Serak The Preparer

So much to unpack here. Alice in Wonderland is a franchise? Same for Willy Wonka. There is one fucking movie before Burton remade it. I agree it's not as good, but there were no franchises to ruin. Also Planet of the Apes and Batman? You do realize that there were many successful movies in both series after Burton made his, right? Do you know the meaning of either ruin or franchise?

Obligatory "it raises the average IQ of both states" comment.

I have to confess, I do not understand how the principle is the same. The tax rate in Peoria, SF renaming schools, the policy towards homeless in Kansas City, the restaurant zoning in Boston are all so incredibly unrelated to Proud Boys / alt-right that I honestly can't fathom having sincere discussions with anyone who tries to equivocate them.

So your position is that a school board renaming schools is on the same discussion field as violence against minorities?

It's not even remotely legit though, it is renaming fucking schools in a city and state that none of these outraged people live in. They could rename every school to "Giant Dildo Crushing The Sun" and I wouldn't care. This is the stupidest fake-outrage event I've seem in a long time, but I am glad it gave @Onboard 2.0 a CR safe-space to come in take shot at liberals and make fun of California. I'm sure it got him a full chub.

That also assumes that there was no change in revenue for food / lodging / gold / etc. for the rest of the revenue stream. Given travel restrictions I would be surprised if most resorts equivalent did not experience significant decline in these areas. In essence, if Mar a Lago was a "normal" resort, would need to have netted well more than 10 memberships to increase revenue by $2 million.

Thank you. I imagine you understand (and just don't care, which is fine) why it rustles jimmies when you continuously poke the groupthink bear to say "nuh uh, it's a 7 and not a 10") but I do appreciate the answer.

@Anastasis, you obviously think it was a major fuck-up to tell people that masks weren't needed in March. I agree. I (think) I get why he said that, but it was not the right way to convey need for mask prioritization. That said - is the the original sin for you w/ Fauci? Are there other major fuck-ups or is this the one that sticks out? Maybe a better question would be on a 1-10 scale, how would you personally rate Fauci's overall performance (including the March comment)? I would guess most people would say somewhere between a 7 and a 9, but am genuinely curious about your answer. I would probably say 8 (given his constraints within the admin) which far exceeds the average within the Trump admin.

I stanned Warren and definitely was wary of the McKinsey stink on Pete, so even before your reply I admit that I eagerly clicked the tweet to check for dirt. I was ... underwhelmed. I am still not crazy about a future President Pete (although things can certainly change) but if this is the deep dirt, then I think he's gonna be ok through nomination.

Wait, is TexAgs really one of your favorite forums? I know you like being a contrarian and arguing on the internet, but <insert Jordan "Get Help" gif here>.

I am not sure if you are more laughably naïve or more laughably ignorant. Hugo's politics (by which I can only assume you mean Democratic Party politics) are sure as shit not what got us to an obstructionist and extremist state. The DP sure as shit sucks in many ways but comparing the way the GOP vs DP perform governance is night and day. The GOP does not act in good faith, and haven't acted in good faith for decades. For all it's faults, the DP at least tried to reach out on the ACA, you already see Biden trying to aim for Bi-Partisanship at least to a degree, etc. It's like comparing a headache to pancreatic cancer. Yeah I'd rather not have a headache but I sure know which one I would prefer.

For starters, it'd be nice to know what the legend is on the first chart.

I get why people bring up Dirk, Isiah, and even Duncan when talking about lack of 2nd option or leading a team to a title, but even they are a clear step below Hakeem in the 1994 championship in terms of being responsible for a title. I am a Houston homer, I acknowledge that, but people forget about how mediocre the entire Rockets team was outside of Hakeem. For example, I know scoring isn't everything, but in the regular season Hakeem averaged 27.3 pts per game. For those playing along at home, try to guess who was second on the team. Go ahead, guess. In case you've forgotten, it was the not-hall-of-famer Otis Thorpe with 14.0 pts per game. Hakeem very nearly doubled the 2nd best scoring player on the team. Looking at the playoffs, believe it or not, it gets more extreme. In the 1994 playoffs Hakeem increased his scoring to 28.9 pts per game, while the second place scoring dropped! It goes down to 13.8 with the again not-hall-of-famer Vernon Maxwell. Hakeem more than doubled the scoring of his second-place teammate, while being the key defensive linchpin of the team. This is not to crap on Dirk, Tim, etc., but they are all clearly a step behind Hakeem in terms of title responsibility.

At first blush this seemed very fucky. The linked article gives some explanation: "The Financial Services Committee is one of five House panels deemed “exclusive” by Democratic leaders under caucus rules adopted in July 2020. Democrats on exclusive committees are barred by caucus rules from serving on any other committee without a waiver from the party’s steering committee, a panel of several dozen lawmakers chaired by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that determines committee assignments. ... In a Nov. 30 letter to Pelosi, Porter asked to be considered for seats on the Oversight and Reform, Natural Resources, and Financial Services committees — in that order — in the new Congress that began on Jan. 3. ... A senior Democratic aide familiar with the steering committee decision said it was risky for Porter to prioritize spots on other committees while asking for a waiver to retain her spot on Financial Services after Democrats lost seats in the 2020 election. A smaller Democratic majority means Democrats have a smaller ratio of seats per committee." I definitely heart Porter, and this decision may still be due to some Dem leadership fuckery, but it's not like they kicked her out of the position for no reason.

Umm, this is his normal wavelength. His circumstances have not changed his level of cuntiness one iota, for better or for worse.

You are all missing the best thing about the books. While not trying to summon the unholy presence of he-who-shall-not-be-named, the authors of the series met while students at the PREMIER IN-STATE SEC PROGRAM. Granted this was presumably during the Sherman / Sumlin years when there wasn't a whole lot else to be happy about, so really monster erotica fans everywhere should be thankful that they didn't manage to pull Fisher in earlier.

It's not gonna beat a certain thread about Bret Bielema but comes damn close. A+ Title, would read again!

Wondering the same also, otherwise this a really stupid and unnecessary thread. Very "look-at-me".

The whole Texit conversation is just as stupid and meaningless as Calexit or any other stupid fucking state secession discussion. It falls apart with even 20 seconds of critical thinking. Forget the impact on economy, basic services, elections, etc. Even before you get to that, does anyone think that an entire state will 100% vote in favor to secede? Obviously not. Once that falls apart, what is the Federal response to all of the citizens in Texas (or other state) who don't want to be a part of secession? Just say "sorry, tough shit?"

Don't worry Mrs Whiggins, I fixed it for you.

Depends how much Autonomous DB they can package along with it. It's the future!

And immediately afterwards Congress was let back in without any other controls. At that point, do you think there was literally any evidentiary value left in the crime scene? Any conceivable situation where anything wouldn't be spoiled in court? Even if nobody in Congress picks something up, can it be shown that the chain of custody is clear? "Well your honor, it is true that someone might have brought this in from the outside, or someone might have touched this, but we didn't see anyone do it so are super sure it is cool to enter into court". Anyone casting any aspersions, criticism, or blame on anyone in Congress for helping to clean is looking for something to criticize. Crime scenes aren't crime scenes once non-police are waling around willy-nilly.

It certainly should have been a crime scene, but it wasn't. The second the cops let Congress back in, it ceased being a crime scene. For fuck's sake, imagine a single piece of evidence being brought to court after the way everyone was let back in in an uncontrolled manner. Imagine how many objections there would be.