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Ghost of LL

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. My god, man. Seriously--what the fuck is wrong with you?
  2. Eh, . . . can I maybe just visit for a few hours? Like fly into Fargo, cast a ballot, and then fly right back out?
  3. I think people sleep on Alaska, and your overview kind of reflects that. Alaska has stayed Republican because, well let's face it, it's a reasonably new state and a lot of its partisan alignment is the direct result from the issues over statehood and the personal brand of certain long-serving officeholders (Hawai'i is the same way). Alaska is hugely supported by the federal government. So nobody has really cared whether Ted Stevens or Don Young or Frank Murkowski is a Dem or a Rep; all that matters is whether they bring home the federal money. But the fundamentals don't completely favor the GQP. As noted above, it has an enormous non-white population. And it is actually surprisingly urban. And while the percentage of the population with a bachelor degree is low, there are comparatively few Evangelicals. So when Don Young died, it's not particularly surprising that Peltola won. And she's now the most popular figure in Alaska politics. And that's the model. It's the Arizona model. Get the Native American population on board and mobilized for voting Democratic. And then blend that with the urban and educated suburban electorate. Oh, and weird thing--they really like weed in rural Alaska. So that's another occasional base for Democratic support (particularly in the bush).
  4. We need more of the mayor's dirty little wife.
  5. This seems . . . not ideal. eta: Oh, fun--it looks like "Cuban Missile Crisis II: Nukes in Space" is coming. I kinda think I'm not going to like this sequel.
  6. How long until the Ukrainians start launching these drones up north and taking out the Baltic Fleet?
  7. Ok. But they just changed the admission rules on the Centurion Lounge. I can't remember what the deal is exactly, but they've imposed some spending requirements to get the access you used to have just by being a member. But if you meet those spending requirements, then you also have access to the Delta SkyClub. So that's nice.
  8. The polls are broken because there's a bunch of people who only fucking come out when Donald Trump is on the ballot. They view politics as entertainment. And they're not going to go to the show if Bette Midler isn't going to be on stage that night. They're showing up for the star, not the fucking understudy. Polls of "likely voters" can't account for that. So you're saying you voted in 2016 and 2020? Well, you're probably a likely voter for purposes of the likely-voter screen. But--and stay with me here--that person really isn't a likely voter in a special election in the middle of February if he didn't vote in 2022 or 2018 or any fucking presidential election before 2016. But is he a likely voter in November with Trump on the ballot? My guess is "yes." So, Donald, you fucking moron, here's the real scoop: Souzzi won by the margin he did entirely BECAUSE OF YOU! Pilip went out and toed the GQP line in favor of killing the (formerly bipartisan) border deal. And Souzzi fucking hung her with that. He argued that immigration is a clusterfuck and the border is in crisis, and it is Republicans like Pilip who refuse to do anything about it. They're imperiling national security for perceived political gain. "Blame me," said Trump, and the voters fucking did. I don't think Souzzi could turn immigration into a positive for Democrats. But he sure showed the gameplan for how to neuter the issue. And the gameplan exists entirely because of Trump. He's the one who took his own best issue off the field. It's like having Reggie Bush on the fucking sideline for 4th and 2. Fucking unbelievable (thanks, Sark).
  9. I suspect they don't have a real good whip count because . . . well, they just really suck at it. But even if they were good at it, this would be a challenging situation given the flight schedules and the weather.
  10. On track to be the greatest.
  11. Ghost of LL

    Burgers

    I can now confirm that the burger at Bill's Oyster (3rd & Colorado) is very, very good.
  12. My local grocery store is the Westlake HEB. So there's no fucking way I'm getting my groceries curbside--I'd miss all the hot Westlake mom ass parading around inside.
  13. That's not true at all. It's definitely the case in the Senate. And it's also the case in the House. Wyoming has one member of the House for its 580,000 people. A congressional district in Texas has, on average, 790,000 people. The fact that individual small-state voters' voters count for more across the entire federal government has been a feature of the Constitution since the beginning.
  14. Honestly, probably Gavin Newsom. Maybe Andy Beshear. I would like to say Gretchen Whitmer. She's nice. I really like her. But then I remember the inherent misogyny of the American electorate, and I think "nah."
  15. Ok--I guess I'll bite. Fuck . . . I know I'm going to regret this. Dammit. Who is Toria Nuland?
  16. So infer that this means that the allegations have at least some truth to them, right?
  17. Following a military strategy to the exclusion of political considerations doesn't work out, either. See, e.g., Germany 1918.
  18. I promise to do better--i.e., more muledick--in the future.
  19. Minnesota is pretty safe so long as the Cities continue growing and the rest of the state continues shrinking.
  20. You know--at the risk of going full CRT, this is the correct answer.
  21. Ok--we need to flesh this bit of language out right now. And I love you, @horn4life, but you and everyone else who espouses the "we're a republic, not a democracy" line of shit needs to go and slap the elementary-school teacher who taught them that. Because "democracy" and "republic" literally mean the same thing; the only difference is whether you prefer Ancient Greek or Latin to name your form of government. "Democracy" comes from the ancient Greek: "Demos"=people and "kratos"=rule. So literally "rule by the people." "Republic" comes from Latin: "Res"=the thing and "publica"=the people. So literally "the affair of the people." The dichotomy that people think they're ascribing between "democracy" and "republicanism" is actually between "direct democracy" and "representative democracy." In a direct democracy (e.g., ancient Athens), all of the voters get together in the town square and vote on individual pieces of legislation. In a representative democracy (e.g., the UK), the people vote for representatives, who then vote on legislation. The Roman Republic had aspects of both representative and direct democracy. The Senate was a representative body. And constitutionally, matters of treasury and foreign affairs were handled exclusively by the Senate (until the Gracchi upset that constitutional order, but that's a discussion for another thread). But then there was the Assembly (which were actually three different Assemblies, but that's not important right now), which were convened in the Forum and in which every citizen voted on individual propositions. So even the Roman Republic--from which the term "republic" derives--was not a purely representative democracy. So please, please, please, for the love of God, Zeus, Jupiter, and for good measure Odin and Horus, please stop drawing a false distinction between a "democracy" and a "republic." We live in both a democracy and a Republic. For now.
  22. No, because AA was never a huge 737 customer. AA was primarily an MD-80 Family operator. Only when the MD-80s came to be retired did AA start to buy the 737 in large numbers. But even then, AA was never exclusive to Boeing in the way Southwest was. Owing largely to its various mergers, AA has operated the A320 for as long as it has operated the 737. And that's important for Boeing when it has to go to the banks to get financing for the development of a new aircraft model. Whether AA is going to buy the new model (rather than switch to Airbus) is pretty speculative. But Southwest--that's a different story. Southwest is going to give you the firmest of firm orders pretty damned quickly so long as the new model shares the 737 certification. But if it's not a 737? If that new model is a 7X7? That Southwest business looks a lot more speculative. Southwest may place orders for a 7X7, but we all know that orders can get canceled. And that makes the debt Boeing has to take on to develop the 7X7 a lot more expensive. And that makes the 7X7 less economically viable and a lot less economically attractive than just figuring out how to put the CFM LEAP engine on that low-ass 737 wing.
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