Commenter Archive

Comments by hairshirthedonist*

On “Moral insanity

Maybe if russell used "domestic terrorists" instead of "freaks," we wouldn't be discussing dehumanization. The former is clearly acceptable.

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Accept the beating gracefully or it's your fault.

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I think the answer to your question, Hartmut, is "nothing." Or tRump's own mind, which is more or less the same answer if you get my drift.

They should still do it, though. Let the pressure mount.

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I’m sure you can imagine, even if you haven’t seen them, the responses ricocheting around the world from former servicemen to Trump’s and Hegseth’s comments.

All the worse given tRump's phantom bone spurs. The f**king gall...

On “Rememory

It says something about the character of these people that they would lie about making someone cry - not that they made someone cry and denied it, but that they didn't make someone cry while falsely claiming they did.

What kind of people are they trying to appeal to?

I'm sure it has more to do with making the protesters look like weak little babies than beating their chests about making someone cry, but it boils down to the same thing as far as I can tell.

On “Carney’s speech

I listened to a good bit of tRump's "speech" on the radio this morning. I didn't plan on it. It was on when I turned on the radio in my office. I kept listening in the way you might slow down to look at a bad, multi-car accident on the highway.

It was shockingly - in no particular order - ignorant, incoherent, boastful, dishonest, and belligerent.

The idea that the person speaking was the President of the United States addressing global leaders in front of however many members of the press from the world over is hard to reconcile.

It was worse than Michael Scott's most embarrassing presentations on "The Office" without being funny. The man is plumbing the depths of self-parody "like no one's ever seen before, let me tell you."

On “Talarico

Or make them into giant house flies! Or cartoon penguins! So fun...

On “An open thread

I like "public safety" much better than "law enforcement." Instead of "LEO," you'd have "PSO," but that looks too much like "POS."

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When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.

This reminds me of a maxim about doing large projects: "Three things everyone wants - fast, cheap, and good. But you can really only have any two of them."

The tRump admin has broken this rule and has chosen "fast" twice.

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Even the science guy didn't mention that she backed up before going forward (going forward while steering to the right, which he does mention).

If Renee Good was trying to kill the guy, she was really bad at it and had very little idea of how to operate a vehicle. Also, too, Ross was really bad at getting out of the way if that's was he was trying to do.

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And some people are just fucking bullies.

It's a simple statement that has outsized explanatory value, unfortunately.

so… mind reading is bad, except when it’s a hippy ?

It's odd that, while I'm sure there have always been people upset about what ICE has been doing, there are now far more. It seems to have coincided with ICE doing more and worse things in places where they used to do much less. It appears that ICE has increased fear and chaos in places that were relatively peaceful before ICE got there.

Maybe there's a cause-and-effect thing going on here.

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Going on a tangent here, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around what animates these militia, white power, and Christian nationalist types. Is it that hard to be happy and chill the f**k out?

I'm sure it's the fault of all the woke social justice warriors who get upset when right-wingers try to make vulnerable people's lives worse. Maybe don't f**k with other people so much?

I don't know. It's crazy and exhausting. I'm becoming increasingly disgusted by human nature. I was starting think we were in the early stages of turning away from this bullsh*t, but that's been put to rest.

Happy New Year...

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Both sides? One side is working in a professional capacity with state sanction. The other side is dead.

I supposed the dead side could be said to have made a bad decision based on the erroneous assumption that the decision wasn't anything the other side would kill her over.

The professional side looks to have made a good decision (for them) that resulted in a desirable (to them) outcome.

Both sides...

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Some current quotes from GOPsters:

"Summary execution is to be expected."

The more I think about Nicole Good's killing, the more it looks like a setup to me.

1 - Why do the ICE officers interact with Good at all instead of driving around her and going on their way (to round up more "illegals" - their purported purpose), which is obviously possible, both around the front and rear of her SUV?

2 - Why does Ross walk to the front of the running SUV in the first place?

3 - Why doesn't Ross get out of the way as soon as the SUV first moves (backwards, mind you - not toward him)?

4 - After failing at #2, why doesn't Ross get out of the way when Good turns her steering wheel to the right, indicating an intention to drive away?

The notion that she was trying to run him over is silly. If that were the case, why did she back up instead of going straight at him? Why did she turn her steering wheel hard to the right even though he was standing toward the left of the SUV from her perspective?

I'm not saying they necessarily were doing it with the goal of shooting her dead. Maybe they just wanted an excuse to arrest her, even though they really should be calling Minneapolis PD, since doing so isn't immigration enforcement. As it turned out, Ross found an excuse to shoot her three times at close range, killing her without anyone from ICE appearing a bit bothered by it.

"F**king b*tch!"

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The irony of Dear Leader's criticisms of the Iranian regime's crackdowns on protesters is pungent.

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If a viewer is motivated to believe Ross, then they will take the moment where the phone jerks upward as an indication that Ross was hit by the vehicle.

Well, sure. The question is - how many people are so motivated? I know this crew plays almost exclusively to their base, but everyone else is seeing it, too. Everyone, the base and otherwise, is seeing the other videos.

But Vance et al act as though the first-person video from the shooter is a slam dunk of some sort. Do they really believe that? Or is it just a performance to bolster the belief that it is in the minds of the willing?

On another note, Ashli Babbitt was murdered!

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I'm trying to figure out why anyone in the Trump administration, particularly JD Vance, thought Jonathan Ross's phone video supported their version of the story. It's bizarre.

Dude was holding his phone the whole time, while they claim he was hit by the car and while he was shooting. It also clearly shows her turning her steering wheel hard to the right. Good and her wife weren't at all menacing, just lightheartedly mocking Ross.

I don't know what people think they're seeing.

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I have to think the administration is betting on cleek's step #3 happening soon and will do everything they can to ensure it happens or at least find a way to convince people that it has.

(Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.)

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We need to manage immigration, but not like this.

The pattern I see, and I would expect everyone else here sees, is that this administration, when they aren't going after imaginary problems, find solutions to real problems that are worse than the problems. That or they have solutions that might work, but they execute them in such a thoughtless and hamfisted way that the solutions still end up being worse than the problems.

ICE is going into our cities and making things far worse than they would be if ICE instead sat around playing cards in a warehouse. They aren't catching nearly enough truly dangerous people. On the contrary, ICE are truly dangerous people. And it's not entirely their fault. It's partly due to the dumbasses in charge putting them in situations they're ill-suited for.

On “2026, as f**ked up as 2025

I think you give Trump too much credit, bc. I see your line of reasoning. I think it's beyond him.

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He shot her for trying to leave - for being disobedient. The bar for deadly force is almost on the ground.

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No worries, MC. I appreciate the assistance.

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Now I can see it, but it still has "awaiting approval" or whatever the exact wording is.

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There's also this.

https://thehardtimes.net/breaking/ice-accidentally-sends-maduro-back-to-venezuela/

Michael, my comment is still missing, which is weird. It's not that big a deal if it never shows up. Thanks for trying?

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Somehow I'm in the spam bucket after a comment with no links or anything else I can imagine would flag it.

*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.