying to be helpful and kind, or whether they are your adversary you're trying to defeat. Then the next level - at least in social and political things - is to realize that in the long run, "defeating" those you disagree with isn't a great outcome. It may have to be done in the moment, but ultimately.....
we're all in this together, and nobody makes it out alive. Or, as a pretty fair guitarist once said,
You see, we are here, as far as I can tell, to help each other – our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our enemies. That’s to help each other, not hurt each other.
You're trying. You love your kid. Your wife loves your kid. You and your wife love each other. Keep walking. Keep learning and reasoning. Do the best you can. And keep doing the best you can. Help other people along the way with what you've learned, good and bad. Try to be better every day. Know that most days, you won't get it right. And try again the next day. That's all any of us can do. And that's all any of us should expect.