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The Original Greaser Bob

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by The Original Greaser Bob

  1. I think it's important to distinguish people who may have a centrist approach who don't necessarily feel a kinship with the wealthy Dem establishment. There are centrists who want progress, and the Dem establishment fell asleep on the job and lost labor, lost safety and security, and allowed themselves to be painted as bad on the economy. I'm for massive immigration but with rigid controls. I'm pro-law enforcement but holding them to the highest standards. I think we should be radically affirmative action based on economic need and lack of economic opportunity and think that should replace any race-based criteria. (That might look Republican-y a few decades ago, but calling anything Republican-y is literally just saying it's pro-mendacity and pro-corruption and anti-Constitution.) More important than those policy preferences is rule of law and separation of powers and ethical standards. I'm for the most progressive tax system possible without clearly harming the economy. I'm libertarian on most issues and want some more gun regulation. I want the fucking old-Testament religious nationalists crucified along 35 between West and Salado. I view that as relatively centrist. The Dem Establishment blew their chance to get us there and we might just have to build back better with Progressives. Any alternative is a non-starter. We haven't ever lived in an easier time to pick the greater of evils.
  2. ??? I guess he is mostly fatter in The Third Man.
  3. He's no Briscoe, I can tell you that.
  4. 9 kids...jesus christ.
  5. 1) Reading Y. N. Harari's Nexus and his argument that in the realm of free speech, truth will NOT win out is pretty compelling -- and ultimately existentially depressing. But it does ultimately turn on strong leaders willing to get shit done in the window they have power. GOP understands this fully. 2) Dems are the party of the city. But they stopped appearing to represent the poor and the blue collar in the city and the burbs with these older establishment types. So the younger incoming folks to me need to figure out how to craft a message that appeals to the poor, blue collar and rural types, and they won't get many of the latter, but they need to try. If they focus on economic issues and "safety and security issues" they have a shot. They shouldn't jettison the social issues and the protection of the constitution issues. But there is a double standard on being the party of law and order and they ahve to keep hammering on that and keep the tent open for all solutions.
  6. Sam Rayburn and LBJ have pieces of speakers and minority leaders like this in their petrified stools.
  7. When I was around 12 I was really into this series of WWII paperbacks. Gotta admit, I was a fan of the Focke Wulf.
  8. Literally all Trump has to NOT do for Republicans to put set stone that they are the party of law and order and border security (and thus the party in power for the next few decades) is put whole specific groups of American citizens in camps or deport them out of the country. So all things Nazi minus the genocide. By the midterms, millennials in DC are going to be saying "Trumps an asshole but I have to admit this place FEELS safer". Hayseed tourists from the fly over parts of our country are going to say the same thing without the "asshole" caveat. All this because they are going to disappear the appearance of homelessness. By next year, mayors like Dallas' Eric Johhson ("big strong guy, tears in his eyes") are going to be asking Trump to send guardsmen down to Dallas to help with the homeless problem. So I am recalibrating my calculations in Trumps America. I hope to see some of these GOP assholes predecease me. EVERYTHING ELSE is gravy.
  9. Less than half the voters in this country aren't okay. More than half of this voters don't give a shit. You don't have mental gymnastics when you don't have any mentality in the game.
  10. In fairness, last year when I was visiting daughter in Mount Pleasant I was staying at a hotel in Adams Morgan. We and a couple of her friends stayed out late (OKPB) and I decided to walk home. On the way back, hit a road block, where the cops said someone had been shot on the road. I took a detour off the main road, and I have to admit, I did feel a bit uneasy. But it was typical "big city stay on this side of that street stuff.". It's all in the context - if we have President who legitimately and for non-partisan purposes wanted to make DC the poster child for safe cities in the US, I could see them loaning resources so that every tourist who came in felt perfectly safe at all hours of the night. But DC has lots of brown people. We scared the non-citizens. Let's work on the citizens now.
  11. Single daughter lives in Mount Pleasant area, just a block from the main drag/farmers market (and a block from where a homeless person lives in a makeshift abode.) I love her area but it does make my wife nervous - she's a mom and I'm an unobservant dad. It's not Cathedral Heights where she used to live, but daughter likes the energy and it's an adventure.
  12. Well, I have a little trip planned for Vernon, TX, and staying at the Hampton for one night, so, it all evens out.
  13. About a week before I got married in a six-minute Methodist wedding ceremony, I had the brilliant idea to call someone at the Catholic church to see if I needed to fill out some form so I, a Catholic, could get permission to get married with the Methodists. I called a Msgr. Botik at Christ the King Catholic Church, and after I told him my situation, he told me I had to cancel the wedding. "If you marry that woman, in that Church, you will be a heartbeat over hell." I told him I would get back to him. He actually called me and left voice messages the next few days. Christ the King is the Park Cities church. I kicked myself for not calling Holy Trinity Catholic Church - the gay Catholic Church in Oak Lawn. I actually walked in and told a priest over there what the Monsignor had told me. "Oh that's Father Botik - he's pre-Vatican II. Get married, and then in a couple of years bring you wife by and maybe we can convert her."
  14. Never have I been so proud to have been raised a Christian. (To the extent Catholics are Christian.)
  15. https://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php
  16. I think it was Lakeview - about two blocks from The Diversey Station. Not that there is anything wrong with Boystown. (Chicago Boystown is very different from the Boystown in Acuna, circa 1987.) There was one particular co-ed in a yellow bikini that I hope visits me in my dreams. I might die in my sleep. None of my friends other than me was interested in jumping in that water. I eventually got out and was kind of bummed that they wanted to move down to the pub, but I think we were creeping out the young ladies. Me last weekend:
  17. I keep wanting to go medieval on this GOPers.
  18. Signs Rushmore Diner On the Waterfront From Here to Eternity Strangelove Paths of Glory Well okay then.
  19. Instead of not having any idea that this useless stunt is going on, I wish Texas voters wouldn't be so fucking stupid.
  20. All I have to add is this. Last late September I went out to Great Pond (one of the Belgrade lakes northwest of Augusta). Water was PERFECT - people were taking their gear out of the lake due to the cold but the last of the summer months sun still had the water just right. So recommendation for the late summer. Also, I don't remember the names of all of them because I was tipsy, but the farm breweries around there are all nice.
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