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berlinerbaer

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Posts posted by berlinerbaer

  1. I'm happy to see that Tedford has landed back on his feet and is turning a program around. It's reminiscent of Cal back in 2002 - 2004. 

    As far as Chip and UCLA goes, I don't get it.

  2. This has been my major bitch about living here. There are asshole drivers in California but everyone seems to at least know which lane they should be in. That is not the case here.

    I see three main causes for Houston road insanity. 1) Industry. The country's 2nd largest port and all the industry in town needs to be connected with the rest of the state and country somehow. Enter the fleet of semis on the city's highways and the armada of smaller trucks carrying God-knows-what with hardly a bungee cord to strap it all down. 

    2) Decentralization. People don't just have to get downtown. They're also heading to the Med center, the Energy Corridor, the Galeria, or the Port. I guess it's good that everyone isn't converging onto only one location in the morning, but that probably means that many people have to literally drive all the way across town to get to work.

    I haven't decided if the feeder roads make things better or worse compared to areas that don't have them.

    3) People. A good explanation for the driving behavior in the GH area doesn't exist. I think a significant number of new/recent drivers could be an explanation. Lots of people who move here are forced to drive a lot more than they used to, and some may have never driven before.

    There are also a number of absolute beaters on the roads out here, unsurprisingly being driven at 50 mph. I think Texas cities would benefit from a vehicle replacement incentive program. AirCheck Texas only gives money in exchange for vehicles less than 5 years old that fail smog checks. Those cars aren't the problem.

  3. Week 2 rankings. The Pac 12 South still gargles everyone's balls.

    1) Washington - Can't fault them much for losing to Auburn.

    2) Stanford - A case could be made that they're #1

    3) Oregon - Winning the beauty contests against weak teams.

    4) Colorado - Best road win of the season for the conference so far

    5) USC - True frosh QB needs to find his feet, then they'll move up

    6) ASU - How much longer will Herm be underestimated?

    7) WSU - No glaring deficiencies, but we'll see when conference play starts

    8 ) Cal - Decent road win and making strides on offense

    9) Utah - Workmanlike victories over middling opponents

    10) UCLA - His players don't fit Chip's system, so be patient

    11) OSU - They seem to have some fight in them compared to last year

    12) Arizona - Rich Rod would probably be 2-0 right now...

     

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  4. 3 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

    The moral GOP support of Trump has been reduced to viewing the president as Judge-Getter-In-Chief and ignoring the rest of his powers.  If they view the government that way, and they want those sorts of judges, there isn't much irrational with their support.  You'll see a lot of But Gorsuch!s for this reason.

     

    Of course, I don't actually believe those people view the presidency as so limited, so I just end up thinking they are using the above rationale as a cover for the positions they hold that they are too embarrassed to admit.

    They don't seem to realize that supreme court justices can be impeached.

    Just sayin...

  5. Zona losing to BYU may not be a surprise to many of you on this board who know the aggy hasn't yet rubbed off of Sumlin, but it is to me. They made Tate look like a chump, which sucks because Cal has to travel to Provo next week...

     

    • Like 1
  6. 1 hour ago, pyrohornIII said:

    39,996.   And honestly, I think this is going to backfire on Cruz.  I think every PAC dollar they spend trying to shore up his base will stir up the undecideds and younger voters who are tired of politics as usual.   I feel Cruz is going to wake a sleeping giant with all this outside money.  It is playing right into Beto's hands. 

    I gave $250 last week in my first ever political donation.

     

    39.986

    • Like 1
  7. SC has upped its academic game considerably over the last 2+ decades. Aside from the social upper crust, the rest of the student body and younger alumni resemble those at any one of the UC's more than ever before.

    It's the older alumni who have worked hard over the years to maintain the school's reputation of entitlement and relaxed standards. On a more positive note for them, it is also these people who will ultimately be responsible for their supposed return to national prominence following the Bush fallout and the Kiffin/Sark debacles. Priorities.

  8. On 8/10/2018 at 8:47 PM, ButtFumble said:

    Christobal looks like he could really get things going at Oregon I was surprised by the hire, but he is a real momentum type of coach if he can get things on a roll then he could do well

    I am really surprised by how well he is recruiting right now and pretty surprised about how bad some Pac 12 teams seem to be recruiting

    I think USC might be ready for another "your taxi is over there" runway incident and Utah seems to be off to a really slow recruiting start.....no surprise where WSU is mike is reaching full self destruct mode and I think Stanford is on a possible glide path to 5 or 6 win seasons

    Cal is having a pretty decent recruiting season so far (for Cal qualifier) and UW seems to be off, but their coach can coach so that helps

    Colorado is having a pretty good year and AU and ASU seem to be in "wait until next year" mode to see what Herm and Rummy do....I am surprised Rummy is not recruiting a little better so far because recruiting was never an issue for him at aggy and lets face it aggy or AU for people choosing a school to play sport and fuck chicks 

    Oregon State needs help bad

    Oregon is the easiest recruiting sell in the Pac 12, except maybe SC. No surprise at all that the Ducks are doing well. As for the team, Justin Herbert is the best QB in the conference, aside from possibly...

    Kahlil Tate is the real deal. If Sumlin can field a decent defense then Zona will be scary good and recruiting will work itself out.

    Cal has only one WR commit so far. That's not good for a position of need, but it's early. OTOH, the team seems to be loading up on TEs after going several years without any.

    I'm not buying the CU hype, yet. 

    It is odd that Stanford has apparently become the team with the one phenom player (McCaffery then, now Love) followed by everyone else. They used to have several standouts at a time.

  9.  

    9 hours ago, GRHorn said:

    It’s not grounded in anything as far as I know other than suspicion.  

    One thing that has caught my attention in years of living with this and reading what I can is there is a strong positive correlation between autism spectrum and atopic dermatitis, food allergies, and asthma.  Those are all mediated by inflammatory/immune responses.  It seems possible to me that autism could be a manifestation of some inflammatory process that goes out of whack.  Wouldn’t have to be from immunization.  Could be from an environmental exposure.  This is just my own speculation.  

    So many unanswered questions.  It leaves room for all kinds of wild theories that youll find online  

    The list of autoimmune diseases and disorders is long and the list of suspects is even longer and, yes, some of those are believed to be started by an initial trigger, such as a viral infection and the inflammatory response.

    This, to me, makes it even more important to get vaccinated. The 6 hour 100 degree fever a one year-old gets following a vaccine is nothing compared to the inflammation of fighting a full-blown illness for a week that could have easily been prevented.

     

    7 hours ago, udaydanceparty said:

    Not so sure about that.  I'm pretty sure more people are taking their kids to shrinks nowadays than they did in the 70s,80s and 90s.  Plus, there is such a broad spectrum for autism, I'm willing to bet the general population was under diagnosed for the most part.

    Not only that, but the breadth of the disease strongly suggests it may actually be several distinct conditions,  each with its own unique set of genetic causes and environmental triggers as well.

  10. Fivethirtyeight with an editors' roundtable on what constitutes a swing district this cycle. They see a growing battleground that isn't limited to suburban districts, but also includes Trumpy Midwestern districts. They expect Obama --> Trump voters in states like WI, OH, and PA to kill the GOP, while they seem less bullish on suburban districts outside the Midwest flipping.

     

  11. 10 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

    Where I live, a huge chunk of our non-white population is South Asian.  They used to vote R in pretty strong numbers.  Then they figured out that Rs hate people with brown skin.  Now they're as D as it gets.  

    They went' from being not-particularly-engaged voters to being some of the most politically-engaged people I know.  They're well educated, and used to have a very "wait and see" attitude about politics.  Now, they've waited and seen, and they've become very activist.

    Recently arrived older Asian immigrants vote Republican because they are socially conservative and, nowadays, well-off financially. I find this to be the case with the Chinese around Houston, who could say things that would make my small town Nebraska relatives blush. Immigrants who have been here longer are more likely to have dealt with some form of bullshit, whether it's racism, immigration policy, or something else. These people get bluer as time goes on and, make no mistake, if they happen to have children of voting age, those kids are solid D.

    A good example are the Vietnamese-Americans, who used to be staunch Republicans but I recall a recent poll showing them to be something like 55-45 Dem now.

    Here in my corner of Sugar Land, the South Asians are in love with our Dem House candidate, who is one of them (and a damn fine candidate, TBH). The folks from the Indian subcontinent will go to bat for their guy/gal, regardless of party, more often than many of the other folks.

  12. 3 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

    Just looking at the map, I can see the Dems picking up 5-10 House seats and 1 or 2 Senate seats.  It could be more--I haven't been watching the races outside Austin and Dallas.  But I can tell you that Paul Workman is in a world of trouble, and Villaba's and Gonzalez's districts are in real danger of flipping.

    I was going to call you insane before realizing you're talking State Leg here. I expect a couple of flips in the State House here in the greater Houston area and I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more. 

    The State Senate is another story. Too gerrymandered.

    2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

    Will be awesome when both political parties are lead by neurological and psychiatric basket cases. 

    I want Pelosi out for the same reason I want all of the Dem leadership in the House out. They're all too fucking old. The short term health of the party depends on the young reps getting some experience calling the shots.

    It's not because I perceive her to be crazy or any more partisan than the other side.

  13. 27 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

    She will be a shoe in in November. She wont be a shoe in for many Junes to come. As an incumbent, she becomes vulnerable to the exact same tactic she just used. What she proved more than anything is that incumbents are never safe.  She has to deliver.  She cant just vote in losing efforts. And she will have to fight against grassroots next time if she doesnt deliver. Especially if she campaigns for others or stumps nationally during 2020.

     She will never face a real GOP challenger. She will face a Dem challenger every time though because she made that okay.  It's a good thing in the long run, but it doesnt bode well for her, or anyone in a strong Dem district, staying in Congress long term.

    I'm also not against her. I voted for her, so I'm quite familiar with how she won. Next time, I'll likely vote for the next person who claims they will actually support the district while she is fucking around at the national convention and stumping for progressive candidates nationwide. Unless she ignores the adulation of you assholes 3000 miles away and does what she promised.Then she will get my vote again.

    Her voting record won't matter. Crowley lost because of his well-known ties to special interests and the Party leadership. If his voting record did him in, it was because of being too cozy with the banks and wall street.

    As long as AOC is perceived as being a boat rocker to a certain extent, she can represent NY-14 for as long as she likes. Voters won't give a shit if her bills fail to make it out of committee as long as she is seen as being responsive to her constituents. Her fight will be in the press and out on social media as much as it will be within Congress, especially while her kind are still a significant minority in DC. As far as stumping goes, she can help raise money for 2020 nominees without having to look over her shoulder as long as she's also holding town halls back in Queens. 

    Could she become corrupted by the NYC Democratic machine? I guess so, but then so would anybody. I'd be more worried about all this political insanity subsiding someday, and her losing to a well-funded, well-connected moderate primary challenger rather than to another bomb thrower.

    • Like 1
  14. On 7/2/2018 at 4:26 PM, Tuco said:

    She's an attractive, quick-witted, bartender working in an organization of 350 men.  She'll have a line of old stupid fucks looking to mentor her. (No, that's not a euphemism.) She'll be fine.  My bigger concern relates to vetting a staff, avoiding gaffes, keeping her shit together on accounting/legal stuff.  You know the Republicans are going to keep her under a microscope, looking for anything that resembles scandal.  

     

    On 7/2/2018 at 4:37 PM, FondrenRoad said:

    Oh yeah, because the Republicans really keep their shit together on accounting/legal stuff. 

    The first thing she will have to overcome will probably be a donor issue. Inevitably, she will take money from a donor affiliated with a corporation. In fact, she probably already has, but Crowley didn't dig, and the GOP hasn't dug yet. 

    She is a shoe-in to win in November and will be for many Novembers to come even if the worst case scenarios you both have outlined come to pass. Crowley won in 2016 by 60 points, as did Hillary. Her district is as blue as they come. Get used to her, unless the Dems in her district get tired of it 8 cycles from now.

    The Reds may try to put her under a microscope, but unless she is in any position of leadership, such attacks won't have 10% of the teeth of those against someone like Maxine Waters. In 5 years, AOC will probably be just another Barbara Lee, an ultra-left congresswoman from a navy blue district who fills the local papers with the occasional tasty soundbite.

    Every second Fox News spends on AOC is a second they aren't spending on Chuck and Nancy, or in talking up the Dotard.

    • Like 1
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