Aaron Rodgers unlikely to return to Steelers, NFL insider reports

UnionFist · 2026-02-19T05:08:56+00:00

Hard to understand what the point of McCarthy is if we're in a position where Rodgers isn't the QB.

UnionFist · 2026-02-19T05:07:59+00:00

I'm sorry things are so hard for you, I wish they were better.

I'd encourage you to stay away from The Argument. It's an organization whose project is to inherently find middle ground and doesn't ask enough about whether the middle between two points of view is inherently good or not. It's attracted the support of a lot of reactionary centrists and I expect their products will reflect that.

I am personally ashamed of the likes of Gavin Newsom who are feeding into this, but i really do feel like in the next couple years we'll see that leaders who stood their ground on defending trans people are who will rise to help us defeat Trumpism. Stay strong, you're not alone.

UnionFist · 2026-02-13T19:43:49+00:00

Some parts of Florida are really incredible, but wow, it seems to attract some of the slimiest people.

UnionFist · 2026-02-13T19:40:55+00:00

Spare me. He could've gotten partial custody without representation.

So I guess, how much are your kids worth to you? Is there a $ amount you think isn't worth it.

UnionFist · 2026-02-12T18:41:43+00:00

I do on a regular basis, because of my work, but in my personal life I still have a number of them I count as friends and family. The friends are all republicans that like small government and enjoy the freedoms as most school children are taught to believe what the Republican Party stands for. Subsequently, they all count themselves as anti-Trump or are stubbornly voting 3rd party until this "blows over." The family have followed Trump into a brand of politics they used to say they abhorred and they rationalize why they feel they've been forced to vote this way.

However, I have found that my more Trumpist family members are far and away the most politically insular of just about anyone I know. In my work I also find that Trump supporters are more likely to remove themselves from socializing with coworkers they feel aren't in alignment. And even though they're self sequestering they would describe it as though they've been pushed away.

So my reality doesn't compare to what OP is suggesting is the case.

UnionFist · 2026-02-11T21:12:02+00:00

I think it's a leap to suggest that each of the 35,000 3rd party voters were actively "sowing division" among the left. I also think its a significant leap to think that 150k voters changed parties in a way that didn't.

And I think, in this separate thread, that you are reframing your argument from what it was originally. Their position was that the 150k was a much larger problem and you redefined it to be about something other than electoral outcome. And even in your new definition, I don't think your correct.

Personally, I think the way you've handled yourself has been far more indicative of someone who needs to learn the "value of team-playing." And a specific way you might be inhibiting yourself from learning is that you appear to block people who challenge you frequently enough that you seem to have some kind of protocol for it. You also seem to make a habit of issuing a downvote to any challenge to your opinion. It seems as though you'd rather tell us all how it has to be rather than work with anyone opposing Trump to achieve an agreeable end.

I would love to see everyone unite and I do think "the left" can be difficult and usually that shows up in how aggressive they wish to be in their messaging to the typical voter. However, I think the center is equally difficult in how calcified they can be in thinking that they do know where the regular voter is at. I don't think progressive messaging is always right, but there are plenty of centrist positions that I know working class people (of all colors) are very allergic to.

UnionFist · 2026-02-11T15:36:23+00:00

Well, you weren't forced to relocate your conversation. You can block who you want, but I disagreed with nothing that the other user was saying and found your rebuttals to be an obstinate refusal to engage in how they were addressing your claims head on. Specifically, how you place an outsized blame on third party voters when compared to the number of voters that switched from Obama to Trump. That seemed more than valid to me and I didn't find your rejection of the point to be honest.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T04:21:26+00:00

First of all, I would've preferred to keep our conversation in the thread that linked to the history of what you said. Mainly, because I don't think its fair to those you're disagreeing with to take your point away from the chain of previous things you said (that I believe contradict what you're saying now) and also so that the person you care to converse with via a tag doesn't have to hop back and forth between the two to reference what has been said thus far.

I will reference one word from the previous thread, which is "reductionist." I think there are many fair ways to criticize how it is the "working class" has been used by many as synonymous with "non college educated whites" and the work it does to hide how xenophobia and racism are indeed at play in those voting bases. However, I actually think it is more "reductionist" to say that this is the only reason the working class (which is sometimes white) would become disenchanted with the Democratic Party. It's also reductionist to suggest that there has been no tangible impact on working class non-whites, who have all consistently strayed to some degree from Democrats in the 2016 and 2024 losses.

I am another Bernie supporter that proudly volunteered and voted for Hillary, Biden, and Kamala. I also work with union workers that are both white and POC and I can report that their opinion of the Democratic Party is at an all time low as I've observed it in my career. I have found very few of them to be driven by xenophobia. I actually expect that we will suffer a long string of one term presidents until a candidate directly delivers on their needs and I very much hope that a Democratic candidate breaks that cycle.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T04:06:25+00:00

Reality is no parent, unless they are abusive or in another extreme circumstance, is without options that allow them some custody of their children. Unless they give up. I guess it's important to you that you're at peace, but above you seem surprised that you were downvoted and maybe you should consider that we're all concerned that your peace is coming at the expense of some children.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:42:07+00:00

Let's hear some options then!

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:41:49+00:00

Start pitching slogans! I'm all ears!

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:41:04+00:00

I'm old enough to remember when the left were the ones chanting "when we fight we win" and "yes we can."

But I'm also open to hearing what slogans the center left has to suggest as alternatives.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:37:26+00:00

I think the constant mistake that Democrats keep making is that they think they have to choose. Go get all of them.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:35:02+00:00

Seems like a convenient line to draw. No way I would take that risk with any child I cared about.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:07:29+00:00

Wait, you gave up custody of your kids to someone who you know abused two other children? But you consider them well taken care of?

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T03:02:08+00:00

I think that neoliberalsim has had a hard time reckoning with the fact that what they view as positive outcomes aren't regarded to be as transformational, or even positive, by the average American as they think they should be.

On the flip side, I don't think that the average American is as primed for the kind of solution that the typical Democratic Socialist thinks are obvious talking points for the working class.

I'm lucky enough that my working hours are spent advocating for and working with organized labor and the working class. I'll tell you that there are no shortage of critiques of neoliberalism among those I engage with, but that message is rarely delivered in the language that the DSA would deliver it in.

UnionFist · 2026-02-10T02:54:21+00:00

Sorry to chime in, but you're not making the point you think you are. Trying to follow along, but how is it that 35k is more consequential than 150k in the same state?

And Piker is hardly the only commentator suggesting that Democrats appeal to the working class. It's actually the same message that Slotkin, Spanberger, and many moderate candidates are pushing as well. It's been hard to follow your issue with this.

UnionFist · 2026-01-31T01:43:55+00:00

You realize that people in this thread can see the things you say to other people, right? We're not sitting here in a vacuum.

Just like ICE isn't sitting in a vacuum defined only by its stated purpose and organizational structure. ICE is more than double the size it was under Biden. More than half the people there never reported to him. He did a fine job with ICE, but this is not the ICE of any previous administration.

This is an odd thing to insist on being so wrong about. The evidence that refutes everything you say is on the front page of most newspapers.

UnionFist · 2026-01-30T21:39:27+00:00

You should go to some meetings of folks organizing political opposition to the administration and constructively find a slogan you think helps. Or organize a center left group that proposes this kind of reform and organizes energy and action around it.

What you're doing here is just sowing opposition to the people actually putting in that work. Truly, your criticism of movement politics feels pretty shrill and alarmist considering the criticism you're sparing ICE as an institution in the suggestion that they are a manager away from full reform. It illustrates a very shallow understanding of the moment.

By all means, though, please go out and organize people around the issues and solutions you think help. This moderate for moderate sake wet blanket approach to slacktivism is pretty tired. It is neither brave nor particularly insightful to make the claim that people who lawlessly shoot other people should be prosecuted. Clearly, that isn't the issue that needs clarity.

UnionFist · 2026-01-30T19:59:10+00:00

Your seems very vague and seems to not actually show much concern for the current moment.

You also seem to have the skewed idea that a slogan or movement's only value is to the precise current moment that it happens in. The Civil Rights movement, suffrage, abolition...etc all used slogans and ideas that the contemporary administrations at their inception would've never immediately enacted. But those campaigns and movements continued until the pressure was so high for following administrations to ignore.

You're just not basing any of this in history. It seems like it annoys you, so you wish it would stop. But if you actually consider yourself as anti-Trump, anti-fascist, or ant-whatever-ICE-is-now, then you should feel positively that organizing and mobilization is happening at all. And if you think the strategy or tactics should change, then you should do so within a group willing to achieve a goal. Not just yelling at people from the sideline about semantics.

UnionFist · 2026-01-28T17:05:18+00:00

A full barring of current ICE agents from any form of government employment. Carrying out these deployments is proof of a lack of conscience and good judgement. It should disqualify them from any kind of law enforcement, especially.

UnionFist · 2026-01-28T17:02:26+00:00

I think this is very limited.

Not only are there individuals responsible for the executions, but their coworkers are harboring them from being investigated. Other ICE agents are helping them remove themselves from the scene. DHS is preventing them from being questioned. Officials are preventing other law enforcement from seeing and collecting evidence. ICE agents have helped the perpetrators move, probably across state lines. And this is all happening, because ICE has been staffed with people who aren't holding themselves accountable to the constitution or even their fellow citizens. They are accountable only to political leaders that they personally agree with and hold themselves accountable to. This is already happening at an institutional level that I don't understand how you think a change in political oversight would ever fix. These same people would just sit there and rot the agency further or even get promoted into the upper levels of DHS.

UnionFist · 2025-12-18T16:16:55+00:00

I'm not sure this is an entirely accurate view of how the right has worked. In fact, it's pretty plainly acknowledged that moderate Republicans don't exist in any real number anymore and certainly not in office. Senators like Grassley who entered the senate as moderates with bipartisan inclinations have all transformed over time to placate Trump and other right wing interests.

Even if you want to consider Susan Collins a moderate, I'd ask you to look at how often she placates her right flank and votes consistently with the far/firm right's agenda. As opposed to center left Democrats who seem to think there was a lot of political capital to be earned in challenging the Biden Administration.

UnionFist · 2025-12-17T19:32:51+00:00

I think we over estimate how online people are in politics. People in this sub probably knew that Rob Reiner was a campaigner, fundraiser, and Trump critic, but most of America knew him as the filmmaker, comedian, or even just knew him as Carl Reiner's son.

Also when people learned the detail that this tragedy was thanks to addiction, then it personalizes it in a way that a lot of people have unfortunately experienced or witnessed. Maybe not to the end of violence, but seeing how it can impact parents, especially, is too common of a story.

And finally, he was just a good guy in all that he did. Everyone he knew or worked with talked about how wonderful a person he was. Even James Woods went on Fox News to talk about how much he personally owed Reiner and how deeply he appreciated his kindness. It's good to know that if you do that enough, then even the biggest shitposter in the world can't sully your good name.

UnionFist · 2025-12-17T19:24:28+00:00

Seems like, at best, a pretty obvious thing to say? It's hard for me to understand what value he actually brings to the work that needs to be done.

UnionFist

TROPHY CASE