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Posted
On 12/1/2025 at 4:31 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

@Ag with kids has made a convincing argument that the most important consideration is what party the state votes for in presidential years “schools of thought,” so who cares about any sort of connection or even understanding of place?

A California Republican congressman needs a job! An arbitrary shape in North Texas needs a Republican! Win-win!

Maybe he met up with Hillary Clinton to discuss how to be a carpetbagger in a new state? :D

Posted
1 hour ago, Ag with kids said:

Maybe he met up with Hillary Clinton to discuss how to be a carpetbagger in a new state? :D

Yes, that’s it precisely. Party safe seats lead to poor representation. Glad you agree. 

Posted
7 hours ago, Pancho said:

wtf is “DEI spending?”

 

 

Love the “you might know me” line… no Bo, hardly anybody does. And those that do know you to be a piece of shit

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

There is apparently an online form to report violators of the bathroom bill. Surely this is ripe for some shenanigans. 

There needs to be a dedicated team following Dan Patrick daily and reporting him

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Posted
On 12/15/2025 at 5:45 PM, Ghost of NMAS said:

According to that story, the threshold for an offensive plate is would it invoke a response from someone driving by.  I have a UT themed personalized plate, and I have invoked many a response from aggy and dirt burglars on the road.  I guess I can expect mine to be revoked any day.

Is there a report form online to fill out?

Posted
On 12/17/2025 at 10:43 PM, Eskimohorn said:


Holy shit the comments. If even 1 in 4 are real life humans, we are fucked

Hate to say it but there is definitively a non-insignificant number of fellow Texans who care way more about who's getting DEI and why is it not their middle aged white male self than anything else...

bender from futurama is standing next to a man with the letter a on his sleeve

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Posted

It’s actually amazing that the right has made DEI such an enemy that a politician can run that he will be the most effective RR commissioner because he will root out DEI spending. Hats off to them in a perverse way.

perhaps Venezuela will soon be made the #1 enemy to replace DEI.

 

 

Posted

Having seen a parade of these grousing types for decades - that is, utterly mediocre white males, of which there are metric shitton (just as - spoiler - there are among EVERY demo) - this is utterly unsurprising. Because one thing they very much lack is self awareness.

They aren’t actually mad that people with greater merit are being bypassed. They’re mad that people with no special merit have lost their built-in, systemic advantages.

Mediocre Mike used to have a pretty easy path to prosperity. Maybe it included a legacy admission to a university. He got to network with people his dad did business with. Connections got him a job among other similar and like-minded white men. He drew a nice income, and coasted along, with moderate effort.

Mediocre Mike is not being “disadvantaged” by a system that says “maybe we shouldn’t just hire folks who know and grew up with people who work here; maybe we should interview candidates at Prairie View and UTEP.” He’s just lost his advantages and privileges.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
It’s not complicated.
And watching this reflexive counter-movement that is purposefully elevating and rewarding obviously mediocre white men makes the truth that much more stark. “No more DEI!” means, in actual operation, “hire/advance/admit as many white dudes as you can, without much consideration of competence.” In short, it’s everything they accuse “DEI” of being (which, of course, it’s not).
Dumbest. Timeline.
We are practically building monuments to Mediocre Mikes and Incompetent Ikes nationwide, and trust me, we look like fucking idiots.

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Posted (edited)
27 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

It’s actually amazing that the right has made DEI such an enemy that a politician can run that he will be the most effective RR commissioner because he will root out DEI spending. Hats off to them in a perverse way.

perhaps Venezuela will soon be made the #1 enemy to replace DEI.

If we are going after DEI, shouldn’t we start tearing up wheelchair ramps as being woke and DEI?

Edited by atomheartbevo
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Posted
7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Having seen a parade of these grousing types for decades - that is, utterly mediocre white males, of which there are metric shitton (just as - spoiler - there are among EVERY demo) - this is utterly unsurprising. Because one thing they very much lack is self awareness.

They aren’t actually mad that people with greater merit are being bypassed. They’re mad that people with no special merit have lost their built-in, systemic advantages.

Mediocre Mike used to have a pretty easy path to prosperity. Maybe it included a legacy admission to a university. He got to network with people his dad did business with. Connections got him a job among other similar and like-minded white men. He drew a nice income, and coasted along, with moderate effort.

Mediocre Mike is not being “disadvantaged” by a system that says “maybe we shouldn’t just hire folks who know and grew up with people who work here; maybe we should interview candidates at Prairie View and UTEP.” He’s just lost his advantages and privileges.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
It’s not complicated.
And watching this reflexive counter-movement that is purposefully elevating and rewarding obviously mediocre white men makes the truth that much more stark. “No more DEI!” means, in actual operation, “hire/advance/admit as many white dudes as you can, without much consideration of competence.” In short, it’s everything they accuse “DEI” of being (which, of course, it’s not).
Dumbest. Timeline.
We are practically building monuments to Mediocre Mikes and Incompetent Ikes nationwide, and trust me, we look like fucking idiots.

 

I agree 100% with all that, but here's the thing. Many of the Mediocre Mikes of America are absolutely confused about what it is. They think DEI is the same thing as affirmative action.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to explain to...wait for it...my buddy Mike that DEI is essentially an outreach thing, not a quota thing or even a hiring-preference thing. It just means casting a wider net to capture potential candidates from groups that aren’t traditionally considered for interviews in job applications. He's just fed a constant stream of bullshit from Fox and all the weirdo podcasts he listens to while driving his truck around the oil patch. His response was "Well, I guess that's alright." He's not a bad dude, just poorly informed.

The same goes for the whole CRT thing. They don’t realize it basically means to recognize "institutionalized racism" exists, a term that olds like us have always known. I'm not sure what he thought it meant, because he couldn't define it. And, again, I said as much to him, and he was all like, "Oh."

I'm pretty sure that's why all the conservative commentators use these vague, jargony academic initialisms rather than what the shit actually means. And I understand, because I fucking hate it when people start using alphabet-soup speak as if I would know what the hell shit like EMBM means. Sure, it's a great shortcut if you know what it means, but most people don't, so it's an automatic turnoff to the uninitiated.

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Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, bolverk said:

 

I agree 100% with all that, but here's the thing. Many of the Mediocre Mikes of America are absolutely confused about what it is. They think DEI is the same thing as affirmative action.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to explain to...wait for it...my buddy Mike that DEI is essentially an outreach thing, not a quota thing or even a hiring-preference thing. It just means casting a wider net to capture potential candidates from groups that aren’t traditionally considered for interviews in job applications. He's just fed a constant stream of bullshit from Fox and all the weirdo podcasts he listens to while driving his truck around the oil patch. His response was "Well, I guess that's alright." He's not a bad dude, just poorly informed.

I work for a company that started up a DEI dept and now has renamed it to something else. Honesty I can't tell you what they do. It doesn't bother me that they exist but its never been clear why we need them.  Now I'm a white guy that has never felt discriminated against and usually more than fairly compensated so that most likely skews my opinion about this area.

I'm also skeptical about some HR functions as well.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I work for a company that started up a DEI dept and now has renamed it to something else. Honesty I can't tell you what they do. It doesn't bother me that they exist but its never been clear why we need them.  Now I'm a white guy that has never felt discriminated against and usually more than fairly compensated so that most likely skews my opinion about this area.

 

Just depends on what kind of organization you work with. There's more to it than the job application stuff, but that's what most can relate with.

Most of my career has been in publicly facing roles that involve significant community input, including economic development, downtown revitalization, historic preservation, and other planning-related projects. So, on that kind of stuff, you want to get as many perspectives as possible.

Say, for example, you're working on a downtown revitalization plan, and the group you're working with is folks from the community, but they're all white people who live in the nice neighborhoods on the edge of town. They love their little downtown, but they don't actually shop there much, except for that nice restaurant on the corner or that cute little boutique a couple of doors down. Sometimes, what they're really just interested in is preserving the buildings: a community pride thing.

Then you start running some numbers or look around and see that the neighborhoods are populated by Black or Hispanic (potential customers who can conveniently shop downtown), but they've never been invited to the downtown revitalization table to provide their input. Well, from a market demand standpoint, it's kind of idiotic not to include them, but somehow it never dawned on the white folks to get their ideas. Getting them involved is essentially DEI. The same could be said for internal operations. Maybe there's a committee or something, planning I-don't-know-what within your very large organization, but everyone at the table is from a single demographic group. Well, that's kind of dumb. You should want a diversity of perspectives.

I don't claim to be an expert on all this, but really, that's the kind of thing that might go beyond just casting a wider net for talent recruitment, like, say, holding a job fair at a Historically Black College or University or a Hispanic-Serving Institution, for example.

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Posted
17 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I work for a company that started up a DEI dept and now has renamed it to something else. Honesty I can't tell you what they do. It doesn't bother me that they exist but its never been clear why we need them.  Now I'm a white guy that has never felt discriminated against and usually more than fairly compensated so that most likely skews my opinion about this area.

I'm also skeptical about some HR functions as well.

Our DEI group I think is a way to account for some money going to certain projects- and give structure to the whole endeavor.  There isn’t someone drawing a salary to be DEI coordinator or anything else, but there are different groups (ECG or something- employee community groups or a similar term) like black employee group, lgbtq, Asian and Pacific Islander, etc. 

it’s all voluntary and not restricted to actually being a member of the group, I could join any of them if I felt compelled. 
 

they get budgets for education and outreach, might raise funds for things, and generally try to help their group. 
 

and that is internal stuff, aside from the goal of recruiting talent from all over to build the best teams. Those groups probably help with this aspect as well. If you have a science day at a mostly tribal school, for instance, it probably helps to have NA folks there participating and sharing their experience. 
 

so yes, the government should absolutely be taking part in DEI activities.  Or put another way, why would someone not want to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive- or not want their government or employer to be such?

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Posted

I hadn't heard about this case when it first started.  Sounds like another great example of Paxton finding new and creative ways to harass Texans.

Quote

Priscilla Villarreal was not arrested for "merely asking questions," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton insists in a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject the Laredo news vlogger's petition for review of her First Amendment case. Yet that is literally what happened to Villarreal in 2017, and the precedent set by that incident poses a threat to journalists across the country.

Villarreal, who operates a locally popular news outlet on Facebook, alleges that local officials, annoyed by her "unfiltered style" and periodic criticism of them, conspired to punish her by treating her journalism as a crime. After months of looking for "any excuse" to arrest her, she says, they settled on an obscure, rarely used Texas law, located in a chapter targeting "Abuse of Office," that makes it a felony to "solicit" nonpublic information from a government official "with intent to obtain a benefit."

Laredo police had never before arrested anyone under that law, which originally was aimed at curtailing official corruption by punishing the use of inside information for financial gain. But they claimed Villarreal had violated the statute twice by asking a police officer to confirm details of a public suicide and a fatal car accident.

According to police and prosecutors, the "benefit" that Villarreal sought was increased Facebook traffic. Since reporters routinely aim to attract readers or viewers by obtaining and publishing information from government sources, that interpretation of the law effectively criminalized basic journalism.

After police obtained arrest warrants for Villarreal, she turned herself in. According to her petition, "police officers took cell phone pictures of [her] in handcuffs while mocking and laughing at her."

A judge later dismissed the felony charges against Villarreal, concluding that the law underlying the case was unconstitutionally vague. After Villarreal sued Laredo officials for violating her First Amendment rights "under color of law," a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rejected the defendants' argument that they were shielded by qualified immunity, a doctrine that blocks such claims unless they allege violations of "clearly established" law.

"Priscilla Villarreal was put in jail for asking a police officer a question," the majority noted. "If that is not an obvious violation of the Constitution, it's hard to imagine what would be."

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, bolverk said:

I agree 100% with all that, but here's the thing. Many of the Mediocre Mikes of America are absolutely confused about what it is. They think DEI is the same thing as affirmative action.

I’ve been thinking about starting a thread to discuss that Jacob Savage essay because of its vitality and the impact it’s having (or not) on our politics, but I haven’t because I suspect it will just be progressives who haven’t read it reciting the catechisms which is exactly what MAGA is doing with it. 
 

But, having read it, it’s not about how the mediocre Mike’s didn’t get a fair shake, which is what progressives and MAGA are flogging to make their usual points.
 

It’s about a very specific window in time and how that impacted a very specific demographic cohort in a very real way. 

Posted
13 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I’ve been thinking about starting a thread to discuss that Jacob Savage essay because of its vitality and the impact it’s having (or not) on our politics, but I haven’t because I suspect it will just be progressives who haven’t read it reciting the catechisms which is exactly what MAGA is doing with it. 
 

But, having read it, it’s not about how the mediocre Mike’s didn’t get a fair shake, which is what progressives and MAGA are flogging to make their usual points.
 

It’s about a very specific window in time and how that impacted a very specific demographic cohort in a very real way. 

I'm not familiar with that essay. Do you mind posting it? Obviously, I don't want to derail this thread, so if you do start another thread about it, I'd be happy to read it there.

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Posted
16 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I’ve been thinking about starting a thread to discuss that Jacob Savage essay because of its vitality and the impact it’s having (or not) on our politics, but I haven’t because I suspect it will just be progressives who haven’t read it reciting the catechisms which is exactly what MAGA is doing with it. 
 

But, having read it, it’s not about how the mediocre Mike’s didn’t get a fair shake, which is what progressives and MAGA are flogging to make their usual points.
 

It’s about a very specific window in time and how that impacted a very specific demographic cohort in a very real way. 

I wish you would, I don't think we have enough single topic threads on the board and it means everything kind of gets sucked into the various Trump threads.  

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Posted

Was previously unfamiliar with Compact.

Although it's not obvious from the masthead, they invoke the phrase "common good."  

On the one hand, the common gooders are just the polite and thoughtful version of MAGA.  On the other, they raise points worthy of consideration.

As pertains to that article, I note that it's mostly focused on DEI in media and academia, two fields that arguably benefit the most from diversity and also two fields heavily and unfairly previously dominated by white males.  Also tends to focus on "elite" institutions.

 

Posted
42 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I wish you would, I don't think we have enough single topic threads on the board and it means everything kind of gets sucked into the various Trump threads.  

 

41 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Jacob Savage, Millenial White Men are getting the shaft

I'm actually reading it now so I can recite the catechisms to @Bozo_Casanova😉

 

4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Was previously unfamiliar with Compact.

Although it's not obvious from the masthead, they invoke the phrase "common good."  

On the one hand, the common gooders are just the polite and thoughtful version of MAGA.  On the other, they raise points worthy of consideration.

As pertains to that article, I note that it's mostly focused on DEI in media and academia, two fields that arguably benefit the most from diversity and also two fields heavily and unfairly previously dominated by white males.  Also tends to focus on "elite" institutions.

 

It has a thread now, this isn’t the right place for it



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