Samson's Wig

That's about as serious an indictment on the shitty state of Austin government as one can make.

Are the shenanigans finally getting started? I've been waiting for the shenanigans to start since she was elected, and there have been no shenanigans. I started to think that shenanigans would never happen. Is this it? Are the shenanigans beginning, or is it just a teaser shenanigan?

Meh. The upside is we're already seeing a slow move of manufacturing away from China, which was starting to happen even before the pandemic. The U.S. still holds the largest card in this cat fight, and ultimately China is not a nation worth putting up with their bullshit once American manufacturing moves elsewhere. The China gambit has been a profitable one, but the CCP has made it clear that it will never be a long term scenario. The other reason for playing nice with them is the desperate and cloying attempts to woo Chinese consumers. That shit is short sighted and often fails miserably (looking at you, film industry). For those that have had success, such as the NBA, it comes at quite a price. Ultimately communists will do what communists do, and there won't be any significant amount of consumers in China to make it worth it. Starving people don't have spending money. They're already headed for the cliff edge, if not already over it. The only thing that will make China worthwhile in the long run will be complete government upheaval, and like all single party systems, the one thing they are good at is maintaining their control. They're still way more likely to head back to the dark days after the revolution than they are to emerge as a serious global leader. Fuck communists and China in particular. They haven't earned the right to play on the world stage, and this pandemic is all the evidence anyone should need. Treat them like the third world shithole they continue to insist upon being and move on. The Mexican border is begging for a 1,951 mile long manufacturing region. There's no need for sudden and drastic measures, such as demanding debt reduction or (snort) an apology. We need to move our shit out slowly but surely, and let the decoupling happen without fanfare. They're going to implode from within either way. TL/DR: China threw one hell of a party and most of us had a great time, but the cop sirens are blasting in the distance and it's time for the U.S. to grab its girl and its bag of weed and get the fuck out before the house burns down.

They need to tell the Alabama woman who lost her kids that the cartel has them and drop her off in Mexico. Two birds, one stone.

Have you seen how strong the dollar is right now? Go forth and travel, my friend. A decent sized bag of pennies will take you around the globe!

Thank you for taking that one for me. Some people, myself often included, can't see beyond their own situation. It's a big part of what's fucked up in society. We all assume that everyone is in the exact same set of circumstances as we are and draw false conclusions from the flawed premise.

Are you married to Delta or just fucking her? My experience may be a bit dated, admittedly, but I do fly Delta a lot and still just cross my fingers and hope for the best. They were the bottom of the barrel for so long it's difficult to come around to the notion that they finally got their shit together, even if it's objectively true.

I hate flying, passionately. I've always struggled with sinus problems, and flying can be excruciatingly painful. But, it was the security measures that have been put in place over the last two decades that really ruined it for me. It takes too fucking long to fly, which cuts into the convenience aspect mightily for most domestic flights. The ROI for flying just isn't always there for me. If I can drive there in ten hours and the entire flying experience is 8 hours door to door, I'll take the car every time. I lose the battle every time when I suggest we drive somewhere, as the rest of the family hates driving. I had hopes that this fiasco was my opportunity. We're supposed to head up Ontario to see the family on Thursday, flying Delta from Austin to Detroit and then driving into Canada. I suggested that we drive avoid all of the shenanigans (mostly concerned that we won't have a rental car available when we get to Detroit in spite of the reservation). No dice. Not only will be going to the airport at 4:00AM on Thursday, we will be checking bags too, because how can you possibly go to Canada in winter with a small suitcase? I just want to cancel the whole thing and lie on the couch watching sports for the week. But alas. Now I'm going to have to work overtime to not lose my shit when we inevitably lose a suitcase, can't get a rental car, or otherwise get stranded.

I believe you. Is it possible that they've simply outgrown their model? It worked well when they were more regional, I suppose. I still trust them to get me where I'm going (domestically) better than the legacy carriers, just based on my own experience over the years. I travel quite a bit for work and use most of the major airlines with some frequency. I often eschew Southwest as they have so many connecting flights and I need to get where I'm going quickly, but I can't remember how many times a legacy carrier failed me for one stupid reason or another and simply booking a different flight on southwest ended up getting me where I needed to go faster than waiting on AA, DElta, United, etc. to get their shit together and provide an alternative.

Agreed, but I've only seen one airline successfully do it.

It's a shame, as SW is typically the airline that keeps things going when everyone else falls apart. E.g., the Orlando airport ran out of jet fuel a couple of weeks ago, and Southwest was the only airline that didn't have disruptions as they were nimble enough to adjust on the fly (aided by their lack of a hub and spoke model). They're the only airline I'ver experienced making up for delays while in the air (at the cost of extra jet fuel) in order to get things back on track. Ultimately, their old school point-to-point model helps them dodge a lot of the issues that become systemwide problems for other carriers. Something finally had to give them fits, and I guess this was their week. A bad week for Southwest doesn't overcome decades of complete failure by the legacy carriers, though.

You're working overtime, counselor. I hope you're at least getting paid for your spin efforts.

I think this is a reasonable take. Whatever Randi did or didn't do as a coach has absolutely zero bearing on this incident, however. It serves as a sign that neither one of them are particularly nice people, but we all already knew that didn't we? The standards of the justice system don't apply to the question of whether he keeps his job or not, and I'm speaking more to the quality of the character of a high profile UT employee. The legal issues will work out one way or the other, likely without much fanfare, in my opinion. We need no further information to know that he engaged violently with a woman. There is absolutely nothing in the affidavit to indicate that his life was in danger (which would be the only justification), and his attorneys would 100% have made such circumstances public already were that the case. So we have all we need to know that he is a piece of shit, whether he ends up in trouble legally or not. Some clearly want to twist things around in their mind to justify keeping him. I like winning too, but I'm not willing to go that far. Beard's always been a volatile guy, and that's part of his charm to an extent, but this situation shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. And if he stays around, we'll be dealing with some other incident caused by his inability to control his temper at some point down the road. There's a reason that Bob Knight style coaches are gone from the profession, with Beard being the most notable exception.

Beard has never presented himself as an upstanding member of society, but I've always been okay with that and considered it worth the gamble for a good coach. I've been a fan. This incident is a bridge too far, however. And I agree that not all facts are in the affidavit, of course. But it's also a fact that Beard didn't deny assaulting her to the cops. He merely claimed that she started it, which might matter in terms of his criminal situation, but doesn't mean a hill of beans in terms of public opinion. He has proven himself to be a low-life that will assault a woman. Mitigating factors may impact his legal issues, but they don't change the fact that we've got a coach that hits women. Sure, but he didn't. And what he did do is telling. As you said, maybe massaging reality and cutting a deal works in East Texas, and maybe it will also work with in Austin, but I expect better out of the university than I do our criminal justice system.

lol Good lord, of course not. That's what a trial is for. Some of you are losing your damn minds over this situation. My point was that the post I quoted was disgusting in that it had no interest in justice, just in making certain our coach gets off scott free with no consequences regardless of the facts.

Sad take you've got there. I'm no fan of the Travis County DA, but referring to him as a nobody who is merely standing in the way implies that Beard is too important to face justice for something that most people would consider as low-life as it gets. Garza isn't the problem. Beard is the problem. If this wasn't a coach, and it happened to your sister, you'd be ready to kick his ass up and down the street and be rooting for prison time. Sports make people lose their minds. Beard should be gone. Full stop. The fact that Randi may cut a deal to keep the money train flowing doesn't change the fact that we'll have a complete piece of shit on the sidelines if he manages to keep his job. And it's possible the DA doesn't need the victim's testimony to nail Beard to the wall on this one anyway, which is what a DA should do in such a case. She may not be able to stop it even if they back up the proverbial dump truck full of money.

I don't dislike Goodman, but he loves him some Beard. He's probably having some kind of internal crisis after learning that his favorite coach is capable of beating a woman. I don't think anyone directly connected to Beard had anything to do with this either. Just internet troll idiots thinking they're helping. And Goodman, for better or worse, will repeat anything he hears if it fits his notion of how things should be. That Massey guy was quick to repeat what turned out to be a bunch of nonsense as well, but that's also no surprise.

Most of that entire thing turned out to be complete bullshit, coming from Goodman (no surprise with that dude, as his lips have been firmly planted on Beard's ballsack for a long time) and more notably from UT message boards (which strains credibility as well in this case). Looks more like an attempt to deflect attention from the dumpster fire in Austin, but at this point the rumors that actually matter have been proven false: Aimaq isn't going anywhere, and Womble (donor) never got sideways with Adams. As for Adams fucking his brother's widow, well we just don't know, but ultimately who gives a shit? That rumor has been around for a really long time. Tech will likely lose to the Horns in both games this season whether Beard is on the court or not.

Perhaps it's the aspartame in those diet sodas that made you guys think eating McDonalds regularly is a good idea.

Is the "auto-driving" feature on a Tesla any different than the driver assist features on other high end vehicles? My wife's ICE SUV will keep you in a lane, adjust speed, start and stop, and generally control the vehicle without you having to touch anything. Is this what all the fuss has been about with Tesla? And if so, is it just a case of them having put it into vehicles first, even though just about every vehicle that sells for over $70k or so now has that same feature? If so, how does Tesla maintain any semblance of a "future-looking" brand?

How are you regular McDonald's eaters still alive? Are you great big fat people? I think if I ate that garbage two days in a row I'd keel over with heart attack. My kids won't even eat there, which is some kind of small miracle.

Your buddy's wife seems like a terrible person. Marrying poorly is the number one way to fuck up your life.

My little sister (now in her mid 40s) has raided my mom's wallet her entire life. Her husband is relatively successful with a modestly sized car dealership, but she will invite my mom to go shopping with her at every chance she gets just so my mom will pay for everything. Prior to current husband our folks paid her rent, utilities, phone, etc. etc. and still pay for her and her family to go on vacation. She has mental health issues, without question, but they are of the sociopath variety and she doesn't garner a ton of my sympathy. I can draw a couple of potential conclusions from this. One: she is simply trying to drain what little extra money our hard working middle class parents have managed to save to ensure that there is no inheritance left to speak of, or two: my parents don't like me very much. Shit, maybe it's both. Whatever it is I'm happy to not take their money.

How do you afford it‽‽‽?‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽