Vegas64

I was just going to say, get ready for another 4 years of "It's our fault for running Hillary, literally any functioning person could have beaten Trump he's so despised", but replace Hillary with Biden.

It is 100% NOT the democrat's fault that Trump is the legitimate candidate or that the GQP are functionally insane. You can only control what you can control and you don't get to decide what the other team wants to do, whether it be eat and flop around in slop or not. The problem is that what the democrat's hand to play, was one that was not great. The only one that could beat Trump in 2020 was a 78 year old centrist career politician. He is now the 81 year old (who acts and thinks and speaks in the suboptimal way of 81 year olds) who is the incumbant, and so the DNC felt like given a) he was the only one who could beat Trump in 2020 and b) he's the incumbant and the political playbook says you NEVER go away from the incumbant, you played your hand.

All this consternation goes away if you replace Kamala with Newsome as the VP nod. You get assurance and comfort that if Biden croaks, you get the guy who was talked out of running against an incumbant in 2024 and who is the 2028 odds on favorite anyways. You get assurance and comfort that you have a strong politician as "the hand" of the feeble old Biden, and best case scenario in the later years-- say 2026-2027 at his stage of seemingly rapid slowing down-- you are comfortable that the VP is running things. You get Newsome with "experience" by being a shadow president, potentially, for 2028 and get a gray-area of an incumbancy bump you can use You get to avoid any blowback from the Dem base who would be upset about "yet another white, straight man of priv" getting the nomination It just makes too much political engineering sense. The downside is you do have to deal with the blowback in the short term for sidelining Kamala and puting her out to pasture for Newsome which could come across horribly to some of the base who thinks its race-based, gender-based discrimination, lack of representation, and otherwise. But I think, fair or unfair, Kamala doesn't have the personal brand as super competent and accomplished in her limited time (unlike, say Mayor Pete who did a great job of actually tackling issues and communicating his wins on TV for everyone to know he's actually doing stuff), that you can for sure say she's a better politician than Newsome.

First, congrats on the weight loss. I agree that compliments that validate hardwork and an appealing appearance can be a very positive emotional and mental experience. I think the problem is less about offending the 1% with a condition and more about drawing attention to the 99% who used to be fat and sloppy. Especially when our experience tells us more of these people are going to lose the diet war and end up as fat or fatter than they were originally— though I guess with the diabetes weight loss drugs maybe that’s changed now. Whereas you felt great and validated and your ego was tickled by being complimented for the weight loss and didn’t consider that the comparison being made was that you used to not be hot to this person and probably most people who aren’t your wife, others like someone from the last page, feel bad about themselves because they hear insults to how they used to be ugly and fat and unacceptable in attractiveness. I would hypothesize that it is a man/woman thing and gender privilege is at play but we had a guy on this very thread express this very sentiment on the last page, so I think sensitivity to whether commenting on weight is a compliment or a “backhanded” compliment is unique to each individual.

Mortgage pros and bros- does anyone have any recent experience with a Home Equity loan? Assume I am easily qualified (DTI, LTV, etc.) and that I've compared a HELOC and Home Equity Loan and decided on the loan. The questions I have are, Did you go through an e-commerce website or online lender or a traditional bank or mortgage company? Assuming a bunch of these companies are like refinancing and want to hammer you with fees, what is the cheapest way to source one of these loans while minimizing costs and fees?

Especially since he's married to my daughter! On second thought, hang him!

Long story short, my Son in Law works for a company he claims who has a history of doing some gray area things and he's about to go on paternity leave and thinks there is a chance he could get axed while on leave. It happened to someone else he knew but his colleague thought it was gray area enough to not pursue legal. He's wanting to prepare in case this happens as he's thinking of taking the max amount allowed, which is 75% of his full pay for 24 weeks and wants to be ready if there is retaliatory shenanigans with a flimsy excuse. Of course I'm not certain, but he tells me he's in good standing, had good reviews, never been written up or dinged... He's in Denton but any law firm in the metroplex would do if you have a good recommendation and want to vouch.

Yellow was mired by horrible M&A the past few years and took out a yuge government loan during Covid-19 it couldn't pay back. People will point to the union and strike demands driving them to bankruptcy because it's catnip for certain people, but that's not true. It was a bad business.

Can you do monthly or you must do an annual commitment? Asking for a poor friend.

Brother? I'm Anthem Blue Cross too.

I just saw on my newsfeed that Peter Frampton has myositis Peter Frampton is on his final tour after ‘troubling’ diagnosis of incurable disease PETER FRAMPTON, 72, has been on his live performance finale The Farewell Tour years after being diagnosed with a devastating disease that causes muscles to waste away. https://www.hopkinsmyositis.org/gift/peter-frampton-myositis-research-fund/#:~:text=The Peter Frampton Myositis Research,to ultimately find a cure.

I can beat that. I have to take a drug 2x a year that costs $60k a pop, so $120k a year, according to my insurance EOB. Oops you said $40k a month or $480k a year. You win.

Same. Except the usual meds didn't work for me and I had to stair step to the most aggressive and expensive one and the jury is still out (though I'm stair stepping down from prednisone these days, too, slowly but surely).

As someone who has been on Prednisone, at a very high dosage (40-60mg), daily for over a year, I cannot wait to be off it. That said, it is a miracle drug for combatting inflation. I had CK numbers in the 9000's before steroids. Got them down sub-500 (normal range is 0-235). From what I understand, long-term use sucks the life out of your bones and leaves you with brittle, weak bones and a risk for osteoarthritis and bone disease.

Thought I'd update this-- I finally got the insurance company to approve the Rituxan. It was a pain and took a lot of time and appeals, but from what I've read, it's really good to stop and repair the lung involvement (ILD) with my auto-immune.

I searched and didn't see one. Especially for first time founders, do we have one? I'd love to read through people's experiences as a first time going through things like pitch decks, VC-meetings, resources and websites or consultancies that helped, legal, cap tables, incubators, the whole thing. I know being Austin-focused probably half of us have started something, at some point in time, and I realize that times are tough now compared to the heady days of pre-2022 for starting something, but general wisdom is the best time to start a new business is during a downturn in the economy?

Figured I'd bump this thread as it appears that IVIG is not really helping. It's interesting because I'm on "good therapy" for the majority of people with this illness with IVIG and prednisone and methotrexate (CellCept has too extreme of side effects)-- so next step is Rituxan if insurance will pay for it. My doctors are concerned that they won't pay for it but it's the only thing they think that can stop the lung involvement which has become serious in rapid fashion. Anyone have any GOOD experiences with their insurances helping with expensive therapies for AID?

This wins the internet for me.

Lady of the Palace speaking!

I got the Kat Williams reference, my ba-rother.

I understand what the pedant Roma is saying because it was the most cringe, telegraphed "twist" that the King was going to announce the Hand's daughter in that dramatic fashion and surprise. Yawn. Boring. Predictable and lazy writing. Also Daemon seems to be written inconsistently for my tastes so far. Otherwise, it's decent, I love the costumes and set pieces and production value. I don't mind the slower pace, I like the intrigue and politics as much if not more than the scifi dragon cgi crap. Ser Cristen is being set up to be Grey Worm or Jorah or the long haired daenyrios (sp?) a la strong, loyal and good protector to Rhayenra's (sp?) Dany. 5/10, will watch ep. 3.

Biden delivered on loan forgiveness; weed is up next. Do this and you’ll be a legend, Dark Brandon.

Libertarians: “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

The question is now, will it stop here? Or can it be extended or built upon (higher threshold of income, more forgiveness, etc.) like how the student loan deferment has been. Like most have said, a one time jubilee is great but it's not going to change anything fundamentally and we will need to do this again since nothing chnages. I disagree with those who think this will be an inflationary event though-- the people getting this and make under $125k were not servicing that debt anyways as they haven't been legally obligated since the early days of COVID-19. That money earmarked for servicing the $10k in debt was already circulating in the economy.

That is fair, but also having zero sympathy for others who did suffer and did the right thing and made painful sacrifices, whatever the situation not just this student loan situation, just had "bad timing" is also not a very emotionally healthy or empathetic approach.