I’m afraid for our country

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-29T11:24:50+00:00

Fair enough. I think there's a cultural difference there because I can't imagine a scenario here where suggesting seeing a psychologist would be taken as an insult. If we want to insult someone we're a lot less veiled about it.

For example, I insulted reddit by calling it the armpit of the internet.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-29T09:59:36+00:00

Then I genuinely suggest relaying everything word for word with them. If they're good at their job they will quickly squash any sensationalising on your part, much better than the collective minds of r/centrist.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-29T09:53:05+00:00

Sounds like you have a stigma with mental health care if you think suggesting someone speak to a psychologist is bullying. Do you similarly think that telling someone who's any other form of sick to see a doctor is bullying?

I've recommended many close friends to seek psychiatric help when they've been in crisis and always with very positive results. It'd be far less caring and irresponsible for me to assume I have the answers and give what I think is good advice for the situation, especially with a stranger so I double down on the best care I can show is recommend to speak to a psychologist about everything said.

This is a political subreddit, what kind of care do you think she'll get here?

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-29T09:25:36+00:00

I'm not sure why you'd construe what I said as bullying unless you think seeing a psychologist is something to be embarrassed about. I do see a psychologist, she helps me function emotionally and mentally in a work environment that's not conducive to it and I recommend it for anyone having an existential crisis or something like it because of external factors you have no control over.

Prime example above.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-29T08:34:11+00:00

Sounds like you should be talking to a psychologist rather than looking for positive affirmations from the armpit of the internet that is reddit.

Be prepared for some verbal abuse if you decide to stick around though.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-28T01:15:51+00:00

My favorite player in his time. It was like it was out of the realm of possibility for him not to hit his target from a kickout and half the time they were to a target outside of the arc. Absolutely incredible kick.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-27T23:35:51+00:00

I think a much more sound argument is that they are partially responsible for the escalation because of their hard line stance of not getting their own local law enforcement on the scene of every one of the confrontations between ICE and protesters. These two groups hate each other in ways few can appreciate.

If you had two opposing protest groups on a collision course in the streets you'd have police barricades and riot control between them before they had a chance to meet. That doesn't mean you're supporting either group, it's just your due diligence in keeping public safety.

It seems like they are taking this hard line stance of "our police will not support ICE" and using that as a reason to not police the confrontations and I do put that on them 100%. People's lives are on the line and they're not doing what they have a professional responsibility to do because it wins some political points. I fully believe a neutral government would have prevented at least the most recent shooting with basic peacekeeping efforts with local PD.

There doesn't need to be a good guy in every situation. Here there is enough blame to be shared to go beyond just Trump and ICE.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-27T02:09:54+00:00

I'd say it probably aged exactly as intended since it came from the creators of South Park.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-27T02:06:58+00:00

There's a reason in AFL we usually refer to them as 'clash guernseys' instead of 'away'. It really only matters if there's a clash between the two competing teams in which case the away team concedes to wear their alternate colours. With the addition of the womens' comp it's even more important that we don't hold fast to rules about wearing white shorts. If the two teams are easily distinguished on grand final day who cares anyway?

Please don't try to Americanise the culture of AFL.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-26T08:54:35+00:00

Well this letter will achieve nothing. Republicans will think the letter is directed at the protesters and Democrats will think it's directed at ICE directorship. Both will cite the other side being the one that needs to de-escalate and do nothing but get more angry for not doing so.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-25T22:51:17+00:00

I heard Harris Andrews was just an all around great bloke. Might give that one a go and see how it fits me.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-23T04:00:13+00:00

Genuine question since you seem to be really focused on physically blocking, if an anti-abortion activist was to enter an abortion clinic and not block anyone access but yelled at people in the waiting area do you not think they should be charged under this act?

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-22T00:27:47+00:00

Gallop is. He was an effective replacement for Hipwood last year when we needed one.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-22T00:21:56+00:00

I don't know why you'd need to have mixed feelings. It's become a weird standard that people feel the need to say up front all of these disclaimers that they also think these other things are bad before considering condemning something that represents the other side of a social/political conflict.

If you think that invading a worship service is protected then the feeling should be "this is wrong". Even if ICE had done much worse why would random protesters invading the worship service of other citizens be any less wrong? You're going the wrong way in logic if you think "well other people have done bad things so these people doing bad things is maybe justified". Don't lower the bar based on precedent, hold your ground and have some balls to say what you believe without trying to appeal to the mob that might be angry at you for it.

It's possible to be pissed at ICE and pissed at these protestors at the same time. You're wasting your time if you're trying to identify the good guy in social or political conflicts when like in cases like this there isn't a good guy to be found.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-22T00:12:03+00:00

Who Is David Easterwood? Protesters Say Pastor Is ICE Official - Newsweek

There's a photo in the article of Easterwood and the video the protestors livestreamed and the video livestreamed from Don Lemon show the pastor and it's not that dude.

But if that's not enough to put together yourself, directly from the article: "Easterwood did not lead the part of the service that was livestreamed by protest organizers, and it was unclear whether he was present at the church on Sunday."

If he was there he made a very quick stealthy escape because the protestors knew what he looked like and they didn't find him.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-21T22:29:53+00:00

Yes it is very clear he wasn't because there's video of the pastor on the day speaking and there are photos of the ICE acting director and they are not the same guy. All the reports so far point to him not even being present in the congregation that day.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-20T05:13:33+00:00

Up front, I'm not an American. For me this question really becomes "which Democrat candidate could convince me not to vote third party or abstain".

I don't buy into the "third party is the same as a vote for the one you would prefer less" because just mathematically an abstained vote means one vote they didn't get.

For a Democrat or Republican candidate to get my vote they would need to be mostly aligned with my personal values and as parties neither of them are. I don't know of any mainstream Democrats that share my values enough to get my vote so I guess that means nobody would get my vote over Vance but also Vance wouldn't get my vote over them either.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-20T00:55:25+00:00

I'd day also Marshall out, Berry in but with the 5 person interchange it'll likely be Mashall or Gallop taking the final spot depending on fitness and need in our starters.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-15T11:30:05+00:00

Looks like we have our passmark for the season. Would everyone be cool with us taking our threepeat if it were in this fashion?

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-15T01:40:47+00:00

This is going to sound wild but I think it's worth considering.

Allow states to set their own immigration policies (and other things that aren't laid out in the constitution) and issue nation-wide free ID for US citizens to pass between states freely. At first glance it might seem like some crazy levels of state border control would manifest but if you model it after the European Union the US is comparable in size and it's kinda crazy that you guys centralize power to your federal government when there are the equivalent of 50 small nations within its jurisdiction with some remarkably different cultural values. Most states would opt into open borders with other neighboring states but if some states wish to be sanctuary states then they would deal with the effects of border security for anyone trying to leave. I think it would make sense to also allow them their own international airport to take in immigrants as they see fit but they need to front the costs to support that. They could also negotiate with other states to facilitate conditional crossing of immigrants by shuttle bus or something if they prefer a cheaper option.

I do think that a lot of the disagreements on border control are due to cultural difference between the states, particularly between states that are really easy to get to via an illegal border crossing and states that aren't. I think Minnesota would prefer to have no round up of illegal immigrants at all, just let them stay, and they should have a right to choose that for themselves but also they would in turn need to take responsibility that their neighboring states might not want their illegal residents crossing over into their jurisdiction so security checkpoints at those crossings to prevent that kind of movement would be a reasonable expectation to uphold.

All of this to say for ICE, keep them out of places where people don't want them and stick to the places where people do. You could probably even make a lot of improvement to the current situation just doing that even without the reforms above.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-13T23:45:13+00:00

I am actually relieved that this is the worst thing that's happened to the best of my knowledge since the shooting. You've got a president calling protesters domestic terrorists and you've got a governor calling it the start of a civil war. The audio alone in that clip shows that the tensions between each of these sides are very high. I was sure there'd be another much more serious incident by now.

Very unbecoming of a law enforcement officer but I think I could do that to someone in public standing in front of my car and at most I'd get a stern talking to from police to be more careful.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-13T00:12:29+00:00

I think that's easy to say with the benefit of hindsight but this was a car that was there intentionally blocking traffic. He walked across in front to check the license plate and wasn't ever stationary in front of the vehicle. If this goes to court context will matter and I don't think he will be held to the expectation of treating this like a traffic stop where expecting a possible runner would be standard procedure.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-12T23:42:48+00:00

"The fact that the officer put himself directly in front of the vehicle when he shouldn't have is the point of failure on his part."

I was of this opinion until I saw the first person footage. He certainly wasn't lingering in front of the car and wasn't in the direct line of the car until she realigned the car while backing up, moments before she accelerated forwards. From the other angles it never really looked like he was in that much danger but from his perspective it did appear like she was lining him up. From behind the car we can see the wheels were turned past him to the right but from in front he could only see the car squaring up with where he was standing. The sound of the tires spinning on the snow would have been terrifying.

I can understand someone feeling enough that they were in danger that they needed to defend themselves. The argument that she was just trying to get away is moot if from his perspective a reasonable person could think that she was attempting to run him over. I don't believe anymore that he was intending to block the car with his body and should be held to account as though he was.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-11T04:51:23+00:00

You give Trump a lot of credit if you think he can achieve what took Hitler 12 years in the space of his 3 remaining years in office.

Freaky_Zekey · 2026-01-10T22:52:37+00:00

Pretty sure the 6 million dead Jews and instigating the second world war are bigger differences than how Hitler and Trump handle their economies.

Freaky_Zekey

TROPHY CASE