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The Leopards Eating Faces and Unlubed Dildo of Consequences Thread


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Posted

i have to say, i like a lot of you involved fine but the ronald reagan debate distracting from the best thread on the internet is tied with my least favorite thread hijack along with cheese puns in the 2023 recruiting thread and bozo's insatiable need to summon the ag freak every time he wants to replay the gerrymandering argument on every thread in this forum.

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Posted
32 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

A lot of Trumpists proudly declare that "I'm not a Republican." That was certainly not the case with Reagan.

It was much more difficult to build that kind of cult of personality in the early to mid-80s.  There was essentially no social media, and people had 2 maybe 3 choices (Republican, Democrat, independent).  They also tended to be much more private in their political discussions.  (OK, there were the initial tendrils of Usenet but outside of academic dorks like me the vast majority of people knew nothing about that.)

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Posted
15 hours ago, sidis said:

i have to say, i like a lot of you involved fine but the ronald reagan debate distracting from the best thread on the internet is tied with my least favorite thread hijack along with cheese puns in the 2023 recruiting thread and bozo's insatiable need to summon the ag freak every time he wants to replay the gerrymandering argument on every thread in this forum.

It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby.

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Posted
On 9/12/2025 at 3:20 PM, TwiceHorn said:

And I have stated as much.

The tangent of this thread was whether Reagan's "cult" really compares to the Trump "cult."  It does not, regardless of similarities they shared, or more accurately how Reagan's actions trace to the environment we find ourselves in today.

And the genesis of this tangent was my statement that a lot of MAGAts outright reject the GOP prior to Trump. A lot of Trumpists proudly declare that "I'm not a Republican." That was certainly not the case with Reagan.

 

Okay, hermano. The similarities in common are of no consequence. Got it.

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Posted

Let's see now. We got former Conservatives defending Reagan as a Teflon God  .... and yet saying it's not a precedent related to MAGAs who see Trump as a Teflon God. 

Hilarious... and terrifying.

The level of doublethink is staggering. 

Posted (edited)
On 9/10/2025 at 8:07 PM, Captainant said:

what's wild is the even the nazis supported the idea of a Jewish state. It would give them a place to ship all their jews off to - they came to their "final solution" because they just didn't have anywhere to keep all these pesky jews!

The nazis wanted all the Jews out of Europe. The Zionists wanted Jews to move to the Holy Land out of Europe. During Kristallnacht, there were mobs chanting ’Juden raus! Auf nach Palästina!’ (Jews out, out to Palestine) as they destroyed jewish businesses.

 

Something, something, horseshoe theory.

Sorry, this is a super-whack reading of history.  The Nazis implemented the Haavara agreement in 1933 as a method first to shore up foreign currency reserves (they allowed Jews to use their confiscated property to buy German made “exports” to Mandate Palestine via a special bank) and second to remove some 60k Jews from Germany. A purely pragmatic move and nothing at all about a Jewish state: a temporary solution to help ease a financial crisis. 

 Hitler raved about the dangers of a Jewish state in his writings and even had an Einsatzgruppen created for Mandate Palestine as Afrikakorps appeared to be advancing. There’s debate over whether it was an extermination plan or whether they intended to place Mandate Palestine Jews in forced labor camps. What’s clear is that the idea of a sovereign Jewish state in the near east ran strictly against Nazi policy. 
 

Before the Final Solution was implemented there was some desultory speculation about mass expulsions to Madagascar to be administered as a massive open-air SS camp (never actually an option due to the Royal Navy) or massive forced labor camps in the vastness of the conquered Soviet East. There was never a discussion of creating or supporting a Jewish state at any time, and it’s only a very few fringe and extremely biased political figures who try to cast the Nazis and Zionists as somehow pursing similar goals (with an obvious political purpose for doing so). 

Edited by 956 Worldwide
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Posted
Quote

President Donald J. Trump has been trying to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook from the board of governors, alleging she lied on a mortgage application by claiming two homes as primary residences, which could garner a lower interest rate. Yesterday Chris Prentice and Marisa Taylor of Reuters reported that documents show that, in fact, Cook told the lender who provided a mortgage that a property in Georgia for which she was obtaining a loan would be a “vacation home.”

 

It appears the documents that director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte used to accuse her of mortgage fraud were standardized forms that her personal application specifying the house was a second home overrode. It also appears that Cook never applied for a primary residence tax exemption for the Georgia home and that she referred to the home on official documents as a “2nd home.”

 

In contrast, Reuters reported last week that unlike Cook, Pulte’s own father and stepmother claimed primary residence tax exemptions for two homes in different states. When that news broke, one of the towns in which they reside removed their primary residence exemption and charged them for back taxes.

FAFO bitches

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Posted
37 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

There was never a discussion of creating or supporting a Jewish state at any time, and it’s only a very few fringe and extremely biased political figures who try to cast the Nazis and Zionists as somehow pursing similar goals (with an obvious political purpose for doing so). 

What's my obvious political purpose, then? The IDF is literally doing a lebensraum to Palestine

Posted
11 minutes ago, Captainant said:

What's my obvious political purpose, then? The IDF is literally doing a lebensraum to Palestine

I honestly thought you’d made an honest mistake repeating something you saw somewhere, but the quick deflection to something happening 90 years later and irrelevant to the historical inaccuracy under discussion makes me reconsider.

Posted
20 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

I honestly thought you’d made an honest mistake repeating something you saw somewhere, but the quick deflection to something happening 90 years later and irrelevant to the historical inaccuracy under discussion makes me reconsider.

It's highlighting a historical parallel? And please, elucidate for me your point because you're building up to something but won't say it

Posted
4 minutes ago, Captainant said:

It's highlighting a historical parallel? And please, elucidate for me your point because you're building up to something but won't say it

My point: Saying the Nazis supported a Jewish state in Palestine or anywhere else is wrong and ahistorical. 

Posted
2 hours ago, BevoAbyss said:

Let's see now. We got former Conservatives defending Reagan as a Teflon God  .... and yet saying it's not a precedent related to MAGAs who see Trump as a Teflon God. 

Hilarious... and terrifying.

The level of doublethink is staggering. 

You are insufferable and in your monomania see not what is written, but what you want to see. 

Nails, hammers. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, pacman said:

FAFO bitches

Confession accusation. 

I saw a similar thing relating to Letitia James case. Multiple emails with the broker and others that she was not going to live in the house she applied for a loan on with her relative, who would. 

But in a power of attorney to that relative to disburse funds and other acts at closing, there was a recitation that she would own and occupy it as her primary residence. An odd place to have such a recitation. 

So as if it was in dispute, these mortgage fraud charges are pretty bogus and won't support a conviction, but might support an indictment. And that sucks. 

The Trump administration is going to be a watershed era in the development of selective/political prosecution law. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Confession accusation. 

I saw a similar thing relating to Letitia James case. Multiple emails with the broker and others that she was not going to live in the house she applied for a loan on with her relative, who would. 

But in a power of attorney to that relative to disburse funds and other acts at closing, there was a recitation that she would own and occupy it as her primary residence. An odd place to have such a recitation. 

So as if it was in dispute, these mortgage fraud charges are pretty bogus and won't support a conviction, but might support an indictment. And that sucks. 

The Trump administration is going to be a watershed era in the development of selective/political prosecution law. 

They have been claiming the IRS has been weaponized against them because they want to weaponize it against others.

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Posted (edited)

“monomania” is that a new legal term you learned for psychological cases.

Dude, I don’t know how old you are (and don’t care). Depending on your age, I’m betting you voted for Ronnie Raygun twice, Bush 1 twice, Bush 2 twice, and probably McCain and Romney. I am sure there are many Surly posters who did this.

And now y’all are suddenly the expert on whether Raygun set up precedents for Bush 2 and Trump. Lulz. 

You did not see the precedents, but others did. Many. Going back to the 1980s. Just not the American media or liberal intelligentsia, under control by the sacred texts of the NY Times. Those who posed the issue were marginalized. Hell, I saw it on the UT Campus in the 1980s.

Right now, I am very worried about the MAGA LEOPARDS coming for my face. Many others are, too. Here's why (I said most of this once before, right after the election).

-- I am torn between continuing any artistic/writing projects (that may have implicit or explicit critiques of Team USA) in public – with my name on them -- and risking a FAFO moment and having my own face eaten by MAGA leopards. 

My first published critique of the intellectual collapse happening in Team USA -- due to proliferation of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory, and anti-intellectualism – was published in 2005. Twenty fucking years ago. 

Where? Not in the USA. No way. But in Europe!

-- Where it was included in an anthology published by very prestigious publishing house. With my name on it. 

-- What were y’all fans of Raygun doing in 2005?

Since finishing my PhD, I have written dozens of articles and books about art, science, technology, philosophy, culture, film, and so on. Nothing to do with MAGA or Trump or Raygun. Hardly “monomania,” My works are sometimes informed by the great stuff I learned in my PhD from UT-Austin. I also create art, albeit stuff on the artsy-fartsy fringe, some on the “ledge” as the term is here.

Rather than be in a silo like most artists and thinkers, I am interested in lots of stuff. Some of that includes politics, the deeper issues causing the politics.

-- To that end over the past 10-15 years, I published systematic critiques of MAGA, the Border Wall, Q conspiracy, pseudoscience, cultural collapse, fascism, theocracy, Homeland surveillance, doublethink, and so on. Not rants, not insults, but thoughtful critiques written than anyone could get. About 15 publications in various places, in books, academic journals, and even in online pubs. Not hidden behind an avatar. Not zillions of readers, but dozens to hundreds to thousands. All in public, with my name on them.

-- What did most of my liberal friends say: Nah, it’s not that bad. This will pass, etc. Liberals!  (I have no conservative friends, as you might imagine. For record, I don’t hang out with active Democrats, either.)

ELECTION 2024

The day after the November election, I had coffee with a civil liberties lawyer, who is also an old friend. His recommendation. Start scrubbing the online stuff. NOW. Why?

-- The medievalists and fascists are coming, the American cultural and political mind is closing, free speech will be a joke, and the arts/academic organizations will not want to fund anyone or anything that might get them in the MAGA crosshairs. 

-- So I scrubbed what I could. I know others did. However, some of my critiques can't be scrubbed. They are byond my control, in various books and journals, etc.

-- There are days I feel like a fucking coward. Like sick to my stomach. 

-- Other days, I am just hoping I don’t get in any crosshairs. 

-- I don’t want a FAFO moment and leopards eat my face. I do okay with $$, but I am not rich enough to split the USA. Still I need funding for income, want to get paid support for my projects, and don’t want to deplete savings and investments.

--  Surly friends, the fears are all-too-real in the art and academic worlds. I have friends and colleagues who are people of color, LGBTQ, atheists, liberals, leftists,. and so on. All fearful and sense it is going to get much much worse.

-------------------------- 

TLDR: You can love your Raygun, but some of us knew when Raygun and Falwell got on the stage, big-time trouble was brewing, especially if they got their team in power. They’re in power … heading for total power.  

And I was out there in the so-called marketplace of ideas, naively doing my minuscule best, to alert people to the dangers. With my name on it. In pubic. I tried, and largely failed to have any effect. What the hell were you doing since 2005 with your name on it?

I am out on this topic. Adios. 

Edited by BevoAbyss
Posted
9 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

thoughtful critiques written than anyone could get.

Dang. Massive typo. 

"... thoughtful critiques that anyone could grasp."

Apologies.

Posted

Not that anyone cares, but I think that long post above is my big ADIOS to posting on Surly.

-- Been thinking about this for a quite a while.

-- I have nothing else to add to my collective 715 posts. I am sure I have had zero effect on anyone. 

-- Kinda like all my projects over the years. So hard to have any impact amid all the mental clutter of life and social media.

Y'all are always hilarious, sometimes profound, and occasionally annoying. The football boards are a riot after UT loses a game.

Nevertheless, for those here who graduated from UT-Austin (regardless of era), we all share a common bond.

-- We attended a hell of a great university.

-- I absolutely loved my time in Austin -- the learning, the profs, the friends, the experiences, the Tex-Mex, the music, the bars, the hot chicks (mostly artsy-fartsy in my circles). Oh those brainy smart Texas gals! 

I will keep creating and writing in my career, as best I can to have a positive impact on the world, even if it is near zero.

No grudges, no hate, no anger for any of you.  Wish all y'all the best in these dark, dark times. 

HOOK-EM! 

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Posted
29 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

-- I absolutely loved my time in Austin -- the learning, the profs, the friends, the experiences, the Tex-Mex, the music, the bars, the hot chicks (mostly artsy-fartsy in my circles). Oh those brainy smart Texas gals! 

No pics.  Negged. 



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