UTDD

I'd like to see one or two of these candidates on Oprah live just for the possibility of...

I think Warren can play well with Wall street types in some ways, but I don't think she is a favorite of theirs at all. Anecdotally the people I know personally in the finance world are mostly from what I can tell: "anybody but 1.Bernie or 2.Warren or bust." Especially Bernie.

I think I agree with all of this right now but I also believe nothing is set in stone quite yet.

I've never even paid attention or even seen Kamala speak except one brief news excerpt randomly. My first impression of her was very good, I don't even know her politics at all, but at first glance she looks tough, smart, and it's a huge plus she is not pushing 70 to 80+ for me personally.

Voting rights (and related cases) was one area (another great fear is corporate governance/influence) I greatly feared far more than abortion or some of the other normal big ticket fears. This was a big decision. Very big I think.

I still think it's a true 50/50ish range for Trump and whoever ends up the opponent. I don't see an across the board strong candidate against Trump but I also see 3 candidates (also a good VP selection would help) that would be quite scary for Trump too if things break right. I'm not sure how the under 25 crowd will react yet, and I'm also unsure of the strength of the post 65 conservative voter which may tweak dependent on the Dem candidate. Very curious to see who wins the nomination against Trump, this should be an interesting election.

Thailand and Singapore are real options for better healthcare, and that's absolutely the truth (at least for me) from the perspective of knowing specific hospitals and programs in those countries in specific areas, etc. Thailand and Singapore are actually interesting health care systems to look at as they approach things differently but both have some positives we could learn from over here. Medical tourism is its own niche area that is probably a long-term growth market in some countries.

I think there was a percentage of Trump voters in 2016 that simply did not trust Hillary and Trump was the devil you didn't know versus the one you did, but a larger share of those voters are what they are, and it's not the stock market driving their passion. It is what it is.

I wouldn't recommend loans for law school at lower tier schools at all. That could be a crippling debt.

These numbers sound right but it's been a bit for me. I never really knew this, but if a student is needing a fifth or sixth year to get their undergraduate degree, does that come into play at all? Or is it just a total cap overall period?

I feel where you are coming from here too. I saw a lot of kids during college that I felt really overborrowed well and beyond their tuition and reasonable expenses just because they could and they did not have any handle on the reality of their future debt. I would see very nice off campus private housing/apartments, very nice private purchases for items, and of course lots of beer and pizza and party money with no other income or any type of side work to offset anything. (I mean a LOT of beer expenditures, lol) But I also saw kids working at different jobs during school, waiting tables (I did this too), retail, campus jobs, and juggling everything with school. I think I could be open minded to examining the utility of looking at some type of tuition plus reasonable educational expenses metric (a % is probably a reasonable attempt at just that) and how that would benefit our society on a macro level versus just allowing all loans entirely being forgiven. I'd potentially personally benefit from this kind of policy in theory if it goes that far (I don't think it will ever will personally) as I borrowed well over six figures for seven years of school but I'm not sure how I feel about it as I feel it was a good investment for my life. I was also very lucky to receive a tuition scholarship for my sixth and seventh years of school (2L/3L years or I might have hit close to 200k perhaps) but I still borrowed a little for living expenses and then the four years prior tuition plus, etc. I chose UT versus other options like Rice/Duke type tuitions when starting college to be intelligent about my financial reality (parents are not well off at all), and also had to work at a giant corporate law firm longer than I would have liked to pay off debt. If I saw others making much worse choices for their life given my same situation, how would I feel if I saw their debt forgiven and I had sacrificed at this kind of job to make sure to pay off my debt? I'm not sure I'm feeling great about that at all, but I am the type that can often be dispassionate about my own reality if I see the positive utility of something on a larger scale, so maybe it's not a big deal to me. Not sure... I actually wish there was much better counseling and information about the financial realities of debt for 18 year olds because my impression with so many of them was that they literally had no clue. Also, so much incentive to give out a loan (can't discharge them obviously so it's a great debt to hold) versus being more restrictive about handing out that money. That's a big problem right there. It's been a little while for me now since borrowing (over a decade) money, so not sure if loans are better at verifying say housing costs, etc.

I think he wants to carve out another piece of his legacy that doesn't involve Curry or the Warriors, meaning winning a title on his own so to speak. I also wonder if he is legitimately irritated in how he got injured. I think the Nets are more likely than the Knicks at this point, but who knows. I always thought the Knicks would appeal to Durant more than the Nets because of the chance to turn around that specific franchise, but the Knicks have Dolan, and well...that's a big negative to some players. Lots of weird stuff will fly around this week for sure.

Warren's sex for me is a neutral factor. I'll just come out and admit it -- her age is and always will be a negative for me, so I'd never lean in her direction for that sole reason no matter her age in relation to anyone else. Bernie and Trump are also huge negatives for me with age in isolation to anything else, even more than Warren because...well...they are even older and they are also older males which does matter with age to me as I have less concern with an older female and health all things being equal. (unless health shows something specific to that candidate, etc) Character and issues trump that easily though versus a younger but deficient candidate in these areas.

There is some risk for the Pelicans in taking this pick but I like taking the high risk high reward approach given the Pelicans' current situation. If you can imagine a fully realized lineup of say Lonzo, Holiday, BI, Zion, and Jaxson (worry big time about the shooting though) then you potentially have a really scary defensive group. I think that is five potential elite defensive players all on the floor at the same time. It will definitely take some time though as I think Jaxson is going to have big adjustment issues early with even little things like fouling too much.

I trust Coach Hand on the OL right now. I think we are in for generally good times at this position going forward (both from a recruiting and development standpoint), so not going to overly concern myself when it's much more obvious I should be worrying about the big boys on the other side of the ball.

Boston's best scenario to me with Horford would have been an opt-in for one year and then trading him during the season for more youth or at worst just letting him go next summer for nothing, but otherwise it's better they lose him for nothing than signing him to a four year deal with too high a value and especially given the rest of their roster right now. He doesn't fit in their realistic window anymore with Kyrie/AD dreams gone.

It would be a nightmare if Kawhi joined the Lakers, I literally just got over Durant joining the Warriors. Luckily, I think that chance is very low. I'd like to see the league be a little wide open for the next year or two, and I think this might be the case next year. LeBron and AD together is a great start for having a good team, but certainly not yet a team I would pencil in as a championship favorite at all. I like that the Pelicans valued Ingram more than Kuzma, he's a much higher risk in some ways but his ceiling IMHO is much higher. I'd rather take the higher risk between those two personally. I think both Ingram and Lonzo could end up as elite - not just good - defenders although I really worry about both of their mindsets/mentalities. They both worry me there. Lonzo's 3 point shooting doesn't worry me a huge amount, but his literally horrific free throw shooting - and how it impacts his overall ability to attack the rim and cause gravity to drift towards him for open looks for others - is a gigantic hole in his game right now. He's got to fix that or he might max out at best as a decent to good defender with good court vision (he really does have good vision that can't be taught so easily) but a huge liability on offense. If the Pelicans can have Zion, Holiday, Lonzo, Ingram, maybe Garland (or even trade the 4 for Atlanta's 8/10 possibly), I'm not sure they could have done much better considering Ainge (smartly) was not going to include Tatum with AD's threat to leave after one year. Maybe they have a few more moves planned too.

I think the first one is not terrible on its face, but it's probably not enough as I think the Pelicans want some picks that can generate potential young talent to build with Zion. My gut is that the Pelicans want an even younger talent than CJ at 27, but if they are really high on him and there are no other worthy offers, who knows. Still, the threat of the one year of AD has got to have a chilling effect on most teams offering good packages.

I'd probably have to take too much time right now to actually put together a very precise Top 20 list, (I always feel like I am forgetting someone) but at first glance I can see a lot of players in similar positions to where I would put them. I'd definitely have your Top 3 the same way, and I kind of have those three with a tier gap over the rest of the players and probably another tier gap at around the Top 10 or so.

Wow, maybe the only game that was kind of close to me in quality for that style of RPG (over so many years now) to Baldur's Gate 2 was Divinity 2, and it turns out that same studio is making BG3. Definitely intrigued.

Indeed. I am buying the Bucks being pretty high, but I think Toronto still legitimately has to worry about the Clippers with Kawhi so that would change everything. I'm confused with Clippers at #5 unless you assume Kawhi, but then # 2 Toronto doesn't make sense for me there and maybe the Clippers at # 5 is a bit low? I don't think both rankings will be independently true next year as he can't be on both teams. If Philly keeps their entire core (I think Harris might leave, Butler possibly) I like them a lot.

Just for those curious, I do have one stat but it's only go ahead shots in the playoffs in the last FIVE seconds of 4Q/OT in playoffs, not 24 seconds. Michael Jordan - 5-11, 45% LeBron James - 7-15, 47% I don't recall many other players, but these two with this volume I think were in a class of their own.

It's really amazing to see that many great players well below their normal shooting averages, which I believe shows the extreme pressure/high defensive intensity of the opponent/etc of making this kind of shot. As great as Steph is, (and you are probably comparing him to Top 20ish all-time type players as a reasonable starting reference point) you have to at some point hold this against him overall.

Some minor rumblings...not sure how real this is... Lakers get Anthony Davis Chicago Bulls get Lonzo, 4th pick, and Solomon Hill New Orleans gets: 2020 FRP unprotected from Lakers, Kuzma, Hart, LaVine, 7th pick

My goodness, now with Klay this is maybe the most brutal way to lose an NBA Finals I can ever recall.