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Brisketexan

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Brisketexan last won the day on November 20

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  1. 1/128th. But only because one of his ancestors was super-rapey of the locals. A fact about which he is quite proud.
  2. We are going to lose both valuable equipment AND the lives of some American service members.....so the worst president in American history can distract from running a regime of complete incompetence, total corruption, with a very large side dish of protecting sexual abusers of minors. And 40% of American can't fucking wait to wave their Trump flags celebrating that. Truly fucking amazing.
  3. How so? Is the argument "it's his fault for following our insane, stupid, and illegal orders....and it totally is NOT our fault for giving those orders?"
  4. And his streak of favors for crooked billionaires who utterly fucked other people continues unabated. Pardon billionaires, solicit and take "contributions" from same, and buy their loyalty and service? That's textbook criminal oligarchy shit. Putin is flattered by the imitation.
  5. Lizzie line is a thing of beauty. Makes the to-from LHR a breeze. When we flew in last time, my wife insisted on a cab. Heading back out, I insisted on taking the Lizzie line, and she agreed it was quicker and stress-free.
  6. Countdown to federal legislation exempting Amazon from all environmental regulations and civil liability (just coincidentally following Bezos announcing another $500 million towards the Trump ballroom east of the White House)? Tick...tock...it's coming.
  7. SPOON'S! I need to find a way to upload the conversation between one of my daughter's roommates and Declan the drunk Irish convict at a Spoon's in Islington when we were all having a pint together. A few minutes in, I just turned on my video record function and captured the drunken Spoon's magic.
  8. He needs to get over that shit. First, in an existential fight for the Republic, you suit up and fight with everything you've got for the team that is fighting FOR the Republic instead of fighting tooth and nail to destroy it to fragmented rubble. Second, take a deep breath and accept that many/most/damned near all of those "conservative" values and ideals you once believed in have either been PROVEN to be shit (e.g., "trickle-down" economics) or were just lies (party of "equality" my ass -- it's a fucking nakedly racist and xenophobic party). Third, realize that things conservatives love to rant about as leftist socialism are actually middle-of-the-road policies that exist in other healthy developed countries, and that we are actually better equipped to execute than most anyone. Fourth, add all those things together, and you realize that what y'all call "center-left" in America is actually center, even center-right everywhere else that has any sanity remaining. So, fucking join the team, and fight for a better future for this Republic, starting with step 1: saving it from the psychotic fascists who are the GQP.
  9. No. It's not. That's more formal and dignified than this bunch deserves.
  10. Honestly, I look back on youth athletics, and in terms of "your kid getting stuff out of it that will serve him the rest of his days," competing at a high level, leaving it all on the field, and coming up short may be as good as it gets. Sure, you'll remember the state championship forever, but what you remember most is the moment of that final whistle, hoisting that trophy, etc. When you LOSE at that level, what you remember is the grind, the effort, the brotherhood, facing the pressure with the right amount of anxiety yet charging forward. THAT is the shit that character is made of. The boy had a couple of years in Little League and Pony League where they made the championship. They won twice, but they lost once - his last year in Little League, which he loved. He was at the plate, bottom of the ninth, two men on, down by two, two outs. He was the best hitter on the team. He was who his team wanted at the plate in that moment. And he struck out. It was one of the most profound moments of his young life. The heartbreak, the ending of it all, his teammates supporting him in his moment of angst. He loved the game, he loved his teammates, he did everything he could. He ended up feeling everything a man can feel in those few moments. We got our money's worth for every season of ball he ever played in that one afternoon. Good for your son. He knows what it is to do it all, and leave it all on the field.
  11. Kash is one of MANY people in this admin who -- if we lived in sane, before-times -- if you showed his resume with ideologically identifying info slightly modified (e.g., instead of "right wing podcaster with 10,000 subscribers" or whatnot, just "podcaster with 10,000 subscribers"), 99% of people would read it and conclude "yeah.....this dude isn't even qualified to manage a KFC franchise." And here he is, director of the entire fucking FBI. Utterly unqualified losers, who you wouldn't hire to run a goddamned dry cleaners or food truck, and they are in seats of incredible power and responsibility. It's a dipshitocracy writ large.
  12. Yep. If the dollar collapses, it's because the US collapses. Not "runs into trouble," but actually collapses. In which case the only currency worth shit will be canned goods and ammo.
  13. This. And gold and precious metals have long had intrinsic/practical value: aesthetics (gold, silver, platinum used for jewelry and shiny objects) and now practical value (plenty of uses in technology). Now, those practical uses don't completely match up with the end-point value; there absolutely is a "speculative/store of value" component. Hell, even beanie babies had some intrinsic value; both of my kids had some stuffed beanie babies that were treasured toys when they were little. Again, the speculative/store of value for beanies ended up (for a time) vastly outpacing the intrinsic value, but there was SOMETHING there. Crypto? There's nothing. It's literally electronic ones and zeroes. That's it. Sure, they're SECRET ones and zeroes, very hard to duplicate, steal, all of that. But that's all it is. Does it have value today? Sure. Because enough people/social groups have decided they do, they assign a value, and they trade them. They could just as easily do the same with old stamps (finite supply), original prints of Looney Tunes cartoons, you name it. All it takes to create a class of objects that are a "store of value" is enough people agreeing that said class should store value. That works great. Unless and until the collective belief falls apart. Which, historically, it has for most all such classes of items. Waving around the dollar, or the pound, or other national currencies and saying "how are these different?" is bullshit, because there is a very clear difference: the dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The pound is backed by the full faith and credit of the United Kingdom. CAN those things fail? Sure, see Zimbabwe and other currency collapses. But there's a reason that the dollar is the world reserve currency, and the pound was back in the day: because of the size, wealth, power, and durability of the nation state backing the currencies. Bottom line, if the dollar collapses because the United States collapses to a point where it can't back its currency, we and the world have much bigger problems than the value of the dollar. But can you make money speculating on crypto today? You bet. Just like you could have made a fortune on tulip bulbs and beanie babies. The catch is making sure not to be stuck holding the bag when the music stops.
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