CURRENT EVENTS

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CFordUNC said:
Republicanism all starts to make sense when you realize that for the absolute vast majority of the men in the party, they probably never received the affirmation that they clearly crave from male role model figures, and the majority of the women have weird daddy issues, so it has culminated in what we have today, which is a bunch of insecure little suckups falling all over one another to compete and beg for scraps and morsels of “Daddy Trump’s” attention.
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I've long believed racism, conscious and subconscious, to be a huge motivating factor in our politics, but the last decade is really making me wonder if gender is really steering the boat. We have an absolute crisis of masculinity in this country. Millions upon millions of men – young, old, rich, poor, flabby, ripped – look at this room full of complete fucking losers and at best want to be the chief loser getting his balls tickled by even bigger losers. At worst, they think being one of the ball ticklers is in and of itself some sort of achievement. I just cannot imagine debasing myself like they do. I grew up around solidly working and middle class people – not poor, but very few college grads, and some semi-successful small business people – and I just don't remember the men being so fragile and embittered. Perhaps it's rising inequality creating fewer pathways where young men can move up the ladder, I don't know, but most women don't seem to have this problem. Gay men don't seem to have this problem. Trans people don't seem to have this problem. They just suck it up, put their heads down, do their work, and still manage to have some empathy at the end of the day.

I think about this video occasionally. Can't get it to embed but it's Bill Friday interviewing Dean Smith. These men were absolute giants. Can you imagine a conversation like this happening today, in public? Their decency and humility and concern for others seems downright queer. This is what I thought it meant to be a man when I was ~20. I really can't wrap my head around it.

 
CFordUNC said:
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I've got some edits. Maybe I'm cynical, but I don't think Rs were as faithful to these ideals pre-Trump as this guy suggests. They've long been tools of convenience, IMO.

-[Red] States' Rights [to Ignore a Blue President or Congress]
-The Constitution [as they choose to interpret it]
-The Justice System [when it suits them]
-Law and Order [as a weapon against others and as a shield for themselves]
-Freedom of Speech [and freedom from consequences if it's speech they like]
-[Certain] Rights
-Capitalism
-Limited Government [when Democrats are in charge]
-Reducing the Debt [when Democrats are in charge]
-Russia is America's enemy
-Allies should be defended
 
McAdooSmackinYou said:
I've long believed racism, conscious and subconscious, to be a huge motivating factor in our politics, but the last decade is really making me wonder if gender is really steering the boat. We have an absolute crisis of masculinity in this country. Millions upon millions of men – young, old, rich, poor, flabby, ripped – look at this room full of complete fucking losers and at best want to be the chief loser getting his balls tickled by even bigger losers. At worst, they think being one of the ball ticklers is in and of itself some sort of achievement. I just cannot imagine debasing myself like they do. I grew up around solidly working and middle class people – not poor, but very few college grads, and some semi-successful small business people – and I just don't remember the men being so fragile and embittered. Perhaps it's rising inequality creating fewer pathways where young men can move up the ladder, I don't know, but most women don't seem to have this problem. Gay men don't seem to have this problem. Trans people don't seem to have this problem. They just suck it up, put their heads down, do their work, and still manage to have some empathy at the end of the day.

I think about this video occasionally. Can't get it to embed but it's Bill Friday interviewing Dean Smith. These men were absolute giants. Can you imagine a conversation like this happening today, in public? Their decency and humility and concern for others seems downright queer. This is what I thought it meant to be a man when I was ~20. I really can't wrap my head around it.

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Off topic but only as a Current Event, if you enjoy that (I love it) I think you’ll like this. (More easily accessed via smart phone): UNC basketball coach Dean Smith on UNC student radio station WXYC 25January1987


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Interview is from 1987.
 
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Ramrouser said:
Trump’s transparent. You have to give him that. He televises a 3 hour press conference with each cabinet member providing the President with live, real time updates on what each department is doing for all America to see. It’s unprecedented.

I get why you find some of it cringeworthy - the Dear Leader parts.
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How is he "transparent" when he is literally hiding everything? They decided not to preserve text messages even though they are required by the law. They are keeping the identities and operations of DOGE opaque and even the courts don't know who is doing what because the administration keeps lying and changing the topic. He fired the commissioner of the BLS. Now what? Does anyone know?

Was it transparent when Trump said there would be tariffs and came up with a formula out of the blue, then paused the tariffs for an undetermined amount of time, and then came back with new tariff levels again based on nothing. Literally nobody has any idea where trade policy is going. Transparency?

Is Trump being transparent when he lies with every single word out of his mouth? When he says that DC was one of the most dangerous places in the world and now it's safe, that's a lie. It's the opposite of transparency.

Is Trump transparent when he meets with Putin in private?

Trump is by far the least transparent president in our country's history and it's not even close. His administration doesn't give a fuck about records retention requirements, FOIA, documented procedures, etc.
 

What, Exactly, Was That Cabinet Meeting?​

As hours ticked by, President Trump played reality television host — “This has never been done before!” — as his cabinet members offered praise. It was a glimpse of how he runs his presidency.

www.nytimes.com

Trump Plays Reality Television Host at Cabinet Meeting That Lasts Hours

As hours ticked by, President Trump played reality television host — “This has never been done before!” — as his cabinet members offered praise. It was a glimpse of how he runs his presidency.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

“… There in the Cabinet Room — which is starting to take on the gilded-cage look of Mr. Trump’s Oval Office — all of the president’s men and women took their turns, each working a little bit harder than the last to offer Mr. Trump praise and to assure him that they were working to tackle his long list of grievances.

… He also seemed interested in dangling the idea that, at any moment, his cabinet members could be humiliated on national television: “Each one of these people spoke,” Mr. Trump said, apparently happy (whew!) with their performances. “If I thought one of them did badly, I would call that person out.” …”

IMG_9195.jpeg
 
nycfan said:

What, Exactly, Was That Cabinet Meeting?​

As hours ticked by, President Trump played reality television host — “This has never been done before!” — as his cabinet members offered praise. It was a glimpse of how he runs his presidency.

www.nytimes.com

Trump Plays Reality Television Host at Cabinet Meeting That Lasts Hours

As hours ticked by, President Trump played reality television host — “This has never been done before!” — as his cabinet members offered praise. It was a glimpse of how he runs his presidency.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

“… There in the Cabinet Room — which is starting to take on the gilded-cage look of Mr. Trump’s Oval Office — all of the president’s men and women took their turns, each working a little bit harder than the last to offer Mr. Trump praise and to assure him that they were working to tackle his long list of grievances.

… He also seemed interested in dangling the idea that, at any moment, his cabinet members could be humiliated on national television: “Each one of these people spoke,” Mr. Trump said, apparently happy (whew!) with their performances. “If I thought one of them did badly, I would call that person out.” …”

IMG_9195.jpeg
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In marathon meeting, Trump enjoys a playbook more familiar abroad​

For more than three televised hours, Cabinet members heaped praise on Trump in a fashion that analysts say resembled assemblies in authoritarian states.


“… The meeting stood in stark contrast to how previous presidents have managed their Cabinets, rarely convening them at length or on camera. It bore similarities, however, to meetings of ministers in other countries where leaders have sought to exert strong, personal control over large stretches of national life, scholars said, including in Russia and Turkey.…”
 
nycfan said:
IMG_9199.jpeg

Staring I See You GIF by QuikTrip
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As an aside, I’m currently reading “I Must Betray You” about a family living in Bucharest in the final months of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, and this “we’re watching you message” is what this excellent novel is about — the corrosive power of an oppressive state watching everyone, selectively enforcing the law against enemies and to exert leverage and forcing neighbors to spy on each other.

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donbosco said:
PS...anybody asks "What is the Carolina Way?"

Send them to that talk between Coach Smith and Bill Friday.
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I had the privilege of Dean Smith inviting me to his office for a visit and conversation. We discussed politics, religion, and his golf match with MJ, Doug Moe, and Larry Brown He had just returned from Pinehurst. and wanted to brag a bit about teaming with Larry Brown and winning both days:)

We spent zero time discussing basketball. He made me feel like it was a privilege for him to be visiting with me when in reality it was the other way around...duh

I have always said that Dean Smith was a great coach but that he was a far better man than a coach.
 
heelinhell said:
I had the privilege of Dean Smith inviting me to his office for a visit and conversation. We discussed politics, religion, and his golf match with MJ, Doug Moe, and Larry Brown He had just returned from Pinehurst. and wanted to brag a bit about teaming with Larry Brown and winning both days:)

We spent zero time discussing basketball. He made me feel like it was a privilege for him to be visiting with me when in reality it was the other way around...duh

I have always said that Dean Smith was a great coach but that he was a far better man than a coach.
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Many years ago...I'd say 1981 or 82, a girlfriend was taking a journalism class in which one of their goals was to learn how to conduct themselves at a press conference. One week the instructor informed the class that they were going to hold a mock one and to prepare to interview Coach Smith! Even she was excited.

I think the class was on a MWF schedule on the following Monday (press conference was to be on Friday) the instructor read a note to the class from Coach Smith. He said that he was very happy and eager to join them but he had one rule...absolutely no questions about basketball!

That sent the whole class to the library (in those days) to find out "the rest of the story" on Coach Smith so as to have pertinent questions. It was a blast so I was told.
 
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