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Captainant

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Captainant

  1. Well the good deacon @Frank Drebin/ @Johnny Sack crashed out and got himself banned again I think
  2. Houston Chronicle with some fascinating reporting on how violent offenders have been able to get out on bail so often https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2025/bail-bond-scheme-aable/ In 2021 and 2022, AABLE helped bail out a man accused of a triple murder in South Houston, and another accused of stuffing his wife’s dead body in a refrigerator. It backed bonds for road rage shooters and sexual assault suspects. Each man’s release, while legal, was contingent on the company risking hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the bonds. In Houston, a city where easy bail is often pointed to as a reason for crime, AABLE’s business stood out. The company was scrutinized by activists, competitors and county regulators. Under pressure, AABLE folded in 2023. But the closure wasn’t the end of the business’ troubles. In July 2024, more than 50 people across Houston were arrested in an early morning operation organized by the FBI. The mass arrest was so large, authorities set up a temporary holding facility at NRG Arena. AABLE’s owner, two employees and dozens of its customers were arrested and accused of conspiring to cheat the Harris County bail system. The government’s case accuses AABLE of falsifying paperwork to get approval for risky bonds.
  3. There's also a really weird stigma with olds (read: genX and older) that mental healthcare means that you're some kind of invalid or broken person
  4. good lord, that article is frustrating. The dude was just straight hateful against mormons and ready to do something about it: When Burton City Council candidate Kris Johns heard that someone shot churchgoers and burned down the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sept. 28 in nearby Grand Blanc, he said not once did he think it was the man he spoke to while canvassing less than a week prior who went on a tirade against the church and described Mormons as "the antichrist." ... The FBI said Monday that they're still working to determine a motive. Law enforcement has already interviewed over 100 people, said Reuben Coleman, special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit. ... He said Sanford began asking him open-ended questions about Mormonism, first asking how Johns felt about the religion. And the more questions Sanford asked on the topic, the more pointed they became, Johns said. He said Sanford asked him about the Mormon bible, the role Jesus plays in the religion, the history of the LDS church and Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of Mormonism and the LDS movement. ... But Johns said everything Sanford asked him about Mormonism led to Sanford declaring the religion as "the antichrist." Their conversation never delved into politics or current events, Johns said β€” "there was no mention of anything right or left, blue or red.” But Johns did say he spotted a Trump 2024 sign on the suspect's fence.
  5. The reality is that the wealthiest people have NO income. Jeff fuckin Bezos qualified for childcare assistance credits because his income was so low. Their value is all in stocks that have grown, which they can liquidate tax-free through taking loans against the paper value. And then when they can goose the stock up they renegotiate their loans and keep the debt cycle going. Alllllll tax-free, of course.
  6. Make Ambergris Great Again
  7. Truth be told, using a single metro area is not a very comprehensive analysis, but I'm just using the chart that you brought up and the data only goes back to 2016 But I can feel that yall don't want to talk in good faith, so I'll let you have your hugbox
  8. IMO the bigger issue is that single family housing is considered an "asset class" for non-residents to invest in at scale. When a THIRD of the market is being used solely as investment vehicles to extract rents out of families and indivuals.... That's gonna really fuck shit up Cherry picking a short time frame is a choice it's still nearly 40% elevated from pre-COVID, even if it's down from the absolute peak
  9. I don't think housing is gonna come down ever because of how heavily financialized it is. A bunch of hedge funds and olds have bought up properties to act as "passive income" and they've already marked down that revenue. Therefore, they cannot adjust those numbers to reality without realizing a loss - which they will NEVER do. Line must go up. Line includes housing. Even IF more housing magically appeared, it would be snapped up as a place to put excess money by the already outrageously unbalanced top-end of wealth holders. THAT has to be unwound or changed before housing accessibility and pricing can be improved.
  10. Man, Pablo has RECEIPTS, this is from Joe Sanberg (Aspiration co-founder) edit: wow holy shit, Ballmer """donated""" $1,875,000 to Sandberg's foundation in 2024 - AFTER Aspiration went under and the Clippers partnership ended and Ballmer claims that he was "hoodwinked and bamboozled" by Sandberg. There is ZERO reasonable explanation for this. It's gonna be spectacular when Silver doesn't do shit about this. Lebron's new league very well may take off if Silver lets salary cap circumvention go unpunished and tactitly approves it
  11. The Kusher/Saudi deal is going through https://apnews.com/article/ea-electronic-arts-video-game-silver-lake-pif-d17dc7dd3412a990d2c0a6758aaa6900 Welp, I WAS looking forward to buying BF6. Not really interest in buying anything from them now
  12. each one of your links goes to a google search for "FY 202X", with no reference to VA budgeting? What words did I put in your mouth? You claimed that the VA is well funded and leave an implication that it means that it's fine and I'm overreacting. Objective reality disagrees with you. Even if there is more funding, the people of the VA who actually work with our veterans have been sounding the alarm bells. So I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Goddamn dude, you are fragile
  13. I REALLY wish we could know the thinking of those who voted to indict - are they just useful idiots that will okeydoke whatever someone of (apparent) authority says?
  14. idk, we have a few self-admitted Christian Nationalists and christofascists on the board that we could ask about it. Icono/Macklemore and WWS come to mind
  15. https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-to-reduce-staff-by-nearly-30k-by-end-of-fy2025/ https://www.newsweek.com/doctors-warning-cuts-veteran-healthcare-10660576 https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/2025-budget-impacts-house-bill-would-cut-assistance-and-raise-costs-for-0 Cutting staff by 30,000 sure doesn't line up with your unsourced numbers. Plus, over a million veterans live in households that depend on SNAP and Medicaid - which have also been gutted by elmo and DOGE. But I'm sure you're right and everything is great with the VA, if I just don't believe my lying eyes.
  16. so, 'cubes DEFINITELY is doing or has done the same kind of shit then right? I just don't understand stanning for Ballmer for any other reason
  17. That coupled with the dockside shooting, also from an Iraq war Marine vet, within the same 24hr block... Yeah nothing to see here, keep cutting the VA
  18. An Iraq war veteran https://abcnews.go.com/US/gunman-michigan-lds-church-shooting-veteran-iraq-war/story?id=126025402 https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-church-shooting-gunman-was-former-marine-iraq-veteran-hunter/ Good thing we have a well funded VA that helps with mental health issues, amirite
  19. The real value of genAI is that it's giving businesses an excuse to cut headcount and fire workers domestically. Once it turns out whoopsie poopsie genAI cant do everything they said it could - because software engineering is a collaborative effort between technical and business stakeholders - it will be too late and those tech jobs will be offshored. I've been watching it happen over the last few years with my customers - they have fewer and fewer engineers on staff to solve things, but a growing army of contract labor that doesn't know shit about fuck in their business, but can crank out cookie cutter solutions. Nevermind if any of that is actually solving the business problem or advancing on the desired outcome - that's all problems for the next crop of MBA's to handle. This crop will be long gone and counting their bonuses for cost savings before the chickens come home to roost
  20. The Guardian: Clarence Thomas says precedent might not determine cases on upcoming supreme court docket
  21. Trump offering a bailout to Argentina just for them to turn around and eat American soybean farming trumpers lunch is incredible. No notes. Let the face eating continue
  22. Buy, borrow, die. Why get taxed on income when you can borrow against paper value?
  23. The other side of that coin in the business world is that nearly all of the corporate CapEx spending that's been keeping the markets happy has been on GenAI data centers and buying Nvidia chips. There's not a path to profitability with the genAI business model, openAI is losing money per chatGPT session, and every business consuming their models is losing money on their products built on the LLM's. It's gonna be one hell of a hangover when there's no real revenue to offset the capex depreciation in a year or two
  24. BG3 is an incredible game and is really truly like playing D&D with a good DM. The systems are all sooooo well realized, if you can think of a lateral solve for a puzzle or challenge, or get out of a tight situation with stealth or charisma checks, the game still rewards you with XP and progression. It's some stellar game design, and a big BIG game that lets you do quite literally whatever the hell you want.
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