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Brisketexan

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  1. And THAT dude STILL isn't as gay as Briscoe. NTTAWWT.
  2. I'm a put a big "we'll see" pin in that one. I remember 25 years ago, listening to senior partners at my BigLaw firm waxing joyfully about how guys like me were going to be made obsolete by offshore "associates" in India who could do all the work we were doing. That....fizzled. As for AI and its impact on law, I do think that it will result in eliminating some positions, but I also think that is most likely "use case" will be a force multiplier -- the same junior associate can now crank out 2X the work product (and likely be billed at something like 2X their former rate). And even that will vary based on practice. The risk is certainly higher on the transactional side vs. the litigation side. No doubt, shit is in flux, and nobody knows for sure what's coming next....but you can't put your life on hold waiting to see what a still-unproven technology will do.
  3. I was there with you, hermano. I related this story on the DT thread: Saw Jesse give a presidential campaign speech on the West Mall in '88. I was actually going to return a library book at the UGL, and got annoyed as I had to elbow through a crowd to get there. Then I heard a speaker begin, and looked to my right, and there was Jesse, maybe 10 feet away, starting his speech. I thought to myself "dude is running for president, you oughta stick around and listen." Man, by the end of what was probably a 20 minute speech, I was all "RUN JESSE RUN!" He was maybe the most gifted orator I'd ever heard. As the rush of his speech wore off, I remember thinking "wait....I disagreed with much of what he was saying," which impressed on me even more the power of a great speaker. I didn't agree with much of his platform, but immediately after his speech, I'd have run through a wall for him.
  4. Someday....there's a chance that the plumbing in your house will completely fail, and you'll need a bucket to shit in. Problem solved.
  5. Saw Jesse give a presidential campaign speech on the West Mall in '88. I was actually going to return a library book at the UGL, and got annoyed as I had to elbow through a crowd to get there. Then I heard a speaker begin, and looked to my right, and there was Jesse, maybe 10 feet away, starting his speech. I thought to myself "dude is running for president, you oughta stick around and listen." Man, by the end of what was probably a 20 minute speech, I was all "RUN JESSE RUN!" He was maybe the most gifted orator I'd ever heard. As the rush of his speech wore off, I remember thinking "wait....I disagreed with much of what he was saying," which impressed on me even more the power of a great speaker. I didn't agree with much of his platform, but immediately after his speech, I'd have run through a wall for him. However, this may have been his greatest public moment:
  6. Yep. I 1,000,000% guarantee you that if we asked ANY MAGA about such scenario, starting with "so, there's this democrat politician, I won't say who it is, but [then list all the exact same reports, affidavits, emails, etc. that apply to Trump]," their eyes would bug out, the spit would fly, and they'd scream "HANG HIM! HE'S A DIRTY ABUSIVE PEDO, NO QUESTION!" But when the exact same facts apply to their god-king....yeah. Nada. Because MAGA has no actual principles or beliefs, other than "Trump is literally god incarnate, and he was put here to hurt people I don't like." 40% of this country operates on that belief system, to the exclusion of anything and everything else.
  7. I said this before, but for most things in this world, multiple independent sources reporting the same sort of conduct tells you "yeah....that's a true thing." For example, reviewing confidential documents containing allegation that a person committed sexual assaults. The first file had the complainant allege that when she came to, the perpetrator was jerking off and pinching his own nipples. Interesting, specific fact. File #2, different complainant. Somewhat different circumstances....but when she came to, the perpetrator was jerking off and pinching his own nipples. Man. That's one hell of a coincidence to hear that sort of fact from two different complainants File #3, different complainant. Somewhat different circumstances....but when she came to, the perpetrator was jerking off and pinching his own nipples. Okay, I've read enough. That dude likes to jerk off while pinching his own nipples. How many of these do we need to read about Donald Trump getting off on banging young girls, taking their virginity, etc., before commons sense dictates "Okay, I've read enough. That dude gets off on banging young girls, taking their virginity, etc.?" We are there. Fuck, we are WELL PAST "there."
  8. I know Vegas told me to shut up and stay out, because fuck him THIS IS AMERICA GODDAMMIT. And also, our back-and-forth raised something in my mind that is a real chick-or-the-egg kind of thing. So I commented that most of the billionaire class is narcissist sociopaths. And you posited that "yeah, wealth and power is what makes those people what they are." My hypothesis is.....I disagree. Instead, I think that if you are selecting traits among people that are more likely to lead to that person BECOMING a billionaire, "narcissist sociopath" is near the top of the list of desired traits. That is, the type of thinking, actions, and decisions that make it much more likely for one to accumulate incredible wealth and power are exactly the things you would see coming from narcissist sociopaths. Being a narcissist sociopath makes you much more likely to become a billionaire (don't get me wrong - there are plenty of narcissist sociopaths who just end up being the biggest asshole in the trailer park). Bottom line (and I'm making these numbers up mostly, but the point is the delta), maybe 5% of the population as a whole is narcissist sociopaths (I actually looked that one up, range seems to be from 3-6%), but among the billionaire class, that percentage is more like 70% (there's no good data on that -- this is just my hypothesis). So, you posit that wealth makes you a fucking asshole. And I'm sure in some cases, it does. But I posit that being a fucking asshole makes you much more likely to end up really wealthy.
  9. A true Texas treasure of a book, made better by great casting of the miniseries. I read the book in one sitting. Started it in the evening, put it down 11 hours later, exactly as the first morning bell chime of the Tower was ringing, my sophomore year of college. I read passages of it to my wife's uncle, a true Texan through-and-through, on his deathbed in his last couple of days. Passages, man. Life is just one after another. Duvall's passing is one of those for a shitload of us.
  10. "Cock does not go in duck?"
  11. I mean, he WAS 95, so this was comin' sooner rather than later. But yep....still sucks. A genuine legend. The world is poorer without him in it. Can't think of anything I saw him in where he wasn't great. Shit, I loves Secondhand Lions in large part because of his performance.
  12. Well....we had been improving education over the decades. Which could have helped. But we've spent the last 40 years doing all we can to undercut that. By the exact people and for the exact reasons you might imagine.
  13. I mean, I guess I'd find out and there are no guarantees. But I at least have a little bit of benchmarking based on my current life position. As young marrieds (and even not-so-young, with kids), we had quite a few lean years. Times when we paid attention to every little expense, figured out which bills got paid first, that sort of thing. And I grew up in a pretty modest household as well -- we had "enough," but we sure as shit weren't "well off." Fast forward to the last 10 years or so, and we ARE reasonably well off. We have excess money. We can afford to do much/most of what we reasonably want. And, we do a good bit of that -- we just went out for a really nice dinner for the hell of it. BUT....we are also pretty generous with what we have. I won't go into all kinds of private detail or patting ourselves on the back, but we give a LOT of our money (and often, time that goes with it) simply because we can. We are fortunate. I work hard, do a good job, and have been lucky along the way (from being born to the parents I had, to the state funding my education, to finding work opportunities that have allowed me to earn good money). "To whom much is given, much is expected." And I think that by and large, we live that way right now. And I don't dedicate my life to the pursuit of more-more-more. I HAVE some wealth. I actually HAVE some power in several circles. And I literally toss and turn at night wondering if I'm using it for as much good as I can. Am I doing enough? Am I doing it wrong? Am I serving myself instead of a higher purpose? Is this about my ego instead of the mission? I don't know if I'm getting it right -- I'm sure that I often am not. But I DO know that I care about whether I'm getting it right. The multiple shitty night's sleep are testament to that. So, no, I don't agree that money and power absolutely corrupt people. Some people? Sure. Lots of people? Maybe. But plenty are not corrupted.
  14. It really is fantastic. The money-laundering/naked corruption is just right there out in the open, over and over and over. Greatest scandal of all time? Easy -- HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $1 MILLION A YEAR IN THE BURISMA DEAL, JUST TRADING ON HIS NAME! Not a story at all? Gifting $100 million taxpayer dollars (that's what you're doing when you pay $130 million for a $30 million property -- giving away the extra $100 million) in a single transaction to a Russian oligarch. The corruption of this regime is on par with the worst banana republics/kleptocracies in human history, and every MAGA voter -- who was SUPER concerned about corruption before -- is just fine with it. Because, for the millionth time, they have zero principles except "the government should hurt people I don't like."
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