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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. I'm sure this will be reassuring.
  2. I honestly expect the House to create some kind of prize named "Nobel" and award it to him.
  3. That Phil Hartman SNL skit is glorious.
  4. Quoted for truth. Seriously, why didn't they just send in 1000 folks as soon as these roundups started, at 3 am, and clean the place up? Invite Fox along for the coverage. Instead, we are 4 months in and this place is just crawling with "gang activity".
  5. His caller ID on the phone just says "Congress" for any rep or senator. Makes it easier that way.
  6. Bump. Need some advice for my mom, prefer to take this to DM if possible. Thank you.
  7. Australia closed their embassy as well.
  8. Branson update. On our recent road trip to Minnesota, Chicago and other points here and yonder, my wife asked if we could go to Silver Dollar City, and spend 2 nights. Fine by me, I just don't care about anything else in Branson. And it had been 12 years since I had been there, so....random observations. -The Branson economy has to be down. The amount of businesses we saw that were boarded up, or in some cases, the marquee remained but the building was gone, was quite a contrast from the last time I was there. On one corner was a marquee that said "opening in March 2019" but the building was long gone. Blaming the overall economy on this is one thing, but I believe it is another: there is no second act coming. All of the people that built theaters in the 90's and 00's have all retired for good or passed on, and there is nothing coming to fill the spaces. I told my wife that someone like Kid Rock needs to open a place here, because that could be a draw. But it is in such contrast with the musical acts that Branson was built on. As my sister pointed out in a text conversation I had with her on how Branson appeared to be dying: -There used to be seemingly hundreds of mini golf and go kart places. I saw a handful of both. -Complete hotels were closed. Not for renovation, either. Just barren with a realtor sign out front. Even a newish Hampton Inn. -Traffic was manageable. Years ago, you might take 10 minutes or more to get through an intersection. -Silver Dollar City is still doing well, but they have started moving towards more extreme rides, drawing a different audience. They are also building their own resort to open in late 2026.
  9. They hate everything, except for whatever Trump changes his mind on and Fox tells them is good and proper. On the other hand, they will spin this as a way to offset whatever deficits this bill will generate. You can bet another of the talking points will be that the selling of public lands is a way to "preserve Medicare and Social Security"
  10. George Conway linked to this short thread on the Elon's fascist news network. Just easier to put the images up.
  11. A few from our recent trip. We visited a few theme parks, a cave and a zoo and it was hard getting some photos (24-105 lens is what I took with me). Hard getting this leopard. She wouldn't come out but for a brief moment, and I couldn't stay there the entire day: My better half coming down the drop; she's in the front row. She loves coasters, so this face she is making is hilarious And a moment later: She and my daughter rode a log flume ride a day later; I caught the entire sequence from the top to the bottom, but I liked this one Marvel Cave, Missouri. I only took a few photos; I was more interested in the actual hike. Looking up after the inital hike down, with sunlight streaming in through a sinkhole:
  12. But I was told it was made in America https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/16/trump-mobile-will-take-on-iphone-17-in-september-with-a-made-in-us-gold-smartphone
  13. You got it all wrong. They can make more money (even a “visa”), get Medicare and social security if they give up the criminal life. You know that’s exactly what Trump believes.
  14. Probably; I’ve never stayed there. Places like Luxor, Circus Circus and Excalibur serve a purpose—-to allow the strip to be attainable to most anyone, regardless of economic class. Vegas needs that—-just like any other touristy area in our country. But, at the same time, to get to that status, places that I mentioned have forsaken maintenance and cleanliness in the name of lower prices. I’m not class shaming here; just stating the obvious. MGM could clean Luxor up, but the room rates would probably triple, and that would drive away a large segment of tourists.
  15. It really wasn’t…it was more of “did they clean the room because someone smoked in a non-smoking room” moisture to the carpet, or maybe someone had thrown up the night before and the carpet needed cleaning. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the entire room, maybe a third of it. Aside from that, however, the biggest disappointment to the room was the fried food smell permeating the room. Out on the balcony-walkway, it smelled like an Allsup’s. Higher up in the pyramid, it probably was not noticeable. We took the wrong inclinator after dinner and was on the opposite side of the pyramid, and there was no smell. One other thing on our walk around half of the pyramid on the walkway; there were a number of rooms with the door open and people loitering out around the rooms. It felt more like an apartment complex than a strip resort. We didn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable, but it was just….odd…to have maybe half a dozen rooms with doors open and the inhabitants spilling out onto the walkway, drinking beer and shooting the shit. Oh, and my wife reminded me of the giant bag of trash outside our room on the walkway when we arrived (and still there the next morning when we checked out).
  16. My wife and I honeymooned years ago in Vegas and stayed at Luxor. We didn’t really know any better at the time. Fast forward to last summer. It was our anniversary; we are staying at Encore (we’ve upgraded resorts for our Vegas trips) and a few weeks prior to the trip, on a whim, I ask her if she wants to spend one night at Luxor on the actual anniversary. She agrees, and I book the same type of room we had years earlier (corner king suite). $93 or something like that (before resort fees) for a mid-week strip suite is cheap. It had been years since we had even stepped foot in Luxor, so this was going to be a field trip of sorts. It was surreal packing an overnight bag, leaving Encore in a taxi, and going to Luxor. We didn’t have to check in; just used the app and our room was ready. We didn’t interact with a single employee at Luxor aside from the people at a bar we posted up in for a few hours. We slept fine. The room was…..ok, other than the smell of fried foods wafting up from the food court below (we were 8th floor, west facing side of the pyramid). There was a splash of what appeared to be red fingernail polish all over the bathroom counter. 2 towels, but no wash clothes or hand towels in the room. The carpet felt moist underfoot. But seriously, the rest of the property was just so, so, so disappointing. Deferred maintenance is one thing, but deferring it for a decade or two is something completely different. We laughed upon arrival, we laughed in the room, and we laughed the next morning when we checked out (amazing to me how long the lines were on check in and check out, when you can use a damn app and just be on your way). Oh, and as we were leaving, there was hundreds of people waiting by an exit, wearing trash bags. We figured it was for some convention, but no. It was for that damned Mr. Beast fiasco in Vegas last summer And here’s a recent article on a stay at Luxor https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/luxor-vegas-strip-hotel-stay-20211924.php
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