8 hours ago, brakeman said:

we will follow your lead. Neither show up nor respond to your employer for 2 weeks.

6 hours ago, Grimas said:

I know I’m throwing myself to the wolves but anyone have a recommendation for a fiduciary/retirement planner/tax consultant for retirement planning? (Too lazy to read the whole thread…). Got a chunk of change and am 60 and trying to decide if I’ve got enough to just say fuck it while wife and I are still in good health for the “go-go” years… been watching too many YouTube videos and talking to the guys that pump up their retirement services on the radio on the weekends that I’m looking for other options… PM me directly…

I would decide if you’re looking for a one time consultant to create a strategy which then you implement and manage, or do you pay someone to do that for you? The latter obviously has a higher cost. Neither has a higher likelihood of more success or more failure.

Are y’all really that impressed that a mayor can redirect a repair crew from their daily planned work to fill a pothole? All for social media cred?

1 hour ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

None of this shit stops without violence. It’s the only currency fascists respond to.

Yes but they will respond with their own violence.

Be careful calling for violence in a public forum. The administration are playing companies to look for online threats and then issuing subpoenas to discover the identity of the person who issued a threat.

But to the heart of this problem, we need to work towards electing a Congress who will stop Trump. Perhaps even impeach and convict him. And if that doesn’t happen, bring in a Dem president in 2028 who will reverse everything. And I’m cool pursuing criminal charges against companies and CEOs who participate in actions like tearing up Big bend.

4 hours ago, mycox said:

Still an asshole, but he did aplogize

Earlier Thursday, conservative political commentator Sean Hannity released an featuring Hilton that was recorded in recent weeks. During the "Hang Out" podcast episode, Hilton expressed regret over disparaging attacks he made on the celebrities he covered over the course of his career.

"I have a lot of regrets," he told Hannity. "Attention is like a drug, and I was definitely an attention addict back then. I mean, I still am, but I think now I do a better job of keeping it in check. And when you're an addict, you don't care if you're hurting people."

The "OG influencer" said that he attempted to make amends with some of the celebrities he targeted, including Britney Spears and Khloé Kardashian, whom he said were receptive to his apologies. He also privately approached Neil Patrick Harris to apologize for aggressively trying to out him as a gay man in 2006, before the actor had spoken about his sexuality publicly. Harris also accepted the mea culpa.

Hilton said that he had changed his ways. "I realized what I was doing was wrong — that I could still be fun — but I don't have to be so cheap, and I don't have to be so cruel. It was cruel, and it's something that I carry with me.
"It's like my scarlet letter, and it's very heavy baggage."

Make money by hurting many people and when your financial outlook dries up, apologize to the people you hurt. Maybe I’m an asshole but I’m skeptical that someone truly changes their ways.

He calls his past actions his scarlet letter. I don’t think he’s using that metaphor correctly.

6 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Daktronics was in danger of going out of business? They have a giant plant in South Dakota and make video boards for basically everybody

Didn’t have this one on my KL bingo card

At the time, their stock price had dropped to 3 and they mentioned in their investor meetings that they may not survive another year. And a $3 stock price made the company worth $150m. Which only adds to the confusion why would they hire a multi-million dollar celebrity sponsorship deal and not do anything with it.

And when pressed by a reporter, Daktronics hired a crisis mgmt guy close to Ballmer and the Clippers. Daktronics is a South Dakota based company. Odd they have ties to a LA crisis mgmt guy.

New allegations. For their new arena, the clippers bought a $100m halo Jumbotron from a company called Daktronics. At that time, Daktronics was in danger of going out of business. Coincidentally Daktronics decided to hire an athlete in a sponsorship deal at this point in time. The first sponsorship deal that they had ever had with an athlete or celebrity.

Guess who that sponsored athlete was? Kawhi Leonard. The sponsorship was never announced and Kawhi did absolutely nothing for the work.

11 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Okay

Greg Abbott just single digits ahead of Democrat in Texas, polling shows

A late July Texas Southern University poll of 1,200 likely Texan voters found Abbott leading with 49 percent to Hinojosa’s 43 percent. About 5 percent of voters were undecided, and 3 percent were backing Libertarian Pat Dixon.  

The governor received a 48 percent favorable rating and a 51 percent unfavorable rating among likely voters. Hinojosa, meanwhile, posted a 37 percent favorable rating and a 28 percent unfavorable rating, though far fewer voters were familiar with her. Nearly all likely voters, 99 percent, said they know enough about Abbott to form an opinion, compared with 65 percent who said the same of Hinojosa.

“Where Abbott has a potential image problem, Hinojosa presently has a voter knowledge problem,” Texas State University professor Wallace Golding told Newsweek, pointing to the majority of the electorate having no opinion of her.

The poll highlights the demographic and generational divides shaping the Texas governor’s race. Abbott leads Hinojosa among white likely voters by 24 points, 58 percent to 34 percent, while Hinojosa holds a 14-point advantage among Latino voters, 55 percent to 41 percent, and a 59-point lead among Black voters, 74 percent to 15 percent.

The Democrat also leads among women by 11 points, 52 percent to 41 percent, while Abbott holds a 24-point advantage among men, 58 percent to 34 percent.

The poll was conducted between July 27-30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.

Hinojosa could only win if Talarico brings out a tremendous number of voters and they don't split their vote. Hence why every Texas Dem needs to be aligning with Talarico's team.

9 minutes ago, speed817 said:

CBP confirms early border barrier construction has begun in Big Bend

https://www.statesman.com/news/politics/state/article/big-bend-border-barrier-construction-22376074.php?utm_source=reddit

Why does the AAS not name the CBP spokesperson? Perhaps because that is the only way they can get the quote?

I still don't think that one appointed or elected official has been willing to speak on this situation. Abbott loves to proudly go to South Texas for pics with the wall behind him. I don't think he's even acknowledged anything the BB region. And since our governor refuses to talk to the press, he never has to answer anything. He may be forced to discuss it in an debate but he will push it off that immigration is a federal issue that he doesn't have a say or an opinion. Or he will blame Biden for allowing immigrants in.

For a guy who started out in Harry Potter and the Twilight movies, Pattinson has surprised me with his choices. I can't say they're always the best and they're definitely not mainstream but you can't say they're not interesting. Good for him that he just didn't take the easy money and jump from one romcom to another until he aged out of them.

The problem that I have with the DSA is the same that I always had with Bernie: if you don't want to join the Democrat Party and support their platform, then run on your own ticket. Bernie was always big that he didn't want to be labeled a Democrat but he wanted the Democrat Party machine to push his agenda. There's nothing wrong with having your cake and eating it too, but you also have to know that this won't always work.

And I also don't think that we will see any new policy that pushes significantly more burden onto the top 0.1%. Instead it will be pushed onto the professional person/couple working 60 hours week and earning $300-500K via W2. Their taxes will go up but the passive income billionaire will have loopholes to keep their taxes low. When push comes to shove, its always easier to land on pushing the burden to the W2 income since that can easily be enforced.

Why don't some of you go start an AIPAC thread since that is all you want to talk about.

Just be careful saying AIPAC five times in front of a mirror.

1 hour ago, Chult86 said:

Please point to the policies that aipac is pushing that actively help Americans. We’ll wait.

Nice strawman attempt because I never claimed that AIPAC was good for America. I agree that AIPAC shouldn’t be allowed to exist since it’s a foreign PAC, at least in action, but I don’t put AIPAC in the top 100 problems facing America. Maybe not the top 1000. It’s not worth talking about.

If anyone finds themselves saying or typing AIPAC on a regular bases, I would recommend taking a break. And I’m not returning a strawman back at you because I have no idea if you post about it or not. I don’t pay attention to who is posting what.

Some of y’all really use AIPAC as catch all for something you don’t like. Similar to how MAGA said everything was DEI.

3 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

I guess I'm in the minority with this, but I think how and why you win is more important than just the result of winning.

We can't put a band-aid on where this country is right now and continues to head. The Democratic Party having control of the House or Senate or both can end up being meaningless with the wrong people in place.

The days of candidates like Haley Stevens winning the Democratic nomination need to end as soon as possible. That doesn't mean I think every candidate should be far-left or something. But moral clarity and actual convictions should be at the forefront of what matters, not appeasement or the status quo.

Electability in the general is the main primary qualification. You could end up being the best legislator in the Senate or House, but that means nothing if you can't get there. I realize that electability is only an opinion until the election actually occurs but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

18 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Pretty important day for the Democratic Party.

Michigan Senate Primary . El-Sayed has been dominating Haley Stevens in recent polls, the actual results tonight will be interesting.

Not that it matters since I live in Texas, but I'm not a fan of either Dem candidate. I just hope they choose someone who can win in November.

8 minutes ago, Deej said:

80? Fuck.

yeah. The Sopranos premiered 27 years ago. Meadow and AJ would be 5-10 years older today than Tony and Carmela's characters at the beginning.

On 7/31/2026 at 11:53 AM, High Plains Drifter said:

Also, why is an LLC with ties to Yeti leasing GLO land? Something smells like back-room dealing and insider knowledge.

From what I can tell, the Yeti co-founder owns (co-owns?) a ranch called the Moody Bennett Ranch. That ranch has additionally leased adjacent Texas owned land to form a 15K acre ranch. How much he's paying for the 10K acre Texas owned section is unknown. It might be a small amount. Regardless the ranch has a contract with the US govt to allow it to clear land and sell sand/gravel to the wall subcontractor. But there was zero right for the ranch to clear land on state owned land. Their lease didn't allow for that.

Texas GLO is just looking for their share.

16 hours ago, CTC2 said:

Abbott should really be catching more shit for not advocating for Big Bend with the administration.

He would first have to face a reporter or the public in order to catch heat for his non-action. And since he's going to easily win his race, he has zero reason to do anything.

Love that when faced with the Blanche nomination pause, Trump has now agreed to drop, in writing, the 1.8B “anti-weaponization” fund and protecting the extended Trump family from. Now he’s willing to settle for himself, Don, Eric and the Trump Org in not being audited.

Be sure to always remind any maga friend that the billionaire-in-chief is giving up on the maga folks to save a few dollars.

It seems like fever dream, but does anyone else recall when Pastore tried to sell big rubber band as a money clip? Called the Broccoli Wad? He was playing off his sopranos character that it was what all the connected guy use.

On 7/31/2026 at 11:45 PM, bschoolprof said:

Most of the explosion in PE buying everything under the sun the last 20 years was a result of central bankers keeping interest rates too low for far too long. That made investors seek yield wherever they could, pouring money into private funds, and gave PE bros tons of cheap credit to play with. Now that rates have normalized and private credit funds are struggling, the business model has shifted. You can’t just be a spreadsheet whiz anymore. You actually have to a run a business. Myopically alienating customers, suppliers, employees, etc and heading for the exits in 3 years ain’t gonna work as well now.

A friend of mine works a decent sized construction services company that has gone thru several PE owners and twice as many CEOs over the last decade. The company keeps failing more each year. Her view is that each new owner thinks they know how to turn it around but it hasn’t worked yet. But obviously non PE companies fail as well.

13 minutes ago, Derka said:

also we legit probably need two threads, because it’s pretty much impossible these days to talk about the show between episodes without spoiling something. the show is happening 24/7, and the best parts of it happen during the off days.

Agree. If I happen to follow what is going on with the live feeds, I pretty much ignore the TV show until eviction night. The Sunday and Wed night shows are only good for seeing the competitions or punishments. I give zero thought to the horrible Friday night show.

It was always a mistake that our health leaders especially in the CDC refused to entertain the idea that COVID accidentally escaped a lab. All they had to say at the time was that the source was unknown, it was possible that COVID came from a lab, and that we should investigate and act when appropriate.

On 7/29/2026 at 7:44 PM, TheStoicPaisano said:

• 
• Kaitlan Collins @kaitlancollins

The committee vote on Todd Blanche was just postponed.

Statement from a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee:

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from

• 12:25 AM · Jul 30, 2026

Cornyn and Tillis want Trump and Blanche to give up on the weaponization fund and tax immunity for the Trump family in order for Blanche to be approved by the committee. Trump's response is that he will delay the vote until those 2 are out of office. SMH.