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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by bolverk

  1. 10 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    I am ashamed that he professes to be a Christian and an actual man of the cloth in a mainstream denomination.  While there are lots of jerkholes and dickwads that profess to be Christians (possibly including me), most of them are fringey.  That guy, as pastor of a very large and at least superficially mainstream church in a mainstream denomination, frightens me.

    He, and hypocrites like him, is the reason that I began to question my Southern Baptist upbringing. That, of course, led me to question the entire message of Christ, as well as my belief in God.

  2. Look, I really don't want to act as a partisan hack, but can anyone tabulate all the various scandals (and convictions) over the last few decades between Republican administrations/campaigns with Democratic ones? The uproar over supposed "scandals" during the Obama administration was deafening. And, yet, I can't think of a single Obama official/campaigner (a couple from the Clinton admin were but none from Carter that I remember) that was actually convicted of a single crime versus dozens from Reagan to Trump.

  3. I can't find it now, but I heard earlier today (NPR/BBC?) that all communications between Cohen and two AMI (National Enquirer) execs were being sought, regarding a pattern where Trump Co. would use the two as a pass-thru to pay for Trump-related stories with the intent of ensuring the National Enquirer would not publish them.

  4. 8 hours ago, kevwun said:

    Somebody figure out who the likely candidates are for who did that interview.

    1. The florid language indicates he's from below the Mason Dixon line.
    2. His acquaintance with the "circling green fly" (which I'd never heard of and research on wiki) indicates he's familiar with sheep farming.
    3. There's no indication that he serves on the judiciary committee, but his "insider knowledge" of its voting proclivities leads me to believe he's on it.
    4. He mentions that he's not in a totally safe district.
    5. He's often been on Fox News to support the president.

    Conclusion: Lamar Smith, who represents SW Austin and its suburbs as well as wealthy northern portions of San Antonio, along with large swaths of the Texas Hill country where sheep/goat farming is a thing. Given the demographics, his seat is no longer safe, and he's chosen to not run again. Maybe now he feels freer to speak. He's also a member of the judiciary and would know which ways the wind blows within the committee. I don't have cable, but I think I've seen references to him on there frequently defending the bloated orange blight.

  5. 15 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

    But after Trump sued him for libel shortly after his biography came out, O’Brien’s lawyers deposed Trump in December 2007 — during which Trump admitted he had not, in fact, clandestinely taped O’Brien. 

    “I’m not equipped to tape-record,” Trump said in the deposition. “I may have said it once or twice to him just to — on the telephone, because everything I said to him he’d write incorrectly; so just to try and keep it honest.”

    But I repeat myself, what a fucking weirdo.

  6. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

    About the only things he's avoided so far are sexual deviancy and animal abuse.  But....Oklahoma....so, don't bet against those quite yet.

    1

     

    1 hour ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

    Scott Pruitt reportedly seen late at night in D.C. area notorious for draq queens:
    https://bit.ly/IqT6zt

    2

    Gawdammit, ToT!

  7. 5 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:
    Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and executive editor of Bloomberg View, wrote a column in the wake of Trump’s taping claim saying that Comey likely had little reason to worry. In the piece, O’Brien recounted that Trump frequently made a similar boast to him.

    “Back in the early 2000s, Trump used to tell me all the time that he was recording me when I covered him as reporter for the New York Times,” O’Brien wrote. “He also said the same thing when I was writing a biography of him, ‘Trump Nation.’ I never thought he was, but who could be sure?”

    1

    What a fucking weirdo.

  8. 20 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

    There is no comparison. 

     

     

    I represented Perot years ago in connection with the Reform Party. Without revealing any privileged communications I can state that having spent considerable time with him in person there is no comparison. 

     

    Whether or not you agree with his policies, Perot genuinely injected himself into the political sphere because of a sense of patriotism.

    To be clear, I wasn't intending to compare Trump to Perot as individuals or as candidates. I was speaking to one tranch, amongst many of the coalitions, that supported them.

  9. Fuck you, David.

    Trump Nominates Austin Attorney Who Stymied Investigation Into Trump University

    https://www.texasobserver.org/trump-nominates-austin-attorney-who-stymied-investigation-into-trump-university/

    Quote

     

    President Donald Trump this week nominated to fill a federal judge vacancy the man who claimed responsibility for the state of Texas’ failure to pursue a $5.4 million settlement against the president and his now-defunct Trump University.

    Trump’s nominee, David S. Morales, said in 2016 that he was responsible for pulling the plug on an investigation into Trump University when he served as deputy attorney general for then-Attorney General Greg Abbott. The investigation fizzled in 2010, but when a whistleblower in 2016 accused Abbott of going easy on Trump for political reasons, Morales said it was his call, not Abbott’s.

    In 2009, the attorney general’s consumer protection division began investigating Trump University. Ultimately brought down by numerous fraud lawsuits across the country, Trump U existed for less than a decade and sold wealth-creation “education” services for thousands of dollars. Despite not providing academic credit or even grading its thousands of students, Trump and the company promised the services would make clients rich.

    In May 2010, according to attorney general records obtained by the Dallas Morning News, the chief of the consumer protection division sought formal approval from Morales to “enter into settlement negotiations” with Trump U for its “false, misleading and deceptive practices.” Trump is individually named for his “direct involvement in this business.”

    The attorney general was preparing to seek $5.4 million in legal fees and restitution for the nearly 500 Texans who spent millions on the “university.” (At least 39 Texans purchased Trump’s $35,000 “Gold Elite” package.) But for reasons that weren’t made public at the time, the state never filed suit or sought monetary damages for the allegedly swindled Texans.

     

     

  10. On 4/10/2018 at 8:05 AM, PittsburghTiger said:

    In one year, 65 per cent of asylum seekers assessed after claiming to be juveniles were judged to be over 18.

    Home Office figures reveal that there have been 12,942 disputes over the ages of child asylum seekers since 2006, with 5,965 – around 46 per cent – found to be over 18 in this period.

    Ministers have ruled out using medical tests, including dental checks, to assess the age of migrants. Citing guidance by the Dental Medical Association, they say tests of teeth are ‘inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical’.

    But Britain is one of only three EU countries not to use medical checks to verify the age of child asylum seekers. The others are Ireland and Cyprus.

    Every other nation calls in doctors, dentists or psychologists to root out adults who are abusing the asylum system by pretending to be children.

    A Home Office spokesman said: ‘After consultation with stakeholders we published revised guidance on age assessments and we have committed to produce more child-friendly information in a range of languages to help children better understand the asylum system.’

     

    Despite concerns that adults pose as minors to get into the UK, officials do not carry out medical tests, subjecting them instead to a series of rigorous interviews.

    Once a person claims asylum, initial interviews are conducted to gather information such as identity, medical conditions and age.

    If a refugee does not have a birth certificate or travel documents, a Home Office screening officer must decide whether the person is a child based on ‘physical appearance and demeanour’.

    Unless the refugee appears ‘significantly’ over 18, they should be ‘afforded the benefit of the doubt and treated as children’. Officials will continue to attempt to collect more information to check their age. If there are still doubts about a refugee’s claim to be a child the individual will then be age-assessed by two local council social workers.

    They consider family composition, schooling, experience of life, ability to interact with others, and psychological development, alongside appearance and demeanour.

    The Home Office has ruled out using medical tests, including dental checks, to assess the age of migrants.

    Citing guidance by the Dental Medical Association, ministers have said tests of teeth are ‘inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical’. Experts said age assessments using dental X-rays were unreliable, with it being possible to wrongly estimate someone’s age by two or three years.





    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5592357/Two-thirds-child-refugees-lied-age-18.html#ixzz5CH3oaDhz 
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    I don't get the point that's being made.

    According to the article, 1/3 of all asylum seekers are younger than 18.  Okay...

    Some are trying to portray themselves as being that age. Okay...

    How many of the less than 18 are parents? No indication...

    What's normal for refugees???

    What, exactly, is the author trying to express in that piece? Massive fraud? Compared to what?

    Declaring that 1/3 of refugees are minors doesn't tell me anything other than a substantial portion of asylum-seekers are young. Is there something else I'm missing?

    What am I supposed to be upset about?

  11. 8 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

    I've no issue with SM at all, but IMO it doesn't really fit the nature of this thread.

    Yeah, San Marcos doesn't count anymore. On the other hand, I have heard people argue that "San Marvelous" is the new "Old Austin" in terms of the college atmosphere with it's subsequent "weirdness" (poor artist & musician Austin refugees are apparently moving there) and relative affordability. I'm agnostic on that take as I really don't know otherwise, but I can see it in a certain sense. Obviously, it's not a perfect comparison.

    Speaking of which: What are our sloots up to these days?

    • Like 1
  12. 13 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

    @bolverk i would rep if I could. But if you think Trump could pull off a presentation like that one linked with perot, well, I know you dont think that. 

    Trump's not worried about Perot's numbers - just his anti-globalism feels. That's simply my trite summation of the similarities. Don't get me wrong, Trump obviously doesn't give a fuck about debt or income inequality.

  13. Just now, GSU&UT said:

    Yeah there's no doubt that a huge voting bloc of '92 and '96 have become anti-brown people and anti-PC speech. As long as you say you care about us white working class too then we're sold.

    In that video I posted, Perot hits on several points of wages decreasing, CEO pay going up, the U.S. not investing in public investment programs in comparison to the industrialized nation counterparts, etc. These are all huge issues that us millennials care deeply about, it's very eerie to see him in 1992 hit on these same points that today's GOP believes aren't of any concern.

    Oh, without a doubt, it's not a perfect comparison. As Tahoe likes to say, these guys are supported by "coalitions." At that time, blue-collar workers were still wedded to their unions - which meant being anti-management. The appeal of the message was essentially a class-based one. Today, unions are largely irrelevant to most blue-collar workers. Without that sort of internal leadership, they've become radicalized by outside forces: 9/11!, Mooslems!, immigration! & brown people taking our jobs!

    They were always an inherently domestically-focused group. Today, the debt doesn't disturb them anymore (unless it can be used as a useful political football) - it's the way of life they remember that's fucked them in the head.

    The comparison I make between one portion of Trump's coalition and Perot's isn't a well thought out one that I've ever given any previous thought to. So, bear with me, I'm just thinking as I type, and I could easily be persuaded otherwise. There's no forethought to any of this.

  14. 13 minutes ago, GSU&UT said:

    I will fully show my age and ignorance with this post, but since I was only 5 and 9 the times Perot ran I don't know too much about him. It kind of blew my mind when I was reading a little bit about his views, I had always assumed he was more or less a Republican, at least fiscally. However what he is discussing here is vehemently anti-current GOP.

     

    I'm not wedded to my hypothesis, but that previously rational crowd I described have now become really angry. Perot had two major platforms that I recall: 1) balance the budget and 2) opposition to NAFTA.

    From what I recall, he pulled a lot of support from fiscally conservative, blue-collar workers. Those folks, I believe, have become radicalized by Fox News and further economic losses since 1992.

  15. I could very well be wrong, but I sort of view Trump's nationalist/isolationist base in a similar view as I did Perot's. The angry white working class who feels they're getting screwed over by globalism. Now, of course, this doesn't include the overt racists and alt-righters (nor does it necessarily include the Christian right), but I think it does describe a good portion of the coalition.

    If what I stated above is true, then the answer may well lie within the question of where did Perot's supporters go. My sneaking suspicion is many of them dropped out of the political process entirely.

  16. 11 minutes ago, Washpark said:

    Resource curse is just a lazy theory for politicians and civic inaction to not have foresight to diversify the economy.  It used to be called the Dutch disease which impacted currency resulting in lack of competitiveness. 

    Call it whatever you want; it's not a "theory." It's an unfortunate reality and a recurring theme in resource-dependent economies all over the world and throughout history (I don't actually think you're disagreeing with me). What is the absolutely critical difference in these places is "leadership."

    There have been all sorts of economic theories and models built on relative comparative (competitive) advantage by way of resources, trade, etc., but I've never seen a good study on how to build a positive "leadership" model.

    Edit: Of course, I can't think of many better ways to build leadership than reinforcing educational opportunities. Virtuous cycle anyone?

  17. 4 hours ago, 'stache said:

    So many poor decisions over the last 30 years by hillbilly idiots who don't give a single shit about prosperity, just their narrow world view.  Thus, 30 years after the bust, and after the major O&G headquarters left for Houston, we are still primarily an O&G economy. 

    We actually have a port, the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa.  Basically a trench dredged roughly along the Arkansas River, connected to the Mississippi River and thereby the Gulf of Mexico.  It does well, but not necessarily a boom.  Underutilized due to poor leadership.

    Our natural beauty is vastly underrated.  We're no Colorado or California, but we're not solely a "plains" state like Kansas.  OKC is the flattest part of the state, so that's the majority image.  Some of the best features of Arkansas Ozarks exist in the eastern part of the state.  The western part of the state has southwest landscape features akin to West Texas and New Mexico.  Tulsa is surrounded by rolling hills, lakes, and plenty of natural beauty.  The most popular is Grand Lake.  It's utilized mostly by local O&G richers.  The rest of the lakes are for the poors and their pontoons and bud light.  Again, poor leadership under utilizing natural beauty.  The City of Tulsa is getting much better at this.  It's my only hope.

    Aviation still has a pretty big presence here, but American Airlines is the largest, and there's always the threat of consolidation in DFW.  Healthcare has been strong, but that's not really unique with all the olds everywhere supporting expanded healthcare economies.  Nothing really separates us.

    This place could be thriving, or at least be doing significantly better than it is, but the leadership are a bunch of yokels with no vision.  They only really care about gays, guns, and fucking up public schools in the name of jesus, or something like that.  It's infuriating.  I'm still here because the City of Tulsa has some leadership that is really trying to make improvements, but the state will always hold us back.  I've considered moving for a long time.  This teacher strike and inaction and insults from the state legislature have me very much with a foot out the door.  Where to?  I don't know.  But this is becoming intolerable.  

    6

    There's a very real thing called the "oil curse", the "curse of oil", or the "resource curse" that makes it extremely difficult for oil-dependent economies to diversify. When the price of oil is high, there's is absolutely no other industry that can compete in terms of wages, revenues, and general economic activity. When times are bad, the town, state, region, country, has no other (or very little) recourse for growing and diversifying its economy.

    Of course, there are actions that can be taken to balance an economy: invest surpluses during the good times toward education and economic diversification efforts, but it requires an incredible amount of fiscal discipline to put that money toward a very slow ROI.

    Texas has been very fortunate in the way we've invested our state acquired oil money by having the foresight to pump that money into the PUF, creating the incredible world-class university that most of us on this board are lucky to have access to. Moreover, we've used our wealth to pretty much "buy" certain industries. One prime example of that is Houston's incredible Texas Medical Center, making it the largest healthcare complex in the world. Dallas and Fort Worth put aside their silly rivalry to create DFW, which is largely responsible for the Metroplex being such a strategically important distribution hub. I'm positive there's a story to tell about TI. And, of course, look here in Austin where strategic investments and partnerships between UT and private industry created the tech economy we have here. Given our reputation for being reckless wildcatters, untrusty gamblers, and boastful braggarts, our past leadership was comprised of incredible stewards of our land's largesse.

    By contrast, Alaska also has an oil fund for the benefit of state residents. What do they do with that? They just cut annual checks to individual households and hope the "market" takes care of itself. Of course, most residents there see it as a form of welfare check to help them stock up for winter when they can't hunt game.

    This, I think, is one of the best examples of a distinctly American, or Texan, model for economic development. Sometimes long-term investments in your human capital can pay off in ways that were previously unimaginable but, unfortunately, most resource-dependent states/States don't show such foresight or discipline.

    We, my fellow Texans, should be very grateful, and I sincerely hope we don't choose to go down the Louisiana, Oklahoma, or Alaska path to disinvestment, ignorance, and poverty.

    • Like 1
  18. I decided to look up a list of the micropolitan statistical areas of Texas. There are 43 of them. The requirements for qualification is to 1) form an urban cluster of at least 10,000 and 2) NOT be a suburb of a major city as measured by commuting patterns (this is a legit Census Bureau designation).

    KsthdpPm_t.jpg

    I hope this image isn't too small. I'm still trying to figure out the imgbox thing.

    Edit: There are several from this list I've never been to. Sell us on your top five. 

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