THE MORNING RANT: Austin Successfully Killed the Golden Goose, and Its Depopulation Trend is Accelerating

Austin started to lose population in 2023, as the crush of exhausted citizens fleeing the “blue dot in a red state” started to exceed the number of incoming settlers. It wasn’t a huge number, just 2,500 net out-migration that year, but it was still significant in that the net incoming tide of people had been reversed.

“More People Leaving than Coming to Travis County [Austin] for the First Time in 20 Years” [CBS – Austin – 3/26/2024

This resulted in Austin falling out of the list of Top-10 US cities by population.

“Austin falls out of top 10 largest cities in the US” [KXAN Austin – 5/17/2024]

New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that for the first time in two decades more people are leaving Travis County than moving in.

While news of Austin losing population was shocking at the time, the trend has continued to accelerate. There was a net loss of 13,400 people in 2024.

People are fleeing Austin, TX in droves.

The city lost -13,500 people to outbound migration in 2024.

The biggest drop the city has ever experienced.

This outmigration has now caused Austin's housing market to collapse. With home prices down -19.5% over the last two+ years. pic.twitter.com/XwNuvWYoRy
— Nick Gerli (@nickgerli1) March 18, 2025

With residents fleeing, there is a glut of houses for sale, and prices are plunging as the real estate bubble bursts. This is also deflating prices on homes in the surrounding suburban and exurban counties.

Nick Gerli prices down Austin surrounding counties.JPG

It is my hope that some of the depopulation is because of blue state colonizers returning to their natural coastal habitats, thus leaving Texas a little bit redder overall. Of course, there is also a steady exodus of regular people from Austin – those who just can’t take it anymore. From personal experience, I know that it is a goal of many normies to leave the oppressive and theocratically woke eco-leftism of Austin, as well as the social disorder it has wrought. My wife and I were among them.

Back when Austin was simply weird, it was a delightful melting pot of politicos, educators, hippies, rednecks, musicians, and regular suburban Texans. Music bound those groups together. I can attest that I spent a lot of evenings in my younger days at joints like the Broken Spoke, Continental Cafe, and Green Mesquite, catching great new acts, some of whom went on to significant success.

Unfortunately, Austin has also been pretty effective in killing off its legendary music scene. Apparently, tech bros and AWFLs just don’t foster a music scene the same way that hippies and rednecks once did, and now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.

Austin’s Music Scene is officially Done. The Music portion of SXSW cancelled from here on out. The Austin City Council destroyed Austin. It’s too dangerous for tourists. The music industry in general is a hollow shell of what it once was. Any Chamber of Commerce member or City…
— Jon Bowne (@NewsBowne) March 19, 2025

“SXSW music festival going through major changes” [KERA - NPR in Dallas – 3/18/2025]

Something was clearly amiss at this year’s South By Southwest music festival. The Austin Convention Center — usually the bustling hub of the event — was practically a ghost town at noon on Friday. The center’s massive Flatstock concert poster art show had already packed up and left, a day earlier than usual. The annual free public daylong concerts on the banks of Lady Bird Lake had been condensed into one day.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, The Austin American-Statesman reported the four-day music-focused portion of SXSW will be eliminated in 2026, with music events folded into a shortened version of the overall festival.

Although I was too young to ever make it to the legendary Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin (which closed in 1980) I was able to enjoy its musical legacy. The great Traces of Texas had a recent tweet about the musical confluence of hippies and rednecks in the early 1970s, quoting Eddie Wilson, the owner of the Armadillo, on what led all parties to make peace and find common musical ground. The answer is…hormones.

"It was girls in halter-tops. That’s what caused the petri dish to runneth over. When the rednecks were coming into the beer garden and seeing the hippie girls in their bellbottoms, they’d immediately start missing haircuts. And the hippies were already wearing cowboy hats, because if they wanted to buy a case of beer when they were traveling, they had to put their hair out of sight. The costumes were interchangeable, and the hormones were raging. All those guys with cowboy hats started growing their hair and all those guys with long hair started wearing cowboy hats and pretty soon there was nothing but girls in halter tops standing between them."

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"It was girls in halter-tops. That’s what caused the petri dish to runneth over. When the rednecks were coming into the beer garden and seeing the hippie girls in their bellbottoms, they’d immediately start missing haircuts. And the hippies were… pic.twitter.com/bVOR4tPfK0
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) December 1, 2023

You can never go home again, but I’ll always enjoy that musical legacy. Which reminds me, I probably need to put some Rusty Wier or Jerry Jeff on my ~~stereo~~ bluetooth, it’s been too long.

*****

My latest piece at The Blaze has been published, “Tariffs Aren’t Just Taxes – They’re National Defense.”

In it I make the point that even if “tariffs are a tax on consumers” as Principled Free Traders always claim, so what? National defense spending is also a tax on consumers, as is foreign aid, inflation-fueled deficit spending, etc. A tariff to repatriate supply chains that are critical to our national defense is as worthy a tax as those other taxes we are paying.

It’s behind a paywall, but if you have a Blaze subscription, I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.

My latest piece at The Blaze has been published. “Tariffs Aren’t Just Taxes - They’re National Defense”https://t.co/G2rBPNF6uq
— Buck Throckmorton (@BuckThrockmort) March 22, 2025

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Sponge!

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:01 AM (xnytv)

2 Libs: Keep Austin Weird!
Normies: Okay!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 24, 2025 11:02 AM (PiwSw)

3 Austin? Portland Oregon says hold my beer.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at March 24, 2025 11:02 AM (2Oj4u)

4 Also Sponge.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 24, 2025 11:02 AM (PiwSw)

5 With residents fleeing, there is a glut of houses for sale, and prices are plunging as the real estate bubble bursts. This is also deflating prices on homes in the surrounding suburban and exurban counties.

So glad the wife insisted that we stay in our "way too big for two people" house until after both kids graduated college.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:03 AM (ExV1e)

6 Good. Blue shithole cities need to die.

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:03 AM (77rzZ)

7 I missed the last firmware update. Is saying "Slava Ukraini" still cool?

Posted by: Austin NPC 34437 at March 24, 2025 11:05 AM (PiwSw)

8 And many of those fleeing will vote the exact same way because the locusts are unable to learn.

Posted by: Formerly Virginian at March 24, 2025 11:05 AM (N1tpc)

9 So glad the wife insisted that we stay in our "way too big for two people" house until after both kids graduated college.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

My wife and I need a house way too big for two people just to hold all of our books.

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:06 AM (77rzZ)

10 I wonder what caused the sudden drop in population in austin in 2002? It was quite a dramatic drop for one year and then the population rebounded quickly.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM (e5NfL)

11 I love Austin. Or maybe I love the idea of Austin.

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM (gbOdA)

12 The blue locusts just go elsewhere and do it all over again. Shit all over everything, then wonder why everything's so shitty. Blame someone else, move on.

Rince, repeat.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM (Q4IgG)

13 6 Good. Blue shithole cities need to die.
------------------
True, but what comes next is just a shithole.

Posted by: Pudinhead at March 24, 2025 11:08 AM (Hpgos)

14 "Music Scenes" in general are 99% hype and paid-for propaganda. I've been to most of them in the country. Was always wondering what the big deal was.

And "Art Scenes" usually mean gaggles of homos and weirdos and perverts with a good sprinkling of bitter AWFLs. Pass.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:09 AM (iFTx/)

15 What a shame. I attended UT back in the 80's and lived in a house in Hyde Park with a roommate. We paid $600 ($300 each) to live in a 2 bedroom, one bath house.

Today, that house is valued at $953,900. Real estate prices are absolutely ridiculous there.

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 11:10 AM (k9OZB)

16 12 The blue locusts just go elsewhere and do it all over again. Shit all over everything, then wonder why everything's so shitty. Blame someone else, move on.

Rince, repeat.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM (Q4IgG)

=======

It should be noted the predictions of the Great Migration that started in 2020:

Blue state Democrats will move to places like TX and turn them blue because they will flee Democrat governance and impose it on their new conservative states.

In that time, TX (and FL) have gone...very hard red. Trump won TX by 9 in 2016 and 14 in 2024.

Progressives flee blue enclaves for the suburbs. Conservatives flee blue states for red states.

There will be exceptions, but that does seem to be the general pattern.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:10 AM (GBKbO)

17 Good. Blue shithole cities need to die.
------------------
True, but what comes next is just a shithole.
Posted by: Pudinhead
_________

And, that's probably all cities over 250,000. What's the largest city with a GOP mayor?

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (Dm8we)

18 And "Art Scenes" usually mean gaggles of homos and weirdos and perverts with a good sprinkling of bitter AWFLs. Pass.
Posted by: Elric Blade

But that's what makes them "vibrant."

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (77rzZ)

19 Capital cities all seem to be liberal crap holes no matter their population. Being a college town doesn't help.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (VofaG)

20 There always seems to be a critical mass that the leftists reach (usually political power) where they set about killing the very thing that let them fester. Kind of like a virus or bacteria reaching a critical number and then killing the host. Or exactly like that.

Bloomington was like that. When I was there in the 90s you could tell it was a liberal town but you did not get beaten over the head with it. It is lost now.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (/x6eu)

21 On deeper thought, what killed Rock n Roll was kiting the drinking age to 21. This was done via a HWY Funding Bill to assuage the pearl clutching by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its really too bad. Music and the cults they create are quite entertaining.

Posted by: Pudinhead at March 24, 2025 11:12 AM (Hpgos)

22 Bloomington was like that. When I was there in the 90s you could tell it was a liberal town but you did not get beaten over the head with it. It is lost now.
Posted by: Aetius451AD

Illinois or Indiana?

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (77rzZ)

23 Willowed from JJ's MR:

Mrs. BD and I have been roaming around Israel's Upper Galilee region throughout the day. I took this distant pic of Mt. Hermon at around 8:30AM this morning:

https://tinyurl.com/2s4cnv59

Mt. Hermon is the northmost point in Israel. It's also Israel's highest elevation point. Our one and only ski resort is located there.

The peaks on the right are the "Syrian" Hermon, which Israel RETOOK about 2 months ago after the collapse of the Assad regime.

When Israel has a good amount of precipitation in the winter, you can still find patches of snow at the top of the Hermon through June. This year's rains were less than usual - so far.

One last pic: we lunched at one of the Galil's (Galilee) wineries, enjoying fresh baked bread, a cheese platter and a salad, along with some Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay (go away, Kamala!).

Afterward we visited another winery, Recanati. They have a beautiful visitors center, whose large veranda offers a lovely view:

https://tinyurl.com/yckcdvp8

The view is toward the north. The more barren looking hills in the background is Lebanon.

That's it for now!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (TfEf8)

24 Austin has amazing Mid Mod houses. I would love one if Austin could go back to being weird instead of dangerous.

Posted by: Piper at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (pZEOD)

25 Good. Blue shithole cities need to die.
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:03 AM

Boston's mayor seems to be working on it.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (hOk1M)

26 And, that's probably all cities over 250,000. What's the largest city with a GOP mayor?
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (Dm8we)

Per the net, Dallas, TX.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (/x6eu)

27 I wonder what caused the sudden drop in population in austin in 2002? It was quite a dramatic drop for one year and then the population rebounded quickly.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM (e5NfL)
______

I think all big cities -- and cities in general -- go through cycles of rise and fall, according to the natural way of things and societal preference, that has little to do with intentional migration. So I don't pay much attention to these "Blue City X is dying!" articles. Austin as a million people at least. The fact that 14k supposedly left is a rounding error. Talk to me again in a few years when there's a net 14k influx. Rise and fall, rise and fall.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:14 AM (iFTx/)

28 Illinois or Indiana?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (77rzZ)

Indiana.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:14 AM (/x6eu)

29 Travis Co. is an insane asylum.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at March 24, 2025 11:14 AM (U5Qvo)

30 Keep Austin Queered!

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:15 AM (M8Uyx)

31 Daughter #1 of Diogenes and hubs just bought a house in Austin. Heck of a house at a great price.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:15 AM (W/lyH)

32 Sometimes you forget a great truth.

And then that great truth is thrust upon you.

Reminding you of the great truth that has defined humanity for generations.

Helen Thomas was hideous.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (GBKbO)

33 During the height of the Great Depression, California Highway Patrol was stationed at ports of entry on the roads, basically unemployed or indigent (broke) people were not allowed. The reasoning was, there were no jobs nor housing nor enough food for the teeming masses.

I’ve wondered sometimes what, if any, limits a State could place on migration into the state. Clearly though, a state that encourages illegal migration by foreign nationals in any way affects the other 49, since there are no internal passport controls or checkpoints.

Naturally our betters in robes studiously avoids this fact. Among other things.

Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (lQYPV)

34 Per the net, Dallas, TX.
Posted by: Aetius451AD
_________

I never would have guessed that even Dallas has a republican mayor.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (Dm8we)

35 West of Austin is growing as people flee the city.

Fredericksburg, Dripping Springs, Burnet, Wimberly

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (VofaG)

36 Thx Buck. The leftist music scene has moved here to my home city of Kingston. A new venue opened in a former Catholic school building about a mile from my house. Kimbra (co singer of Someone I Used to know ) is performing there on 3/29. We've always had a music scene in this area but it's increased with all the leftist refugees from NYC moving here

Posted by: Smell the Glove at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (rsgUv)

37 Daughter #1 of Diogenes and hubs just bought a house in Austin. Heck of a house at a great price.
Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:15 AM

Unfortunately, up here everyone's fleeing deep blue MA, driving up housing prices in NH. I find this irksome.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:17 AM (hOk1M)

38 Austin is where I go to for medical appointments and avoid otherwise. I do not miss the daily commute. I was never into the bar scene, so don't miss that either.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:17 AM (wX56x)

39 One of the theories I've read about the fall of the Roman Empire is it was caused by the collapse of the tariff system.
Tariffs were used to fund the workings of the Empire. The major source of income was tariffs on luxury goods from the Far East, which exchanged gold and silver for silk and spices. When Rome ran out of gold, the imports stopped, and the tariff collection machine stopped with it.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at March 24, 2025 11:17 AM (2Oj4u)

40 I never would have guessed that even Dallas has a republican mayor.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM (Dm8we)

recently converted Democrat

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:17 AM (VofaG)

41
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
And the winner loses all

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at March 24, 2025 11:18 AM (fY84s)

42 Finally saw Alien Romulus last night with my mom. For a dumb sci-fi horror movie it was pretty good, but I’m a sucker for that genre. As an actual Alien movie, it was pretty terrible. I’d say the script was written by AI but that would be an insult to AI. AI could do better. It wasn’t a script so much as a compilation of the earlier movies. Literally every scene was a copy of a scene from one of the earlier movies.

And what was the point of the first 15-20 minutes at the mining colony with all that backstory? It had nothing to do with the rest of the movie. At about the 45 minute mark, I turned to my mom and said “ummm … are there gonna be any aliens in this ALIENS movie?” When the aliens do show up, they are the most unthreatening and weak xenomorphs in the entire series. A girl who looks about 15 years old LARPing Ripley makes easy work of them. She never even looks particularly scared.

The ending with the stupid-looking hybrid was boring. Why did they bother with that rather than extend the sequence with the xeno? Nobody watches an Alien movie to watch pasty Lurch-like made-up nobodies get the climactic scene.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:18 AM (iFTx/)

43

ow-ow-OW!1!!

Posted by: Nancy Pelsoi at March 24, 2025 11:18 AM (EFZgU)

44 Went to the SBSW music event in the early 2000's. Good times. Japan Night was a hoot. But even then I could detect the destructive influence of the left. Sad.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at March 24, 2025 11:18 AM (g8Ew8)

45 Can Austin be recovered? Maybe. But you'll never be rid of the people who cause these problems. They're a permanent part of the human condition.

Dems Admit They're in 'Deepest Hole in Nearly 50 Years,' and Is It Too Early for Champagne?

Is it too early to pop open the champagne for the Democrats' doom? Of course. The party is an institution with roots going two centuries deep. They'll focus, rebrand, and maybe even rethink long before they go the way of the Whigs. Besides, statism is the kudzu of politics. You can beat it back and hope to maintain a holding action, but the human desire to boss people around while taking their money — for their own benefit, of course — isn't going anywhere.

https://is.gd/yEaade

Posted by: Archimedes at March 24, 2025 11:19 AM (xCA6C)

46 >>>Austin has also been pretty effective in killing off its legendary music scene. Apparently, tech bros and AWFLs just don’t foster a music scene the same way that hippies and rednecks once did, and now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.

This kind of thing seems to be playing out everywhere. Our cities (and regions) are slowly transforming in to the same cities with slightly different regional foods. Maybe it's inevitable, but it is sad

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:19 AM (uCjyK)

47 I've posted this before, but it's relevant here;

Leftists leave their blue shitholes when they become... shitholes. They don't acknowledge their own hand in it, but they do it out of habit.

It goes like this:
- Move away from the shithole they've created
- Settle down in a "normal" community
- Immediately bitch and moan about a lack of cultural diversity in the population, food, sports, etc.
- Rabble rouse at community events
- Run for local, political office at the town, city, county level
- Propose leftist policies and do more rabble rousing
- Create institutional divides between normals and leftists
- Institute leftist policies that turn community into another blue shithole

I see it here. Whether it takes them months, years or decades it's the same sequence of events.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:19 AM (Q4IgG)

48 Fredericksburg will be the next drop. It’s being Vailed.

Posted by: Piper at March 24, 2025 11:19 AM (pZEOD)

49 This resulted in Austin falling out of the list of Top-10 US cities by population.

----------------

Wow, I had no idea it was that populated.

Only visited once a couple of decades ago -- I thought it was cool that people (at least then) were allowed to enter the State Capitol late at night and walk around. I remember there were hanging portraits of all the Governors ...

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:20 AM (M8Uyx)

50
Can fat pig rosie odonnell be sued for calling Connor McGregor a "sexual abuser?"

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:20 AM (K8QQI)

51 Fredericksburg will be the next drop. It’s being Vailed.

Which one? The one in Va is too blue collar for that.

Posted by: Archimedes at March 24, 2025 11:20 AM (xCA6C)

52 I am not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I ran across this on Facebook yesterday - it is an update on our beloved Jewell45, posted by her daughter. I messaged her daughter and she said that I could post it here. If anyone knows who is doing the ONT tonight, please forward this to them as well so that they can post it.

If anyone would like Jewell's mailing address (to send cards) and/or her daughter's email address, shoot me an email at teresa.hamilton.koch at gmail.com:

Okay. Need to do a life update for mama. She hasn’t been doing so hot the last couple weeks. Like I said last month, the cancer has been spreading. She’s been declining quite a bit since then. Her energy level is very low and she’s struggling with breathing after the smallest tasks or even if shes talks too much. The decision has been made to transition to hospice care.

I want to be clear here about a couple things. Number one, she is NOT in her final days although her oncologist estimates with how the cancer has progressed that she is probably down to several months, 6-9 maybe more.

Number 2. She is up for visitors but not much. Please contact myself, dad or her first.

Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Texas - Ace of Spades Ladies Brigade, plucky comic relief at March 24, 2025 11:21 AM (SRRAx)

53 Fredericksburg, TX was a neat little town. Home of Admiral Nimitz. Now there are wineries galore.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (wX56x)

54 Cont She won’t last much longer than 15-20 minutes if you do stop by, so keep your expectations low.

Other than that, continued prayers and good vibes are always appreciated. Much love to you all. If you have questions, feel free to contact me privately. This is obviously a difficult time as you can imagine but I’ll do my best.

Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Texas - Ace of Spades Ladies Brigade, plucky comic relief at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (SRRAx)

55 This outmigration has now caused Austin's housing market to collapse. With home prices down -19.5% over the last two+ years.

-------------

The only solution is to import MOAR illegal alien invaders, criminals, gang members, and terrorists!

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (M8Uyx)

56 Regarding tariffs: I swear, people really think President Trump is an idiot.

Maybe tariffs will raise prices. But, with tax cuts, it probably is revenue neutral for the average American. But, what if so much money is generated through tariffs American taxes are reduced below the break even point?

To me, it's obvious the direction President Trump is moving: Reduce or remove income taxes while raising revenue through tariffs. Of course, he's also moving to reduce government, which will also help balance the books.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (tT6L1)

57 That's sad about Jewells. Seems like a sweet lady.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (/x6eu)

58 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Democratic Party had control and “did virtually nothing for working people.”

… doesn’t this guy caucus with the Democrats ?

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (RHGPo)

59 Conservatives flee blue states for red states.

Conservatives, sir, do not flee. They strategically relocate.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (ExV1e)

60
I miss Jewells. Praying for comfort for our Jewells.

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM (K8QQI)

61 6th Street started turning dangerous prior to 9/11. Can't imagine what it's like now.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (VofaG)

62 Austin ain't going anywhere, any more than Manhattan did 400 years ago. It's a CA colony now. You're seeing the last natives evacuate. You can observe this in Denver, too. Virtually nobody there is from there anymore. Population is bigger than ever - California's rich migrants own everything, California's flotsam prowl the encampments, the rich people brought in huge numbers of Aztecs to tend their lawns and wives, and all the Coloradans bounced out.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (BI5O2)

63 Biden's Dog...
Am enjoying your reports of you travels.
Keep 'em coming!

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (W/lyH)

64
⛷️Ski Israel 🏂

Posted by: Don Black at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (AOsQT)

65 @52 prayers for Jewell45, and you too Theresa

Posted by: Smell the Glove at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (rsgUv)

66 Long hair, short hair, what's the difference once the head's blowed off. -- Farmer Yasgur, National Lampoon's "Woodstock"

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (RHGPo)

67 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Democratic Party had control and “did virtually nothing for working people.”

I suggest Bernie get himself a big ole' mirror.

Posted by: Archimedes at March 24, 2025 11:23 AM (xCA6C)

68 I saw Firehouse open for Tesla in Austin in 92.
That skinny fuckhead singer for tesla has been on my shitlist ever since. He better hope I never see him again.

Posted by: Reforger at March 24, 2025 11:24 AM (xcIvR)

69 Thank you for the update, Teresa.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:24 AM (tT6L1)

70 Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (TfEf

I love your framing on that first picture. Beautiful.

Posted by: pookysgirl appreciates natural beauty at March 24, 2025 11:24 AM (Wt5PA)

71 Doubt it’s locusts moving back to San Francisco. It’s most likely TX natives who can no longer afford to live there or have thrown in the towel and left for more conservative areas.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:25 AM (WBI+A)

72 58 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Democratic Party had control and “did virtually nothing for working people.”

… doesn’t this guy caucus with the Democrats ?
--------------------
Well, Bernie has always been a National Socialist. Its the only socialism that can work. And, yes, National Socialists need to flex the pimp hand every now and again. Its what they do.

Posted by: Pudinhead at March 24, 2025 11:25 AM (Hpgos)

73 Congratulations on the Blaze spot, Buck.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 11:25 AM (i24o9)

74 -
I wonder what caused the sudden drop in population in austin in 2002? It was quite a dramatic drop for one year and then the population rebounded quickly.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at March 24, 2025 11:07 AM
--

My wild-ass guess is Texas national guard deploying to Afghanistan. (also their families moving to be near grandparents, etc.)

Posted by: irright at March 24, 2025 11:26 AM (8rX4S)

75 I am not so sure national socialism works long term. The only extant version we have right now is China. It works, sort of.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:26 AM (/x6eu)

76 And, that's probably all cities over 250,000. What's the largest city with a GOP mayor?
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (Dm8we)

Per the net, Dallas, TX.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (/x6eu)

Although he was, I believe, a Democrat when elected.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:27 AM (ExV1e)

77 Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Texas - Ace of Spades Ladies Brigade, plucky comic relief at March 24, 2025 11:21 AM (SRRAx

I got you on the ONT. I am so sad.

Posted by: Piper at March 24, 2025 11:27 AM (p4NUW)

78 There are a number of 55+ communities being built outside of Austin. Used to just be Sun City in the Georgetown area.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (VofaG)

79 now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.

shocking

I hadn't realized it was this bad

Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (dCxaZ)

80 68 I saw Firehouse open for Tesla in Austin in 92.
That skinny fuckhead singer for tesla has been on my shitlist ever since. He better hope I never see him again.
Posted by: Reforger at March 24, 2025 11:24 AM (xcIvR)

Uh oh, I'm out of here guys.

Posted by: Jeff Keith at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (eb5mD)

81 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Democratic Party had control and “did virtually nothing for working people.”

Sure you did Bernie, you corrupt l'il sack of commie crap. You gave us higher taxes, inflation, and 12 million foreigners, many of whom took millions of jobs, the rest took our welfare.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (W/lyH)

82 My two favorite Bernie stories: Bernie getting kicked out of a commune because he was lazy and then the punching bag encounter wherein the punching bag won.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (tT6L1)

83 Fredericksburg will be the next drop. It’s being Vailed.

Which one? The one in Va is too blue collar for that.
Posted by: Archimedes at March 24, 2025 11:20 AM (xCA6C)
______

It's odd but the entire country is basically a few hugely populated states and a few hugely populated cities. Then everything else. The entire state of CO has millions less people than just NYC. Montana is geographically a huge state. Population about the same as Austin. Wyoming? Another geographical huge state. About half of Austin. It's incredible to me that Wyoming can be a state that geographically huge, and have about as many people as a few blocks of the densest populated cities.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (iFTx/)

84 Doubt it’s locusts moving back to San Francisco. It’s most likely TX natives who can no longer afford to live there or have thrown in the towel and left for more conservative areas.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:25 AM (WBI+A)

Many of them come to OK. We'll take 'em.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (g8Ew8)

85 Nashville's trying to out do Austin. It was never the "honky tonk" it purported to be. The music scene there is as fake as the artists who con people into paying to listen to it.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (Q4IgG)

86 75 I am not so sure national socialism works long term. The only extant version we have right now is China. It works, sort of.
---------------------
Most Yankees pine for the fjords of Sweden. For some reason Sweden decided to commit suicide. Who saw that coming?

Posted by: Pudinhead at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (Hpgos)

87 Nashville has wanted desperately to become Austin for quite some time now.

We have better music, but man we could sure use an exodus of some of the people coming here. And a collapse in real estate prices might be somewhat welcome around here. Nashville is becoming unaffordable.

Posted by: Grapefruit LaCroix at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (5E5Nu)

88 A couple comments at that Jon Browne tweet:

Five Times August
@FiveTimesAugust

Mar 20
I knew it was over when the CIA showed up with a booth at SXSW 😂

------------------

Five Times August
@FiveTimesAugust

Mar 15, 2023

LOL the CIA is out recruiting woke leftists at SXSW with a massive booth display. 😂 Rock and rollllllll!! 🥴

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:30 AM (EDRcs)

89 Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (iFTx/)

Harris County (Houston) has a larger population than 26 States.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:30 AM (VofaG)

90 Lived in Austin from 1998-2013. Left and never looked back. From growing up in a small town north of Austin in the 70s and 80s and going to 'the city' for concerts, general bar crawls on 6th Street I was able to watch it change. By the early 2000s, it was circling the drain. "Keep Austin weird" had become a marketing gimmick

Posted by: Stacy0311 at March 24, 2025 11:30 AM (K9xEt)

91 Most Yankees pine for the fjords of Sweden. For some reason Sweden decided to commit suicide. Who saw that coming?
Posted by: Pudinhead at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (Hpgos)

Probably some country swedes- but they were ignored as being backward.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:31 AM (/x6eu)

92 Fredericksburg, TX was a neat little town. Home of Admiral Nimitz. Now there are wineries galore.
Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM

Visited a few wineries and distilleries out that way a few years back. A good friend lives outside Austin.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:31 AM (hOk1M)

93 Posted by: Grapefruit LaCroix at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (5E5Nu)

in 2008 when the Lightbringer was elected, I wanted to move to TN because the company I worked for had a site there.
I would have made the move if not for a family commitment.

but now that PA is back to being a red state, 3x in a row, I guess I can stay here a bit longer

Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 11:31 AM (dCxaZ)

94 Nashville has wanted desperately to become Austin for quite some time now.

We have better music, but man we could sure use an exodus of some of the people coming here. And a collapse in real estate prices might be somewhat welcome around here. Nashville is becoming unaffordable.
Posted by: Grapefruit LaCroix at March 24, 2025 11:29 AM (5E5Nu)

My good friend and his wife had a great vacation in Nashville and plan on returning .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:32 AM (VofaG)

95 All right
All right
All right!

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:32 AM (W/lyH)

96 It's odd but the entire country is basically a few hugely populated states and a few hugely populated cities. Then everything else. The entire state of CO has millions less people than just NYC. Montana is geographically a huge state. Population about the same as Austin. Wyoming? Another geographical huge state. About half of Austin. It's incredible to me that Wyoming can be a state that geographically huge, and have about as many people as a few blocks of the densest populated cities.
Posted by: Elric Blade

I worked in a smaller hi-rise in Downtown Dallas.
It only held about 21,000 people.

Other than the major cities in the DFW Metroplex, that building held more than most towns.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:32 AM (xnytv)

97 Also, if you own property in a place targeted by CA colonists - leave *before* colonization is completed. You can't ride it out... there's an inexhaustible supply of Californians, and they never stop coming. But if you can sell before they cause a net population drop by killing everything good and wholesome about the place, you can make a bundle and write your own ticket just about anywhere.

Just don't wait too long or you'll find yourself holding a deed to something people aren't willing to pay all that much for anymore.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 24, 2025 11:32 AM (BI5O2)

98
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:22 AM

Tariffs massively help the middle class, while hurting the "globalist" trade class.

Which is why our "populist" presidents have been pro-tariff while our "free trade" presidents have been anti-tariff.

In an actual free trade situation, like they teach about in econ 101, we trade our baskets for another countries spears, because we're great basket makers and theyre great spear makers and everyone comes out ahead.

In the real world, money chases the highest returns, which means the rich country outsources its labor and capital to a poor country, where labor is cheaper and capital goes farther. This is great for the owners of the company and good for the poor country.

It's absolutely horrible for the rich country's citizens. Everyone involved knows this, but it's kind of a tragedy of the commons situation -- no one takes ownership of the situation and everyone is just "doing what's best for the company" even if that leads to the complete economic collapse of the rich country.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (uCjyK)

99 "Can fat pig rosie odonnell be sued for calling Connor McGregor a "sexual abuser?"
Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:20 AM (K8QQI)"

Oh, Ireland is going to LOVE her...no backsies!

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (k9OZB)

100 Fredericksburg, TX was a neat little town. Home of Admiral Nimitz. Now there are wineries galore.
Posted by: ScaryMary

And there's a cool museum there dedicated to the War in the Pacific in tribute to Nimitz.

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (77rzZ)

101 DU is covering the much more SERIOUS travel issue:

Canadians are making a mass exodus from Southwest Florida, and now businesses on the Gulf Coast say they're feeling the impact...it's estimated each year more than 60,000 Canadians flock to Florida each year.

“We don't want to be the 51st state, but we just want to be very good allies and wants things to go back to the way they were,” said Canadian Janet Rockefeller.

Who can blame them? They’ve been insulted, abused, and lied about. They are one of our greatest allies. Canadians, help us fight back. Close your wallets. Do not buy American or vacation here!

Way to shoot yourselves in the dick, Florida. Did you really think voting for Trump would come without economic consequences? My sister-in-law is in Largo and Canadians have been leaving since late last year. Used to see lots of Maple Leafs, not now.

I deleted my Amazon account. And I'm avoiding Target like the plague. I'm trying to support small local businesses too. We're in this together.

500,000 fewer travellers crossed the land border from Canada into the U.S. in February compared to the same month last year, according to CBP.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

102 My small city has been taken over by Californians as well. In the past 10 years virtually no houses have been built, other than custom built by owners with land. It’s all apartments as far as the eye can see when it comes to new construction. And that’s because city council is all leftists who hate single family homes and push for the Soviet-ification of the area. They’re now in the process of removing parking from downtown to encourage everyone to walk or bike.

And lots of natives are moving out as a result. Which means that much less opposition politically to the invaders. Which gives them more power which will lead to more out migration of sane people. It’s a vicious circle.

I’m gone as well once my kids are done with school.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:34 AM (WBI+A)

103 It was the 70s and 80s. That's forty to fifty years ago. Blaze Foley, Stevie Ray and Townes Van Zandt are long dead. The navel gazing about hippies turning into cowboys and cowboys turning into hippies and girls in halter tops is nonsense.

Austin quite simply aged out.

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:34 AM (/iMjX)

104 101 Way to shoot yourselves in the dick, Florida. Did you really think voting for Trump would come without economic consequences? My sister-in-law is in Largo and Canadians have been leaving since late last year. Used to see lots of Maple Leafs, not now.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

========

FL had its most tourists ever last year.

60,000 Canadians not showing up is going to be dwarfed by the number of tourists from Rhode Island.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)

105 "delightful melting pot of politicos, educators, hippies, rednecks, musicians, and regular suburban Texans"

A whole lot of commie voting blocs mixed in there.

Plus a major university indoctrinating students and a state capitol full of lobbyists for even more commie infestations.

But sure, easier to bury your head in the sand and pretend it was CA that caused the problems and not "keep Austin weird".

Posted by: Sjg at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (aqZN1)

106 It was alright, alright, alright. :'(

Posted by: David Wooderson at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (LPS7w)

107 Cities, especially large cities, are just not fit to live in anymore.Crime, socialism, expenses, noise and just too many problems to count. Who really wants to put up with them? Urban sprawl is depressing. I gave up on it 25 years ago. Best decision I ever made.

Posted by: Case at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (OrSPY)

108 Deleted Amazon? Whaaaaa? I didn’t realize Amazon was MAGA now. 🤣🤣

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (WBI+A)

109 101 I deleted my Amazon account. And I'm avoiding Target like the plague. I'm trying to support small local businesses too. We're in this together.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

======

Fight corporations! Do it!

Except MSNBC, of course.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)

110 The navel gazing about hippies turning into cowboys and cowboys turning into hippies and girls in halter tops is nonsense.

Austin quite simply aged out.
Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:34 AM (/iMjX)

Turns out they were all just hipsters with divergent fashion sensibilities.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (VoAdT)

111 You can observe this in Denver, too. Virtually nobody there is from there anymore. Population is bigger than ever - California's rich migrants own everything, California's flotsam prowl the encampments, the rich people brought in huge numbers of Aztecs to tend their lawns and wives, and all the Coloradans bounced out.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice

--

I'm from Denver and moved out to VA years ago for a job. About a year ago I wanted to go back and visit, basically to take the nostalgia tour. Nothing I grew up with exists now. No point in going back...I might as well visit some city I've never been to before.

Even Boulder, which was always wacky but still fun, is now taking itself way too seriously.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (ky8PV)

112 Well, I've been saying come to my little.town, liberals and sure enough, yesterday we had a.protest. A dozen people showed up in the rain to protest something. Only one sign was readable due to.all of them smearing from the water. Something about the rich.
Yawn

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (W/lyH)

113 108 Deleted Amazon? Whaaaaa? I didn’t realize Amazon was MAGA now. 🤣🤣
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (WBI+A)

=======

Bezos ordered the WaPo editorial page to be pro-liberty and pro-markets.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (GBKbO)

114 Prayers up for beloved jewells.

Posted by: ... at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (z67/X)

115 I hear that Houston's kind of an ugly craphole because of all the chemical/oil infrastructure. I hear that something blows up there practically every week. True?

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (77rzZ)

116 115 I hear that Houston's kind of an ugly craphole because of all the chemical/oil infrastructure. I hear that something blows up there practically every week. True?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (77rzZ)

======

Prone to flooding as well.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (GBKbO)

117 Police In Paterson, New Jersey Wear Palestinian Flags on Uniform Instead of U.S. Flag

-
At least they admit it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (L/fGl)

118 Deleted Amazon? Whaaaaa? I didn’t realize Amazon was MAGA now. 🤣🤣
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

---

May have to do with Jeff Bezos insisting on standards for the Washington Post editorial page that aren't restatements of "Trump Sucks."

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (ky8PV)

119 Sure you did Bernie, you corrupt l'il sack of commie crap. You gave us higher taxes, inflation, and 12 million foreigners, many of whom took millions of jobs, the rest took our welfare.
Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2025 11:28 AM (W/lyH)

To be fair, Bernie Sanders of 2005 would be hitting Bernie Sanders of 2025 over the head with a hammer and sickle.

Bernie of 2005 was absolutely right when he said you can't have a strong middle class that supports "the workers" AND unlimited immigration.

He used to rail against immigration (both legal and illegal) undercutting good union wages.

Then he got new marching orders during the Obama presidency, I guess.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (uCjyK)

120 Per the net, Dallas, TX.
Posted by: Aetius451AD
_________

I never would have guessed that even Dallas has a republican mayor.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:16 AM

He wasn't a republican when he got elected, he got elected as a democrat. He switched parties last year IIRC. Caused quite a controversy and the dems started a recall petition but fell way short of signatures to trigger a recall vote.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (e5NfL)

121 "Lazy, visually repellant" - The Independent
"Exhaustingly awful" - The Guardian
"Disney has trashed its reputation" - The Times
"A strange, hot mess" - Huff Post
"Listless" - ScreenDaily
"Good enough... for TV" - Vanity Fair
"Film has a major identity crisis" - BBC

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (RHGPo)

122 It's odd but the entire country is basically a few hugely populated states and a few hugely populated cities. Then everything else. The entire state of CO has millions less people than just NYC. Montana is geographically a huge state. Population about the same as Austin. Wyoming? Another geographical huge state. About half of Austin. It's incredible to me that Wyoming can be a state that geographically huge, and have about as many people as a few blocks of the densest populated cities.
Posted by: Elric Blade

I worked in a smaller hi-rise in Downtown Dallas.
It only held about 21,000 people.

Other than the major cities in the DFW Metroplex, that building held more than most towns.
Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:32 AM (xnytv)
_____

I live in Manhattan but also have a house in suburban NJ. The town there -- it doesn't even qualify as a city -- has 20k people. The entire town. And it's not the boondocks. It's an hour from NYC.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (iFTx/)

123 109 101 I deleted my Amazon account. And I'm avoiding Target like the plague. I'm trying to support small local businesses too. We're in this together.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

======

Fight corporations! Do it!

Except MSNBC, of course.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)

----
Finallly had enough of butchering Tolkein's work?

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (LPS7w)

124 It's absolutely horrible for the rich country's citizens. Everyone involved knows this, but it's kind of a tragedy of the commons situation -- no one takes ownership of the situation and everyone is just "doing what's best for the company" even if that leads to the complete economic collapse of the rich country.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (uCjyK)
---------------

Free Trade, from my perspective was always based on the assumption the country on the other end was operating in good faith, which was rarely, if ever, true.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (tT6L1)

125 Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Texas - Ace of Spades Ladies Brigade, plucky comic relief at March 24, 2025 11:21 AM

Ugh. Prayers continuing.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (hOk1M)

126 60,000 Canadians not showing up is going to be dwarfed by the number of tourists from Rhode Island.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

So RI actually exists, after all?

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

127 119 To be fair, Bernie Sanders of 2005 would be hitting Bernie Sanders of 2025 over the head with a hammer and sickle.

Bernie of 2005 was absolutely right when he said you can't have a strong middle class that supports "the workers" AND unlimited immigration.

He used to rail against immigration (both legal and illegal) undercutting good union wages.

Then he got new marching orders during the Obama presidency, I guess.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (uCjyK)

======

Slight note:

Bernie has always classified himself as a national socialist.

So, he'd use a swastika.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (GBKbO)

128 It’s funny how canuckistanis think they’re important. They’re 10% of the US population and have 70% the purchasing power. If every Canuck stopped coming to the US for a vacation would anyone notice?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (WBI+A)

129 'We're all in this together' another hated fucking Chinese lung aids phrase.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (/x6eu)

130 126 60,000 Canadians not showing up is going to be dwarfed by the number of tourists from Rhode Island.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

So RI actually exists, after all?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

======

That's the joke!

It doesn't!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (GBKbO)

131 It is my hope that some of the depopulation is because of blue state colonizers returning to their natural coastal habitats

***********

Well, if you consider Mexico to be a blue state...

What's the demographic breakdown of the out-migration?

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (/iMjX)

132 osted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

If FL gets less Canadian snowbirds I can almost guarantee you they will increase their population of American retirees.

What I'm hearing from a lot of people in my community is they visited FL looking to retire but the communities were way too crowded where though the amenities were great, you had to get in line to use them.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:39 AM (VofaG)

133 I remember when I was a kid, there was a show called “Austin City Limits,” which ran on PBS where I lived, with different musical acts. I don’t recall ever watching it, but I suppose it was a celebration of the Austin music scene.

Posted by: Bicentennialguy at March 24, 2025 11:39 AM (+K1xO)

134 Prayers Jewells.
It was an honor to see you in our gray boxes. I don't know how much good it did but you got me to quit smoking cigarettes.
For that I thank you. Big virtual hug and eternal love.
Wish I could have met you in person.

We've lost so many over the years...
I gotta find something to do.

Posted by: Reforger at March 24, 2025 11:39 AM (xcIvR)

135 I saw The Banks of Lady Bird Lake open for Emerson & Palmer at the Stampede Corral in '77.

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:39 AM (j6GWt)

136
Canadians are making a mass exodus from Southwest Florida, and now businesses on the Gulf Coast say they're feeling the impact...it's estimated each year more than 60,000 Canadians flock to Florida each year.

Yes, it's called fucking SPRING. It happens, literally, every year.

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:39 AM (K8QQI)

137 Austin has also been pretty effective in killing off its legendary music scene. Apparently, tech bros and AWFLs just don’t foster a music scene the same way that hippies and rednecks once did, and now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.

I suspect it has more to do with dating apps. People don't go to bars/concerts to meet the opposite sex. They log onto wannafuck.com and go from there.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (ExV1e)

138 >>> Way to shoot yourselves in the dick, Florida.

lol

Where I live, the local tourism board just released their report on tourist dollars spent in 2024. It was a record.

Posted by: one hour sober at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (Y1sOo)

139 The big lie, the scam, is that Socialism is a movement of the downtrodden or grass roots.

Au contraire. Socialism is imposed from the top down. By bankers and “philanthropists” and the Wealthy. It is a con game. Even the vaunted Russian Revolution was financed by US banks. Trotsky was detained briefly in Halifax leaving NYC, but allowed to continue on his way. Lenin was shipped by train, along with millions in gold, by Germany to Russia.

Rockefeller took “vacation” to Soviet Russia in the early 60’s, and within a couple weeks, Kruschev was fired. I’m sure it was a coincidence.

Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (NxbtL)

140 There are nice parts and shity parts of Houston. Just like all cities.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (WBI+A)

141 So RI actually exists, after all?
Posted by: Bulg

---

Yeah, it's basically the backyard of some guy who lives near Quincy MA.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (ky8PV)

142 Amarillo by morning.

Posted by: Minnfidel at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (4p0Xq)

143 Austin City Limits still airs on PBS. I don't watch often, but they frequently have good music.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (wX56x)

144 I deleted my Amazon account. And I'm avoiding Target like the plague. I'm trying to support small local businesses too. We're in this together.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:33 AM (JCZqz)

======

Fight corporations! Do it!

Except MSNBC, of course.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)
_____

These DU retards do know that small local businesses tend to be more conservative than massive mega-corps, don't they?

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM (iFTx/)

145 People fleeing? House prices dropping?

Sounds like it's time for a monorail!

Posted by: 2009Refugee at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM (u5fr9)

146
Breaking:

Tens of thousands of "snow birds," i.e. Northeast Joos and other retirees who winter in Florida are LEAVING Florida because Trump!

Oh wait. It's the end of March, when they all do this, every year.

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM (K8QQI)

147 60,000 Canadians not showing up is going to be dwarfed by the number of tourists from Rhode Island.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:35 AM (GBKbO)

—————-

Are there 60K people in Rhode Island? Must be packed in tight.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM (u73oe)

148 Alex Jones reporter, _ White, was the eighth murder this year in the city of Austin. Austin used to be one of the safest cities in the US.
One may assume the murder rate is illustrative of all civil deconstruction in the city.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (nbrPU)

149 Oh wait. It's the end of March, when they all do this, every year.
Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM (K8QQI)
----------------------

I guess the DUmmies are not acquainted with the term "Tourist Season."

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (tT6L1)

150 So what's up with Jewells?

Posted by: Minnfidel at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (4p0Xq)

151 Thinking on the topic of swatting:

How is that a valid response by the police, to blow open the door and burst in with fully auto weapons?

There are only 3 possibilities:
1) the victims are already dead, so the swat is a waste
2) the victims are not dead, so the swat is pointless
3) the police kill an innocent

I don't think the insignificant, miniscule possibility that they burst in just in time to save the victims has ever happened.
I mean, can you imagine? Call --> 10-30+ minutes later, police arrive --> murderous intent magically subsided during that delay --> cops save the day.
And even if it works, the rarity doesn't justify the fact the swat increases the chances of death.

As pointed out, swatting is likely encouraged by the police because they get aroused by sending out swat and love any opportunity to gear up and play soldier.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (MC8h6)

152 Austin has also been pretty effective in killing off its legendary music scene. Apparently, tech bros and AWFLs just don’t foster a music scene the same way that hippies and rednecks once did, and now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.

I suspect it has more to do with dating apps. People don't go to bars/concerts to meet the opposite sex. They log onto wannafuck.com and go from there.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (ExV1e)
________

Any yellow?

-- Hunter Biden

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (iFTx/)

153 26 And, that's probably all cities over 250,000. What's the largest city with a GOP mayor?
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:11 AM (Dm8we)

Per the net, Dallas, TX.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (/x6eu)

Their mayor was elected as a Democrat; he switched parties not long after that, saying that things had changed, and that he didn't recognize the Democrat party any more.

Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Texas - Ace of Spades Ladies Brigade, plucky comic relief at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (SRRAx)

154 Free Trade, from my perspective was always based on the assumption the country on the other end was operating in good faith, which was rarely, if ever, true.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (tT6L1)

Yeah but the people who negotiated these treaties never once even took in to consideration what was fair or not to the US and it's middle class.

Trump calls them "very stupid deals" but "stupid" would tend to indicate that our negotiators were low IQ and unaware of what they do were doing. I'd say they knew what they were doing, but didn't care.

But even if we got all tariffs to be equal, every other country on the planet is engaged in different forms of protectionism. Europe, for example, uses food regulations to keep cheap American food out of Europe.

Same with American cars around the world, etc. etc.

And China won't let a US company do business in China unless they form a wholly owned subsidiary that is 51% owned by a Chinese national.

This is the entire world robbing the US middle class blind while our "leaders" take their cuts off the top.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (uCjyK)

155 And people think this is just fine to study:

DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

https://tinyurl.com/5sfjuc5x

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (xnytv)

156 Police In Paterson, New Jersey Wear Palestinian Flags on Uniform Instead of U.S. Flag
-------

But don't you ever say you saw video of them cheering 9/11 from rooftops.

Posted by: ... at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (z67/X)

157 Speaking of small businesses, private equity is buying up small businesses. Blackrock figured out they can monopolize industries in cities by removing all competition. So now when you call Bob’s plumbing company, it could be owned by Blackrock. But you’d never know it since they still keep Bob’s likeness.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (WBI+A)

158 Bernie has always been and will always be a a slimy lazy commie rat who says anything to gain favor with leftists.
Can't stand that rabble rousing pos.

Posted by: Cmonman at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (WPbe5)

159 I hear that Houston's kind of an ugly craphole because of all the chemical/oil infrastructure. I hear that something blows up there practically every week. True?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (77rzZ)

======

Prone to flooding as well.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (GBKbO)

The industries are mostly East Houston /Pasadena. I liked living in Houston for 30 years but I like living outside of it better now.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (VofaG)

160 These DU retards do know that small local businesses tend to be more conservative than massive mega-corps, don't they?
Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 11:41 AM

Shhhh.....fools, money, some disassembly required.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (hOk1M)

161 I guess the DUmmies are not acquainted with the term "Tourist Season."
Posted by: blake

Wasn't there a Loony Toons cartoon about that?
"Duck Season!"
"Tourist Season!"

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (77rzZ)

162 I am loving that the stupid Snow Mexicans are getting roused into supporting more of the same, from the same party that's in charge now--but worse--as "change" to stop Trump.

There's retarded and then there's the frozen brain of your average Canuk.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at March 24, 2025 11:44 AM (MC8h6)

163 My wife and I need a house way too big for two people just to hold all of our books.
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:06 AM (77rzZ)

And my basement model train layout and workshop. After 50 years in the same house, we ain't goin' anywhere.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at March 24, 2025 11:45 AM (dgRL6)

164 >>Oh wait. It's the end of March, when they all do this, every year.

Correct. They're heading north while spring breakers have been on the beach here for a couple of weeks.

The Canadian dollars will not be missed.

Posted by: one hour sober at March 24, 2025 11:45 AM (Y1sOo)

165 But even if we got all tariffs to be equal, every other country on the planet is engaged in different forms of protectionism. Europe, for example, uses food regulations to keep cheap American food out of Europe.

Same with American cars around the world, etc. etc.

And China won't let a US company do business in China unless they form a wholly owned subsidiary that is 51% owned by a Chinese national.

This is the entire world robbing the US middle class blind while our "leaders" take their cuts off the top.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

One solution?

Bring all our soldiers home from every country on earth. Let those countries pay for their own defense/wars.

Let's see how equal everyone wants to become.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (xnytv)

166
Breaking News!

AP -- Millions of Americans have taken down all their Christmas decorations in the weeks following the election of Donald Trump. "The Christmas spirit is over, for now. I'm really sad because I really love Christmas time." says Anita Fucksnizzle of Trenton, New Jersey, as she drags her once-beloved Christmas tree to the curb for pickup.

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (K8QQI)

167 "n it I make the point that even if “tariffs are a tax on consumers” as Principled Free Traders always claim, so what? National defense spending is also a tax on consumers, as is foreign aid, inflation-fueled deficit spending, etc."

---

Wow. We waste a shedload of money on other crap we don't need to be fleecing the taxpayers on, so why not just add one more to the list.

Great reasoning there.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (dGCAG)

168 This is the entire world robbing the US middle class blind while our "leaders" take their cuts off the top.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (uCjyK)
--------------

Price controlled drugs in the EU are subsidized by the American taxpayer.

For example.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (tT6L1)

169 He used to rail against immigration (both legal and illegal) undercutting good union wages. Then he got new marching orders
———

The Sierra Club was once a big proponent of nuclear energy, during the dam building phase of the federal government.

They were also quite critical of illegal and legal migration, on the principle that millions and millions of new arrivals would place unprecedented demands on timber, water, electricity, schools, hospitals, roads, sewage treatment and waste disposal. You know, ruining the environment. Wild spaces. Urbanization.

Today? Not a fricking peep out of any of them.

Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (txZoB)

170 Trump calls them "very stupid deals" but "stupid" would tend to indicate that our negotiators were low IQ and unaware of what they do were doing. I'd say they knew what they were doing, but didn't care.
---------

In this case it's much easier to convince people of that than to explain the entire truth. Trump keeps things quick and easy to digest.

Unlike the GOPe PowerPoint Crew that like to enumerate their lies in an expansive sea of bs.

Although I did say I was going to stop making fun of PowerPoint since it saved Trump's life and maybe the country.

Posted by: ... at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (z67/X)

171 We were just discussing Austin's decline with son yesterday. I was born and raised in Austin as were my parents and grandparents (and some of my "greats"). And yes, I visited the sainted Armadillo many times--including glorious afternoons in the beer garden consuming cheap beer and nachos.

I never thought I'd leave but 9 years ago son and his family moved to the exurbs and one year later so did husband and I. We went into Austin yesterday to have lunch with son and, while we enjoyed the lunch, we couldn't wait to escape. No, nothing bad happened; it's just to painful to contemplate what my home town has become.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (FEVMW)

172 I am not so sure national socialism works long term.

It can work, to some extent, in a homogeneous society - see pre-invasion Sweden. Mostly - same race, same religion, same opinions.

We don't have that.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (ExV1e)

173 Which city adopted the “keep it weird” slogan first: Austin or Portland? You see it in both…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (5MZNC)

174
I live in Manhattan but also have a house in suburban NJ. The town there -- it doesn't even qualify as a city -- has 20k people. The entire town. And it's not the boondocks. It's an hour from NYC.
Posted by: Elric Blade at March

I lived in Kinnelon for 2 years. The only thing I liked was my neighborhood. 🤣

Posted by: Piper at March 24, 2025 11:47 AM (p4NUW)

175
Don't get me started on canadian fake quarters...

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:47 AM (K8QQI)

176 Ricardo's theory of Comparative Advantage didn't really take bad faith into account, but to be fair not very many economic theories do...they tend to be based on the Reasonable Person convention.

For Comparative Advantage it was mitigated by the thinking that the advantage would be strong and plain enough that bad faith would be minimized. But then, we're dealing with real people who make bad decisions, so just like the difference between experimental and theoretical physics, there's that divide that doesn't tend to be bridged.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 11:47 AM (ky8PV)

177 Bring all our soldiers home from every country on earth. Let those countries pay for their own defense/wars.

Let's see how equal everyone wants to become.
Posted by: rickb223

YES!!!

But sadly too many people on our side are still stuck in 1982 mentality where we have to be the world’s policeman. And the military blob will not go quietly into the night.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:48 AM (WBI+A)

178 Dallas mayor changed parties to become republican. Fort Worth has an elected as republican republican.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 24, 2025 11:48 AM (pADcG)

179 Typical graph layout to maximize the visual appearance of outmigration. Might be more interesting to have aa baseline at say a 1970 total Austin population. See where it stands compared to that.

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:48 AM (/iMjX)

180 Amarillo by morning.
Posted by: Minnfidel at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (4p0Xq)

The woman who inspired that song lives in my neighborhood. She dated Terry Stafford, and then broke up with him.

She's in her 80's now and is still beautiful. She was a real stunner back in the day. Lovely lady.

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 11:48 AM (k9OZB)

181 As has been mentioned before here, somehow tariffs are taxes on consumers, but corporate taxes and other assorted bullshit like that on businesses aren’t…

Posted by: Bicentennialguy at March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (+K1xO)

182 The way I see it the US is slowly but surely Balkanizing itself. "City states" surrounded by miles and miles of agitated citizens. Even the judicial coup underway is being directed out of these "city states."

The left thinks they're invincible.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (Q4IgG)

183 Austin is a handy place if you want to see homeless encampments at every intersection without going to the west coast.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (pADcG)

184 I dunno about this so-called housing crash. I suspect the exodus from Austin are Boomers cashing out for what is still a tidy sum on what they paid in the way-back.

It is a town that skews young. My niece moved there 2 years ago and concedes that. But of course that's what she likes about it.

Posted by: OneEyedJack at March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (FCbAQ)

185 The "Keep Austin Weird" slogan has only been around since 2000. I thought it was older than that.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:50 AM (wX56x)

186 Doctors Warning About Increasing "Sloth Fever" Infections

-
So that's what I've had all these years!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 11:50 AM (L/fGl)

187 One solution?

Bring all our soldiers home from every country on earth. Let those countries pay for their own defense/wars.

Let's see how equal everyone wants to become.
Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:46 AM (xnytv)

That would help, but probably not as much as we think.

I think the only realistic solution is to do what Trump is doing here. Tariffs to try to undo some of the offshoring travesty and trying to undo some of the immigration disasters of the last 40+ years.

Unfortunately, it may be too little too late at this point. I feel like the real time to get aggressive with this was in the '80s or '90s.

There are now two entire generations who grew up in a world with unlimited immigration and disappearing blue collar jobs, who were told to go to college to get a great job, then were replaced / displaced in those white collar jobs by immigrants.

Free trade and massive immigration has basically destroyed two generations of people that would have otherwise been upwardly mobile middle class. And I think the deaths of desperation (suicide, drugs, alcoholism), show that.

Can a country come back from that?

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:51 AM (uCjyK)

188 >>The woman who inspired that song lives in my neighborhood

Was she the wife or one of the girlfriends lost somewhere along the way?

Posted by: one hour sober at March 24, 2025 11:51 AM (Y1sOo)

189 I remember seeing bumper stickers in the 1980s “keep Austin Weird”, it goes back pretty far

Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:51 AM (XJl7d)

190 Sloth Fever? Shit. And here I was just getting over microplastics infection.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:52 AM (WBI+A)

191 As pointed out, swatting is likely encouraged by the police because they get aroused by sending out swat and love any opportunity to gear up and play soldier.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at March 24, 2025 11:42 AM (MC8h6)

Way back in the day, I had the opportunity to speak with a woman whose husband was a cop in a major metro area. She said her husband and all his buddies were omnisexuals, which is a term I hadn't heard before.

Apparently whatever gets them hard, they will do. Including their rah rah tough guy cop routines. And so many of them were having sex with each other, it was freaking her out.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:52 AM (dGCAG)

192 I hear that Houston's kind of an ugly craphole because of all the chemical/oil infrastructure. I hear that something blows up there practically every week. True?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:36 AM (77rzZ)

======

Prone to flooding as well.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:37 AM (GBKbO)

Also poisonous snakes. Everywhere in the state. Millions of them. Temperatures above 200 in the summer. Women are required to wear burkhas... red ones. Tell any liberal friends you might have.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:52 AM (ExV1e)

193 During the height of the Great Depression, California Highway Patrol was stationed at ports of entry on the roads, basically unemployed or indigent (broke) people were not allowed. The reasoning was, there were no jobs nor housing nor enough food for the teeming masses.
--
Which the SCOTUS found unconstitutional as you have the right to travel.

Another right all the courts ran away from and pretended didn't exist due to Covid ....

But a terrorist gets picked up by ICE and they're jumping all over themselves to help him.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at March 24, 2025 11:53 AM (MC8h6)

194 I remember when I was a kid, there was a show called “Austin City Limits,” which ran on PBS where I lived, with different musical acts. I don’t recall ever watching it, but I suppose it was a celebration of the Austin music scene.
Posted by: Bicentennialguy at March 24, 2025

***
I recall watching it years ago when The Amazing Rhythm Aces were on. Great band that straddled the line between rock and country.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 11:53 AM (J2vNu)

195 Big cities at the moment are unliveable hellholes. However as Trump has proven with immigration and the border, all you have to is properly enforce criminal laws. Add in quality of life laws and regs and the cities would be liveable.
Of course such things to Dems are like a cross to vampires

Posted by: Smell the Glove at March 24, 2025 11:53 AM (rsgUv)

196
"Hot Sloth Fever" was a potential mega hit that got caught out by a rival whose musical hook was too close to its own.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at March 24, 2025 11:53 AM (xG4kz)

197 Was she the wife or one of the girlfriends lost somewhere along the way?
Posted by: one hour sober at March 24, 2025 11:51 AM (Y1sOo)

Girlfriend. She loved him, but it wasn't working out. She met her husband not long after and they've been together almost 50 years.

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 11:53 AM (k9OZB)

198 And people think this is just fine to study:

DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women
Posted by: rickb223

Sheeeeeet. Me and my roomies could have given a detailed report on this back in the '70s if they had only asked. Even back then, there were a few, but only a few, mentally ill coeds that would dabble in the herb.

"Gentlemen, the question is not whether or not we took advantage of these women. . . (we did). . . ."

Posted by: Tonypete at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (cYBz/)

199 I'm sure that the sharp decline in population and real estate crash will force the city council to address the disastrous policies that yeah, I'm just going to stop there because I'm laughing too hard.

Posted by: NR Pax at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (lXCUP)

200 Houston's great! We are heading into our 6-month long high summer season, wherein Satan throws opens the thermal exhaust ports of Hell. The giant bugs. The Hurricanes and flooding. Best stay away until mid-October at the earliest.

Posted by: Count de Monet at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (Aqu9a)

201 Also poisonous snakes. Everywhere in the state. Millions of them. Temperatures above 200 in the summer. Women are required to wear burkhas... red ones. Tell any liberal friends you might have.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:52 AM (ExV1e)

-----
Don't forget the mosquitoes. And the scorpions that crawl into your shoe, or your bed. Fun times.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (wX56x)

202 I saw a weird commercial this weekend. A local Chevy dealership advertizing they have pre-tariff pricing. lol. All those local car dealer “sales” are bullshit of course. I just through itbwas funny that they’re using tariffs as this months version.

Oh and it’s also truck month. Just like every other month.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (WBI+A)

203 60,000 Canadians not showing up is going to be dwarfed by the number of tourists from Rhode Island.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

So RI actually exists, after all?
Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 11:38 AM (77rzZ)

It's just Canadians who don't want to admit what they are. Don't let Big Penguin fool you into believing in RI.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (ExV1e)

204 they tend to be based on the Reasonable Person convention.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 11:47 AM (ky8PV)

Which works good enough for the legal system, even though it's imperfect.

But is utterly retarded for economics. Because they miss the whole part where people aren't primarily driven by some kind of disassociated from reality of what is in their economic best interests.

People are much more complicated than that. Maybe it would be economically beneficial to move 3 hours away to take a job paying slightly more money. But people have families and roots and community and may not want to move. And maybe they get free babysitting and daycare services from the grandparents. How does the model take that in to account?

It doesn't, it just ignores that.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (uCjyK)

205 Isn't "Keep It Weird" an oddly conservative concept for a slogan?

Status Quo Progressivism?

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (/iMjX)

206 Way back in the day, I had the opportunity to speak with a woman whose husband was a cop in a major metro area. She said her husband and all his buddies were omnisexuals, which is a term I hadn't heard before.

Apparently whatever gets them hard, they will do. Including their rah rah tough guy cop routines. And so many of them were having sex with each other, it was freaking her out.
Posted by: BurtTC

Omnisexual = flat out old school gay couched in a new, slick term.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (xnytv)

207 A tariff to repatriate supply chains that are critical to our national defense is as worthy a tax as those other taxes we are paying.

----------------

Economic Security == National Security

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (1geya)

208 Good morning!

Posted by: Knock gp A Kiss at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (5ACBR)

209 I feel like the real time to get aggressive with this was in the '80s or '90s.
———

Bingo! I’ve long maintained that Americans are generally speaking on a 25 year time delay, compared to folks paying attention. They’ll figure things out eventually. After it’s too late. Leftists know this, that’s why they work so diligently to make these issues moot.

Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (CO7ih)

210 Amarillo by morning.
Posted by: Minnfidel at March 24, 2025 11:40 AM (4p0Xq)

The woman who inspired that song lives in my neighborhood. She dated Terry Stafford, and then broke up with him.

She's in her 80's now and is still beautiful. She was a real stunner back in the day. Lovely lady.
Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025

***
Terry Stafford, who sang "Suspicion" way back in the Sixties? Or do you mean George Strait, who did the ABM song?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (J2vNu)

211
You know that black racist Q-Tip on msnbc with the Jewish name?

Yeah, he's now demanding ALL voter registration laws be abolished. You'll never guess his [fake, gaslighting] reason why.

Posted by: Soothsayer at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (K8QQI)

212 The United Kingdom has detected bird flu in a sheep for the first time, the government announced today.

Posted by: 13times at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (Qtj+Y)

213 Mike Benz, the founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online, recently joined Joe Rogan on his very popular podcast.

During their conversation, Mike Benz shared how Barack Obama was using money to USAID to pretend to send “aid” overseas. In actuality, Obama was laundering the taxpayer dollars and using it to train “rent-a-mobs” instead!

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (RHGPo)

214 This kind of thing seems to be playing out everywhere. Our cities (and regions) are slowly transforming in to the same cities with slightly different regional foods. Maybe it's inevitable, but it is sad
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 11:19 AM (uCjyK)

All the local stores get crowded out by the box stores and national pharmacies
All the schools and public improvement orgs get funded by federal money and Ford Foundation with specific instructions on how the money is to be spent
The Homeless advocates move permanent camps in so they have access to grant money
The taxes go up because people demand greater protection and the city council wants to be important like the good cities are, and property taxes go up because the cost of government always goes up, so labor costs more and locals lose out on service jobs to ~~sillegals~~ recent migrants.
The street become less safe
People with options move out to places that tax less
The city council and planning board start putting in low income houses and strip malls to try to increase a tax base . . .

And it all starts looking the same with misery, borderline poverty, casual crime, trash, just like everywhere else.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 11:56 AM (D7oie)

215 Can a country come back from that?
Posted by: Harry Paratestes
========
Yes. Plenty of examples in history. China or Korea for example. History is cyclical rather than moving in some pre determined direction.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 11:56 AM (ctrM5)

216 213 Mike Benz, the founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online, recently joined Joe Rogan on his very popular podcast.

During their conversation, Mike Benz shared how Barack Obama was using money to USAID to pretend to send “aid” overseas. In actuality, Obama was laundering the taxpayer dollars and using it to train “rent-a-mobs” instead!
Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (RHGPo)

======

The rent-a-mobs are so mad about this being stopped.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, back to the finish with Corman at March 24, 2025 11:56 AM (GBKbO)

217 New Jersey ? Alina Hubba has been named AG of New Jersey by DJT. NJ, you gonna fun like you never funned before ! LOL

Posted by: runner at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (g47mK)

218 24 Austin has amazing Mid Mod houses. I would love one if Austin could go back to being weird instead of dangerous.
Posted by: Piper at March 24, 2025 11:13 AM (pZEOD)

A few years ago, a young lady we know was looking At colleges. She was probably always going to end up at A&M, but she wanted to give UT Austin a look. She told my wife and I that she’d heard the “Keep Austin Weird” schtick, but when she was there it wasn’t cool weird, it was creepy weird. Everywhere she went in town there was a creepy vibe.

Posted by: Advo at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (jO4mz)

219 I saw an editorial in the Providence Gazette titled "Yes, Virginia. There is a Rhode Island:"

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (/iMjX)

220 And people think this is just fine to study:

DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

https://tinyurl.com/5sfjuc5x

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:43 AM (xnytv)

They can buy their own weed just like everyone else, FFS.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (i24o9)

221 169 The Sierra Club had or has a tin cup as one of their symbols, indicating rugged outdoorsy types. I would venture a guess the closest 90% of their membership gets to the great outdoors is rolling down the window on the Prius while paying a toll so they can get home to the McMansion. And then settle in for a night of watching MSNBC.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (gm9Sb)

222 Eh, I live on brackish water about a drive and a nine-iron away from the Gulf. There are cottonmouths all over the place.

You just have to be aware at all times when out and about on your property and use common sense. It's homeowners who are recent transplants or long-timers who get complacent that have a problem.

Posted by: one hour sober at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (Y1sOo)

223 Sloth Fever? Shit. And here I was just getting over microplastics infection.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025

***
"Saturday Sloth Fever" starring Jack Black!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (J2vNu)

224 DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

So, basically, a bunch of lesbians got the feds to buy their weed.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 11:57 AM (ExV1e)

225 Jewells has lung cancer. She's been fighting it for awhile.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (cvWHI)

226 Finally saw Alien Romulus last night with my mom.
--
It really didn't make sense as one movie.
There's like three movies or so mashed in there.
1) the 1st colonization and the rediscovery
2) the cheap rip off of Alien/Aliens
3) sequel/prequel(?) to Prometheus

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (MC8h6)

227
LOL the CIA is out recruiting woke leftists at SXSW with a massive booth display.

They had a big booth at the Dayton Hamfest back in the late 70's.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (63Dwl)

228 Ok, wiki says the only cities in top 50 by population with GOP mayors are:

Dallas (switch parties as noted above)
Ft. Worth
Oklahoma City
Fresno
Mesa
Omaha
Virginia Beach
Miami
Bakersfield

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (Dm8we)

229 JustTheNews:

Months before he blocked President Donald Trump’s deportations of illegal alien gang members, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg attended a privately-funded legal conference in Idaho that featured sponsors and speakers who have expressed clear anti-Trump sentiments -- particularly on immigration -- and a theme that echoed the Democrat Party’s 2024 stated mission of saving democracy, according to a judicial ethics report.

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (RHGPo)

230 I remember when I was a kid, there was a show called “Austin City Limits,” which ran on PBS where I lived, with different musical acts. I don’t recall ever watching it, but I suppose it was a celebration of the Austin music scene.
Posted by: Bicentennialguy at March 24, 2025

***
I recall watching it years ago when The Amazing Rhythm Aces were on. Great band that straddled the line between rock and country.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

They'd occasionally have Willie, Waylon, Merle & Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wherl) on.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (xnytv)

231 The United Kingdom has detected bird flu in a sheep for the first time, the government announced today.
Posted by: 13times at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM

Damn it, ~~Carl~~ Mohammed!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (hOk1M)

232 Omnisexual = flat out old school gay couched in a new, slick term.
Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (xnytv)

Well yeah, as in if you have sex with men yer gay.

But there are men who will put that thang ONLY in other men, and there are some who will put it wherever it fits, regardless of what the hole is attached to.

A different form of gay, to be sure.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (dGCAG)

233 145 People fleeing? House prices dropping?

Sounds like it's time for a monorail!
Posted by: 2009Refugee

Millions of illegals leaving the nation (voluntarily or involuntarily), fewer foreign snowbirds, reduced regulations and restrictions on building...sounds like a recipe to increase housing availability, and possibly the price of home purchases, which has been a major complaint by Gen Z. More Trump winning?

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at March 24, 2025 11:59 AM (JCZqz)

234 Houston's great! We are heading into our 6-month long high summer season, wherein Satan throws opens the thermal exhaust ports of Hell. The giant bugs. The Hurricanes and flooding. Best stay away until mid-October at the earliest.
Posted by: Count de Monet at March 24, 2025 11:54 AM (Aqu9a)

No offense to anyone who lives in Houston and loves it, but as soon as I can, I'm getting out. I just can't with the heat and humidity.

It also doesn't help that my house flooded once and I'm pretty sure it could happen again.

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 11:59 AM (k9OZB)

235 American cities are becoming obsolete unless you are a member of the democrat Free Shit Army or wealthy enough to enjoy living there for your 4 a.m. Thai food fix while avoiding the great unwashed like in "Soylent Green", behind high walls, air conditioning, bodyguards and strawberry jam. Sane, average folks avoid the cities when they can.

Posted by: Detective Thorn at March 24, 2025 11:59 AM (u5iGG)

236 Mike Benz, the founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online, recently joined Joe Rogan on his very popular podcast.

During their conversation, Mike Benz shared how Barack Obama was using money to USAID to pretend to send “aid” overseas. In actuality, Obama was laundering the taxpayer dollars and using it to train “rent-a-mobs” instead!

Posted by: SMOD at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (RHGPo)

Yeah, TGP is pushing that hard, and I suspect that there is at least some truth to the overall allegations.

But Imma wait and see on the facts that fall out of it before getting excited about it.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 11:59 AM (i24o9)

237 DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

Which OSU? It is borderline for Corvallis, so I would expect that sort of thing to go on in U of O in Eugene

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 11:59 AM (D7oie)

238 JustTheNews:

Months before he blocked President Donald Trump’s deportations of illegal alien gang members, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg attended a privately-funded legal conference in Idaho that featured sponsors and speakers who have expressed clear anti-Trump sentiments -- particularly on immigration -- and a theme that echoed the Democrat Party’s 2024 stated mission of saving democracy, according to a judicial ethics report.
Posted by: SMOD

Everyone is screaming DOGE & unelected.

Well, no one elected piddly assed district court judges to be higher than the president either.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (xnytv)

239 The United Kingdom has detected bird flu in a sheep for the first time, the government announced today.

********

Those damned sheep-shagging roosters!!

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (/iMjX)

240 Bingo! I’ve long maintained that Americans are generally speaking on a 25 year time delay, compared to folks paying attention. They’ll figure things out eventually. After it’s too late. Leftists know this, that’s why they work so diligently to make these issues moot.
Posted by: Common Tater at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (CO7ih)

Agreed. There's a lot of power in controlling the media and propaganda machine.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (uCjyK)

241 I've been to the Continental, saw Chris Duarte there. I can tell were they are fleeing too, because my property taxes are going up.

Posted by: Darth Randall at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (1VaPO)

242 DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

Which OSU? It is borderline for Corvallis, so I would expect that sort of thing to go on in U of O in Eugene
Posted by: Kindltot

Sorry. THE OSU.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (xnytv)

243 Terry Stafford, who sang "Suspicion" way back in the Sixties? Or do you mean George Strait, who did the ABM song?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (J2vNu)

Terry Stafford.

Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025 12:00 PM (k9OZB)

244 And it all starts looking the same with misery, borderline poverty, casual crime, trash, just like everywhere else.
Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 11:56 AM (D7oie)

With lots of strip malls, fast food places, and an Applebees on every corner.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (uCjyK)

245 totally OT, but ---

where in the world is Melania Trump??

Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (dCxaZ)

246 Bingo! I’ve long maintained that Americans are generally speaking on a 25 year time delay, compared to folks paying attention. They’ll figure things out eventually. After it’s too late. Leftists know this, that’s why they work so diligently to make these issues moot.
Posted by: Common Tater

Actually, societies become immunized from idiots for a time if what the idiots propose does not kill the society as a whole.

Historical Determinism simply has never worked as such across histories and societies; it is more that elites choose decline for a society and the rest of it grudgingly agrees or is passive about it. But, just as often in history, those elites get chucked on the trash pile of history and societies recover as a result.

There are always choices and there is no inevitable result of history. Just like individuals can change (difficult but doable), so can societies made up of those individuals.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (ctrM5)

247 The way I see it the US is slowly but surely Balkanizing itself. "City states" surrounded by miles and miles of agitated citizens. Even the judicial coup underway is being directed out of these "city states."

The left thinks they're invincible.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (Q4IgG)

Why wouldn't they be? City dwellers have absolutely nothing that they need from outside the city. Nothing at all.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (ExV1e)

248 DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women

THE OSU!!!!

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (77rzZ)

249 Ricardo's theory of Comparative Advantage

I prefer the AoS CoB (Buck Throckmorton?) postulation regarding bands and upright basses more.

Posted by: Moron Analyst at March 24, 2025 12:03 PM (JCZqz)

250 So that ahoe judge says everyone of MS 13 and the Tren whatever terrorists all deserve individual hearings ? Seriously ?

Posted by: It's me donna at March 24, 2025 12:03 PM (VE6XX)

251 where in the world is Melania Trump??
Posted by: kallisto

Probably in NYC. She's trying to stay close to Barron, who's attending NYU, as much as possible.

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 12:03 PM (77rzZ)

252 The DOGE is unelected stuff is idiotic. Other than potus nobody in the federal government is elected.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:03 PM (WBI+A)

253 Dan Choi, MD, FAAOS@drdanchoi
One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA
Little did I know the carnage it would wreck on the medical profession and my future patients. I had no idea then that the ACA was written to strip physicians of their autonomy, boost insurer profits & drive healthcare consolidation
End result 15 years later is a more expensive healthcare system with less competition resulting in lower quality, less efficient care for patients.
Coverage is not care!

-
Who couldda known communism wouldn't work?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (L/fGl)

254 Everyone is screaming DOGE & unelected.

Well, no one elected piddly assed district court judges to be higher than the president either.
Posted by: rickb223
========
I want the judges like Boasberg to scream their lungs out in defiance. That is about the only way to resolve the crisis and pop the pimple that our hacks in blacks have become. It is necessary for those hacks to devalue themselves in service to corruption and evil deeds in order for that branch to be reformed or pruned as the case may be.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (ctrM5)

255 where in the world is Melania Trump??
Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM

That'll never fly as a PBS kids' show.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (hOk1M)

256 There are always choices and there is no inevitable result of history. Just like individuals can change (difficult but doable), so can societies made up of those individuals.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (ctrM5)

And people are often surprised by the velocity at which those societies change, but they shouldn't be, if historically aware.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (i24o9)

257 AOC is getting very chunky, maybe preparing to transition from barmaid to bouncer.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 12:05 PM (gm9Sb)

258 Yeah according to the judge 30 million illegals now means 30 million trials before deportation. If scotus doesn’t stop this shit asap Trump’s immigration policy is DOA.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:05 PM (WBI+A)

259 where in the world is Melania Trump??
Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM

That'll never fly as a PBS kids' show.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (hOk1M)

SkineMax called though, they're VERY interested.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (dGCAG)

260 Dan Choi, MD, FAAOS@drdanchoi
One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA
Little did I know the carnage it would wreck on the medical profession and my future patients. I had no idea then that the ACA was written to strip physicians of their autonomy, boost insurer profits & drive healthcare consolidation
End result 15 years later is a more expensive healthcare system with less competition resulting in lower quality, less efficient care for patients.
Coverage is not care!

-
Who couldda known communism wouldn't work?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM

And this fool is a doctor?

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (hOk1M)

261 AOC is getting very chunky, maybe preparing to transition from barmaid to bouncer.
Posted by: bill in arkansas

She married yet?

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (77rzZ)

262 End result 15 years later is a more expensive healthcare system with less competition resulting in lower quality, less efficient care for patients.
Coverage is not care!

-
Who couldda known communism wouldn't work?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
========
When the excess profits from taxpayers disappear, the system will be forced to change. That is probably coming because we are broke which affects both Medicaid and Medicare (which act as price supports for private insurance making them more costly in turn).

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (ctrM5)

263 Huh, I thought the SXSW was a music festival. Hard to imagine folks attending it with a music draw. Damn liberals are nearly as bad as the Taliban. Music is fun, fun is bad, so no music for you.

Posted by: PaleRider at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (bP/i4)

264 I blame Iowahawk.

Posted by: Jim Rose at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (miqrx)

265 DOGE cancels $699K OSU research grant examining cannabis use in LGBTQ+ women
THE OSU!!!!

Look you carpet munching freaks...
There's nothing that cleanses the soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.

Posted by: WOODY HAYS at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (W2EWw)

266 There are always choices and there is no inevitable result of history. Just like individuals can change (difficult but doable), so can societies made up of those individuals.
Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (ctrM5)

They can, but the US in particular has a lot going against it.

We are not a country unified by culture, ethnicity, strong informal institutions, religion, or even language.

The only unifying thing was the idea of a classless society where meritocracy is the name of the game and anyone can make it on their own. Which ... let's be real, is not a strong unifying force compared to other shared bonds to begin with.

And even that is called in to question big time, especially by things like Affirmative Action or DEI.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (uCjyK)

267 Hey Buck. Good read. Knew some of the folks on stage and beyond at Club Foot. A disco that bought a club for one night so people could dance to New Order.

Posted by: Dreamingrobot at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (d+Udu)

268 Obamacare was designed to destroy the health care industry. It’s taken longer than they hoped but it is dying. And then it will be replaced by govt run health care with public support.

The left plays a long game.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (WBI+A)

269 And people are often surprised by the velocity at which those societies change, but they shouldn't be, if historically aware.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder
=========
Yep. Part of it is too much emphasis in history and popular culture on the fall of Rome and not enough on its eastern counterpart which lasted over 1000 years longer.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (ctrM5)

270 Austin has ACL Fest every fall. That is more music-oriented I believe.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (wX56x)

271 But is utterly retarded for economics. Because they miss the whole part where people aren't primarily driven by some kind of disassociated from reality of what is in their economic best interests.

People are much more complicated than that. Maybe it would be economically beneficial to move 3 hours away to take a job paying slightly more money. But people have families and roots and community and may not want to move. And maybe they get free babysitting and daycare services from the grandparents. How does the model take that in to account?

It doesn't, it just ignores that.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes

--

True - I've had to work through a lot of theories and the one that gave me the most kittens were those that tried to turn subjective factors into objective ones. For instance, economic theory has a hell of a time with things like charities, just because there's no good way to quantify the subjective return. It tends to get put into a very loosely defined variable in the regression models.

So I think the Reasonable Person standard is about the only way we can move forward on the theoretical front then once empirical evidence is collected the theory can then be refined.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (ky8PV)

272 AOC is getting very chunky, maybe preparing to transition from barmaid to bouncer.
Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 12:05 PM (gm9Sb)

Abuela Gorda.

Posted by: Fat Grandma at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (u5iGG)

273 This is just what Democrat mayors and city councils do to vibrant, nice cities. In other words, you get what you vote for and soon Austin will sadly resemble Oakland or San Fran, California.
YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR, FOOLS!

Posted by: Tracy at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (oQXo+)

274 Well yeah, as in if you have sex with men yer gay.

But there are men who will put that thang ONLY in other men, and there are some who will put it wherever it fits, regardless of what the hole is attached to.

A different form of gay, to be sure.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (dGCAG)

A wise man once said, "either you suck dick, or you do not suck dick."

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (ExV1e)

275 Nifty chart on the Austin exodus -- but why did everyone leave Austin after 9/11?

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (bufu1)

276 AOC is getting very chunky, maybe preparing to transition from barmaid to bouncer.
Posted by: bill in arkansas

She has hit that Latina wall where she transitions from senorita to senora to abuela. With the concurrent weight gain.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025 12:09 PM (xnytv)

277 A wise man once said, "either you suck dick, or you do not suck dick."
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (ExV1e)

Was it a Tarantino character?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:09 PM (WBI+A)

278 265 Remember when Woody clocked that kid from Clemson? Good times. And 12 guys on the field, who cares.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 12:09 PM (gm9Sb)

279 258 Yeah according to the judge 30 million illegals now means 30 million trials before deportation. If scotus doesn’t stop this shit asap Trump’s immigration policy is DOA.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:05 PM (WBI+A)

They are supposed to get hearings.

Since the Obama admin, those hearings have been purposely dragged out and just ... not done. They're issuing summons that are 5 years out. No ones going to show up.

It's easy enough to fix, hire more administrative law judges and put someone in charge who wants to streamline the system.

It shouldn't take long to establish the person in front of the judge is in the country illegally and needs to go home.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:09 PM (uCjyK)

280 Dan Choi, MD, FAAOS@drdanchoi
One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA
Little did I know the carnage it would wreck on the medical profession and my future patients. I had no idea then that the ACA was written to strip physicians of their autonomy, boost insurer profits & drive healthcare consolidation
End result 15 years later is a more expensive healthcare system with less competition resulting in lower quality, less efficient care for patients.
Coverage is not care!

-
Who couldda known communism wouldn't work?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM

And this fool is a doctor?

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:06 PM (hOk1M)

"You arrogant ass! You've killed us!"

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 12:10 PM (i24o9)

281 Terry Stafford, who sang "Suspicion" way back in the Sixties? Or do you mean George Strait, who did the ABM song?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025
*
Terry Stafford.
Posted by: hobbitopoly at March 24, 2025

***
Oh, so he released that song first, and George Strait had the big hit with it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 12:10 PM (J2vNu)

282 where in the world is Melania Trump??
Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (dCxaZ)

Trump's been in office for two months so I assume he murdered her again.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:10 PM (ExV1e)

283 A wise man once said, "either you suck dick, or you do not suck dick."
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (ExV1e)

Was it a Tarantino character?
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:09 PM

Andrew Dice Clay

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:10 PM (hOk1M)

284 I remember when Mayor Adler went to visit Mayor Garcetti of L.A. to discuss the homeless problem. People thought, wow, now he'll solve it! Uh, no, the only reason to talk to Garcetti was to see how to monetize it. And so Austin followed L.A. into the pits of hell.

Posted by: PJ at March 24, 2025 12:10 PM (RRCAT)

285 Austin has ACL Fest every fall. That is more music-oriented I believe.
Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 12:07 PM (wX56x)

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament Fest? Austin has a knee ligament festival? Boy, it's even weirder than I imagined.

Posted by: Count de Monet at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (Aqu9a)

286 Which city adopted the “keep it weird” slogan first: Austin or Portland? You see it in both…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt
+++
Asheville NC has been using the keep Asheville weird slogan for a long time. Not sure when they started it.

Posted by: Florida Peasant at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (wdgI+)

287 My corner of the world rant. My work is partnered with Taiwan. They run the satellite instruments we use. Anyway for the core thing we do my supervisor and the group boss are in Taiwan, AND we have a visit from their people here. Piss poor planning. My boss 'thinks' he is superman and can keep doing some of the fun programming tasks along with the management.
I get it, no one wants to do only the power points and meetings, but he needs to hand off more of the management or something. This is not a one off example of WTH things occuring because he was juggling too many things.

Posted by: PaleRider at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (bP/i4)

288 147 Are there 60K people in Rhode Island? Must be packed in tight.

like in that star trek:tos episode "the mark of gideon"?

Posted by: anachronda at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (oY6Yp)

289 She has hit that Latina wall where she transitions from senorita to senora to abuela. With the concurrent weight gain.
Posted by: rickb223

Russian women have that going on as well. They can be stunners when they're young, but eventually most of them turn into babushkas.

Posted by: Bulg at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (77rzZ)

290 Bernie has always been a manifesto thumper. Like Pocahontas.

Could, Should not one Would.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (fY84s)

291 Who couldda known communism wouldn't work?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 24, 2025 12:04 PM (L/fGl)

Choi is a dumbass. I KNEW THAT ALL WHEN THEY WERE VOTING ON IT!

MY GP KNEW THAT A YEAR AFTERWARDS WHEN HE RETIRED

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (D7oie)

292 The Anterior Cruciate Ligament Fest? Austin has a knee ligament festival? Boy, it's even weirder than I imagined.
Posted by: Count de Monet at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM

Glad it wasn't just me wondering...

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (hOk1M)

293 Nifty chart on the Austin exodus -- but why did everyone leave Austin after 9/11?

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (bufu1)

---------------

Perhaps the result of the tech/internet bubble crash in 2002?

Posted by: ShainS -- The Dissolution of The Autopen Empire at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (r9sPH)

294 272 276 AOC, standing on the corner with a bucket of tamales, making small talk with the frozen treats push cart guy.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (gm9Sb)

295 268 Obamacare was designed to destroy the health care industry. It’s taken longer than they hoped but it is dying. And then it will be replaced by govt run health care with public support.

The left plays a long game.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

I doubt it. My guess is something else is going to happen and the system starts becoming decentralized.

Part of the problem now in selling Big Govt Health is that bureaucrats in DC are being scrubbed with their own evil shit over what DOGE is finding and that increases the distaste for Big Fed. Add in Big Covid crap where agencies like the NIH and CDC along with hospitals popping people in ventilators to die and Big Pharma lying about the VAXX.
These and far too many of the health 'professionals' willing or reluctantly toeing the line have besmirched themselves publicly.

My guess is deregulation and de-monopolization will seem a better bet.

In addition, the money simply is not there anymore. We be broke.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (ctrM5)

296 Well yeah, as in if you have sex with men yer gay.

But there are men who will put that thang ONLY in other men, and there are some who will put it wherever it fits, regardless of what the hole is attached to.

A different form of gay, to be sure.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (dGCAG)

A wise man once said, "either you suck dick, or you do not suck dick."
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (ExV1e)
______

Not sure how he got away with this even then. Now? Not a fucking chance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fe7dCVZgHw

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 12:12 PM (iFTx/)

297 Which city adopted the “keep it weird” slogan first: Austin or Portland? You see it in both…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt

Bumper sticker: Keep the weird in Portland, build a wall

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (D7oie)

298 One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA

Just because you're smart enough to be a doctor doesn't mean that you don't have your moments of stupidity. But we all have to suffer because of people like you.

Posted by: NR Pax at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (lXCUP)

299 30 million hearings. Say they can each do 10 a day. And we hire 1000 judges. 10,000 a day. You’re talking 3000 business day. That’s 12-15 years.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (WBI+A)

300 Asheville NC has been using the keep Asheville weird slogan for a long time. Not sure when they started it.
Posted by: Florida Peasant at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (wdgI+)

Kind of amusing that a bunch of blue cities all have "keep us weird" as their slogans and the Dems tried to paint Trump/Vance as weird in the election. Totally tone deaf to anyone not from NYC/Cali.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:14 PM (ExV1e)

301 282 where in the world is Melania Trump??
Posted by: kallisto at March 24, 2025 12:01 PM (dCxaZ)

Her highness came to the White House with a silver spoon jammed up her behind.
I bet she's never had to change a shitty diaper during either term...spoiled brat.

Posted by: DR. JILL at March 24, 2025 12:14 PM (W2EWw)

302 SRV played at Armadillo World Headquarters. I had a lime green Tee shirt with their logo on the front, I wore that thing till it was in tatters. Some damn good memories, damn good.

Posted by: Gmac - WTF did you think was going to happen? at March 24, 2025 12:14 PM (qZdIZ)

303 One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA

Just because you're smart enough to be a doctor doesn't mean that you don't have your moments of stupidity. But we all have to suffer because of people like you.

Posted by: NR Pax at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (lXCUP)

That doctor is slower and more dim-witted than that lady who was bemoaning that she had to pay for "free health care" within a year of obamacare passing.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at March 24, 2025 12:14 PM (i24o9)

304 292 The Anterior Cruciate Ligament Fest? Austin has a knee ligament festival? Boy, it's even weirder than I imagined.
Posted by: Count de Monet at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM

---

LOL. Austin City Limits. They had a bunch of bands not show up last year because the US Army was a sponsor. Silly lefties.

Posted by: ScaryMary at March 24, 2025 12:15 PM (wX56x)

305 She has hit that Latina wall where she transitions from senorita to senora to abuela. With the concurrent weight gain.
Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025

***
She should take a clue from Raquel Welch or Sofia Vergara.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2025 12:15 PM (J2vNu)

306 Dan Choi, MD, FAAOS@drdanchoi
One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA

**********

Should have listened to me and others in the profession who were seeing that particular writing on that particular wall, you midwit!

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 12:15 PM (/iMjX)

307 268 Obamacare was designed to destroy the health care industry. It’s taken longer than they hoped but it is dying. And then it will be replaced by govt run health care with public support.
The left plays a long game.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

Death Panels was always their end game. Gets rid of the hanger ons, oldies, useless eaters, etc.

Posted by: Zombie Pol Pot at March 24, 2025 12:15 PM (u5iGG)

308 >>>AOC is getting very chunky, maybe preparing to transition from barmaid to bouncer.
Posted by: bill in arkansas

>The rich quality of rice and beans and tortillas has grown considerably with all of the New Democrat immigration.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (fY84s)

309 Which city adopted the “keep it weird” slogan first: Austin or Portland? You see it in both…

I first heard it for Santa Cruz, but that may also be because I lived near it.

Posted by: t-bird at March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (CFrOc)

310 One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA

Just because you're smart enough to be a doctor doesn't mean that you don't have your moments of stupidity. But we all have to suffer because of people like you.

Posted by: NR Pax at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (lXCUP)

That doctor is slower and more dim-witted than that lady who was bemoaning that she had to pay for "free health care" within a year of obamacare passing.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon

---

Now does anyone trust the judgement of this doctor when it comes to assessing the long term effects of various types of treatments...?

Posted by: WitchDoktor at March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (ky8PV)

311 299 30 million hearings. Say they can each do 10 a day. And we hire 1000 judges. 10,000 a day. You’re talking 3000 business day. That’s 12-15 years.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (WBI+A)

10 a day is rookie numbers. We already have 700 judges. Hire 1,000 more temporarily.

Give them full court dockets like in traffic court. If someone doesn't show up, default judgment against them w/ deportation order and bench warrant for their arrest.

It would likely take a few years to completely clear the backlog, but it could be done if there was political will to do so.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (uCjyK)

312 A different form of gay, to be sure.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 11:58 AM (dGCAG)

A wise man once said, "either you suck dick, or you do not suck dick."
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:08 PM (ExV1e)

Kinda reminds me of the old story, attributed to Churchill, where he asks a woman if she'd take a million pounds to sleep with him, and she demured, then he asked her if she'd take 5 shilling.

She got offended and said "what kind of woman do you think I am," to which he replied "We've already established what you are, now we're just haggling over price."

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 12:17 PM (dGCAG)

313 Asheville NC has been using the keep Asheville weird slogan for a long time. Not sure when they started it.
Posted by: Florida Peasant at March 24, 2025 12:11 PM (wdgI+)

Kind of amusing that a bunch of blue cities all have "keep us weird" as their slogans and the Dems tried to paint Trump/Vance as weird in the election. Totally tone deaf to anyone not from NYC/Cali.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:14 PM (ExV1e)
____

Yea. Never understood using "keep us weird" as some kind of branding slogan. In what sense is "weird" ever a positive thing? What, "keep us creepy and perverted" was already taken? Just more evidence that the left is mentally ill.

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 12:17 PM (iFTx/)

314 The left's response to tariffs is fascinating in that they are the first tax, in my life time, that the left argues people pay. Every other tax is apparently only paid by "they rich" even though Uncle Sugar is my biggest expense every year by far (and this is true for everyone that works).

Tariffs are partially a tax on consumers, yes, but also partially a tax on foreign companies which makes them far, far superior to our other taxes:

Income Tax = Tax on working
Capital Gains Tax = Tax on investing
Sales Tax = Tax on consumers

and so on.

Posted by: 18-1 at March 24, 2025 12:18 PM (t0Rmr)

315 I bet she's never had to change a shitty diaper during either term...spoiled brat.
Posted by: DR. JILL

Did you clean the carpet at the Vatican yet?

Posted by: t-bird at March 24, 2025 12:18 PM (OkFiN)

316 We already have 700 judges.

Take all the judges that've been issuing injunctions, tell them that they're immigration judges now. One meal per day, you get it after you've rejected 10K asylum requests. All approved requests are reviewed by a member of the Administration.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (ExV1e)

317 30 million hearings. Say they can each do 10 a day. And we hire 1000 judges. 10,000 a day. You’re talking 3000 business day. That’s 12-15 years.

*********

Sign the deportation orders with the autopen...

With the turbocharger optional attachment.

Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (/iMjX)

318 Granted I would love to do a Portlandia II series.

Addicts, homeless, abandoned storefronts, fancy restaurants with limited menus and tatted up waitresses who failed out of Reed College, casual assaults, squatters you can;t get out of your garage, best times, fun times,

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (D7oie)

319 True - I've had to work through a lot of theories and the one that gave me the most kittens were those that tried to turn subjective factors into objective ones. For instance, economic theory has a hell of a time with things like charities, just because there's no good way to quantify the subjective return. It tends to get put into a very loosely defined variable in the regression models.

So I think the Reasonable Person standard is about the only way we can move forward on the theoretical front then once empirical evidence is collected the theory can then be refined.
Posted by: WitchDoktor
=======
Frequentivist models have reached the limits of what they are useful for. The cutting edge is Bayesian probabilities simply because humans are probabilistic critters, not automatons. Fortunately, computers have gotten much more powerful as to be able to handle such.

I lost a lot of faith in econometrics during the 00's as simply put, the models are almost always mis specified or under specified, too many assumptions based on shaky foundations about the shape of errors, and the relationship between the dependent and the independent almost always assumed to be linear.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (ctrM5)

320
Kind of amusing that a bunch of blue cities all have "keep us weird" as their slogans and the Dems tried to paint Trump/Vance as weird in the election. Totally tone deaf to anyone not from NYC/Cali.

I suspect the lefty brain trust that came out with calling Vance weird doesn't know anyone that has risen out of poverty as they are mostly from generational wealth.

Posted by: 18-1 at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (t0Rmr)

321 I bet she's never had to change a shitty diaper during either term...spoiled brat.
Posted by: DR. JILL

Did you clean the carpet at the Vatican yet?
Posted by: t-bird at March 24, 2025 12:18 PM (OkFiN)

The Pope's back, probably needs to be cleaned again.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 12:19 PM (dGCAG)

322 Yea. Never understood using "keep us weird" as some kind of branding slogan. In what sense is "weird" ever a positive thing? What, "keep us creepy and perverted" was already taken? Just more evidence that the left is mentally ill.
Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 12:17 PM (iFTx/)

They mean weird as an quirky.

These are / were granola crunching people who homeschooled their kids and sold weird jewelry at flea markets.

Not who I aspire to be in life, but Asheville (or even Austin back in the day), were kind of fun / quirky places to visit and the people were friendly and there was usually a lot of interesting things to do locally.

Now, less so.

Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:20 PM (uCjyK)

323 Income Tax = Tax on working
Capital Gains Tax = Tax on investing
Sales Tax = Tax on consumers

and so on.
Posted by: 18-1 at March 24, 2025 12:18 PM (t0Rmr)

What you tax you have less of, which is why it is fabulous to have an income tax

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:20 PM (D7oie)

324 .
NOOD

Ace is up and has a new thread posted.

NOOD!

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at March 24, 2025 12:20 PM (O7YUW)

325 Tariffs are partially a tax on consumers, yes, but also partially a tax on foreign companies which makes them far, far superior to our other taxes:

Income Tax = Tax on working
Capital Gains Tax = Tax on investing
Sales Tax = Tax on consumers

and so on.
Posted by: 18-1 at March 24, 2025 12:18 PM (t0Rmr)

Bernie called, and said we're going to have to raise the minimum wage to $45 an hour to pay for these tariffs.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 24, 2025 12:21 PM (dGCAG)

326 12-15 years not including appeals and delays and motions and whatever the fuck else ACLU lawyers will use.

Allowing individuals hearings means illegals aren’t going anywhere. Ever.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:21 PM (WBI+A)

327 sitions from senorita to senora to abuela. With the concurrent weight gain.
Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2025

***
She should take a clue from Raquel Welch or Sofia Vergara.

----
Raquel has lost a lot of weight recently....

Posted by: Josephistan at March 24, 2025 12:21 PM (y9ksN)

328 84 Doubt it’s locusts moving back to San Francisco. It’s most likely TX natives who can no longer afford to live there or have thrown in the towel and left for more conservative areas.

I fled from Austin to ETX because of the insanity.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at March 24, 2025 12:21 PM (a4flb)

329 One of my biggest regrets was voting for President Obama in 2008 as a medical student & celebrating the passage of the ACA

Obama promised at the time:

Health care for everyone
Health insurance costs would go down 3000% (yes he really did use that specific number)

And I knew for sure that you can't deliver both those things so the whole thing was bullshit.

Note, Obamacare did little to lower the number of Americans without health insurance, but it made it easy to sign up illegals.

Posted by: 18-1 at March 24, 2025 12:22 PM (t0Rmr)

330 30 million hearings. Say they can each do 10 a day. And we hire 1000 judges. 10,000 a day. You’re talking 3000 business day. That’s 12-15 years.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at March 24, 2025 12:13 PM (WBI+A)

10 a day is rookie numbers. We already have 700 judges. Hire 1,000 more temporarily.

Give them full court dockets like in traffic court. If someone doesn't show up, default judgment against them w/ deportation order and bench warrant for their arrest.

It would likely take a few years to completely clear the backlog, but it could be done if there was political will to do so.
Posted by: Harry Paratestes at March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (uCjyK)
___

That, plus there would be huge self-deportation if the rule was "if you're determined to be here illegally, then you get thrown out and never allowed back."

Posted by: Elric Blade at March 24, 2025 12:22 PM (iFTx/)

331 Tim Walz thinks he's funny. Tim Walz would get stoned (biblical stoning) at the Enid OK Comedy Club and Pay Day Loan.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at March 24, 2025 12:22 PM (gm9Sb)

332 Income Tax = Tax on working ...in the private sector
Capital Gains Tax = Tax on ~~investing~~ inflation
Sales Tax = Tax on ~~consumers~~ living

Posted by: t-bird at March 24, 2025 12:23 PM (KBusA)

333 Yea. Never understood using "keep us weird" as some kind of branding slogan. In what sense is "weird" ever a positive thing? What, "keep us creepy and perverted" was already taken? Just more evidence that the left is mentally ill.
Posted by: Elric Blade
=======
Intellectuals filled with resentment and resented middle and high school for its celebrations of jocks and jills and normality. Produces a hatred for the normal and a desire to seize power based on vengeance and then in turn use that power to do evil on their perceived 'enemies'. That is why they so easily ally with others with the same goal, Islamists, sexual deviants, anti religious nuts, racial bigots, etc.

Their common ground is to destroy the current system to ostensibly create a new utopia but really to seize power to revenge themselves on their enemies.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:23 PM (ctrM5)

334 That, plus there would be huge self-deportation if the rule was "if you're determined to be here illegally, then you get thrown out and never allowed back."
Posted by: Elric Blade

Pretty much true. A good immigration lawyer would honestly tell people that leaving on your own accord now means you can still try to get back in legally. If you are ordered deported, you have basically screwed any attempt to return legally.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:24 PM (ctrM5)

335 Should have listened to me and others in the profession who were seeing that particular writing on that particular wall, you midwit!
Posted by: muldoon at March 24, 2025 12:15 PM (/iMjX)

If it is any consolation (probably not) Vets' offices are having similar problems without ACA, since the combination of high tuitions, licensing requirements, pharmacy costs, insurance and easy money for the venture capitalist groups are driving the small, independent veterinarians out of business, and the large offices only survive in the big cities, so it is really hard to find a vet in a small town

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:25 PM (D7oie)

336 Tax remitances

Posted by: Vivi at March 24, 2025 12:26 PM (Egz6Y)

337 venture capital I guess.

Never mind I am an idot.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 24, 2025 12:27 PM (D7oie)

338 331 Tim Walz thinks he's funny. Tim Walz would get stoned (biblical stoning) at the Enid OK Comedy Club and Pay Day Loan.
Posted by: bill in arkansas

What would you expect from a pederast if not pedophile when his own family appears to have supported Trump. The anecdotes where he and his wife groomed a sexually confused young man and his wife's enjoyment of the burning of Minneapolis during riots there plus daughter trying to circumvent the MN Natl Guard restoring order indicates a horrid and creepy family united by trying to destroy society. See above.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:28 PM (ctrM5)

339 326 12-15 years not including appeals and delays and motions and whatever the fuck else ACLU lawyers will use.

Allowing individuals hearings means illegals aren’t going anywhere. Ever.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald

Immigration law does not work that way. Immigration has its own administrative law courts and only those appealing outside that system get fed dist. courts. Most never show up in the first place for their hearings which makes it extremely difficult to get into the federal district court at that point.

Immigration law is actually pretty harsh on illegals including that they can be detained in facilities until their case is adjudicated, it is just that Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden never even tried to enforce it. Trump I tried to shut the border as he promised but the bureaucracy brushed back his attempts to seal the border.

This time, the popular will is enough to expel them through regular legal processes. That is why Trump canned all the senior immigration law judges is to prepare the lower ranks to run quick hearings.

Posted by: whig at March 24, 2025 12:32 PM (ctrM5)

340 Tariffs aren't taxes. A tariff may cause the price of an item to increase. You do not have to buy that item. You have to pay your taxes or you go to jail.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at March 24, 2025 01:05 PM (nbrPU)

341 It's the Great Replacement Theory in action, just like California. Import enough weirdos to make it unlivable for normies and then cement their political power.

It's a foothold, and if Texans don't do something about it, Texas is doomed.

Posted by: p-squared at March 24, 2025 02:01 PM (0prFs)

342 Travis County has HIGH property taxes. I was just there for a weekend. Lots of homeless. People told me they missed pro sports (none in Austin) and none of the big groups come there when they tour (they go to Dallas and Houston)

Posted by: Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures1) at March 24, 2025 02:23 PM (ZiwLX)

343 Too bad my favorite guitar player's career was highlighted by Austin...

RIP SRV!

Posted by: Danimal28 at March 24, 2025 02:41 PM (1E4GV)

344 Isn't Austin one of the cities where Blackrock tried buying up everything to turn into rentals?

Posted by: Ronzoni at March 24, 2025 02:43 PM (tof4A)

345 Lived in ATX for 42 years and left 3 years ago to live down the street from my 3 granddaughters.

If you are going to use "Travis County" as your model, then you are ignoring the fastest growing parts of the ATX SMSA -- standard metropolitan statistical area -- such as Williamson Cty to the north (Georgetown, Pflugerville, over toward Lake Travis, Lakeway) and Hays County (Buda, San Marcos to the south).

What happened in ATX was it became too damn expensive for the new folks to live there, so they are living in the surrounding communities to the north, south, east, and west.

If you take a look at those areas, you will see clearly that ATX is not losing population in the context of what you are implying.

ATX real estate was due for a solid correction at the higher end and is getting it, but that's just a normal part of what should happen to cyclical markets. In the time period of 2020 - 2024, prices in the best neighborhoods doubled.

ATX has arrived at critical mass. I moved there when it was 250,000 people and left when it was more than 2.5MM. It's going to grow and it's going to do fine.

Whilst your facts are generally accurate for government work, the conclusion is not.

Posted by: Jeffrey L Minch at March 24, 2025 02:45 PM (56nFS)

Processing 0.06, elapsed 0.0675 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.0185 seconds, 353 records returned.
Page size 218 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.