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TaxMaster

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  1. 4 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

    Well, if that is their plan they picked a shitty time to do this, it's almost spring time.  That wouldn't really hurt until winter next year, in my eyes.  Giving Europe ample time to find alternatives.  Come to think of it, seems Putin picked on of the worst times to do this anyway, given the ground conditions in Ukraine now (wouldn't have much mattered the Olympics and all, it was still strategically a shitty time frame.  Why he didn't do this late summer is baffling to me.

    Maybe? Half of German energy comes from Russia and I don’t think their energy needs are seasonal enough for it to not deal a major blow regardless of the time of year.

  2. 15 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


    The US/UK claims of an impending invasion were weeks of doom porn, until they weren’t.

    True, but we saw Russia building up invasion forces for months. And I get that the warning about other things have been true as well, I guess I was just curious if this particularly kept getting brought up because they keep receiving intel about it or if this is just reporting based off the same intelligence. Because a continued stream of intelligence suggests a much stronger possibility of it happening (which if it does happen, then it would seem Russia is using the same playbook they gave Assad).

  3. Anyone know what Germany/the EU’s gas reserve situation is like? I gotta think Russia completely turning off the taps to Europe without warning would have a very slightly better risk/reward than using nuclear or bio weapons. Im not an O&G guy, but if Russia suddenly stopped western energy exports until, say, financial sanctions were lifted…is there global production capacity to even meet Germany’s industrial needs? 

  4. 42 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

     

    It seems they’ve been saying this for almost a week now. I wonder if this keeps getting brought up because the media keeps asking US/UK officials because it’s doom porn-ish, the US/Uk officials keep bring it up because they’re getting continuing intel, or if US/Uk officials keeping bringing it up for deterrence.

  5. 15 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

    I'm curious about something.   If the Russians targeted Pantex, what would the fallout be like throughout the Southwest and Midwest?

    I don’t think you have to worry about Pantex getting hit. If it comes to the point where Russia launches nukes at America, it’s mutually assured destruction. You don’t need to target a nuclear assembly/disassembly plant if no one is alive after the opening salvos. 

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  6. I think the big 12 needs to either commit to maximizing their returns in the short run or focus on growing the big 12 in a way that in the medium/long-run can simultaneously make the conference stronger and weaken the B10 and SEC. If half the B12 is just looking to make as much money as they can until they can jump ship when the B10 and PAC have to expand, then BYU, Boise State, UCF, and then Cincy would probably be the mix to get you the most added viewers for nationally televised games. Most people aren’t going to watch those teams play a conference game at 2:30 on a Saturday- but they’ll be able to get prime time, nationally televised games if they schedule decent OOC teams. On the other hand if the B12 wants the expansion teams to be able to be serious competitors in the long run and make other conferences weaker, I’d think they’d be better off expanding with Cincy, UH, Memphis, and UCF. Adding Cincy would allow you to steal some good recruits from the B10, UCF gives you a chance to steal recruits from SEC East territory, Memphis can steal recruits from some SEC West teams, and Houston will help keep talent in Texas. There is absolutely a ceiling on how good BYU and Boise State can be. Kids don’t want to go to Idaho and definitely don’t want to be Mormon. UCF,  Cincy, UH, and Memphis could absolutely improve and build themselves into better teams with better talent (and ultimately pull more viewers) if they were in a P5.

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  7. As a Memphis fan, I'm not shocked, perhaps pleasantly surprised, by Penny pulling off the number 1 recruiting class. I still have some doubts about his coaching abilities, but hopefully all the coaching help he has brought in can remedy his shortcomings.  My biggest concern going into this season is not the coaching or players' ability, but the very real possibility that the Infractions Referral Committee brings the hammer down and guys quit (literally or figuratively). I'll be at the forum either way, I guess. 

  8. 8 minutes ago, Parliament said:

    "The US Military is obsolete," narrarive is one I fall into on occasion, usually when I read something about the 2002 Millennium Challenge. But, I have faith that all the trillions of dollars we spend on defense have us covered. We have rhe money for a conventional military AND an asymmetrical one.

    Regarding your murderdrone comments. Watch this:

     

    10 minutes ago, Parliament said:

    "The US Military is obsolete," narrarive is one I fall into on occasion, usually when I read something about the 2002 Millennium Challenge. But, I have faith that all the trillions of dollars we spend on defense have us covered. We have rhe money for a conventional military AND an asymmetrical one.

    Regarding your murderdrone comments. Watch this:

    FWIW the Navy has been increasing their capabilities to defend against large Iranian small-vessel swarm attacks in the Persian Gulf for several years now. Granted drones ratchet up the threat since they move in 3D vs 2D for boats. The Phalanx CIWS can take down smaller drones and patriot barrages could take down the bigger drones, but neither are scalable or intended to effectively counter swarms and both rely on ballistics to shoot down. However, cross-branch electronic warfare groups have already started developing non-ballistic methods to neutralize drones. I have my doubts regarding any near-term scalable solution, but I think it’s even more doubtful we’ll get involved in a conflict ( at least with a power that couldn’t be massively suppressed by existing air capabilities) before counter methods have been better developed. Some interesting reading-

    https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35726/the-army-has-unveiled-its-plan-for-swarms-of-electronic-warfare-enabled-air-launched-drones

    https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29505/the-navys-secretive-nemesis-electronic-warfare-capability-will-change-naval-combat-forever

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  9. 2 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

    I’m amazed at how effective NK is at hiding shit.  I know the threat of death is pretty powerful but shit we have satellites and stuff.

    It's pretty amazing how a broke, starved, rogue nuclear state has by far and away the best counter intel. The fact that a pudgy Rodman fanboi's intelligence perimeter has outlasted Chapo, Bin Laden, Soleimani, etc. without practically any penetration is incredible. 

  10. Did anyone else think Jordan's eyes were kind of jaundiced in the present day interviews? Also, college/draft Jordan sounded completely different- he sounded unsure, soft-spoken, and kind of stumbled on his words. His confidence and killer-drive completely changed his demeanor after that first season.

  11. Quote

    Greg Brown could remain Austin’s hometown hero, but the top recruit has options

    GettyImages-1160853752-1024x683.jpg
    By Brian Hamilton 4h agocomment-icon@2x.png 1 save-icon@2x.png

    AUSTIN, Texas — Among the first assignments on this particular morning at Vandegrift High School: two-ball dribbling. From sideline to sideline and back, groups of two or three taking turns and filling the gym with rhythmic thuds before the clock on the wall hits 8 o’clock. A series of shooting stations follows without much of a break, soundtracked by Galantis’ “Peanut Butter Jelly” on a speaker. There’s only silence when the bell rings at 8:40. It’s a full stop for the Pledge of Allegiance, the Texas Pledge and brief announcements that end with a thank you and encouragement to have a great day, and go Vipers.

    With that, the balls start bouncing again.

    Everything is thoroughly and unsuspiciously ordinary, until it’s not. This is the way Greg Brown III decided it should be. He’s sweating through a humdrum high school practice with a bunch of dudes he has played with for years, some of them since middle school. In the era of academies and prep school super-squads, it’s increasingly the last place you’d look for a five-star prospect with a gilded pro future. But he chose this. And in doing so, he chose to accommodate interludes of the not-ordinary, which on this day manifests as Bruce Pearl and his Auburn staff walking in midway through the workout, after calling Vandegrift’s coach around 10 p.m. the night before to say they’d be flying in for a visit.

    When Brown arrived here on this unremarkable late February morning, the whole plan was news to him. “It is still crazy,” he says of the attention, sitting at a courtside table while his out-of-town suitors await their audience. “They’ll bring their whole staff, and it’s like, dang, that’s a lot of people in one gym.”

    Quite a few people, in fact, are interested in what he chooses next. On April 24, one of the last available gems in the 2020 recruiting cycle — and the No. 19 player in The Athletic 40, our ranking of all prospects across all high school classes — will make his college choice known. The finalists are Auburn, Kentucky, Memphis, Michigan and Texas. Whoever signs Brown III will get a 6-9 forward who’s still growing, in pretty much every sense, and whose multi-tool skill set offers the promise of infusing any lineup with a walking mismatch. A commitment from a McDonald’s All-American might have deeper resonance for each program, sure, particularly the one that operates about 15 miles down the road. But his play, in all reality, is the thing.

    And nobody is entirely sure what Brown will do in this sense either, which is the source of the enthrallment. “Every year, he’s gotten twice as good as he was the year before, and I don’t see that stopping,” Vandegrift coach Cliff Ellis says. “I can’t wait to see him when his life is gym, weight room and cafeteria. When that becomes his life, he’ll be hell to deal with.”

    How acutely Brown’s past informs his future, whether the sum of his experiences and decisions amounts to a clue or a red herring, only amplifies the intrigue. It’s easy to say he’s not always followed the predictable path, but that also depends on your working definition of predictable.

    He came to Austin at the age of 10, moving in with his father, Greg II, after living in the Dallas area with his mother and twin sister. “He started giving her some issues,” Brown II says, and the former defensive back for Texas and the Denver Broncos swiftly moved to occupy his son, whether his son liked it or not. Brown III had not played much basketball to that point, at least not with any conviction. But his height — he was at least a few inches past 5 feet already — dictated the plan. A hoops trajectory became preeminent. Within a year or two, the younger Brown was running hills and stairs too, even in the dead of miserably hot Texas summers, even when he’d concluded that pursuing basketball was not worth running said hills and stairs.

    Those complaints that he didn’t want to play anymore were met with a shrug. I have no problem with that, the father would tell his son. But we’re still going to do this work. “To be honest,” Brown III says now, “I didn’t really like basketball when I started.” It wasn’t until he reached seventh grade, in fact, that he began to prod his father to start the day’s training. By then Brown III was even a more-than-willing participant in early morning workouts, driving with his father to the indoor court at The Verandah, an apartment complex where one of his dad’s cousins lived. He drilled everything from his weak hand to wrong-foot finishes to pull-ups starting at 5:45 a.m., before returning home to shower and head to school. “You don’t really know whether you like a sport or not until you get good at it,” Brown Jr. says. “Once Greg started seeing success, it started almost becoming like a drug.”

    Foundations aren’t meant to shift much, even as you build upon them, and so it went with an emerging star in the hills outside Austin. Brown III had made friends, naturally, over the first few years with his dad, playing alongside of them on those sixth- and seventh-grade basketball teams. Changing course and, say, enrolling at a high school with a stronger basketball tradition and track record would’ve defeated the purpose on a couple of fronts; one, he wouldn’t be around his guys. And, two, summers were for loading up with similarly gifted players and playing with top talent on the grassroots circuit. The challenge at Vandegrift — finding a way to win without the benefit of Division I talent at every other position — was the entire point.

    And it would be a challenge, competing in the largest classification in Texas high school athletics, facing off with teams such as Austin’s Westlake High, which could deploy multiple future Division I players. “He’s still the big fish in a big pond,” Ellis says. Brown III averaged 17.2 points and 10.7 rebounds as a freshman for a Vandegrift team that finished five games below .500. When his senior season ended with a regional quarterfinal playoff loss on March 3, he had led Vandegrift to a 33-3 record while finishing his prep career with 3,007 points and, not long after, earning Gatorade Player of the Year honors in Texas. “I figure if you can (win) with kids that aren’t very talented, what happens when you get with guys who can actually play?” Brown Jr. says. “How special would that be?”

    It was actually the dynamic the Browns confronted before his final high school campaign, and it is one that can and will be stripped for meaning until April 24. Greg Brown III could have played almost anywhere else last winter. He could have enrolled at a powerhouse prep school, as so many other top-shelf talents do, for one high-profile tuneup before the one-year stopover on a college campus. He could have avoided one more season of teams ganging up on him and doing anything inside and outside the rules to frustrate and unsettle an otherwise fairly undeniable force: untying his shoelaces at the free-throw line, pulling his hair and his jersey, touching him, uh, everywhere. “When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere,” Brown III says. “It’s weird.”

    He was, in his father’s estimation, “almost out the door” to IMG Academy in Florida. But one thought kept tugging at him.

    “My teammates, basically,” Brown III says. “They’ve put in so much work for me and I put in so much work for them, we just built a bond. I couldn’t see myself walking away from them. I had to stay here and complete our legacy. This is our last year, and we’re never going to get this back again.”

    It doesn’t appear to be an act; inasmuch as anyone can judge from one visit, there seems to be a genuineness to Brown III’s affection for the group and an appreciation of being part of it, albeit a very obviously distinguishable part. He looks at a poster of the Vandegrift seniors hanging on the gym wall and runs through the parts each of them play: Jake Hatch is the dad of the team, he says. Kale Farone is like the little brother. Freddie Southwell and Gabe Rayer are the team goofs, and Brown III can’t decide which is goofier. Jed Willis will “fight anybody at any time,” but he’s also a sort of the Greg Brown Whisperer, pulling Vandegrift’s star aside before every tipoff and reminding him to just do what he does, to stay poised.

    They all eat at Pluckers. They all go to each other’s houses and play NBA2K, with Brown III declaring himself the best player and chief smack-talker. They are, if this is to believed, just normal high school dudes who happen to have a potential future lottery pick sitting on the couch. During a ceremony at Vandegrift to commemorate his selection to the McDonald’s All-American Game, Brown III took the microphone and immediately invited his teammates to join him on the floor, and a group hug ensued. “He could walk around here like, I’m better than this, I’m better than y’all,” Ellis says. “It’s nothing like that. This could’ve been a very negative experience. I’ve heard the horror stories about prima donna athletes. He’s not like that at all.”

    IMG-7367-1024x768.jpg
     
    While other top recruits congregate at the major prep schools, Brown instead chose to stay home and be the focus of attention on and off the court at Vandegrift. (Brian Hamilton / The Athletic)

    To believe it was all gumdrops and rainbows for four years is to be more than a bit naive, of course. It’s high school, and it’s youth athletics, so there are bound to be strong and hard feelings on all sides along the way. “I probably would’ve slapped the taste out of a couple teammates’ mouths,” Brown Jr. cracks as he thinks back across his son’s high school years, before noting that any time he raised complaints, Brown III would simply reply: Dad, I got it. I’m not worried about it. Even during this final season, Ellis says there was “a little situation” early on that caused the team to “get testy,” without going into detail. A couple of conversations set the record straight and, voila, a 33-win season followed. “They’re really good kids,” Brown Jr. says. “He really enjoys those guys, he really embraced them, and really embraced the whole thing, man.”

    Where all of this takes Greg Brown III is one more choice he has to make, but it should be no surprise what he is prioritizing.

    “Relationships is one of the big things with us,” he says.

    He benefits from a clear-eyed view of a process that’s coming to an end, thanks to a mother and father who both were college athletes and both experienced the recruitment song-and-dance. (Tonya Wallace, his mother, competed in track and field at Texas.) All of the sweet-talking and promises from coaches is laundered through a reality check, Brown Jr. laughing as he says it’s almost like judging “who lied to us the least.” He has told his son that college coaches want to keep their jobs above all, and they do that by winning, and however they think Greg Brown III will help them achieve that goal is how they’ll use him on the floor, no matter what they’ve said.

    Perhaps it’s why the object of everyone’s affection, in this case, doesn’t even bother with proclamations about what he wants, basketball-wise, at the next level. He knows it might not matter as much as he’d like it to. “I can be coached any way,” Brown III says. “I can fit into any system.”

    Nor are the family ties to Texas superseding objective appraisals of all five finalists, at least according to the appraisers. “I just told him: I couldn’t care less,” Brown Jr. says. “I did what was best for me at time. What I need you to do is what’s best for you.” The focus is the endgame, and the endgame is what Greg Brown III once told his father: He wanted to be an NBA legend. And if that is the case, then college is a means to an end, and sentimentality simply can’t factor into the decision. “They want me to be happy wherever I go,” Brown III says of his parents. “I just can’t put that factor in my decision. Because I gotta make the best decision for me and what I want to achieve.”

    Wherever he goes, there won’t be one or two players hanging off his limbs on every possession. There won’t be junk defenses to clog up the spacing and limit the effectiveness of his speed and ability to handle the ball. He will not see what he has seen for four years running because there will be, as his high school coach puts it, other Greg Browns out there. Everyone is waiting expectantly to find out where Greg Brown III is going to go, yes. But it’s not about the vigil or the destination, at least not entirely. It’s about what he can be once he gets there.

    For those who don't have an athletic subscription.

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