News today

tjfleck6

All-American
Apr 19, 2008
6,336
7,856
113
As to me, anger. You are upset/mad that I'm "doing the wrong thing" (in your mind). But I told you.

TJ is denial, always denial.

Uncoach is pleading (tell me it's gonna be better than I fear, tell me).

Big Will ... welp, he's not going to change lol. He's no different than usual, the election is not high on his mind!
Denial over what? I certainly won’t deny Trumps many great accomplishments.

3 million foreign born gone, 10 percent federal workforce reduction, the border is closed, military recruitment top notch, Venezuela fully owned thanks to the Donroe Doctrine, no more money for Ukraine, investment into the US extremely high, Intel and chip industry being brought into USA, Chinese oil now under USA control, Iran leaders toppled without (too many) boots on the ground. The list goes on and on.

Inflation is stubborn, but not 10 percent like Biden. Stock market record highs (my net worth also at ATH). I do agree that you don’t sit out opposition party years unless you want to “miss” out on making money.

As for the debt, that is not a Trump priority. I will note that there is one constant over the past 25 years and that is Congress. Feel free to blame your party of choice, but both have had power and the number never goes down. In fact, the Rs you approve of signed on to CR after CR.

And FWIW, you get none of the above with Harris and Democrats plus more debt and more 3rd world tit suckers
 

ILisBest

All-American
Jun 16, 2007
7,843
6,086
113
Better for the debt, honestly.

Taxes are a hard question for me. Do I want to pay less? Yes. Do I think our current tax/spend policies are unsustainable, and both in need of reform (higher taxes/less spending)? Yes.

Call this one my commitment to the common good. We can't continue down the fiscal path we are on, hard decisions must be made.
If you truly feel that way, send the government more than you have to.
 

ILisBest

All-American
Jun 16, 2007
7,843
6,086
113
I will note that there is one constant over the past 25 years and that is Congress.
Curb Your Enthusiasm Bingo GIF by Jason Clarke
 

dtrain79

Heisman
Jul 13, 2006
48,883
27,779
113
If you truly feel that way, send the government more than you have to.

That will do nothing of course. But reality is that large tax collections across the huge sources of earnings/transactions involving the 340M or so folks in the US are a necessity.

Higher taxes and lower spending are coming. And that lower spending will be mostly focused on entitlements.

I’d like a small central government with low taxes. We can still pare the government but increasing revenues is coming.

I don’t think many people are very aware of how bad our fiscal situation is paying 5.3% interest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rillaman

dtrain79

Heisman
Jul 13, 2006
48,883
27,779
113

The GOP Congress restrained spending in the last 6 years of Obama’s term better than any other Congress has done.

The voters rewarded them with Trump, who will take as much debt as someone will give him.

Brilliant.

Whatever, fiscal reality checks are en route. I think Dems plus Trump are most responsible for what’s coming on that front. It will not be fun.
Denial over what? I certainly won’t deny Trumps many great accomplishments.

3 million foreign born gone, 10 percent federal workforce reduction, the border is closed, military recruitment top notch, Venezuela fully owned thanks to the Donroe Doctrine, no more money for Ukraine, investment into the US extremely high, Intel and chip industry being brought into USA, Chinese oil now under USA control, Iran leaders toppled without (too many) boots on the ground. The list goes on and on.

Inflation is stubborn, but not 10 percent like Biden. Stock market record highs (my net worth also at ATH). I do agree that you don’t sit out opposition party years unless you want to “miss” out on making money.

As for the debt, that is not a Trump priority. I will note that there is one constant over the past 25 years and that is Congress. Feel free to blame your party of choice, but both have had power and the number never goes down. In fact, the Rs you approve of signed on to CR after CR.

And FWIW, you get none of the above with Harris and Democrats plus more debt and more 3rd world tit suckers

Quite a bit of denial on what’s coming here. Or obfuscation.
 

AzIllini

All-Conference
Apr 26, 2003
2,529
1,192
78
Way OT (I like this kind of stuff, pls ignore if you don’t care)

Steve Balmer is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers and worth $100 billion plus. You probably have heard/read about him getting hammered by the NBA yesterday. Turns out one small line item in a bankruptcy filing led to his downfall.

Pablo Torre, a journalist who works for the Athletic, was alerted to look into this bankruptcy but says he looks into lots of stuff and it usually never goes anywhere. In this case a company called Aspiration, a major sponsor of the Clippers new arena, filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Buried in the list of creditors was a line item saying Aspiration owed a company called KL2 Aspire LLC $7 million.

Turns out KL stood for Kawhi Leonard and Pablo and his team were off to the races. The issue being alleged was the Clippers were circumventing the salary cap by making payments to Aspiration, who then passed part of it on to Kawhi thru no-work endorsement agreements - so under the table payments from the Clippers to Kawhi. Mark Cuban, famous liberal, confronted Pablo on social media and in person to argue that what he was reporting was nothing.

I’m not going to go into all the details but the NBA eventually hired a high powered law firm that had much more clout to force cooperation from witnesses and not only confirmed the Aspiration allegations but found 3 more shady pass-through sponsorship deals. (At least one of those companies confirmed they were forced to do this or would not get business on the Clippers new arena.)

How ironic that a journalist could bring down a billionaire who was cheating and expecting never to get caught. Kinda sounds like Nick Shirley.
 

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
Better for the debt, honestly.

Taxes are a hard question for me. Do I want to pay less? Yes. Do I think our current tax/spend policies are unsustainable, and both in need of reform (higher taxes/less spending)? Yes.

Call this one my commitment to the common good. We can't continue down the fiscal path we are on, hard decisions must be made.
So you are FOR reducing Federal spending and all reductions of US aid.

Good for you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tjfleck6

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
Denial over what? I certainly won’t deny Trumps many great accomplishments.

3 million foreign born gone, 10 percent federal workforce reduction, the border is closed, military recruitment top notch, Venezuela fully owned thanks to the Donroe Doctrine, no more money for Ukraine, investment into the US extremely high, Intel and chip industry being brought into USA, Chinese oil now under USA control, Iran leaders toppled without (too many) boots on the ground. The list goes on and on.

Inflation is stubborn, but not 10 percent like Biden. Stock market record highs (my net worth also at ATH). I do agree that you don’t sit out opposition party years unless you want to “miss” out on making money.

As for the debt, that is not a Trump priority. I will note that there is one constant over the past 25 years and that is Congress. Feel free to blame your party of choice, but both have had power and the number never goes down. In fact, the Rs you approve of signed on to CR after CR.

And FWIW, you get none of the above with Harris and Democrats plus more debt and more 3rd world tit suckers
You will be castigated by our TDS'ers for being too optimistic AFTER the Trump success level !
 

dtrain79

Heisman
Jul 13, 2006
48,883
27,779
113
So you are FOR reducing Federal spending and all reductions of US aid.

Good for you.

US aid is about 1% of the budget but yes we can cut it. Social Security and Medicare are like 37% of the budget so they are most important to address. Also debt service is a big line item, so we need to cut now because it only gets bigger the more we owe.
 

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
Way OT (I like this kind of stuff, pls ignore if you don’t care)

Steve Balmer is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers and worth $100 billion plus. You probably have heard/read about him getting hammered by the NBA yesterday. Turns out one small line item in a bankruptcy filing led to his downfall.

Pablo Torre, a journalist who works for the Athletic, was alerted to look into this bankruptcy but says he looks into lots of stuff and it usually never goes anywhere. In this case a company called Aspiration, a major sponsor of the Clippers new arena, filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Buried in the list of creditors was a line item saying Aspiration owed a company called KL2 Aspire LLC $7 million.

Turns out KL stood for Kawhi Leonard and Pablo and his team were off to the races. The issue being alleged was the Clippers were circumventing the salary cap by making payments to Aspiration, who then passed part of it on to Kawhi thru no-work endorsement agreements - so under the table payments from the Clippers to Kawhi. Mark Cuban, famous liberal, confronted Pablo on social media and in person to argue that what he was reporting was nothing.

I’m not going to go into all the details but the NBA eventually hired a high powered law firm that had much more clout to force cooperation from witnesses and not only confirmed the Aspiration allegations but found 3 more shady pass-through sponsorship deals. (At least one of those companies confirmed they were forced to do this or would not get business on the Clippers new arena.)

How ironic that a journalist could bring down a billionaire who was cheating and expecting never to get caught. Kinda sounds like Nick Shirley.
That is quite an interesting story. What would really be nice is if journalists actually started questioning/investigating elected and government officials who are Democrats with the same vigor as they do Republicans.
 

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
Welp. Gutfeld appears to be the only talent left on Fox News. Maria is out. Fox News has turned Charmin soft.

 
  • Like
Reactions: ILisBest

tjfleck6

All-American
Apr 19, 2008
6,336
7,856
113
The GOP Congress restrained spending in the last 6 years of Obama’s term better than any other Congress has done.

The voters rewarded them with Trump, who will take as much debt as someone will give him.

Brilliant.

Whatever, fiscal reality checks are en route. I think Dems plus Trump are most responsible for what’s coming on that front. It will not be fun.


Quite a bit of denial on what’s coming here. Or obfuscation.
LOL. Trump will sign whatever they give him. Your derangement is silly. As you know, Congress controls the purse strings.

The Rs play a little tough when Obama is in power. Now, when they have power and a president who will sign it, they don’t address any of their fiscal concerns.

Your head is buried in the sand. Yes, Trump shares responsibility for signing THE SPENDING BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS!

But the numbers have been obscene this entire century.
 

dtrain79

Heisman
Jul 13, 2006
48,883
27,779
113
LOL. Trump will sign whatever they give him. Your derangement is silly. As you know, Congress controls the purse strings.

The Rs play a little tough when Obama is in power. Now, when they have power and a president who will sign it, they don’t address any of their fiscal concerns.

Your head is buried in the sand. Yes, Trump shares responsibility for signing THE SPENDING BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS!

But the numbers have been obscene this entire century.

The President demanded a bill that was horrendous for the debt/deficit. Threatened to primary members. The bill wasn't all bad (that's not my argument), but it was also not fiscally responsible.

Trump has never shown a willingness to do anything about the debt, he's made clear in both his personal and political life he doesn't care about debt.
 

ILisBest

All-American
Jun 16, 2007
7,843
6,086
113
US aid is about 1% of the budget but yes we can cut it. Social Security and Medicare are like 37% of the budget so they are most important to address. Also debt service is a big line item, so we need to cut now because it only gets bigger the more we owe.
A nice step in this area is to stop the flow of illegals into the US and start removing illegals that drain these programs that were not set up for them. It can also help cool inflation by basic supply and demand principals. This administration does appear to have a keener interest in finding waste, fraud and abuse before the money is paid out. Foreign aid was also cut. Does anyone believe Kamala would have cared or would have surrounded herself with competent people that care about this stuff??

Here are a couple of summaries to back that up:

Foreign Aid----Under the second Trump administration (beginning January 2025), U.S. foreign aid has been cut sharply in both appropriations execution and actual spending. On inauguration day, an executive order paused most new obligations and disbursements of development assistance for a 90-day review aligned with U.S. foreign policy priorities. This was followed by termination of the large majority of USAID awards (reports range from ~83% to over 90% of contracts), dissolution of USAID as an independent agency with remaining functions folded into the State Department, and rescissions that clawed back billions already appropriated by Congress. Spending data shows the drop:
  • FY2025 disbursements fell to $47.3 billion, about $26 billion below FY2024 and the lowest inflation-adjusted level since FY2004.
  • OECD figures put U.S. official development assistance at roughly $29 billion in 2025, down from about $63 billion in 2024; the U.S. accounted for most of a 23% global decline that year.
The administration’s stated approach emphasizes “America First” criteria (safer, stronger, more prosperous), a shift from traditional development and humanitarian programs toward trade, self-reliance for recipient countries, and narrower national-interest alignment. Some categories—such as military assistance to Israel and Egypt, and limited humanitarian or health commodity funding—have been preserved or later partially restored, and Congress has appropriated higher totals for FY2026 than the White House requested. Even so, obligation and outlay rates have remained far below prior years, with additional withholding and reallocations reported. In short, both the scale of programs and the volume of money leaving the U.S. government for foreign assistance have been reduced substantially compared with the preceding administration.

Medicaid, SS, Medicare----A conservative compilation of the largest published figures points to tens of billions—dominated by the $42 billion Medicare FY 2025 prevention/savings number—plus several billion more in Medicaid recoveries, deferrals, and early FY 2026 Medicare actions, and a few hundred million from Social Security. Adding everything without double-counting is impossible from public sources; $50 billion-plus over the roughly 20 months of the second term through early September 2026 is a plausible order-of-magnitude range if one accepts CMS’s prevention estimates at face value.Important limitations:

  • “Savings” and “stopped payments” are often projected avoided future billing, not cash returned to the Treasury.
  • Improper-payment estimates include documentation errors and eligibility mistakes, not only criminal fraud.
  • Large Medicaid deferrals are still under review.
  • Government-wide improper-payment totals actually rose to $186 billion in FY 2025, though Medicare FFS improved.
The administration has emphasized a shift from “pay and chase” to real-time analytics and enrollment moratoria. Independent GAO and OIG reports confirm increased activity and some measurable prevention, but they do not yet show a dramatic, across-the-board drop in the underlying improper-payment rates for all three programs.

Is this enough? No, but congress has been mostly useless, as usual.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigWill

AzIllini

All-Conference
Apr 26, 2003
2,529
1,192
78
Welp. Gutfeld appears to be the only talent left on Fox News. Maria is out. Fox News has turned Charmin soft.


Not taking sides but your X post details the reason why she was fired and it does look like they are trending Charmin, but maybe constant lawsuits are part of the problem.
 

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
LOL. Trump will sign whatever they give him. Your derangement is silly. As you know, Congress controls the purse strings.

The Rs play a little tough when Obama is in power. Now, when they have power and a president who will sign it, they don’t address any of their fiscal concerns.

Your head is buried in the sand. Yes, Trump shares responsibility for signing THE SPENDING BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS!

But the numbers have been obscene this entire century.
The Republican Congress won’t even lift a finger to codify DOGE cuts. Frankly, cuts are needed and the deficit is a looming concern. However that vision is only two dimensional. In order to be in a position to not just balance the budget but also pay down the debt the economy must grow bigly. Trump hasn’t been horribly concerned with cuts and even if he was, it’s unlikely Thune & Co would be helpful.

The trick is setting up the economy to have long-term success. One of the biggest reasons the globalism BS needed to stop is how badly it hollowed out America into a service economy while allowing the world to take advantage of us. Of course it increased wealth for many, but this version of Capitalism ultimately didn’t lift the poor as Capitalism does. Trump’s tariffs may not be popular with a lot of people, but look at all of the investment US and foreign manufacturers have promised to the US since Trump got elected. That takes more than 2 years to come online. Despite the crying and whining about Trump by posters here who belong on the short bus, what he is trying to accomplish is keeping America #1 and building for the next generation, not just for votes at the midterms. World’s largest producer of energy. Trying to win the data center/AI battles with China. By ending USAID Latin America has strongly responded by voting out the commies.

Trump bringing back the Monroe doctrine in a strong way will pay dividends ultimately with improved financial positions of people and nations south of our border. And while it is taking longer than expected, if Iran can be turned and the Iranian people become more of what they were pre-1979, the involvement of the US in the middle east significantly decreases. That is cash savings.

Welp, I think James Carville is a dweeb, but he was most certainly brilliant with Der Slickmeister’s campaign…It’s the economy, stupid! -

Forgetting the hyperbole of CNBC being stunned…

 
Last edited:

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
Not taking sides but your X post details the reason why she was fired and it does look like they are trending Charmin, but maybe constant lawsuits are part of the problem.
She definitely broke ranks and it is a fireable offense. The talent that made them as dominant as they have been is almost all gone. Nobody watches Fox for the blonde sitting between the 2 male bimbos on weekday mornings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AzIllini

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
We want to win the AI battle since it’s out of the bag, but this is a cautionary tale.

 
  • Like
Reactions: ILisBest

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
US aid is about 1% of the budget but yes we can cut it. Social Security and Medicare are like 37% of the budget so they are most important to address. Also debt service is a big line item, so we need to cut now because it only gets bigger the more we owe.
1 % of the Federal budget is a Big # !

Reducing SS and Medicare fraud is a HUGE $. Jail IS an option for those criminals.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ILisBest

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
Yes. Nuclear is the way to go. It always has been. That’s a post well worth the read from someone who would know.


Private enterprise/invention without Federal restrictions.

I've been touting Nuke here for about 20 years.

There will be better ways to produce power in the future.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ILisBest

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
LOL. Trump will sign whatever they give him. Your derangement is silly. As you know, Congress controls the purse strings.

The Rs play a little tough when Obama is in power. Now, when they have power and a president who will sign it, they don’t address any of their fiscal concerns.

Your head is buried in the sand. Yes, Trump shares responsibility for signing THE SPENDING BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS!

But the numbers have been obscene this entire century.
The BBB is the most important legislation passed Trump 45 or 47.
 

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
The President demanded a bill that was horrendous for the debt/deficit. Threatened to primary members. The bill wasn't all bad (that's not my argument), but it was also not fiscally responsible.

Trump has never shown a willingness to do anything about the debt, he's made clear in both his personal and political life he doesn't care about debt.
Find me an American who finances a SFH and I will see another RE owner that realizers that an appreachiting asset is worth the debt.
 

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113
She definitely broke ranks and it is a fireable offense. The talent that made them as dominant as they have been is almost all gone. Nobody watches Fox for the blonde sitting between the 2 male bimbos on weekday mornings.
I usually watch about 4-5 hours of FOX per week, on average.

My big questions have now swung to college football, the antics of the Duke and Duchess (are they in the USA or the UK today), and will CC get double figure assists per game (as her teammates drop the ball or miss the easy layups 5 x's per game ?)
 

Uncoach

Heisman
Dec 8, 2011
7,420
10,938
113
1 % of the Federal budget is a Big # !

Reducing SS and Medicare fraud is a HUGE $. Jail IS an option for those criminals.
And it isn’t “US aid”. It’s “USAID” as in “USA ID”. Very tricky name. Almost like the Sullivan entering the Alaskan race to confuse voters of which Sullivan to vote for. There was nothing aided with that small operation other than the delights of government lifer foreign policy ne’er do wells screwing with other countries and creating slush funds for Democrats/NGO’s.
 

rillaman

Heisman
May 10, 2009
18,693
11,858
113

Depending on what part of Phoenix you live in, you have received 0.4-3.9” of rain this year.

TJ shared a map last week showing heavy rain. Poor guy fell for the scary colors that the media shows him.

Phoenix - Dependent City
 

ILisBest

All-American
Jun 16, 2007
7,843
6,086
113



AFTER Hasan Piker said this, these Democrats and Democratic-aligned politicians sat for interviews with him or joined him at campaign events:

Ro Khanna — August 22, 2024

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — March 20, 2025

Zohran Mamdani — April 7, 2025

Rashida Tlaib — August 8, 2025

Tom Steyer — March 2, 2026

Abdul El-Sayed — multiple campaign appearances, including April 7, 2026

Ilhan Omar — April 10, 2026
 
  • Angry
  • Like
Reactions: BigWill and Uncoach

AzIllini

All-Conference
Apr 26, 2003
2,529
1,192
78

Depending on what part of Phoenix you live in, you have received 0.4-3.9” of rain this year.

TJ shared a map last week showing heavy rain. Poor guy fell for the scary colors that the media shows him.

Phoenix - Dependent City
Take the Colorado river water away from Denver and make it an independent city. You are onto something!
 

BigWill

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
54,438
33,144
113

Depending on what part of Phoenix you live in, you have received 0.4-3.9” of rain this year.

TJ shared a map last week showing heavy rain. Poor guy fell for the scary colors that the media shows him.

Phoenix - Dependent City
Your water management major must have allowed you unlimited cuts.

Isreal is showing how to manage water production, WHILE population in major cities INCREASES !
 

Semi-elite R2R athlete

All-American
Sep 13, 2008
4,171
9,283
113
Did he even understand your post/the tweet?

You posted a generic ballot poll and he responded with a comment on … Fetterman. Very strange.
He’s like one of those NPC memes. He attempts to input information, but if said information doesn’t work for him, the output is either TDS!, a Fox News headline, or some bs he made up.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: dtrain79
Orange and Blue News

Latest

  1. 01 Orange and Blue News Illinois vs. SIU preview: Players to watch, keys to the game, and a prediction
  2. 02 Orange and Blue News Film Room: Illini quarterback commit Owen Herrick is a gunslinger
  3. 03 Rivals Football Recruiting Illinois lands 2028 QB Owen Herrick, its first commitment in the class
  4. 04 Orange and Blue News Illinois basketball 2026-27 schedule set after Big Ten release
  5. 05 Rivals Basketball Recruiting 5-star C Darius Wabbington moves up official visit to Illinois