UpperWestside

Going to have the small percentage of farms that are run by families get taken in by large corporate farming operations. Who could have seen it coming that their orange god king would be cool with this? I do not feel one bit bad for any farmer that voted for him getting their comeuppance in the form of being broke and destitute.

I tell people that I made a few drives from Dallas to Los Angeles and that half of the drive was just getting out of Texas. I always felt bad for the small Class A far northern panhandle schools who would make it to the state basketball tournament when I used to go to it years ago in Austin. They would put the distance to Austin next to it in the program and one school had to drive 619 miles to lose an 8:30 in the morning game on Thursday. Now the trip would be even further for them having to go to San Antone.

I would say we have no comparable nation in history due to the aforementioned size, but also the diversity. That diversity is our greatest asset, but also our greatest weakness as well. A diverse culture only works when we have a majority pulling towards the common or greater good. The last time that we as a country collectively pulled towards the greater good was the Second World War. That was truly a nationwide effort. Yes I think if you take it down to looking at control groups that you will invariably have some that really want those levers of power. It is my belief in our military though that keeps the worst impulses of civilians leaders from visiting the worst upon the populace. I trust that they have been preparing g for this scenario longer than this board and community has existed. I trust the men and women in our military to do the right thing. And thanks. Two years in Hawaii with some trips southwest to be made in preparation for further adventures should be fun. Gotta learn as much as I can before setting sail. So much history available living there about the Pacific and it’s peoples that I just cannot get here in NYC.

I think we look way, way, WAY too much into the Nazi regime for how things will play out. It’s what is most familiar to people when it comes to how authoritarian regimes operate. We are not that and the things that allowed their rise were a set of circumstances unique to them. Same as circumstances now are unique to us and how these cretins crawled out from under their rocks to get back into the 1st chair. I look at police not as having some fever dream of causing havoc upon the population. I do look at way too many of them thinking they are a military force that can do as they please, especially with who will be the president again. We make it through these four years and then it’s onto the next internal and external challenges. It just goes on and on until we wind up like every other world power. Or not. None of us here on this board will live long enough to see what ultimately happens to the United States. You just do the best you can each day as a person and you go onto the next one and hope for the best. The rest is out of my control as well as every other person on this board. I fully trust our military to make the right decisions. I won’t be on the mainland ever again though once I get on the next flight to the Pacific though. I will get the view from afar I guess. Should be fun traveling and living in countries that actively do not like Americans like myself who have no protections for me from possible violence.

I am not overly worried about this either. We, for better or worse, have war hawks in the congress and senate that will be working behind the scenes to see this not happen. My worry about a military that turns on Americans or gets degraded as a fighting force sits about as high on the list of hypotheticals as me receiving a call from the Lakers asking me to be their new shooting guard.

This is true. I did one of these, BUT, I actually put in the time and took it seriously because I do not possess the ability to sit in a traditional classroom setting. I am thankful for the ability to further academic pursuits in this manner and I make sure I am not wasting my time or money in doing so. I learned so much more using this format than I ever did listening to a lecture in a classroom. The Masters I am doing calls for me to read, A LOT, but I enjoy reading and like to write papers. It’s also in a subject matter that will determine the course for the rest of my life and is one I thoroughly enjoy. You can make great use of this academic outlet or just waste it. I choose to make really good use of it. I do know someone that had their wife at the time doing their class work though since no one would know the difference in who did it. That part of the online experience needs to get worked on ASAP.

Lampasas should get the district champion from District 1 in the 2nd round. That’s a majority El Paso schools district. That would mean EP Austin in the 2nd round. That game I am guessing takes place in Midland/Odessa. 550 or so miles separate the two high schools. The travel logistics in the first two rounds can come across as nuts to me when I think that I can drive from NYC to the northern tip of Maine faster than driving entirely within the same state. At least this week Lampasas just has to go to Wall to play Pecos.

There are always buffoons like Flynn in the military. Thankfully we have a military that is really good at organizational structure and one that adheres to the tenets of our Constitution. The people in charge of the soldiers that have the ability to turn their weapons against Americans with unlawful orders will not acquiesce to said orders. We have cynics on this board who wholeheartedly believe our military will do this because the Nazis did it or Il Duce’s fascists did it or even Stalin’s forces did it. We are none of those things. The worst of what gets visited upon the populace will come from the boys in blue and others who think they are soldiers.

They play out with the United States military not following those orders. There are few things I feel certain about in life, but this is one of them. Our elected officials have no respect for the Constitution, but our military will stand down on any orders to harm American citizens.

I believe that authoritarians rely on this. You need a divided populace and I mean a REALLY divided one like we have now in order to ascend to the highest position of power. So here we are with millions of people who are about to get four years of messing around and find out moments they did not believe would be coming their way. Four years of prices on goods climbing ever higher and a populace that will continue to divide further apart. This is how authoritarians and their underlings gain and latch onto power. I can look at this from the perspective of a white male and I could say that “I’m white so the worst of it will not come to me solely because of that.” That part will prove itself to be true. However, the part of me that realizes a whole bunch of people got taken in and hoodwinked with false promises and, at best, half truths will be the ones affected the most. That part is not cool, but here we are. Sometimes you have to learn hard lessons and they will come at the expense of the person you voted for that does not care one iota about you nor did they ever.

Lampasas opens the playoffs against a 4 team district. None of the four teams (Andrews, Big Spring, Pecos and Lake View.) have winning records. Andrews went 3-0 in district and finished at 4-6. That’s the high water mark for wins. I think every team in the district should win this coming week. The Mustangs might be the only one that can win as they draw Burnet instead of former district foe Brownwood thanks to the Lions 31-30 OT win last week against the Bulldogs. Burnet comes in at 5-5, but they’re probably better than any other 4th seed in 4A.

The next day that he works will be the first one in his life.

And #26 I nominate Elon for. Just him and a rocket ship on a one way flight. That list is so off the rails that I expect at least half of it to be the law of the land for at least a day. Just a totally bonkers list.

Number one, while it would be of minimal benefit to me, will not happen nor does it need to. I just want my tax money spent wiser than it currently is.

I think I worked with a guy who is a bartender there. He told me he really enjoyed the place as an employee.

Waiting here at LAX for a connecting flight back to NYC. Now there is plenty about NYC I thoroughly enjoy and will miss. Even though my time there is almost near the end I will still enjoy the things that make it one of the most unique places you can visit in this world of ours. HOWEVAH! I have been gone since last Wednesday. In that time I heard exactly one horn honk and witnessed no one pissing right into the street in broad daylight. Only one random fight was two drunks swinging at each other on Halloween near the beach so totally expected because of what night it was. As I wind down in NYC I hope that the holidays are fun and that I cross paths with plenty of cool people from all across the globe. Hawaii won’t be the same as the tourists will be different, but still cool. I would say that everyone on this board needs at least one visit to The Big Apple. You come for the Broadway show, but stay for the random person that swears Leon Panetta tortured them once upon a time. Just a real well-rounded experience.

I think you should post more in the cloak room.

Congratulations to Grand Canyon University on the great lessons they are teaching to their students. I feel like this response was cherry-picked for this article due to giving the dumbest possible answer.

First they came for the landlords and, well, I picked up a pitchfork and joined them.

Well yes if you are targeting younger voters. The attention span is shorter than that of a gnat. I feel like we keep looking to younger people to turn things around, but it’s hard to do when millions of them can’t be bothered to cast a vote. I am in favor of compulsory voting like the Aussies have. Don’t want to exercise your right to vote that people have fought for you to have? Here’s a nice fine for not doing the one civic duty you should value above all others.

Whoa, Whoa, WHOA. Now you’ve gone too far.

Well that won’t be FYPM then. Another bitter old coach pining for the days when athletes only got what a bag man would give them. He’s not long for coaching.

I am sure @InkaUtexas knows this, but they prefer being called Türkiye now. I get a fair amount of Turks where I work and honestly I like calling it that more than Turkey. Just sounds better. I remember the first guy from there who told me that and I just said “Cool man. Türkiye it is!”

I think Europe will fill the void. The old dislike and disgust towards Russia has never gone away. Poland is not going to abandon them and neither are any of the other countries in Eastern Europe that still have sizable amounts of their populations that suffered under communism. They can tell us to kick rocks on this and put some NATO boots on the ground if that is what it comes to to finally shutdown one of the most backward countries in the entire world.

If only General Vandegrift or Chesty Puller were alive to see this brave marine fighting in the 2024 Battle of Honolulu. Makes the sacrifices of those that served on Guadalcanal pale in comparison to this brave hoorahing patriot.