Jhawk

I've said from day one that if he gets us into a war then I'm out. We don't need to have another Iraq/Afghanistan.

So he has a room full of war mongers and the media is full of war mongers but he answers to a country full of people who are tired of war. Simple question, are you happy or sad that he is trying to avoid war. I'm happy about it. Would you rather he answer to the assholes who want war and declare his 100 day occupation of Iran?

Would you rather him have hired the cleaning lady? What is the DOH? Why are you talking about trade wars in a thread about real wars? Did you care about slave labor when you found out about Qatar using actual slaves (who died in the desert) when building soccer stadiums for the world cup under the obama administration? You know Obama was directly involved in lobbying for the world cup. Why do you care about child soldiers and not child slaves? And what about Obama's red line again? You're somethin'

Like it or not, they are experts on foreign relations. There isn't anything wrong with hiring people you disagree with on actionable items if they can bring good information/experience to the table. Anyone who has a minute and a half of life experience knows that surrounding yourself with yes men is a terrible idea. Trump flat out has denounced war since the second he was a candidate. That doesn't mean disband the military and never speak to career war-fighters. It means take in the information at hand and make a reasoned decision.

You're searching for something that isn't there. I never said anything close to the media is going to sway him into something. I said the media/political opponents are trying to sway him into something. Trump is doing what trump wants to do. The media isn't swaying him and his advisers aren't swaying him as evidenced by him not attacking.

When you attack the person and not the topic you lose credibility. The fact that he has been able to keep Bolton and Pompeo in check should be seen as a victory for the USA. Like it or not, those guys have great experience and knowledge on foreign relations. Trump taking in their information and telling them he isn't going to just go along with their decisions is a good thing, not a bad thing. If you mean stephen miller, I'm not sure you can include him in the war hawk group since he has no prior experience in a white house admin and is definitely not a part of the pro-war establishment.

I stated when he was elected that this would turn me off to him. It is almost like his political opponents are trying to goad him into war. Why the fuck is Joe Scarborough calling for war? He is either a war hawk or a guy who wants another avenue to attack trump in the media. I know that everyone is going to say "look at the polls" when I say this but fuck off... War is probably the greatest threat to a second term for trump. Not just the conflict but the political shitshow that comes with it and the talking points that his opponents will have. Every single candidate could say tomorrow that the USA needs to attack ASAP and then in 2020 they will all talk about how they supported the attack initially but now Trump is out of control. Never let a crisis (or potential crisis) go to waste... even if you have to create it first.

Exactly... Remember Obama's syrian red line? He got massacred on that and his supporters said he made the right decision. Now those same supporters are going after trump for not getting into a war/conflict? It's almost like some people are just against the president regardless of the situation and/or party and aren't principled in their stance against everlasting war unless the other team is in office.

What was it like at FEC from 2000-2004? Those were good years for UT without having a huge draw like KD. Were the student sections filled? One thing I've noticed going back to Allen Fieldhouse over the years is that it doesn't seem near as loud as it used to. Then again, I'm not sitting in the student section anymore.

Just booked Nola for 7/12-14. Going to focus my diet on asshole flavored gumbo and gumbo flavored assholes. Can’t wait to get dirty again.

Is it a lease or is it a donation? If it is a lease then UT is still bearing the cost of the deal, it just isn't capitalized on the books. Unless they are saying UT is going to be a percentage of the tenant mix and they're underwriting other events into the tenant mix. Then the developer wouldn't necessarily be looking to have UT pay it off via rent due over the course of the 25 year amortization. But I don't know any developer that would build a single use property and not get all of their money out of it via lease term and rent payments. That would be idiotic, unless they are writing some of the cost off as a donation.

Duke like in size, but they'll sell all the lower tickets to corporate sponsors. Students will probably be stuck behind the basket and in the corner like everywhere else. Coming from a KU fan, Duke is the only school that does student seating the right way. In a 9k-10k seat arena there isn't a bad seat in the house. Since UT doesn't draw big dollars from basketball ticket sales they should absolutely put the students on the front rows of the sideline... if they can get enough students to fill 8-10 rows.

She's not worried about that until after college. She'll have many more opportunities to fuck things up. If she gets a degree that means something then she'll probably do great and be a very efficient worker because she knows that she can't let her shit stink or people will be all over her ass. If she gets a degree in the flute then she is probably just going to be a dumb bitch her whole life.

Well maybe this speech will get the parents/grandparents/friends up in arms about the quality of the staff at the school. Maybe there are a lot of kids/parents/grandparents/friends who AREN'T at graduation because of how the staff acts. I'm sure the teacher's union and staff will condemn her speech. I doubt they'll look in the mirror and condemn themselves.

I get that for many teams who run through coaches and GM's, but you'd think teams like Miami, SAS, Houston, GSW, Boston, and now LAC who have execs who are not going anywhere (maybe throw in a few more teams) could really look long term. You could even get creative to acquire guys under the cap by having a low first year, a massive second year, and then years 3-4 you have declines. Of course, this would mean that max salaries would have to be average over the term instead of over any single year being 35% (or whatever) of the available cap. I doubt the players would go for that.

I'm surprised that teams haven't started offering declining contracts to guys after age 31-32. Give them big dollars up front and then have them decline by $1-3M a year, or heavily decline by like $5M in the last year or two. Of course that doesn't work if the cap is ever increasing, but as the money starts to top out (like it is starting to) then give CP3 $37M while he is in the last year of his prime and have his deal down to $30 by the time he is 35. This should be exactly how they do it for guys that are stars but don't have the marketability of someone like LBJ. You could pay him $50M a year his last year in the league and he'd probably be worth it from a marketing standpoint.

That's exactly the point I'm making. You're relying on health of an aging lebron and an AD who only plays 80% of the time due to injury. If they go with a 3rd superstar then they might end up worse than the last two bulls teams that Jimmy Butler played on if the injury bug hits them. Like D2o said, they're better off spreading the money around to multiple serviceable guys rather than one big name and 11 vet minimums who can't play. They're going to have to play a 9-10 man rotation to get through the season with any gas left in the tank. The greater thought in all of this is that they grossly fucked their roster to get one guy. Now they have to fuck it even more to accomplish their grand plan. A plan that the worst player GM/agent/rob pelinka combo has devised. The lakers are going to hurt from this when AD and Lebron combine to miss 20-25 games. They should have either waited a year to get AD or not bid against themselves in the first place, or even after that at least get all of the aspects of the deal right. They had 3 chances to not fuck it up and they fucked it up each time. The Lakers seem to be actively trying to fuck themselves. At least the knicks are just incompetent boobs.

I know there are special provisions for filling out the roster but if they use $2M a guy they will have 11 players on their roster when they reach the cap. Its not like they can go out and get a $10M guy after they have reached the cap. They're going to end up with a bunch of veterans minimum guys and a few rookies or something. If they get a third max-level guy (they'll end up with Butler after Kawhi signs a 1+1 with toronto) then bringing Melo in will probably be the best roster move they can make. Think about that... Melo is going to be the only value asset besides Kuzma. I'd love to see what the production levels are for guys who are free agents taking the vet minimums. I can't believe that it is a very fruitful venture to bring these guys in and have them account for 55% of the minutes played on any given night. I think we should start a pool on how long Vogel lasts and if he leaves on his own or due to Lebron bitching that they can't win with this coach/roster. My guess is he just says "fuck it" and walks after a year. Enter Lue.

So let’s say the lakers grab kawhi or some other max/close to max guy. They’re sitting at 90-95M and have 4 players on their roster. So they have something like $15M to spend on 11 guys to fill out the other 130-135 minutes per game. And they’re doing it with effectively no draft picks Outstanding work they’re doing out in LA. I can’t wait to see lebron become an actual GM.

Yeah.. But the warriors just had a first 4 that was better than any first 4 in the league (maybe even 5 if you count cousins). KD gets injured and they're on life support. Klay goes down and they are done. You can't have quin cook be your back up plan if you want to win. With Davis and his injury history you have to have more talent than just him and lebron. Lebron didn't exactly take the lakers far this year and they are going to have less assets than they did in 2018-19.

Would be hilarious if the lakers daytime drama series turns AD off and he goes clippers in free agency.

I guess I just don’t understand how people don’t realize that in the age of cameras everywhere and video of everything people still don’t think the truth will come out. Fuck cops.

Didn’t the dons have an amazing program for a bit?

Well. That should be the game.

I think he’s using reverse psychology. He knows if he signs a max contract he is stuck there for 5 years and then he’s 34 with no rings, barely any playoffs, and maybe the vet minimum to keep his career going. So... he signs for less than the max so his contract can be moved. Waits 1 year and when they don’t do shit but hand out more bad contracts in 2020 he requests a trade. He’s moved and gets a chance to be somebody.